Niecy Nashalcoholic detective is in for a rude awakening in the latest episode of odd. Seventh episode of Ryan MurphyFX’s latest horror series takes a major turn when Nash’s Detective Lois Tryon finally solves the serial murder case she’s been investigating all season. It turns out that her right-hand woman, the seemingly innocent, true-crime reporting nun, Sister Megan Duvall (Diamond Micaela), has long been the mastermind behind the murders, using them to attract attendees to her church — and an audience for her reporting.
But that’s not the only twist Murphy has planned odd fan. After a violent showdown in her kitchen, Lois is seemingly destroyed, stabbed to death by her vengeful and cornered sister Megan. But just when it seemed like everything was over for Lois, the camera switched to her husband, Marshall Tryon (Courtney Vance)—who had miraculously emerged from a coma and were having dinner with their daughter, Merritt Tryon, (Raven Goodwin). Furthermore, Merritt is now a leading cancer researcher instead of an aspiring reality TV star. Her estranged husband, “Fast Eddie” Laclan (Travis Kelce), transformed from a charming male nurse into a deadpan mullet con artist. We later find out that Lois is actually suffering the same fate as Marshall: She’s actually been unconscious in the hospital the whole time. All events take place in the first six and a half episodes of odd is a vivid and morbid dream that Lois had while in a coma.
For Murphy, the dual reality that Lois experiences within odd reflects his own experiences living in the world today. “What we’re trying to talk about on this show is something we all feel, which is: No matter what side you’re on or who you are, the question is, is this really happening? out?” he said VF. “Is this really our world now? Is this true? How did we get here? What is it?”
Below, Murphy and the FX president John Landgraf talks about the bold choice to end the show completely and what’s in store for the remaining episodes of odd.
Vanity fair: So we think the biggest problem is that Sister Megan is a murderer and Lois is dead. And then—bam—we find out that actually, the whole time, Lois was in a coma. Can you tell me a little bit about how you broke that story?
Ryan Murphy: I wanted to do something I had never done before, which was write something for myself. I want to write a whole season of television about what I’m feeling. So to my collaborators, Jon Robin Baitz And Joe grilledwe started writing this very, very quickly. It’s based on what we all feel collectively as a group: What’s going on around us? Are we in a simulation? When will everyone wake up? Everything seems so meaningless.
So I called John. I told him I was working on this and it was an experiment and I had never done anything like it. As always, he encouraged me and my artistic abilities. He said, “Okay, send flares when you want me to read something.”
We got it done really, really quickly. Then I sent it to John. The whole season was written – It was nine out of ten [episodes]I thought so and I had the outline for lesson 10. John read it and he called me four hours later and said, “Oh, this is really interesting and really good.” And I said, “Oh, you haven’t seen ‘The Thing,'” that’s what I call it [episode] seven. I said, ‘keep going, keep going.’ He called after reading it. He said, ‘Wow, I really like it. I think that’s something we’re all feeling in our culture right now, and if you want to do it and you believe in it, then I believe in it too.”
