After One Very Murderous Season, AHS: 1984 Finally Reveals the Final Girl
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Warning: spoilers ahead for the season finale of AHS: 1984!
Well, the epic last showdown on American Horror Story: 1984 has unfolded, and now, we know with certainty who the final girl is. Correction: who the final girls are! That's right — in a gruesome season modeled after '80s slasher movies, two of our favorite heroines make it out alive: Donna and Brooke. Their journey out of the dreaded Camp Redwood isn't all rainbows and butterflies, though. Between confronting murderous ghosts and being held hostage by a sleazy serial killer, the dynamic duo go through hell and back. Read ahead to learn how Donna and Brooke manage to escape the insidious clutches of the Summer camp and where they end up decades later.
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Brooke
At the beginning of the season, Brooke seems the most likely candidate to be the final girl because of how innocent she is. But as she grows tougher, murdering Montana and serving years in prison, we were more skeptical she'd make it out alive even if Donna revived her at her lethal injection execution. Emma Roberts pretty much always dies, whether she's sawed in half in Freak Show or strangled to death in Coven.
But Brooke survives by the skin of her teeth. After escaping a creepy serial killer on the road, she and Donna make it to Camp Redwood for the showdown, determined to take down Margaret. But in a brawl, Margaret shoots her in the abdomen, and it's pretty much assumed Brooke will bleed out to death. Donna thinks she's dead, but Ray finds out she's alive and takes her out of the camp's vicinities. When she passes out at the entrance, we can assume Ray or someone else calls 911 from a phone booth to get her to a hospital.
Brooke goes MIA for a long time, and Donna assumes she's dead. When Bobby Jr. tells Donna he's been getting mysterious checks throughout his life, they finally (and somewhat conveniently) track down Brooke in Pineville, OR. They meet Brooke, who looks freakishly good for her age, attributing her luminous skin to fillers. She tells them that when she got out of the hospital, she just went north, where she met her dermatologist husband and had two kids with him. Brooke explains to Bobby that his father gave her hope, and that's why she wanted to give him a chance at a functional, nonmurdery life.
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Donna
Donna starts out a little bit evil this season, assuming the identity of Nurse Rita to bring Mr. Jingles into Camp Redwood. But we see a redemption arc when she survives the 1984 murders and helps Brooke escape a wrongful execution.
How does it all go down in the last episode? When Brooke and Donna make it to the camp, they find Margaret, who shoots Brooke. But Margaret doesn't get away with it — Donna lets the ghosts take her and grind her up into pieces.
In a flash forward to 2019, we find out she's now the medical director at Red Meadows Asylum, where Bobby tracks her down for answers about his father. She tells him Mr. Jingles was innocent and framed by Margaret. But Bobby offhandedly mentions he's been getting checks all of his life. Then, Donna, going on a trip with Bobby to find his benefactor, discovers Brooke is alive.