American Horror Story: Freak Show “Edward Mordrake (Part 2)" opened up with the phantom two-faced Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) continuing on his mission to find the freak his second face wants him to collect for their ghoulish menagerie.

'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Recap

When Mordrake sits down to listen to Legless Suzi’s (Rose Siggins) tale, she informs him that she was born with a spinal condition that led to the doctors taking her legs. Her parents, wanting nothing to do with her in the height of the Great Depression, dropped her off at a children’s home. Suzi's darkest moment, according to her, was killing a man merely because he had the legs she’d never get to walk upon. As for Paul the Seal (Mat Fraser), he, like Elsa, had dreams of Hollywood and would steal away to the cinema to watch the stars in action. He tattooed his body to fully immerse himself in the seal image, but saved his face – a face he notes “could’ve ruled the world” on a different body.

Mordrake and his face decide that neither Suzy nor Paul is the one and move on to Elsa (Jessica Lange). Elsa, high on her own opinions of her talents, mistakes Mordrake's disgusted silence for him being star struck. Mordrake stops her and informs her he’s here to “take” someone. She declares she’s not a freak – but he shows that he knows more than the others and strips her of her prosthetic legs. Vulnerable, Elsa reveals that she’d made her living as a dominatrix in the pre-Hitler era of Germany. She delighted men with cruel, ghastly tricks – until the pain was delivered to her. Drugged, she found her legs being cut off by a chainsaw, which was caught on video and turned into a dark snuff film that Elsa is somewhat proud to note made it to Vienna.

It looks as though Elsa will soon be sacrificed by Mordrake to his second-face’s delight. However, music turns their attention elsewhere.

Elsewhere, is where Maggie (Emma Roberts) and Jimmy (Evan Peters) are, trying to save the three captives of the frightening clown. Now, it’s not just Twisty (John Carroll Lynch), but the petulant, rich man-child Dandy, who is also in full clown attire. Jimmy manages to knock Dandy (Finn Wittrock) over, giving the hostages time to escape. Twisty liked seeing Dandy topple, but was irate to see his literal “captive audience” go.

Once Mordrake begins chatting with Twisty, it's soon revealed that the impetus of the clown’s kidnapping and killing sprees are his days as a legitimate circus clown. In the early ‘40s, Twisty loved entertaining the children. Things started to fall apart when some of the freaks at the circus started to make fun of him, and then started rumors that he was abusing children. He went back to his mother’s home, only to find her dead and tried to make toys for kids for a living. When that fell through as well, he tried to kill himself, causing the gaping open wound in his mouth. He then started killing parents, and taking their children away to entertain them. Mordrake and the face on the back of his head determine Twisty is the freak to come with him and stab him dead.

When the cops arrive, they lavish Jimmy and Maggie with praise for stopping the killer clown, though neither reveals exactly how he met his end. A wary Jimmy rebuffs a detective with accusations about Meep. Jimmy and Maggie then head back to the Freak Show and explain everything that went down and that the curfew had been lifted. To everyone’s surprise, a swarm of locals show up on the grounds; they want to thank Jimmy. They also make it a sold out night for the Freak Show.

As the episode concluded, Stanley aka Richard Spencer (Denis O’Hare) pops into the main tent, looking for a seat despite the sold out show, telling Elsa he’s a talent scout. Elsa, not knowing that he’s really after her conjoined twins, gladly obliges the man. Meanwhile, Dandy has donned the killer clown’s sinister mask, only slipping it from his mouth to smile broadly after killing his mother’s maid.