Last week found our core cast facing increasing peril. The feelings of desperation and despair
reached a pinnacle when young Flora goes missing in the woods. It’s unclear what or who inhabits the cursed
woods, but it’s definitely no place for a child. Who can the living residents of the farmhouse
turn to for help against the paranormal and demonic forces at work? Watch out for pig heads, here we go!
Lee begins the episode by relating her desperate fear
regarding her missing daughter. The
sheriff’s department uses a ladder to retrieve Flora’s yellow jacket from the
tree but there is no sign of the girl. Matt,
Shelby and Lee split up to search joined by many volunteers. Lee intuits there is something amiss with the
sheriff’s department. She wonders if
they might be in cahoots with the people whom she fears kidnapped Flora. Matt describes how the forest played on his
subconscious fears but states, “What we found was not my imagination.” Lee calls to her family. She has discovered
Flora’s doll, its head decapitated and replaced with a small pig head, its doll
torso fashioned with porcine limbs.
Horrified, Lee and the others see an abandoned farmhouse nearby. More pig and doll parts litter the yard.
The trio reluctantly enters the white clapboard house. Flies buzz in the putrid air. Matt opens the
refrigerator to find a small skull of goat and rotting flesh. Shelby shakes her head in fear and disgust. In the distance, pigs can be heard squealing.
They leave to explore the barn and the pig noises grow louder. Two mud-covered boys suckle at a bloated sow’s
teat. They echo back the group’s cries
for “Flora.”
Their find shocks the local law enforcement. The boys are taken to a nearby hospital for
evaluation and treatment. It is
theorized that the boys were left to fend for themselves when the rest of the
Polk clan fled the land they were occupying illegally. Lee wonders if this is how the Polk’s treat
their own kin, what horrors are they possibly inflicting upon her
daughter. Mason arrives at the hospital
and is eager to bash the boys’ heads in if it would lead him to his
daughter. The social worker reports they
only seem to know one word, “Croatoan.” (This word is linked to the “Lost
Colony of Roanoke.” When the English returned, there was no trace of the
settlers, just the word “Croatoan” carved upon a tree. It might have been the name of a local native
tribe.) Matt takes the word as a
warning.
Lee’s experience in law enforcement makes her grimly aware
of the statistics regarding lost children. Flora has been missing for about seventy-two
hours and Lee knows it’s likely she may already be dead. The estranged couple joins Matt and Shelby
back at the farmhouse. No one has slept
in days and Mason snaps. He accuses his
ex-wife of hiding their daughter in an elaborate ruse to gain sole custody. Lee denies the accusation. Shelby wonders why he didn’t go to the police
with his suspicions. Mason pushes his
wife and storms out of the house. Exhausted,
Matt, Shelby and Lee plan to try and sleep.
Not much time passes before Lee is awoken with a phone call.
She wakes the others bleakly, “They
found a body.” The trio rides in the car
in silence. Lee explains she felt,
“Falling, helpless. It was worse than the uncertainty.” In a wooded area, a body is smoldering on
another circular altarpiece made of thin wood.
A deputy hands Lee an object found near the middle of the corpse. It appears to be a small metal button, which
Lee recognizes as Mason’s. She appears
genuinely shocked.
Matt narrates that given this turn of events he missed two
messages coming from the home’s security cameras. When he reviews the footage, he notes his
sister left the house and returned four hours later. He suspects that may have given her able time
and opportunity to kill Mason in this bizarre manner. (It is doubtful she could
have overpowered him, affixed him to the alter and burn him alive. But, maybe
she had supernatural help.) Shelby
voices her suspicions about Lee’s involvement with her ex’s death and Lee
overhears her and is understandably upset. Matt acknowledges that “Something is telling
us to leave, maybe we should.” He’s
ready to abandon the house for a hotel. (And we all learned how that may not be
a good idea last season!)
The entrance of short white-haired man dressed in a suit,
carrying silver handled cane, interrupts their discussion.
The eccentric man introduces himself as Cricket Marlow (Leslie
Jordon), explaining he was called to assist them finding Flora. Cricket explains he wasn’t literally called,
but called by “Spirit” to use his psychic abilities to crack the case. Lee and Matt are skeptics about psychics but
Shelby is a believer. The man has a
proven history of working with the FBI and finding children alive. They decide to hear what he has to say.
Cricket wanders about the house listening. When he reaches the third floor near the top
of the spiral staircase he hears faint children’s laughter. He accurately locates the closet where Flora
was hiding and finds Priscilla’s bonnet. He proclaims, “Flora is not dead and she was
not taken by the living. She is with
Priscilla.” Lee is amazed that he knew
the name of Flora’s “imaginary” friend.
Cricket corrects her, stating Priscilla was a real little girl from the
late sixteenth century whom died when she was four years old. Despite their mixed views on Cricket, the
group decides to let him try to contact Priscilla by hosting a séance in their
home.
Cricket lights a candle and waves a stick of sage to begin
communicating. He pricks his finger with
an elegant needle, dripping the blood into the fire. He calls out for the little girl but is
greeted by a “horrible woman.” He tells
the frighten group that she calls herself “The Butcher.” Cricket produces a prayer card of the patron
saint of mercy and the forest. The
psychic adds confidently, “You can do us no harm!” Suddenly, the candle on the
table splits vertically in half. Matt
and Lee are confused and frightened. Cricket describes her apparition to them,
“She has a cleaver. She died centuries
ago.” The Butcher snarls that she
protects this colony and won’t abide by trespassers. Cricket tells the group Priscilla has hidden
Flora away to protect her from “The Butcher.” The Butcher departs the house and breaks a
window. Cricket yells at her,
“Croatoan!”
After the session, Shelby asks Cricket what Croatoan means. Cricket addresses Lee, “The spirits have your
daughter, and I can take you to her for $25,000.” (He generously accepts all
credit cards.) Lee and Matt are
infuriated by his request for payment. Matt
believes Cricket’s entire “séance” was just an act. Cricket defends the price for his services and
notes it’s his “delicate soul” which will be placed in peril. He notes even the FBI pays. They say a person in crisis falls back on
what they know best, and for Lee that’s being a tough cop. She pulls out a handgun and points it at
Cricket, demanding answers. Matt slips
into his role as “peacemaker” of the family and persuades his sister to put
down the gun. He asks the psychic to
leave. Cricket complies but predicts,
“I’ll be back, and you’ll invite me.” As
he passes Lee he whispers something to her. Matt and Shelby notice whatever he said to Lee
has frightened her.
Lee tells the camera the psychic mentioned something about
her first daughter. “Emily says to say ‘hello.’ She wonders why you quit
looking for her all those years ago.” Lee
wants the cameras to stop. (Our first
break of the “fourth wall.”) The
producers of the “show” note, they knew about her first daughter due to the
extensive background checks they performed for all the participants. Lee explains she had her first daughter at age
seventeen and was a single mother. One
day when the girl was four, she left her in the car while she “left for five
minutes” to shop. Upon her return, her daughter was gone and was never seen
again. (Is it more than coincidence Priscilla and Emily died at the same age?)
Lee pays Cricket’s fee the next day. The psychic explains when he left their home;
he walked into the woods around the property.
The spirits he found there overwhelmed him. The Butcher rules them. Cricket tells Lee her real name is Thomasine
White and she was the wife of the Roanoke colony’s founder. (Historically
accurate.) The group was struggling so
her husband returned to England for supplies.
Despite pressures from the others, she refused to leave the group to
seek supplies inland. Lee scoffs, noting
everyone in North Carolina knows this “ghost story.” She notes that the island where this happened
is hundred miles away and has nothing to do with the disappearance of her
daughter. Cricket corrects her ominously,
“You only think you’ve heard the story…”
Thomasine is sleeping.
A group of disheveled men surround her, pull her out of bed and bind her
head in an iron mask. A man named Cage
declares her a “pestilence” on the group and explains they are leaving inland
for supplies. She is to be banished,
left in the cruel mask to suffer alone in the wilderness. She spits at the man, calling him a traitor. She implores her son Ambrose (Wes Bentley) to
spare her. Cage asks Thomasine and
Ambrose to swear allegiance to him.
Thomasine refuses but Ambrose agrees, locking his mother in the mask.
Alone in the elements, Thomasine begins to pray fervently
for death. Due to the mask, she is
unable to eat or drink and is clothed in only her nightdress. She hears the squealing of wild pigs. Fearing for her life, she prays, stating she
repents for her sins. A slashing noise
is heard as the pigs are slain. A woman
wearing an animal bone crown offers Thomasine the still beating heart of the
freshly slaughtered pig. (Lady Gaga) She commands Thomasine, “Eat, surrender
thy soul to me!” Magically, the iron
mask is removed and Thomasine is free to seek revenge on the men responsible.
She finds them at night inside a tent. She slashes through the tent and into Mr.
Cage’s head. As another man protests,
she slits his throat proclaiming, “I am purified by the wilderness!” She faces her son Ambrose. He begs her for his life. She warns him to “Not defy me again!”
Cricket concludes the story by stating the Butcher moved the
colony here. She is entrenched in the
land. He warns, “For this land, she’ll
kill you all!”
That night, Matt and Shelby join with Cricket and Lee in the
woods. Cricket can see and speak to the
Butcher and her group. Lee notes she can feel the heat. (The band is carrying
torches.) The Butcher agrees to listen to the psychic. Cricket commands her to bring the “mortal
girl” and in return the family will leave, burning the farmhouse to the ground.
Shelby is angered; Matt didn’t discuss
the destruction of their home with him beforehand. Matt wanders off into the woods alone.
Matt narrates that he doesn’t remember what happened that
night in the woods. Shelby leaves Cricket and Lee to find Matt. She hears sexual noises and finds her husband
“rutting” with the wilderness woman. The
hillbillies watch excitedly nearby. Lee
states they had to look for her brother and sister-in-law for an hour. When
they found Matt he was confused and alone.
Shelby had gone back to the house alone.
When he returns, Shelby is incredulous when he says he can’t remember having
sex in the woods.
The police arrive and Lee is arrested. Matt asks Shelby, “What did you do?” Shelby
gives him a dose of his own amnesia, replying, “I have no idea what you’re
talking about!” It appears Shelby
discussed Lee’s whereabouts the night before, implicating her in the murder of
Mason. It’s unclear whether she might
have also implicated Lee in the disappearance of her daughter. With their family divided, they will be even
easier targets for the strange forces at work on the land. It’s clear now the house and woods will never
belong to them.
I thought it was another solid hour of twists and
turns. A drinking game suggestion; drink
every time you see or hear a pig. This
show is definitely not kosher (pun intended), but that’s always been the appeal
of the series. I loved the Cricket
character; he’s a charming blend various television
psychics. There is a lot of information and theories about the true “Lost
Colony.” It will be interesting to see
which particular theory the series will bring to light. Maybe American Horror Story will teach us
something while entertaining us this season.
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