As Ryan Murphy calls it, "The Infantata" -- that creepy thing in the basement that he says lives in the basement and drinks blood for sustenance. Gross.
"
I love the infantata flashback. Love that his name is Thaddeus. Why is he bloodthirsty? Is that to keep him alive?
Yes. I think with any sort of horror show, you get what is the myth of that creature? And I think the approach we took to that is it’s sort of half-Frankenstein, half-Dracula. Left by himself in the house. Bloodthirsty. We’ve shown in other episodes where he’s been eating possums and bugs to sustain himself." (
Source)
Ryan Murphy tells EW.com in an interview, quoted above, that the infantata is supposed to be half-frankenstein, half-dracula. Isn't Dr. Montgomery described by the tour operator as having a Frankentstein complex? Funny, considering he really did make a Frankenstein.. From what we learned in flashbacks, and from Tate -- it seems as thought the infantata is made up of more than just baby parts, but animal parts as well.
Side Note: I was reading the
American Horror Story Wiki page on the infantata, which stated "After the pieces were returned to the Doctor Montgomery in jars, he lost his mind and attempted to sew his son back together, bringing Thaddeus back as the Infantata. For this, he told Nora he used "the beating heart of one of our girls", presumably referring to an almost fully developed fetus he removed from one of the patients." I was under the impression it was one of the
girls, that was going there to receive his 'services.' What do you think?
Regardless, the infantata is most definitely a frankenstein old-apparently-baby, made up various different parts. We also know for sure, besides that Ryan Murphy tells us, that it feeds on blood. We see the dead possums in the house, as well as the twins presumably get killed by it in the pilot episode. I thought it was interesting that Dr. Montgomery was behind the Black Dahlia murders -- he tells the Dentist that he drains the blood for easy transportation, but what if he drained it to feed the infantata? Which leads me to wonder if any of the other ghosts in the house have a relationship with it besides Tate?
Brief backstory on the infantata to for the sake of it: Thaddeus was born to Charles and Nora Montgomery -- it seems Nora wanted very little to do with the baby while it was alive. Nevertheless, Nora and Dr. Montgomery weren't such great people and were operation a shady abortion business out of their basement, turns out one of the boyfriends found out and was pissed. He took baby Thaddeus one night declaring "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" and returned him in jars full of baby pieces. Dr. Montgomery already had a habit of 'operating' on animals, putting bat wings on pigs and stuff, so he decided to put Thaddeus back together. He apparently used 'a heart from one of the girls' and brought 'it' back to life. He told a bewildered Nora there would be no funeral and sent her upstairs to see the baby. Only, the baby was no longer a normal baby. She tried to nurse it, and it apparently did not want milk, but blood instead -- judging by the claw marks on her chest. Nora then freaked and tried to kill it with a letter opener, of all things, but did not succeed -- it would not die. So now it hangs in the basement, feeding on whatever blood it can find.
The
American Horror Story Wiki page tells us, as well as interviews with Ryan Murphy -- "Concerning Infantata's design, Ryan Murphy states that the mouth is based off of a leech mouth. The character's overall "look" is inspired by the genetic disease
Progeria, and the character's clothing is inspired by one worn by the
Lindbergh Baby."
Grossss --- so Progeria is basically this disease where you age way faster than you are supposed to, as well as in many cases have a disproportional head -- much smaller face than head. Back story on the Lindenbergh Baby courtesy of
wikipedia: "The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of
aviator Charles Lindbergh and
Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was
abducted from his family home in
East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of
Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of March 1, 1932. Over two months later, on May 12, 1932, his body was discovered a short distance from the Lindberghs' home. A medical examination determined that the cause of death was a massive skull fracture." Apparently after a long drawn out investigation and lengthy trial, newspaper columnist H L Mencken called the fiasco the 'biggest story since the Resurrection.' Interesting, I wonder if the infantata is really the antichrist -- I wonder if Billie is right about the Pope's box, just interpreting it wrong. The infantata was made of spirit and human if you think about it, right? Or am I just totally losing it?
Anyway, I've heard we get a reveal concerning the infantata tonight, so look forward to a Part 2 of this post... :) I'll update what we know about it as well as explore the infantata's relationship with Tate.
