Labor is hard enough already. You're entirely exposed, surrounded by masked strangers, you're bleeding, you're experiencing pain like you've never felt before, and someone's literally coming out of you. With all that in mind, Vivien had it rough tonight. Strapped to a table and flanked by bloody ghosts and Dr. Frankenstein, in a room bathed in red light with decor that can only be described as 'cult chic'. She loses a baby, has the other immediately taken away by a crazed wingnut and, oh, then goes on to bleed out and die. I think we can all agree that she's had one horrible six months.But, after the death and despair, we actually had something of a happy ending. Violet had finally gotten herself a clue in regards to Tate, and called him out on the fact that he's a rapist murderer sociopath. She screams at him to stay away from her, and she's left alone in the house. Then, out of the shadows behind her arrives Vivien, now just as trapped as her daughter. The ghostly inhabitants of Murder House are all so lonely and bitter, even the ghostly couples stuck within the walls seem to despise each other. But at least Vivien and Violet now have each other, a mother-daughter bond strong enough that any tensions they experienced in their previous life immediately dissipate, leaving two against the world. It was a really tender closer to the hour.
The prior forty minutes were all about the unborn babies, and the designs each ghost has on them. Pat and Chad were your typical gay yuppie surrogate parents... right until Chad announced his plans for a little light smothering right around their second birthday. Ugh. Constance sees the child as a second chance, another person to add to her lineage that may work out a lot better than her previous attempts. Nora needs the child to fill that hole in her life, while Hayden just wants to create chaos. At least I think that's what she wants.
There were some blistering moments here, notably the campy interaction between Jessica Lange and Zachary Quinto. A bitchy queen and the God-fearing faded actress he's stuck in a house with. I smell a sitcom! I also love the continued presence of Sarah Paulson's Billie Dean, who speaks with so much conviction about spirits and rituals, all so casually undermined by a cackling Chad later on. That's what I love about this show, that the writers constantly rely on genre trademarks while simultaneously satirizing how ridiculous they are.
On paper, this was just as nutty as every other episode, with the colonial flashbacks and the Infantata in the basement. But there was actually something pretty restrained here, gothic horror with a real humanity to it. For Vivien, you really felt that sense of everything completely falling apart, her life rapidly fading into oblivion. Violet, too, experienced the sadness of a relationship turning out a different way than she had previously thought. And Ben had that sudden epiphany where he realized what's been happening and how he's lost everything in the process. This poor family. That's the real horror here. A
Credits
Guest stars Kate Mara (Hayden McClaine); Zachary Quinto (Chad Warwick); Frances Conroy (Moira O'Hara); Lily Rabe (Nora Montgomery); Matt Ross (Charles Montgomery); Sarah Paulson (Billie Dean Howard); Teddy Sears (Patrick); Steven Anderson (Dr. Marchesi); Rosa Salazar (Maria)
Writer Tim Minear Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
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