American Horror Story Redux: Some Mysteries Explained, Some Folks Killed—and Who's Returning?

Recap of tonight's show, plus scoop on a character's ghostly storyline

By Jenna Mullins Oct 20, 2011 3:00 AMTags
American Horror StoryRay Mickshaw / FX

Update: Overnight ratings show American Horror Story is gaining in the ratings, achieving a series high in adults 18-34 and pulling in 2.59 million viewers.  Not too shabby!

Is it just us or is American Horror Story going all Lost on us?

We can't remember the last time a show left us with so many head-scratchers each week. Every episode gives us more questions raised than answered, and we're scared crapless each episode, so it's double the intrigue. And we're loving every minute of it.

Tonight, we learned about the origins of the house, and Ben's (Dylan McDermott) problems came back to haunt him. Plus, we'll reveal an upcoming storyline that is really going to make things messy for the Harmons. Yes, even messier than it is now…

WHAT WE LEARNED

And the House's Backstory Is: What horror turned the house into such a nightmare? We found out that back in the 1920s, a doctor built the house for his socialite wife and baby. The doctor soon went a little nuts, started doing drugs and adopted a Frankenstein complex; he was shown working on pigs in the basement, and it was oddly unsettling. But now we know where all those jars came from. That basement was also the scene of many abortions the doc performed for young girls in order to bring in some quick cash.

What makes this backstory more interesting? The fact that the wife shows up in present day to tour the house with Vivien (Connie Britton)! Another ghost? Looks like it. And this one has a nasty gunshot wound in the back of her head. We also see her at the end, hovering over Vivien in bed, placing a hand above her stomach. She is way too interested in that unborn baby if you ask us.

Speaking of that unborn baby, even though Vivien wanted to move out after the attack in last week's episode, it looks like that might not be happening at all. While going on a haunted tour of Los Angeles (presumably to find out the origin story of her house), Vivien starts bleeding between her legs. She tells the doctor that it stopped as soon as she got in the house, and the doc rebuffs the idea of the Harmons moving because it would stress Vivien and the baby out too much. Will Vivian risk her baby to get out of the house? Only time (and more episodes) will tell.

Another One Bites the Dirt: Ben's pregnant mistress Hayden (Kate Mara) shows up at the house and drops a bomb: She didn't have an abortion and she wants to tell Ben's wife about their baby. Not only does Ben have that on his plate, but he also keeps blacking out and waking up outside in the yard. Later, after one of Ben's patients disappears, a detective comes to grill him about it. Turns out, the patient was so enraged that Ben wasn't paying attention to her, she slit her own wrists in front of him. Ben barely remembered any of this, but since the patient finally turned up, the detective couldn't make an arrest. Something tells us he'll be back, because someone else has disappeared.

As Ben and Hayden were leaving the house to go talk out the whole home-wrecking situation, bam! Larry (Denis O'Hare) whacked her over the head with a shovel and killed her. Ben is destroyed and enraged, but eventually Larry talks him into covering the whole thing up. And oddly enough, Ben had been subconsciously digging a hole in the backyard the entire episode. Did he somehow know someone would need burying? While Larry was finishing up the digging, another body was unearthed…in a maid's outfit. But we'll get to that whole situation in a bit. Finally, Ben poured cement over Hayden's buried body and then built a sweet little gazebo over her.  Yeah, that murder won't come back to bite anyone in the ass.

Ray Mickshaw / FX

Constance and Moira are Two Peas in a Crazy Supernatural Pod: In the very beginning of the episode, we flashbacked to 1983, where Moira in her young form (Alexandra Breckenridge) was working in the house as a maid, natch. Her male employer assaults her in the bedroom, but gets interrupted when his wife walks in…and his wife is Constance (Jessica Lange). The crazy neighbor used to live in the house! Anyway, we finally find out exactly what Constance meant when she told Moira in the pilot "don't make me kill you again." She shoots Moira through the eye (hence, the current glass eye), then kills her husband. Later, in present day, Constance is stealing silver to frame Moira (who is aware of that), and we find out that Moira (Frances Conroy) is somehow stuck in the house, perhaps trapped by Constance? She lashes out at Constance, screaming that she doesn't want to stay there anymore and that she misses her mother.

Later, Ben gets sick of young Moira's advances, grabs her and threatens to fire her. Vivien sees the whole thing and suggests she find another job, but Moira gets really upset and threatens to sue them for wrongful termination. At the end of the episode, both Constance and Moira are watching Ben bury Hayden, and Constance tells Moira that she'll be stuck there forever. Clearly it was her body in the ground, so maybe her body not being discovered has something to do with Moira being trapped in the house. That could be why Moira is so intent on not being fired…so she could somehow free her spirit.

BURNING QUESTIONS

  • Seems like the detective can see the maid as young and beautiful, too. What gives?
  • If Moira died as a young and beautiful woman, why did she age?
  • What does the wife of the original builder of the house want with Vivien's baby?
  • Why are Moira and Constance stuck within the world of the house? Is Tate also stuck, since he was seen in the house ominously gazing out at Constance while she was walking her dog?

WHAT LIES AHEAD

What's Buried Isn't Always Dead: Hayden was served an untimely death at the end of the episode, but she'll be ba-a-ack. Hayden will pop back up in the Harmon house to "literally drive Vivien insane," a show source tells us. "Fatal attraction times 2000!" Presumably she'll be a ghost, but who knows what Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck have up their sleeves.

A Past Owner Who's Alive? Maybe: All the previous inhabitants of the house that we've seen in flashbacks have been killed, but there has to be some who are still alive, right? Enter Zachary Quinto. The former Heroes star is coming on as Chad, a man who previously owned the house with his boyfriend. Now the realtor said that the previous couple of the house died in a murder-suicide, but they wouldn't make Z.Quinto a ghost would they? Fingers crossed we'll get Quinto as an actual human being interacting with everyone, because we want him in as many scenes as possible. Also coming on is Sarah Paulson, who plays a medium named Billie Dean in a four-episode arc.

What did you guys think of this somber episode of AHS? What questions are you dying to have answered? Go haunt the comments and we'll join you down there.