Last week concluded with our core characters turning on one
another. Shelby turns Lee in to the
police as revenge for her and Matt agreeing to vacate and burn the home without
her consent. Matt cheats on Shelby by
having relations with “Witch of the Woods.” In typical horror fashion, when characters
split up, they meet their doom. The only
thing that still might help unite them is their search for Flora.
The episode opens after Lee’s arrest. Matt feels that Shelby
has “Totally lost it.” He continues to
deny any memory of having relations in the woods but concedes he did make a
deal to destroy the home without Shelby’s knowledge. He defends his choice as the only way to get
his niece back home. Shelby decides Matt
is telling the truth about his time in the woods. She states, “He wasn’t
culpable.”
Shelby decides to go upstairs to for a relaxing shower. She opens the shower curtains to find a man
wearing a pig head holding a cleaver. She
screams and runs downstairs calling for Matt.
In the downstairs hallway, Elias appears and strikes the pig man dead
with an ax through the torso. He yells,
“Croatoan!” The opening credits roll.
Shelby recognizes Elias as “the man from the video” and
finds him and his theories insane.
However, she asks him why he said “Croatoan.” The professor explains it was the word left
carved in a tree by the “Lost Colony.” He
says the word invokes power and blood magic. A flashback shows young Priscilla carving the
word on a tree. Elias explains he had
continued to own the home to protect innocent people from buying it. All the previous owners are dead or missing. Eventually, he could no longer make the
payments and that’s when Matt and Shelby bought the property. Despite the
couple’s dislike for him, the professor assures them, “You want me here.” He knows that they’ve seen the “pig man”
before and he warns them more will come.
They follow Elias back down to his cellar hideaway. He shows them his piles of research he has on
the property. He tells them, “I’ve
cracked the mystery.” Elias tells them
the story of the Chen family. They moved from Taiwan in the 1970’s in hopes of
achieving the American Dream. They watch
“The Partridge Family” as they eat TV dinners. They begin to hear strange noises upstairs,
even though all the family is downstairs. The power goes out and their youngest daughter
is drawn upstairs. The family follows
her to the third floor where a group of wild pigs is rutting about. The strange events cause tension between the
adults the wife wants to leave. A “pig
man” pushes the older daughter down the stairs. The couple turns to their religion for
guidance and prays to their ancestors.
Elias states, “But their ancestors were no match to what was already
here.” The Chen’s gather outside to burn
offerings when the colony approaches them with torches, led by the Butcher. The
Butcher kills the father. The newspaper
reports, “Chen family goes missing.”
The professor continues he has records dating back to the
eighteenth century from the home’s builder, Mr. Mott. Matt looks through his papers and recognizes
the nurse sisters from his “dreams.” Elias
assures him, they were serial killers and very real but even they were
terrified of the evil on the land. Elias
claims he heard the sisters’ story from their ghosts. The “pig men” had harassed them too. One night, the Colony, led by the Butcher,
tied the arms of one of the women and pulled them off her body. The other sister was beheaded. A
group of hunters in the 1950’s stayed on the property only to shot each other
dead.
All these events though separated by decades, occurred
during a specific cycle of the moon in October. There are six days culminating with a new
“blood” moon. He explains that is when
the spirits can kill the living. Elias
notes this moon cycle starts tonight. Matt
is inclined to believe the professor while Shelby remains skeptical about Elias
and his motives. (She thinks maybe he’s trying to scare them to get his old
house back.) Shelby mentions Priscilla. The professor informs her, “I know where she
likes to play.”
Both Matt and Shelby are eager to find Flora. Matt feels it will clear his sister’s name and
Shelby wants to alleviate her guilt about turning her into the police. (Finding
Flora will not change the facts surrounding Mason’s murder. Lee was out of the house when Mason was
“sacrificed.”)
The trio heads out to the woods. Even in the middle of the day Shelby is
terrified of being there. Elias
describes the place their going as “the periphery” where the victims of the
Colony congregate. Shelby sees Witch spirit
and follows her. Matt hears “voices,
cackles in the wind.” In a clearing, the
hunters appear sporting horrific gunshot wounds to the head. Shelby yells, “Croatoan!” but Elias explains
the word will not work during this time when the “veil is lifted.” (Pagan
beliefs speak of a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the
dead are lifted, near Samhain or Halloween.) They see Flora blindfolded,
playing with the Chen children and Priscilla.
Matt and Shelby cry out to Flora. Elias speaks with Priscilla, imploring her,
“Your mortal friend needs to come home.”
A war horn blows nearby. Elias is
shot in the chest with four arrows, killing him. Matt and Shelby run, helpless to save Elias or
Flora. As they reach the door of their
home, Cricket opens it for them. (Whatever happened to all the security cameras
Matt set up? And for God sakes why don’t they lock their door?) Cricket says, “Are you ready to do things my
way now?”
The sit down with the psychic and relay the events of the
afternoon. Cricket assures them Flora is
not dead. He chides them for not leaving
the home like he promised the Butcher. He states he went to meet with her again
and she is very angry at their continued occupation of her land. She promises she will “Show them no mercy now
that the moon is red.” Cricket says off-handedly,
“I could murder for a Coke Zero.” (Gross, no way that’s true.) Cricket notes he
needs to find a weakness to use for their advantage. He heads out into the woods alone.
Cricket returns at dawn.
He relays that “He met her and lived.” Shelby thinks he means the Butcher but he
corrects her, stating he met “the bitch with the real power.” A flashback reveals their encounter. The Witch straddles him and blinds him. Even without the power of sight, Cricket can
see the Witch is the true master of the forest. Cricket notes that her needs increase during
the blood moon, including her physical needs. He offers her relations with Matt in exchange
for information.
The Witch “lifts the veil” and explains to Cricket the true
story of the Lost Colony. Cornfields flourished under the care of the settlers.
The Witch has blessed them with “Horn of
Plenty” in exchange for blood sacrifice. The Butcher stands in front of a stone alter
and brandishing a rock. Priscilla is to
be the next human sacrifice for the Colony. Not all in the Colony agree with The Butcher’s
methods. Ambrose, her son confronts his
mother about the price of their good fortune. The Butcher scoffs, “Only me with full bellies
have the luxury of conscience.” Ambrose
fears the judgment of the Lord. He
wishes to return the Colony to the coast and wait for the return of their
father.
The Butcher seeks out the Witch for advice on how to deal
with her traitorous son. The Witch urges her to “Bend them to thy will, release
the power of the blood moon and have their souls for all eternity.”
The Butcher gathers the Colony at the table. She feigns repentance and acceptance of her
son’s plan for their departure. Her son
is happy. The Butcher offers each
settler a “special fruit of the new world”, an apple. (Biblical reference to
the apple of knowledge.) After a small
bite of fruit, the group begins to retch and vomit as a result of poison. The Butcher kills her own son first, before
slashing the rest with her cleaver. She
incants, “Thou will follow me in the next world, soak the earth in blood and
tie thee to these grounds forever!” Her
killing spree complete, she offers her neck to the Witch. The Witch slits her throat and sucks the blood
of her servant. (Lady Gaga, reprising her vampire ways from last season.)
Cricket tells Matt and Shelby that at the anniversary of the
slaughter, the Witch’s power grows. He
tells them he knows a spell to end this, and exits quickly. “My Uber is here!” He promises to return after he gets the
necessary things from his hotel. Shelby
is relieved that he will be able to help them.
In the car, Cricket asks the attractive male driver (is that
you, Matt Bomer?) if he’s ever heard of the term “gay for pay.” The driver is befuddled. An instant later he hits the brakes as Flora
runs across the road. Cricket mutters,
“Oh shit.” The psychic exits the car to
run after the girl.
Matt and Shelby wait for Cricket growing increasingly tired
and anxious. Cricket can’t be reached at
the hotel. Shelby succumbs to sleep. Matt eventually dozes as the sound of thunder
roars in the distance. Matt wakes up in
darkness, goes to the window to see a light outside coming from the
cellar. He goes outside armed with a gun
to investigate. Matt hears whispers, but
can’t understand what they are saying. He feels drawn to the light in the
cellar. There he finds the Witch. She purrs, “My treasure, a debt must be paid.”
Matt reports that he couldn’t resist the
Witch’s magnetism.
Shelby wakes up alone in the dark house very frightened. Matt concedes he was “under some sort of
spell” but it was the most intimate encounter of his life. Matt learns the Witch is English, a descendent
of the Druids. Her journey to the New
World was marked by tragedy, and the sailors blamed her for the bad voyage. (Women
were often seen as bad luck on a ship.) Upon
arrival, she was tried as a witch and was sentenced to burn at the stake. Using her powers, she draws the soldiers
holding her near and then massacres them. She adds their deaths were blamed on the Indians.
She was able to escape to the woods
where she merged the magic of the old and new worlds.
Outside the house, Shelby sees the Colony approaching with
Flora. Shelby screams to Matt. Matt leaves the Witch in the cellar. (Without
paying his “debt.”) The Butcher
announces, “We need to consecrate the land with fresh blood.” Matt screams and throws his hands up but it is
Priscilla who knocks Flora away from the Butcher, saving the girl. Matt and Shelby take their shaken niece
inside. Flora keeps repeating, “The man,
the man!”
Matt and Shelby recall Cricket is still missing. The Uber driver is interviewed for the
“documentary”, but he hasn’t seen Cricket since he ran into the woods. (He
didn’t follow him.) Outside the door, Cricket
is in the clutches of the Butcher. She
cuts open his abdomen and Ambrose attaches the small man’s intestines to a
large iron hook. Cricket screams as he
is disemboweled. Matt and Shelby watch,
powerless to help. Matt notes, “Her
message was clear, we were next.”
The series is near the half way mark but it seems like Matt
and Shelby don’t have anyone to help them against the forces on their property
after the deaths of Elias and Cricket. Lee
was absent this hour, but it is unlikely she can help against the supernatural
forces at work. The only creature strong
enough to combat The Butcher is the Witch, but she’s mad at Matt for running
out on her. This is American Horror
Story, so I’m confident there are more surprises in store but at this moment
can’t guess how this season will end. The
preview shows Matt and Shelby in the house surrounded by the Colony hoard
outside and disturbing ghosts and pig-men inside. Things will likely get stranger,
but we do know Matt and Shelby will survive to make the “documentary.”
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