Well, it has been an interesting season, hasn’t it? You can accuse All’s Fair of many things, but only rarely are we confronted with such a determinedly bizarre and salacious run of episodes. Two of those episodes, 8, “Oh, Jesus!”, and 9, “Interior Law Offices”, constitute the bumper finale that brings together a bunch of ongoing plot threads for an obligatory cliffhanger ending. It’s very strange, even by the usual standards, doesn’t resolve anything, and can’t seem to settle on a tone from one scene to the next. So, just like usual, only more exaggerated.
We’ve completely abandoned any pretence of a procedural format at this point, so everything that happens in these last two hours revolves around Allura, Liberty, Emerald, and Dina inexplicably weighing up the possibility of making Carrington Lane a named partner in their firm, the on-going investigation into the murder of Emerald’s abuser, and Liberty’s upcoming nuptials, which I’d totally forgotten about.
It’s all very silly. However, All’s Fair has already been renewed for Season 2, so Ryan Murphy can basically do what he wants with it, which is clearly what he’s doing. If nothing else, Sarah Paulson is afforded even more room than usual to be both insane and awful, since she’s the only one who comes out of this two-parter getting anything even resembling her own way. So, that’s fun. For all the fuss made of Kim Kardashian’s involvement in this, it is very much Paulson’s show.
Partners in Crime
Thanks to some progress with Carr having been made recently, she’s in the running for the new partner of Grant, Ronson, and Green. Dina is the first choice candidate and ends up getting named anyway, but only in an advisory capacity, since following Doug’s death, she wants to spend less time working and more time doing things that make her happy.
But with the firm’s caseload getting out of hand, they do need another active lawyer, and since Carr is the only other lawyer character who has been introduced, she suddenly becomes the prime candidate. Milan is also brought back as a paralegal. It’s a wonder this firm has been successful at all, given how lax their hiring practices are. You can sleep with the spouses of the senior partners with no comeback whatsoever? Fair enough.
Speaking of which, that’s exactly the approach that Carr takes to get her next helping of revenge.
Sarah Paulson’s Kim Kardashian Impression
Finally seeing an opportunity to get one over on Allura, Carr manipulates Chase’s sex addiction to convince him to sleep with her. This goes fairly well initially, and it seems like they have some sort of genuine connection, albeit one predicated on ridiculous role-play, but Chase’s heart isn’t really in it. When he accidentally calls Carr by Allura’s name, Carr does the only logical thing and… tells Allura’s stylist to dress her up so she looks exactly like her.
A lot has been made of Sarah Paulson being dressed up like Kim Kardashian in All’s Fair’s marketing, and it is very funny, but it’s such a ludicrous thing to be happening in a season finale that it’s difficult to take seriously. It also ends up not having any bearing on anything, since Carr rightly points out that even though Allura knows about the affair and is weirded out by the cosplay, Carr is extremely good at her job, and that means Allura will overlook everything except her competency when it comes to making her partner.
Liberty’s Ridiculous Wedding
In another weird turn, Carr confesses to her therapist at the top of All’s Fair Episode 9 that she intends to murder Allura and the others, but it’s a little unclear whether she means that literally or figuratively. Either way, it involves an incredibly elaborate plot to destabilise the core dynamic. Her first target is Liberty.
As was recently introduced out of nowhere, Liberty feels like a bit of an outsider in the firm on account of being British, so Carr plays on that feeling of isolation by manipulating her into theming the nuptials around Princess Diana, which includes making the other ladies wear bridesmaid dresses that are hideous affronts to good taste and decency. Naturally, they all mock her for it, which only makes her feel more alienated.
None of this particularly matters, though, since Liberty’s wedding isn’t going ahead. As a “wedding present”, Emerald looks into Reggie’s finances and discovers he’s saddled with considerable debt after taking out a substantial loan. Even though Reggie was adamant about the prenup to insulate Liberty from any potential blowback, this is nonetheless considered to be a pretty major red flag, and thus, Liberty calls off the wedding.
Let the Gaslighting Commence
Carr’s big play in the ending of All’s Fair is to convince everyone that Dina is losing her mind. This comes about because her behaviour with Liberty tips Dina off that the whole “trying to become partner” thing is just a ruse to sow discord, and she vows to prevent Carr from ever joining the firm.
As a result, Carr takes drastic measures by fabricating a few texts from Dina that imply she’s regularly talking to Doug’s ghost and has been considering taking her own life. She also mentions having spied some dementia medication in her cabinet, and somehow coerces – it’s strongly implied she threatened to have her family deported – Carr’s maid, Esperanza, into testifying that Dina physically assaulted her in a moment of manic grief. She has also somehow amended Dina’s will to bequeath the vast majority of her estate to Esperanza.
The gaslighting causes even Dina to question herself, and the other ladies begin to believe that she’s not of sound mind. As a final finishing blow, Detective Morrow bursts into the room and arrests Dina on suspicion of murdering Lloyd Walton, another facet, one suspects, of Carr’s plan.
