‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ episode 5 review: Kathy Bates kills it (as fittingly, Iris kills)

Who would have imagined that one of the best things to happen to “American Horror Story: Hotel” would be for the show to become more like “The Walking Dead”? Through the first half of Wednesday night’s new episode, that was one of our biggest takeaways.

We admittedly enjoyed this installment far more than we expected to, given that we have been so down on the season as a whole. But to see Alex Lowe end up spreading her blood virus thanks to her lust for more of the stuff at the hospital was fascinating, and this felt like a true origin story for a virus like we haven’t even see on AMC to date. We’re not sure how much any of it will matter, but it was no surprise at all to see the children manage to make it out of the school in one piece, despite them being the ones who started the carnage in the first place.

Now, story B: Iris handling her own infection, and coming to grips with the fact that she is immortal in the form of a woman who is, for the most part, ignored. How fantastic was she through most of this? To make her state of misery even worse, she had to care for a hipster couple (hey, Darren Criss!) who were being a complete pain to her. Let’s just say that Liz Taylor did a great job convincing her to get a little bit mean. Also, it was nice to get a little backstory on the Liz character, but not so much that it was overwhelming.

Also, John Lowe slept with Sally. This feels almost like an afterthought.

Is the show still guilty of trying to shove way too much into a single hour of programming? Probably, but we’re not going to claim that we were anything other than very entertained by what we saw this time. The best episode by a mile since the premiere. Grade: B+.

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