So now that Halloween is over and all of the ghosts have returned to the Harmon’s house (their one night of freedom is over), what’s going to happen next? We know that Ben has left the house and that Tate is apparently Constance’s son. The name of the episode is also intriguing, as is the new story that involves Tate (maybe) shooting up a school. I guess the only way we’ll ever find out what any these mysteries mean is too try and wrap our brains around another episode of American Horror Story.
Cops are banging on Constance’s door in 1994, asking for Tate. We then go back to the high school, where the group of previously dead students are now alive, hearing gunshots in the hallway. As they hide out in the library, the shooter barges in and starts killing them one by one. After he kills everyone, the show goes back to Constance’s house, where the cops corner Tate (the shooter) in his room.
Back in the present, Violet looks up the massacre like she was told to by the ghosts. She also finds an article claiming Tate is the killer and that he is now dead (big surprise for us). When she goes looking for her mom, she finds Constance instead, who already knows about Tate. She reveals that she was living in the Harmon’s house when the shooting happened and that she blames the house for making him do it.
She takes Violet back to her house to meet Billie Dean (Sarah Paulson), a medium of sorts Constance found on Craigslist. She reveals that she was chosen to communicate with the dead. Constance says that she wanted Tate to see Ben for therapy so that he could realize on his own that he was dead and then crossover to the other side.
Meanwhile, during a dream, Vivien is rubbing her very pregnant belly as the baby starts clawing its way out. When she wakes up, she pulls off her ring and calls the security guy to check the house. She continues to flirt with him, and then Ben shows up to check in. He’s back so that he can hold his therapy sessions and continue making money for the struggling family. She goes on a tirade about how much she hates him and how she’s going to divorce him. Upstairs, Violet starts carving up her wrists and sees Tate in her mirror.
Ben has a session with a new patient (Eric Stonestreet, or Cameron from Modern Family), who reveals that he is afraid of pretty much every urban legend ever. He tells the story of Piggy Man, a pig butcher who wore a pig mask while butchering the animals. The pigs then ate him, and the legend goes that if you stand in front of a mirror and say “Here piggy pig,” he’ll show up and kill you. Violet comes in as the patient leaves, telling Ben that “the darkness has me.” Eerie.
Vivien calls the hospital regarding the nurse that passed out while looking at the ultrasound. She tries to get in contact with her and while doing so, Constance arrives, bringing over pig organs for Vivien to eat, which is yet another extension of the pig episode (Ben could also be considered a “pig” since he cheated…just a thought). Constance leaves with a foreboding comment, saying “We need that baby…we need another sweet child.” As she cooks the organs, Moira gives her two cents to Vivien about Ben, who she stays will cheat again if given the chance. After eating the cooked parts, Vivien starts sniffing around the uncooked pancreas.
Meanwhile, Ben takes his new patient (Derek) into his bathroom, where he leaves him alone to confront his fear of mirrors. While in there, he recites “Here piggy pig” before looking in the shower. Instead of finding the Piggy Man, he sees one of the ghosts in the shower. Poor guy is never gonna get any better in that house.
Ben shows up at Vivien’s ultrasound, but before we find out what happens there, we see Violet meeting up with her bully Leah. She tells violet one of the stories from the book of Revelations. She also reveals that she can’t sleep without pills, and Violet decides to take one too.
Afterwards, Violet goes to the school where the shooting took place and runs into the teacher who tried to protect the kids. She tries to find out why he did it, but the teacher isn’t any help. Back at home, Vivien tells Moira that they have to fire her. Moira insists that she’ll just work for free and serves Vivien an animal brain that Constance dropped off earlier. Apparently it tastes amazing because Vivien goes crazy over it.
As Violet returns home, she sees a shady figure leading her into the basement, where she runs into in a slew of the house’s ghosts, including the surgeon who first built the house. She runs upstairs to escape, where she finds her music playing on its own. Done with it all, she takes all of the pills that Leah gave her and tries to kill herself. However, Tate appears out of nowhere and drags her into the bathtub, where he gags her until she gets the pills out of her. She starts bawling as Tate holds her.
Ben has another meeting with Derek, where he gets a little shout-y and tells him to go home and free himself of these troubles. Vivien meets up with Angela, the nurse who took the ultrasound in the last episode, in a church. She says that Vivien is carrying “the beast,” like in Revelations. Vivien storms out angrily when Angela tells her this. Derek goes back to his house and tries out the Piggy Man legend in his mirror but just as he’s getting over his fear, a burglar pops out of the shower and kills him. Random, but still shocking.
Back with Constance, Billie Dean reveals that Addie is still angry with her. As Constance tries to make amends through Billie, she gets rejected by Addie’s ghost. Billie says she’s in the house, so Constance sits down with her to try and talk to Addie. As she’s talking to Addie, we flashback to 1994 where we left off in the opening. Just after we see Tate throw up his hands in surrender, he reaches for a gun on his bed and the police kill him before he can shoot anyone. Suddenly, Violet is back in her room, alive, and reading the last book Tate checked out. He shows up and tells her that he loves her, and they cuddle.
Before anything is answered, the episode abruptly ends. So for every question that we had answered, even more were presented.
Why did Derek die? Did Violet really survive the pills incident or is she a ghost too? What does Vivien’s ultrasound look like? Why does next week look like such an amazing episode?
I love that they’re finally adding some personality to Violet, who was just a flat, depressing character a few episodes ago and I’m excited to see where the writers go with her.
Be sure to check back next week for more craziness in the Harmon household.
