Well-- last week happened-- I got everything I needed to (and it all went swimmingly I might add) except writing this blog.. SO get ready for the ultimate analysis of 3 amazing episodes! (this is perfect timing if you watched the AHS marathon monday on FX!)
There is so much to talk about and theories to.. theorize that its hard to find a good place to start.. But as "The Sound of Music" suggests.. "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start"… SO
First up we have:

Even MORE crazy time is when Nora stops by as a prospective house buyer in episode 3. After the murder attempt in episode 2, Vivien has decided she can no longer live in the house.. especially since she is with child. Nora comes a'knockin and is obviously in love with the house. She goes through in great detail, recounting the tiffany fixtures and remarking that the stain glass matches her eyes (well the house WAS built for her!). Once the tour gets to the kitchen, Nora starts to freak out. She is scared by the pasta arm and microwave. Vivien doesn't even notice these comments because A) she is so desperate to sell the house B) thinks its just another person with her hippy-ish notion that microwaves are bad for you. Nora asks about her children. She tells Vivien that "she had a child once". Then as Vivien has her back turned to retrieve the tea, we see that Nora has a giant hole in her head, like a bullet wound-- and then she is gone. Vivien is alone in the kitchen. At the very end of the episode as Vivien is sleeping, Nora visits again, almost touching Vivien's stomach, and we get another look at her bloody gash.
Questions to be answered:
*Why does Nora have a fixation with Vivien? What do they have in common, other than eye color?
*Is Charles going to show up as a ghost?
Or is he the just inhabiting the house on the
whole?
Or is he the just inhabiting the house on the
whole?
*How long did Charles and Nora live in the house? The glass beakers filled with animal
parts were still in the house in 1978 ( the first episode).
parts were still in the house in 1978 ( the first episode).
*Did Nora kill herself or did Charles? or did someone else?
*Why is their son, INFANTATA, inhabiting the basement?
TATE: I just have so many questions about Tate. Just when I start to form a hard and fast theory on him… something throws a wrench in it! Because of this-- this section might be a little conflicting.. but thats what the comment section is for right? for all of us to talk our thoughts out together!
Who is Tate? In the pilot he is telling Ben about his mom and he says "she used to suck the guy off next door all the time. My dad found out and left." Could that be Moira? or Constance? We learn in episode 2 that he has some sort of relationship with both of them. After Tate helps take care of the house intruders, Constance and Moira show up the dialogue goes as follows:
Constance: (to Tate) Jesus H Christ is this your handy work?
Tate: No.
Moira: It was them.
Tate: We have to get rid of the bodies if you want him to keep treating me.
Moira: you get the shovel, I'll get the bleach.
Obviously through this we find out that a) the three know each other b) Constance has some over arching plan involving Tate being treated by Ben. c) they've had to dispose of bodies/ have worked together before. (PS where did they put the bodies of the guy and Fiona? did they bury them on the house property? are they going to show up again??)
I think there is a very good argument brewing that Tate is dead. Here are the pros:
- He has a lot of anger and sadness. He says in episode 1 that the world is a filthy place & that he wants to save the people he likes from it. A few characters have commented on the fact that the plight of a ghost is a very sad and lonely one. It seems like Tate fit that.
- He didn't show up for the appointment Ben made for him for another therapist. He also didn't call to cancel. (guess ghosts can't use cell phones!)
- Tate also has a tendency to just show up places. Lucky for Violet he is in the house when the murder groupies are there in Episode 2. He saves the family by telling her to get the groupies into the basement. The angles in this scene are brilliant ( as are many of the scenes involving Tate-- there one second and then gone the next) because we see him talking to Violet, and then in the next second as he leans against the wall and the groupies come into the shot/room-- He's GONE. Once Violet gets Fiona in the basement, he takes care of Bianca. We see him walking from right to left in the bathroom and the he appears behind her, where he then attacks her with the axe. Then he is miraculously in the basement with the tub filled waiting for Fiona and the guy groupie. How does he get around the house so fast & without anyone seeing him? Earlier in episode 2, he is just in Violets bedroom in the middle of the night staring at her. In episode 3 he has a moment with Constance in the 2nd floor window. He is in the house looking outside as Constance walks by with her dogs. She waves but he doesn't acknowledge. He is just staring stone faced out the window, but he definitely sees her. She is obviously confused why he is ignoring her-- at the same time he slowly backs away from the window and back into the house. The realtor looks up and sees and empty window-- then she looks at Constance like she's crazy.
- He has some connection with all the spirits in the house. He is always in the room to the right in the basement where all the crazy shit goes down. There is always a shot of him smiling devilishly and then the ghost (in episode 1 infantata and in episode 2 the nurses) does its' business.
- The only time we see Tate off the house property is on Halloween. This makes perfect sense since the dead can walk freely on that day. It also makes sense that he agrees to go on a "normal date" on that day.
- Then here is Tate's unexplained vision from episode 1: began 2 years ago (maybe when he died?)He is preparing for the noble war-- he knows that it is coming and that no one even himself can stop it. He is helping take the people he likes to somewhere clean. In the vision-- its hard to date the clothing, but I really don't think it is current. Maybe 80's or early 90's. As I lightly touched on in my blog of the pilot, maybe Tate was some how hit over the head or decapitated in the house? What else would cause the bleeding seen here
There is also a moment from the pilot that i have been thinking about for weeks. When Tate is helping Violet come up with the plan to scare the coke whore there is a flash of him very close to the camera saying "Helter Skelter". After doing some research on the subject: I found that "Helter Skelter" was not only a Beatles title, but a prophecy by Charles Manson about the apocalyptic war that would break out due to race tension in the late 60's. Among other crazy notions, Manson believed that the Beatles were speaking to him through the White Album (of which the song "Helter Skelter" was a part of). This so called war that Manson prophesied sounds similar to Tate's noble war in his visions. There are multiple Manson references in the show so far: this being the first and the murder groupies in epi 2. say that R. Franklin ( the man that killed Gladys and Maria, the nurses) was the "first" before Manson.. "he changed the culture". What the connection is here ( if any) I've yet to figure out, but I don't think this is just coincidence
The only thing real CON to my "TATE IS DEAD" theory is that in episode 2 Ben is having a phone conversation with Tate's supposed mother. It is obviously a conversation not a message that he is leaving. Is there another person who is alive (a female) who is in on this conspiracy other than Constance?? Wouldn't Ben recognize Constance's voice on the phone?
Questions to be answers about Tate:
* Is he Violets guardian? Is he there to protect her or ultimately hurt her? Could he maybe want to kill her so they can be together forever?
*Who is Tate's Dad? He obviously has a "thing" about dads. He tells Violet that she is lucky to have such a caring one.
*Is Tate quite possibly the Rubber Man? I think this is a little far fetched, but he does appear in the costume in episode 4. When asked about why Tate has the costume when Violet knows her dad trashed it he simply says "finders keepers".
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Not Ben. |
RUBBER MAN: This character is the most shrouded in mystery. He made no appearance in Epi 2 or 3 Not even a flash in the back of a shot or anything. Then we see in episode 4 that it was the Rubber man that killed Chad. This scene is particularly interesting to me. Just like in episode 1 with Vivien, in this scene Chad thinks that Rubber man is his partner. After throwing Chad around the room like a rag doll (he seems to have super human strength almost) he drowns him in the bobbing station and snaps his neck. Just as this happens, Patrick, Chad's partner, walks in. In the split second reaction we get to see-- Patrick is not upset, he is not even shocked… It seems as though Patrick almost knows the rubber man or at least has seen him before.
Going back and looking at the scene where Vivien is having sex with RM (I've gotta come up with some short hand for Rubber Man!haha), It seems as though half way through "doing the nasty" Vivien realizes that something is off. Maybe she realizes it isn't Ben and just hasn't confessed it yet or maybe she just felt like something was off.
Also-- Did RM kidnap Violet at the end of Episode 4? Or is that the date night Tate had in mind?
I can't wait to find out more about this character. I'm hoping we see the seconds after the scene with Patrick and RM in epi 4. What does Patrick do when he realizes that RM has killed Chad?
I also have this kind of crazy theory that maybe RM is Constance's ex-husband. He is the only person that we know of killed in the house so far that we haven't met in ghost form.
VIVIEN: Poor Vivien. Her child is totally doomed to be either made of rubber or look like infantata. There is definitely SOMETHING wrong with that thing inside her. As I wrote in my Episode 1 notes: clearly the baby is a goblin child or going to die. Ben is putting so much stock into the baby as a "fresh start they are looking for", "their salvation" etc… you just KNOW something is going to go wrong. Vivien even brings this up to Ben in episode 2-- she just knows there is something wrong.
In episode 3, Vivien finds out that the house is on the LA "Murder House" tour. She decides to take the tour-- when they get to her house, the announcer starts recounting the story of the Montgomerys. Vivien looks down and she has started bleeding. She freaks out and runs into the house. When they go to the doctor to get checked out-- it appears everything is fine, but the doctor says that moving would be bad for the baby. It causes stress and could cause more problems. In episode 4, after a particularly stressful situation with Chad and Patrick and confronting Ben about Hayden-- Vivien doubles over in pain and says the it feels like the baby is kicking. Supposedly the baby is only 8 weeks so it wouldn't be any where near developed enough to kick. The trip to the hospital doesn't really get the much information because the nurse faints when looking at the baby (possibly because she is so horrified at what she sees!). We do, however, find out that perhaps the baby is much farther along than Ben and Vivien think.
BEN: He is such a weak person. I love Dylan McDermott and his portrayal of Ben, but I HATE Ben as a character. I do think this weakness makes him susceptible to the house and its' influence. In episode 2, we see how weak his is with Hayden. He apologizes profusely to her and also looks at her longingly. We also learn that Ben was a troubled child and that is why he is so keen on helping Tate. Ben is weak with Tate as well, instead of saying "NO, I know longer want to see you", he is manipulated by Tate and ends up continuing to see him. Finally Ben is manipulated by Larry. On and off it seems that Larry has a deep connection with Ben. Larry seems to know things about Ben that even he himself isn't ready to face. Larry is constantly haggling him for $1000 ( for new headshots-- Larry wants to be an actor now that he has a short amount of time on this earth). After episode 3-- with Ben being an accomplice to the murder of Hayden, Larry finally has the clout over Ben to get what he wants-- although we learn that the Harmon's have no money because it is all tied up in the house. I think that the darkness that Chad senses in Ben is this lack of confidence and weakness. All of the ghosts and other wordily beings can sense it and capitalize on it because they can use him almost as a vessel to serve their needs.
In episode 2, we see Ben start to black out and start loosing consciousness. Whenever he comes to, he is always laying in the same place in the yard. First he is just standing there-- then the second time he comes to with a shovel. When he comes to-- he begins digging (presumably looking for his missing tape recorder). It's here that Constance lays the ground work for the gazebo that Ben will later make. She says it would be "Heaven, sheer Heaven"
Early on in the episode, Ben is being eaten alive with guilt because he thinks he has killed one of his patients AND the fact that he was in Boston attending to Hayden while his family was being terrorized by the crazies (ya know like that movie?.. haha). How ironic that later he does basically kill Hayden and then begins to be eaten up by guilt about that...I mean COME ON man up! Larry "helps" Ben dig a hole to bury Hayden in. Luckily for Larry, Ben has already gotten a good start on the digging because Larry only has one good arm.. haha. As Larry's digging he finds a maid outfit and we soon realize it's Moira…
MOIRA: Over the last 4 episodes we've learned SO much about Moira and seen some really amazing work from Frances Conroy (especially the scene with her mother in episode 4! so gut wrenching!) Episode 4 shows us what we basically already knew: that Moira was involved with Constance's husband in 1983. What we didn't know is that it appears that Moira wanted no part of it. She obviously regrets her first indiscretion, but Constance's husband was very drunk and forced himself on her. Constance walked in and shot her in the eye.
Over the past few episodes we learn that Moira appears to be stuck in the house because her body is buried in the back yard. In episode 2 she says she is scared and that she just wants to be with her mother. Constance suggests she just "move on", but Moira can't. In Episode 3, we see Moira watching over her burial sight the entire episode. When Larry finds her body-- there is a particularly moving scene where she is sobbing watching then find the body and then put Hayden over top of her. As Ben builds the gazebo over top Constance says "Poor Girl, now you're stuck here forever"-- presumably because her body will never be able to leave the property now.
In episode 4-- Moira visits her mother in a really grimy nursing home. We see how sad and downtrodden she is because she hasn't been able to be there for her. In a really moving scene, Moira takes her mother off of ventilation. When her mother asks her to come with her-- she begins sobbing because she can't. For one second they were able to be together again.
I find it really interesting that Moira appears to be sexy, young Moira to more than just Ben. In Episode 3 when a detective is at the house questioning Ben about Sally Freeman-- he asks " how do you get anything done with her around!".
Questions to be answered:
*Why does she appear young to some, old to others?
*Why does she poison Ben in episode 3 with the stuff that they used in surgeries? It was banned in 1934.. and Moira wasn't around in 1934-- presumably. So how did she get a hold of this substance and who was telling her to poison him?
CONSTANCE: JESSICA LANGE WILL WIN AN EMMY FOR HER PERFORMANCE THIS SEASON! I mean really every episode she is in is just GOLD!
.. anyway.. haha
Episode 2 allows us to find out a little more about Constance's family and her philosophies on the subject. She says that a mother never turns her back on her children. She had 4 children and that something was wrong with all of them except for one, but she lost him to "other things"-- Could this be Tate?
Also in episode 2 we see that Constance has moved on to younger men. Whenever she is talking to him-- it seems that she is speaking in metaphors. She never really says anything to him-- or is she saying everything?
Episode 3-- we learn that Constance not only killed Moira, but also her cheating husband. They also lived in the house. Why did she move? Obviously the double murder affected Constance profoundly.. she says she thinks about it every damn day.
She always seems to be guiding everyone into the situations they need to be in for the plot to continue to roll along.
Questions to be answered:
* What does Constance have against Violet? Why does she want to give her the "special" cupcakes? Or did she know what was going to happen with the intruders and did she just have to set up the scenario with Tate and Bianca?
* What is the symbolism of her stealing silverware everytime she is in the house? Is she just trying to screw with Moira or is there a greater meaning here?
The biggest question to have answered with her is:
DID SHE GET ADDY ONTO THE YARD IN ENOUGH TIME?!?! Will Addy be living with her friends for all of eternity?
Constance is one of my favorite characters and I feel like I've short changed her in this post. In the future I will definitely expand on her! Promise!
Constance is one of my favorite characters and I feel like I've short changed her in this post. In the future I will definitely expand on her! Promise!
Odds & Ends:
*In episode 3-- the scene in the ally on the murder tour-- is the killer JACOB from LOST?!? I tried to do research via imdb, but I think the cameo is so small he might not even be credited. Did anyone else catch this??
*Can the ghosts be anywhere on the property? Are the only ghosts that are there ones that are buried on site?
*WHAT IS HAYDEN GOING TO DO?? Now that she is a zombie and all…
There is a really short AHS commercial that they show on my ON DEMAND channel that I think is worth talking about. Watch it here:
What is that thing that comes out of the wall near RM? I don't think we've met that ghost yet! Pretty much all the other ghosts see here we've met. Who's arm is coming out from under the carpet? Hayden's? I also love how Larry bursts into flames as he goes into the fire place. Thoughts? Comments? please use the comment section get the dialogue a'flowin!
Sorry this post was a bit of a jumbled mess- hope it got you thinking and that it sparked some ideas for you! There was just so much to cover, and time running out with the episode tonight! I promise you-- stick with me and I'll get a hang of this whole thing!
See you tonight!
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