Fictional Characters Wiki
Advertisement
Underlinked This article needs more links. Please improve this article by adding links that are relevant to the context within the existing article. (June 2018)


Edward Mordrake

Edward Mordrake is a man with two faces. He is a character in American Horror Story: Freak Show, portrayed by Wes Bentley.

Background[]

A privileged 19th century English noble, Mordrake was born with a second face on the back of his head. The face would whisper depraved notions that only Mordrake could hear. He excelled at learning many refined talents but the constant interruptions from the face drove him insane. He was committed to Bedlam Asylum, though he escaped and joined a freak show troupe. One Halloween, he was driven by the face to kill his entire coterie before killing himself. The carnies have a superstition that any performance on Halloween, even trivial ones, risk summoning Mordrake. Once he appears, it is said he must take with him one of their number.

Plot[]

Mordrake is summoned to Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities on Halloween 1952 while they are encamped in Jupiter. Despite superstitious warnings by the carnies on Mordrake's legend, Elsa Mars demanded that they perform a musical number in rehearsal. An emerald mist appeared and washed across the grounds and various ghosts appeared around the encampment. Mordrake himself walked into the performance tent to watch Elsa's rehearsal but was gone before she finished. He materialized inside the trailer of Ethel Darling, and bid her to tell her tale. Much moved, he was sympathetic to Ethel's plight. Though Ethel was convinced that she was to be the one taken, as the legend demanded, the second face whispered, "Not the one." Ethel found herself alone.Mordrake interrogated Suzi and Paul. Suzi is spared because her accidental murder is what inspired her to perform and make herself a better living, while Paul's notion that he could have been successful with his handsome face and a normal body is sympathized by Mordrake, and he too, is spared. Pepper and Salty are innocent, and he spares them. He goes to Elsa, who believes him to be a talent scout. He is unmoved by Elsa's story and intends to take her when he hearsDandy and Twisty's show nearby and compels Twisty to tell his story, which makes the second face weep. Mordrake kills Twisty and invites his spirit to join his ghostly troupe

Advertisement