While the titular Apocalypse may have been averted in last night's American Horror Story Season 8 finale, the battle against Satan's minions continues (for at least a couple more years). It was about 5 weeks ago when I sheepishly postulated that perhaps the Apocalypse of American Horror Story Season 8 wasn't set in stone. Sure enough, series creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk took a page out of James Cameron's Terminator Playbook, with Mallory (Billie Lourde) pulling a Sarah Conner by saving the world from a nuclear holocaust.

All the pieces of the puzzle fell together in the first half of last night's finale Apocalypse Then. Myrtle Snow met with Jeff and Mutt where she learned all the details of The Cooperative's plans to initiate Armageddon. We learn that Michael (aka Kid Antichrist) has chosen Outpost Three for himself and wants robot-Mead's hard-drive erased so she doesn't remember he's the Antichrist.

Armed with the power of knowledge, the surviving members of the Coven assemble at Misty's cabin in the swamp. The realize that Dinah Stevens had a hand in their academy's decimation, but the fact that she's never met Mallory or Coco means she won't recognize them when they infiltrate Outpost Three. Before the Cordelia's identity spell turns Mallory and Coco from BFF's to worst frienemies, there are tearful goodbyes and good lucks all around. Then, with a puff of glitter and some Latin chanting, we're back in Los Angeles on the eve of obliteration.

As humanity crawled towards extinction and the survivors at Outpost Three ate their snake stew, Myrtle, Cordelia, and Madison stayed underground-literally. After crawling from the dirt outside the former Hawthorn Academy for Warlocks, they arrive in time to resurrect Coco, Mallory, and Dinah from their poison-apple party before their bodies were even cold. After shaking off the shiver of death and haze of the identity eraser, Mallory and company are ready to face-off against Michael Langdon and his best robot buddy Ms. Mead.

When Michael offers to let them live in return for subjugation, Dinah is all set to take the offer, but she's startled to see Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett), the OG Voodoo Queen, emerge from the shadows. She's freshly rescued from Hell and ready for some bloodshed, offing Dinah with a deep cut to the jugular. A spell causes Mead to malfunction before she can turn her Uzi arm on the Coven; she explodes, looking a lot like Bishop at the end of Aliens; her severed head sing "Daisy" echoing Hal 900's swansong from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Maddison turns the gun on Michael, temporarily immobilizing him, while her sisters get ready to pull the time travel maneuver.

What followed was an exciting and violent turning of tables where Good and Evil each seem to have each other on the ropes. When Cordelia commits suicide, she's aware that this will give Mallory full access to all the powers that come with being The Supreme and, in a flash, she's back at Murder House circa 2015. Well, outside of it, more accurately: In an SUV, running a teenage Michael Langdon over-repeatedly! It just so happens to be the day Kid Antichrist killed a priest and Constance (Jessica Lange) has had enough. When Michael begs to be taken into Murder House so his spirit might live on forever, she's got a better idea: "Go to Hell," she tells him as he gasps his last bloody breath.

Apocalypse averted, there's nothing left for Mallory to do except relive the past few years with the blessing and burden of foreknowledge. While she's happy that many of her Coven-mates are no longer uber-dead, her interference in history mean Myrtle was never resurrected. On a positive note, she's able to advise Queenie against staying at the Hotel Cortez, effectively erasing her Season 5 demise.

In what at first appears to be a tender moment, teens Emily and Timothy meet under happier circumstances where they immediately spark an epic romance. A year later, they're new parents. Three years after that, however, their young son murders his babysitter. As if we need any more proof that a new Antichrist has made his appearance, Anton LaVey arrives with his lieutenants. We end on a shot of the OG Ms. Mead smiling with glee. Now can we please have a season about aliens? American Horror Story: Apocalypse airs on http//www.fxnetworks.com/|FX.