Last week found our protagonists cornered in their haunted
home and almost all out of options. I
wondered what more horrific things could happen, it seems as if the story was
all but concluded. All that seemed left was
“Night of the Living Dead” homage as our couple fought off the supernatural
forces while holed up in the mansion. Tonight’s
ending confirmed my suspicions. This
season is becoming the most unpredictable yet, and perhaps that’s part of its
appeal.
The episode opens with a cameo by presidential historian
Doris Kearns-Goodwin. (Please search for some of her excellent interviews on
the Daily Show; she’s a wonderful storyteller.) She provides the background on the home’s
infamous history, quoting one of the decedents of the original owners, “It was
place of joy and suffering, emphasis on the suffering.”
Edward Mott, (Evan Peters) is an eighteenth century dandy
and art lover who suffered from severe social anxiety. We observe him at an art auction, flaunting
his wealth by buying up the entire lot of rare expensive paintings. His goal was to build a refuge away from the
social society in Philadelphia, where he could be alone with his paintings and
servant/lover. To protect his art
collection, he built an extensive series of underground tunnels leading out of
the mansion. During the building of the
main house there were strange accidents and paranormal incidents. None of this deterred Mott, he wished to
flaunt his wealth and art collection no matter the human costs.
Alone with his lover, Mott explains his love for art, “It
never judges, it stays frozen in beauty forever.” He admits he cares for his art more than any
lover, especially a new painting by Peale, which he has placed above the
mantel. One night Mott is awakened by a
loud noise and sees a cleaver puncturing the wall near his bed. As Edward makes his way around his home, all
his paintings have been vandalized, the portraits cut from their frames. Edward flies into a rage, gathers his
servants together demanding the guilty party confess. One woman states she saw a man and a woman
flee just before she heard Mott scream. The
irate Edward does not believe her; he strips the clothes off his staff and
places them in the root cellar without food until they confess. He spares his lover but spits at him, “Do not
judge me!” The moon is blood red.
Goodwin continues that night was the beginning of the end of
Edward Mott. His lover Guinness was the
only witness to the fate of Mr. Mott.
Edward is again woken when the canopy from his bed falls down on
him. Edward flees out the front door to
find the Colonists waiting for him with a fire alter prepared. The Butcher makes a speech about the land belonging
to the Colonists’ and demanding a blood sacrifice. Edward Mott is impaled with a large wooden
stake through the heart and burned alive.
Guinness flees on horseback and recounts what he witnessed. He is not believed and is charged with
murdering his master. Mott’s body was
never found. Guinness never mentioned
the fate of the other servants. Their
skeletal remains were found much later in the root cellar.
Goodwin concludes that the Mott family continued to own the
home for the next century or so but their family line was plagued with mental
illness. The last Mott died in 1952 in
South Florida. (Where all the crazies find a home!) Other owners only stay a
short time in the subsequent decades. The
interviewer asks Ms. Goodwin if she believes in ghosts. She laughs, stating she’s a historian. She does agree that she would never stay in
the house overnight on a full moon.
The story flips back to our protagonists, Matt’s call to 911
is played as he begs for help with the “mob outside of his house.” The Butcher calls to Shelby and Matt, “Deliver
yourselves onto me and I shall grant you a merciful death!” (An offer you can’t
refuse!)
Matt knows he has to flee. Ambrose speaks next, “The Blood Moon demands
to be consecrated!” Matt instructs Shelby
to take Flora in the car while he goes out to the Colonists to “distract them.”
Flora is terrified but her uncle begs
for her to “be brave just a little while longer.” Shelby and Flora descend the stairs when dead
older sister Chen drops from the ceiling onto the stairs and tries to grab the
girl. During this creepy development,
Matt sees the Colonists’ have burned both their vehicles. Shelby and Matt find Flora at the bottom of
the stairs, bruised and shaken. The Chen
woman crawls up the ceiling, like a contorted, undead spider. All hell breaks loose. The victims of the Butcher congregate in the
house, including the hunters, the Pig-Man.
Matt narrates the events, “The Butcher’s victims do her
bidding. They were corralling us up for
an easy slaughter.” (They seem to be a fairly easy slaughter without the
ghosts, cars destroyed, unarmed in the middle of nowhere.) The group cowers in
the basement when the ghostly specter of Edward Mott appears. Shelby recognizes his name as the original
owner of the house. He offers them a way
to escape but Shelby questions why he would want to help. Mott explains, “You are my bane, my ruin, my
solitude is all I have.” In short, he
wants them gone so he can enjoy what’s left of his mansion.
The group walks for approximately a mile of tunnels, which
smell like a grave. They exit into some
unknown part of the woods. Shelby whines,
“What are we supposed to do now, we’ll die of exposure out here!” Mott’s appearance turns more ghostly, he
chides her, and “The living cling to
life above all but the trophy less prized is to die in peace.” In other words, the group dying of exposure is
not his problem and preferable to death by the Butcher. Mott disappears.
Shelby narrates about her fear of animals and worse in the
dark forest. Her fears are soon realized
when a bearded man knocks them out with the butt of his rifle. It seems like our group has jumped out of the
fire and into the frying pan.
When the group wakes up, they find themselves in the house
where they rescued the “pig-boys.” They
see Elias strapped onto a wooden board.
He is in bad shape. “Mama” removed the arrows from his chest but had
amputated portions of his right arm and right leg. Elias screams at them to get out before
“Mama” returns. He whimpers he wants to
die.
Narrating, Shelby cries quietly at the memory of seeing the
professor in such a state. Moment’s later; “Mama” returns and offers the group
“fresh jerky.” (Frances Conroy, we have missed you!) Elias pleads them not to eat the meat, his own
flesh! Mama complains the meat tastes
rancid and throws it on the floor in disgust. She instructs one of her sons to kill Elias,
as he has no more use. The son smashes
Elias in the head with a hammer.
Mama turns her attention to Shelby and Matt. She states they should have never bought the
house. Matt weakly offers to give her
the deed to the house but Mama states it’s too late. Mama explains the Polk’s and the Colony have
an arrangement that goes back generations. The Colony protects the land from prying eyes
and the Polk’s sometimes help them “procure” victims for the Blood Moon
sacrifice. Mama is protecting their crop
of Carolina cannabis. (Another reason to legalize it people, bring production
out of the deep hillbilly shadows!) Matt
promises to not tell the police about their operation but Mama has already
thought of a way to insure their silence.
Mama is going to take the three of them back to the Colony to be
sacrificed. Shelby states the obvious in her narration, “The only place worse
then the Polk’s was our house.”
The police have been questioning Lee for nearly forty-eight
hours. She continues to retell her
story, taking solace in the words of Mark Twain. “If you tell the truth, you
don’t need to remember anything.” She
knows they don’t have enough evidence to charge her. The cop concedes that she couldn’t have lifted
Mason up on the “alter” without help. Finally,
Lee is released but still unaware that Flora has been found. Scrolling through
her text messages, she learns Flora is safe.
Meanwhile, Matt, Shelby and Flora are on the move as well,
riding in the back of the Polk’s pick-up truck. The man who killed Elias keeps his shoot gun
trained on their heads. Matt fears the
shoot gun might go off accidentally given the rough road. Matt decides he must act; he grabs the end of
the shoot-gun and manages to shoot and kill the driver of the truck. The truck swerves; Shelby kicks the man with
the gun off the truck bed. Matt, Shelby
and Flora run back into the woods. (Why
didn’t they attempt to steal the pick up truck? Horror movie logic, I suppose.) The man with
the gun soon finds them, aided by the buzzing of Matt’s phone. (Lee is
calling.) Alarmed that her brother isn’t
answering his phone, she asks the police for a ride back to the house.
The recaptured group is taken back to the Polk’s home. Mama is livid that one of her son’s is dead
and wields an ax menacingly. She wants
to insure Matt and the family won’t run again. For a second, it looks like she will amputate
one of his legs, (reminded me of Roots) but she turns the ax on Shelby and
breaks her ankle badly with one blow of the ax.
The Polk’s proceed to tie up Matt and Shelby and put them in the back of
the truck. Flora rides in front to
“protect her innocence.” Shelby narrates
that she doesn’t remember much after her injury. Matt confesses he “Gave up after that.” He knows when the truck stops, they are
dead. He kisses Shelby to try to make
the most out of his last moments. Matt’s
attempt to play “hero” has only served increase the amount of terror for the
family. The truck approaches the
mansion. The Colony has gathered with
torches, ready for the human sacrifice.
Shelby narrates how she felt when the truck stopped, crying.
“I thought I was going to die and there was so much I wanted to do, grow old
with Matt, be a mother, have my own yoga studio. I thought I had all the time in the world.”
(Don’t we all?)
When Mama exits the truck, the Butcher acknowledges the
recent loss of her son as something “no mother should bear.” The Pig-Man waits nearby. The Butcher grabs Flora over Priscilla’s
protests, “You said she’d go last!” The
Butcher calmly replies, “Now she goeth first!” All Matt and Shelby can do is scream. Lee arrives, takes in the horrific scene and
implores the officer to call for backup. Instead, the officer flees. Lee runs toward the fire.
The Butcher makes a speech about the importance of the blood
sacrifice. (This is a reoccurring flaw in villains from Shakespeare to James Bond;
the need to explain how evil your plan is, allowing the protagonist to spoil
the plan.) Ambrose, disgusted by the
sacrifice of innocent girls, knocks his mother into the fire. In the confusion, Edward Mott appears to untie
Matt and Shelby. “Go and make your grand
escape!” He commands. The Pig-Man moves to seize Flora when Lee runs
him over with a car. (I guess the cars
were not both completely destroyed.) Lee
growls at the stunned group to “Get in!”
As Lee drives away, the Butcher runs after them, clearly on
fire. Matt narrates that his sister’s
arrival was nothing short of a miracle. Shelby
recalls that the months of hell were over and she was grateful to never have to
see the house again.
Lee and family take their remaining funds to check into a
motel and order pizza. Shelby explains her sister was going to wire funds so
they could return to Los Angeles.
Shelby’s ankle has been casted but she insists on having a turn in the
shower. Shelby approaches the shower to
see steam rolling out from under the door. When she opens the door, the Butcher plants a
cleaver in her forehead. But, that was
just a dream. Shelby describes it as her
reoccurring nightmare, and part of her PTSD from the Roanoke incident. Shelby adds, “To this day, I’ve never gotten
over it.”
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