'American Horror Story: 1984': Donna is an underrated character who deserves to be 'Final Girl' more than Brooke
'American Horror Story: 1984' is a slasher-inspired season and draws elements from the epic 80's slasher films. Out of the several characters that exist, Donna still outshines the lot.
She posed as Nurse Rita in Camp Redwood and a resident ghost storyteller. Donna is portrayed as a person who takes no nonsense from anybody. Donna is usually two steps ahead of every other character in this show. She is fascinated with Benjamin Richter's case and wants to study him in his natural habitat.
Ambitious by nature, she is curious to study Benjamin as he is an exceptional subject. Donna is so fascinated by him that she sets him free and drives him straight to Camp Redwood where he would go about his "killer business."
When Donna said, "Sometimes sacrifices need to be made in the name of science" it suggests that she is a woman of manipulative words. Either way, she was trying to do the right thing, in the name of Science.
Donna is a specialist when it comes to unzipping sealed mouths. She pried confessions out of other infamous serial killers including Ted Bundy and helped solve two unsolved murders. She has the power to make any serial killer talk even if their "lips were sealed."
She was inspired to help serial killers gain mental stability and knew that they can be helped, hence Benajmin is her understudy. Initially, Donna seemed like a negative character, but the resilience her character exhibited, was beyond ordinary. Her history has a strong influence on her present state as she was only trying to study Benjamin and help him out.
Her character arc only saw exponential growth as her past started coming into the picture. She is indeed a very strong woman. For instance, we saw how her father committed suicide right in front of her as he was ashamed of his obsession with killing women. That's exactly what pushed her to do what she did throughout this season.
When it came to facing death in the face, she said, not today. We must give it to her for being swift enough to turn it the other way.
Brooke's history is nothing compared to what Donna had to go through. A father's suicide in front of your eyes is any day more painful than the death of a fiance that you never loved. On comparing Brooke and Donna, the latter is slightly more badass.
Nevertheless, Donna's conscience is clean and since she knows the truth, she rescues Brooke during her death sentence and nurses her back to good health. Usually, women characters like Donna die a terrible death despite outsmarting killers on the prowl.
It is amazing to see her being at par with Brooke, as the 'final girl' in the series. In Episode 8, 'Rest in Pieces', she manages to manipulate and stop Brooke from killing the reporter. Donna makes a powerful statement as she says, "girls of her complexion are first ones to be killed." She should be proud of herself for making it alive so far in the series, considering it was an 80's slasher flick.
All we can hope is that she survives the season finale and break the curse of "colored women" dying first.
'American Horror Story: 1984' airs on Wednesdays at 10 pm only on FX.
