SO WHERE IS SEASON TWO GOING?

So, we know for sure, as per Ryan Murphy, that season two is going to tell a totally different story set in a new location with a new set of characters -- the Harmon family's story is over.

Murphy had a conference call following the season finale, where he explained (as told by this article on ew.com) that the new season may feature some familiar faces but in completely different roles. He also mentioned that they are in negotiations with several members of this season's cast to return next season, but who will be back? He wouldn't say.

The show itself, is meant to be a horror anthology series - with each season having a 'beginning, middle and end' according to Murphy. He is also quoted as saying that each season will take place in a new building or home, with a different undercurrent theme (ie this season's infidelity theme). The only thing they weren't open to doing? A season focused on vampires -- thank goodness!

This article is a great summation of what Murphy has said about season two -- breaks it down by new location, theme, cast and a few other topics of discussion.

Murphy also said there are clues in the last three episodes of season 1 hinting at where the next season will be taking place. Today, ew.com is exclusively reporting that Murphy said there is a frame in Viv's labor scene that is a clue to the next season. He's quoted as saying, "Go through it frame by frame. I planted it in there. I will never reveal it.”

I haven't checked it out yet -- comment if you do!

Tate & Infantata

If you haven't already read this post from after Episode 11, or this post from before Episode 11 -- go check them out. Be warned -- creepy pictures of the infantata follow.

So basically -- in the first article I talked about the infantata and what we've learned about it. In the second article, I analyzed the relationship between Nora, Thaddeus/infantata and Tate. I suggested that a story found on the youregoingtodieinthere.com website, written by a small child was about Tate. Someone commented on the post and felt that the timeline didn't exactly match up-- which at the time, I completely agreed with.

However, once I saw the spoiler still below, I knew I was right. Let's check it out, shall we?

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Take a look at these two stills -- I'm definitely thinking that's young Constance. A lot of people online are theorizing that the young boy in the photo is actually Tate's son, rapidly growing or perhaps a fast-forward in time. I don't think we've ever had a fast-forward in time, only flashbacks, so I'm ruling that out. It looks to me like this is supposed to the younger Constance and the boy looks strikingly similar to the young Tate we met last week in a flashback. 

What do you think Tate or his offspring?

LINK: INTERVIEW WITH RYAN MURPHY, HINTS ABOUT FINALE!

Came across this article on ew.com -- interview by Tim Stack with Ryan Murphy on what they have in store for us with season 2 and the finale. 

Some of my favorite excerpts:

"So when Violet shut her eyes and said “Go away” to Tate, does that mean he’s been banished from the house? Will he be back in the finale?
No, he does come back in the finale, and their relationship is played out in the finale. But for the most part that was the conclusion of the relationship. I love what Zach Quinto says to Taissa in the basement like people come up with spells and exorcisms and burning sage in a house. I’ve done that in a new house. They’re just rituals and things to make you feel safer and make you feel there is a logic and an order to the world.

I’m such a Billie Dean fan. Does she know that Tate is evil?
Yes. I think what we’re establishing with Billie Dean is a lot of people keep saying, Is she a fake? I think that she’s both. I do think there are people in the world that have that gift. So I think she’s both legitimate and she’s also a fraud because she does think the Kroatoan spell works when of course it doesn’t. I love how Sarah played it because she played it with such confidence that you believe her in everything that she’s saying."

"From the finale, will we know more about season 2? Any clues?
I think so. I think that when people watch the finale next week that they will definitely have a sense of where the series is headed, but if they don’t, I will be happy to tell them. Yes, I think people will have an idea."

I'm not sure what I'm more excited about -- seeing Ben finally realize he's been living in crazytown for the past six months, or finding out what season 2 is going to be like. There's been so much talk of 'resetting' the whole show, I'm getting a little nervous -- I can't do without Constance or Tate!

LINK: Recap with an interesting twist!

I hadn't really picked up on this until I read this recap over on cliqueclack.com, writer Keith McDuffee brings up a rather interesting point about the cribs.

"Now to the cribs. I found it interesting that the cribs the two guys put together were two different colors and styles, and they clearly had a good/evil vibe going on. It was as though you could put God in one and the Devil in the other, with the red crib being rather pointed, the white one clean and smooth. After Vivien gave birth to the babies — the first, smaller one being stillborn — Chad is seen burning the red crib in the basement furnace. I’m wondering if that was symbolic of the stillborn baby being the baby meant for the red crib — Tate’s son — and the one that survived being Ben’s. Reading too much into it? Will we find out soon if the surviving child is Ben’s? And will that stillborn baby forever “live” on at Murder House now?"

Completely right about the two different gifts, and particularly interesting that Chad was burning the red crib with no white one in-site. Do you think it was symbolic that Tate's son was actually the one that was still-born? I thought it was interesting that Dr. Montgomery gave Nora the first baby, especially after she told Tate that she would take the baby, not caring about Violet. 

SPOILER: Episode 12, The Finale -- Afterbirth

There are some interesting spoiler pictures in this article on cinemablend.com about 'Afterbirth.' Definitely misleading I'm thinking...

Check it out.. :)

"GO AWAY!"

So, after Violet is dead (and doesn't know it yet) Tate tells her that if the ghosts scare her to close her eyes and tell them "go away" and they can't hurt her.

In episode 11, 'Birth' we witness Tate learn to do this from Nora Montgomery. Tate's a little boy, just throwing his toy truck down into the basement... when Thaddeus attacks him. Nora comes out of nowhere, and emphatically tells Thaddeus NO. He backs away and she hugs Tate and asks his name. Gives him the same advice he would later give Violet.

Ok, so we know the statement works if you're alive or dead because it would work for Tate as an alive little kid and Violet, even though she 's a ghost. But does the statement last?

Violet tells Tate to go away at the end of the episode, it takes a few tries, but he eventually disappears crying hysterically. Viv tells her that she was brave and comforts her -- but this can't banish Tate from good from her life, can it? Why else would they all be looking for a way to get rid of Chad and Patrick when they were worried about them trying to take their babies.

It seems to me that it makes them disappear for awhile, but eventually they will run into you again. Who knows!

Regardless, I don't think this is last of what we'll see between 'Violate' as they've been dubbed, interestingly enough.

What do you think? How does 'GO AWAY' in the infamous Murder House work?

LINK: Golden Globe Nominations! UPDATED!

Check out this article on the Golden Globe Nominations.

American Horror Story was nominated for Best Drama Series, while the amazing Jessica Lange has been nominated for her role as Constance for Best Supporting Actress!

YAY. Glad to see Jessica Lange credited, as she really is just fabulous as Constance.

This article discusses Ryan Murphy's thoughts on the nominations, he even jokes he's bringing Rubber Man as his date! :)

Thaddeus (or the Infantata) + Tate + Nora = WOW.

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Well, we certainly did learn a bit more about the infantata, in last night's episode, the Birth.

We also got a full front of the creepy little thing!!

Before I dive into the topic of the infantata and his relationship with Tate-- I want to make sure everyone knows about this awesome site: http://www.youregoingtodieinthere.com/ -- it's a site by FX that allows you to explore different rooms in the house, each room with it's own set of clues about a murder dating back to the 1940's with a dead bride -- seems as though there are at least 5 murders that have occurred in the house that we have yet to learn about.

What's really interesting to us, for this discussion, is the 1970's -- this was when Tate was a baby and judging from last night, apparently living in the house. I always knew there was something going on between the Infantata and Tate -- as he is the only ghost we see interact with him in the basement during scare tactics for high school bullies. Basically it's a room in the attic with a couple of different clues.

The first thing that will grab your attention is the projector screen, playing a movie on loop -- it's a movie of a little girl dressed in what looks to be a princess outfit. There's someone making a shadow puppet on the screen -- horns. We cut to a scene at the beach, which looks like there's a boy and a girl, here the shadow starts strangling the screen or what looks to be the little girl? We'll get back to this.

The next clue is a painting on the far left wall of a boy and a girl who look pretty close in age. There's blood splattered over the painting. Notice that the blood is only around the girl, there's none over the little boy.

Next clue: Blood stained ice skates? Creepy and gross.

The next clue is a mummified creature, that looks like a rabbit?!

Now the best clues of all are on the right hand wall. It's a story written and drawn by what seems like a little kid taped to the wall. Check out the screen shot of the stories.

The full story reads, "Alex was really small and didn’t know how to talk yet. But he had friends. Every night when his mom would put him in bed, he would play with a small monster with a really dark face. Alex wasn’t afraid of the monster because the monster told Alex all about dying and that it wasn’t that bad. When Alex told his mom about the monster she sent him away to camp to get rid of his bad ideas. Alex hated the camp, but it was ok because the dark monster came with him. After a week of trying to be a better baby. Alex got to go home. He promised his mom he wouldn’t talk to the monster again and Alex really tried. But the monster knew so many things. He taught Alex things that most babies don’t know and Alex liked that. So they kept playing. And then the dark monster invited other friends to play. A black cat and a rhinoceros. They were great animals and Alex loved them. But the dark monster told Alex that he had to kill them or else he would tell his mom about their playtime. So Alex asked that dark monster for a knife and he cut up the animals and put them in his drawer. No one ever found the animals even though they looked and looked for twenty four hours. It was hopeless but Alex knew where they were. And the dark monster never told Alex’s mom about what he did, EVER."

Watching the episode last night, I was convinced that the little boy Alex in the story was Tate, but as I read it over I'm beginning to wonder -- if this is in the 1970's, wasn't the flashback of Tate (presumably) meeting Thad for the first time in 1984? That wouldn't make sense. What do you think? Is Tate Alex in the story? Was Tate corrupted by the infantata at a young age?

I really think so. I want to talk a bit about the scene -- I thought it was telling the way Constance was passed out on the couch and Tate was running around the house, as if he was by himself. The door opening was comparable to the scene where Tate is popping up around the house in Piggy Piggy and the basement door opens inviting Violet to go downstairs. 

Regardless, baby Tate drops his truck downstairs and when he goes to retrieve is treated with a full view of the infantata, who starts grabbing at him. Who comes to save him in just the nick of time? Nora of course, acknowledging -- she yells at Thaddeus to go away -- which means she knows that is her former son and that he resides in the house. 

I've been reading that people are suggesting the infantata did indeed die and is a ghost, not a living being. Tate gives Violet the same advice Nora gave him years before: "Close your eyes and tell them to go away" when the ghosts seem to be frightening her. Doesn't this only work with ghosts? Could Nora have killed the re-made baby Thaddeus when she attacked him with a letter opener? Maybe she just didn't realize he was dead after she did that because he immediately turned into a ghost. I'm going with the theory that the infantata is a ghost, but with some special evil powers of his known.

It's clear in the story above that the dark little monster is indeed the infantata -- but who does he corrupt? I'm really leaning towards the theory that he corrupted Tate and he doesn't remember certain events that the infantata was controlling him. What do you think?

I enjoyed learning the back-story of Tate and Nora's relationship. To the people who were suggesting he was in love with her, no way. Never thought that for a moment, he definitely does share a maternal connection with her, as it seems in that scene, she was one of the first to ever protect him and treat him like a son. Pausing for a moment, don't you sort of feel bad for Tate? His mother was an abusive, drunken psycho who killed his father, his mother's boy-toy killed his brother, he was a little boy meeting ghosts and evil demons in the basement, he had no guidance. I really do sort of feel bad for him, is it any wonder he's so screwed up?

I want to go back to the fact that Nora acknowledged Thaddeus as her son and that Tate needed protecting from him, but yet in present day when Tate walks in, she doesn't know him. Does Nora still know that Thaddeus is in the house? Do we maybe not know the real reason she wants a baby so bad? We've never seen her and Dr. Montgomery interact until last night's episode, when he hands her the still-born baby. 

Seems to me like there's a lot more to this... at least we know why Tate was so dead-set on pleasing Nora, which he know apparently regrets since he's in love with Violet. Here's to hoping we explore Tate and the infantata's relationship in the finale!

So what do you think? Does the story from youregoingtodieinthere.com have anything to do with Tate? Are Tate's evil ways a product of the Infantata? Why have we never seen Nora acknowledge the creep in the basement that's her son in present day? Is there another reason other than her sheer desire for a baby that is causing Nora to cry and be obsessed with a baby?

LINK: Murder House for Sale?!

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Are you ready to be the next family to move in after the Harmon's? Well if you've got 4.5 million laying around, you could be!

Check out the article about the Murder House being up for sale!

UPDATE!!

Here's an even better article on huffingtonpost.com with a 26-photo tour of the place!

LINK: Interview with Connie Britton, Viv **UPDATED**

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Check out this interview from EW.com with Connie Britton who plays Viv. Love her comment about life imitating art for her & glad her baby is NOT the antichrist haha. Despite a little too much screaming in my opinion, Connie Britton really did an amazing job in this episode.

Thought this was the funniest moment (Kate Mara's comment especially!) of the interview:

"You don’t have to worry about costume changes anymore.
No, but that’s what’s so funny. I sorta thought that too. Somebody, maybe it was Kate Mara, said, “No no no no. Apparently, all the ghosts have complete wardrobes.” It’s true. In the last episode, I have never had more wardrobe changes and, by the way, several of them couture. I don’t know where these ghosts go shopping."

BTW - does her refusal to talk about next season and her suggestion that she's taking time off mean we will be Viv-less in season 2? :(!

Here's another article concerning the interview with Connie Britton -- we learn that Viv was written to be a heroic character, and will hopefully prevail as a ghost in the finale!

RECAP ROUNDUP: EPISODE 11, BIRTH

What an episode! The second to last installment of the first season of American Horror Story, surely did not dissapoint this week. Check out the links below to the best recaps I've found on the web about last night's episode. Feel free to comment with your own additions!

AfterElton.com -- A nice clean recap of everything that happened in 'Birth' -- Brian Juergens injects his own humor and snide comments into this recap that's sure to make you crack a smile.

Washington Post Entertainment -- Another one of my weekly favorites-- Jen Chaney and Paul Williams raise a number of different questions stemming from last night's episode -- a good read for sure.

NJ.com -- This recap is a little different than we're used to -- writer James Queally offers his opinion of the show and what direction season 2 should go in.

WallStreetJournal -- A tidy little recap about the episode written by Gwen Orel, which insinuates at the end that Tate knows what he did.

SPOILER LINK: Episode 11, Birth

Check out this link with some spoilers for tonight's episode, Birth. It's a gathering of some of the information on the web -- you know if you, just can't wait. :)

Infantata, Thaddeus, Vampire-Frankenstein-Demon-Baby, Whatever You Want to Call The Thing in The Basement!

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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. 

LINK: Interview with Evan Peters, Tate

Hello, all of you Tate-lovers -- check out this link featuring a Young Hollywood video interview with Evan Peters, who plays Tate on American Horror Story.

BTW -- Nice hair, Evan. LOL!

The House

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So what is up with the house?

It's been referred to that the house itself has some powers of its own, but just what do we think these powers are? Where do they come from?

One of the first questions would be did the house have some sort of a power before Dr. Montgomery put Thaddeus back together and did all of those other heinous things in the basement?

There's a theme of troubled relationships in the house -- lying and deceit is one of the biggest undercurrents. Patrick was lying to Chad, Ben was lying to Viv, Hugo was lying to Constance, Larry was lying to Noreen, Tate is lying to Violet, Ben was lying to Hayden even... I don't think that the Dr. Montgomery was lying to Nora exactly -- he was definitely lying to himself, or perhaps just too high to understand the magnitude of the things he was doing. There's an element of deceit n the way that Nora kills Dr. Montgomery, she plays along as though he has done something wonderful "resurrecting" their child, but in reality she is horrified.. then she kills him. Could this be where the element of deceit in relationships comes from or do you think Nora and Charles are the earliest example of being ruined by the house itself?

It seems like another strong undercurrent between couples in the house are financial woes -- the Harmon's have a bad investment and have only the house as an asset, while Ben is apparently failing as a therapist. During Chad and Patrick's fight, we learn that both of them are nearing broke, after tying up all of their money in the house to flip it and make a profit proved to be a stupid venture. Nora and Charles Montgomery are having money troubles after he begins literally drugging himself all of the time. Nora decides that she will make arrangements to solve the problem herself and sets up abortions in the basement -- I wonder if any baby born in the house is not normal, by the way... We don't know much about Constance or Larry's living situation -- though Larry's seemed quite comfortable at the time. Constance seems to have had a good life in the 80's, but she lost the house at some point...

Financial woes, troubled relationships plagued with lies and deceit, and death seem to be quite the common occurrence in the Murder House.

Which brings me to a point -- at least one partner in each of the relationships that we have seen depicted in the house has died in the house except for the relationships between Luke and Ben and Viv. Do you think one of them will die in the upcoming episode? It would make sense if Viv died during child birth, but I feel that's too easy to guess for AHS.

Scratch that come to think of it, Constance and Larry's relationship is depicted. Larry almost dies, but he ends up leaving the house completely because he decides to repent or because of his love for Constance. Interesting...

Hayden tells us the house has a power inside of it -- that allows them to be seen or unseen, depending on each of the ghost's own wishes. She also explains the rules of being a ghost in the house, which I've outlined here.

From what I've been reading, we are going to learn a bit more about the house in the upcoming episode, so expect a part 2 of this post later this week.

SPOILER LINK: Article About the Upcoming Episode 11, Birth

Check out this article if you're interested in some pretty intense spoilers for the upcoming episode, three of the videos that I linked to previously are at the end of the article as well.

You know, if you just can't wait... :)

The Meaning of the Name "Tate" & "Thaddeus"

I was interested in what the name 'Tate' meant, so I started googling, the common consensus among most of the baby-naming websites I ended up at, was Tate meant 'cheerful' of all things.

Then I came across this website... and found: 

Interesting that one of the roughly similar names is Thad. Thad obviously derives from Thaddeus, which is the real name of our crazy monster in the basement. 

Ok, so what does Thaddeus mean?

It's derived from the Greek word "thaddai" meaning "Heart" apparently. Interesting considering the monster has the heart of a once-living being. The other meaning-possibility is that it is derivation of 'Theodore' which is interpreted to mean "God's gift." Think there's a bit of loaded meaning on his name??

'Tate' and 'Thaddeus' sounded a bit too similar for them not to mean something -- I'm really hoping that we find out exactly what the connection between Tate and the infantata is before the end of the season. There's got to be something serious there, lol. 

SPOILER LINKS: A PREVIEW ROUNDUP OF EPISODE 11, BIRTH!



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 There's a ton (ok, well maybe not a ton, but FOUR compared to the single promo we had last week!) of previews/spoilers floating around the web this week for Episode 11, The Birth.

Here are the links to the different spoilers that I've found... comment if you have one I haven't listed!

This one on the American Horror Story Facebook page, a sort of intense scene between Ben and Violet.

This one from examiner.com shows Billie explaining her theory on the house.


This one from spoilertv.com depicts a scene in the 'nursery' between four of the ghosts.

And last but not least, the promo from fx.com is here.

Enjoy the links!

So Violet IS Dead!

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So we finally learn for sure in Episode 10, Smoldering Children that Violet is indeed dead. I suspected this as soon as she took all of those pills -- it seemed clear to me that she was going to die. Read about why I thought this here, if you're interested.

It was a very emotional scene when Tate presented Violet the ghost with her dead body. It seemed like Tate was genuinely upset about her dying -- which shows a selfless action of his, finally. He wanted Violet to live because of what she could of accomplished, not dead for selfish reasons so she would stay in the house. Both Taissa Flemig and Ryan Murphy confirm that Taissa did not see her prosthetic dead body until she they filmed that scene -- so her reaction is pretty real. (Sources: Taissa Interview, Ryan Murphy Interview)

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Tate does a good job of covering it up in the past few episodes. I re-watched the episodes in between and Tate actions make so much more sense now that we know what actually happened. When Viv wakes Violet up in the middle of the night, and he runs outside of her and is mumbling to himself -- he's not being as big of a creep as I originally thought, he doesn't want the ladies to find out! Also when Violet goes exploring in the attic and is spooked by Beau - he tells her that the spirits can't hurt her anymore. This whole act adds an interesting element to Tate's character. I wonder if in some way, his relationship with Violet could help him get over whatever it is that's plaguing him to be so evil -- or cross over.

I wondered, at first, whether or not Violet actually died because she overdosed -- I read some comments on various sites of people suggesting that maybe Ben actually killed her? This article in particular makes the suggestion that Ben is indeed sinister enough to do something like this.

Jen Chaney says, "Ben didn’t seem all that surprised about the flies swarming the apples in his living room. (His non-plussed response — a remark about how he should not have left food out — struck me as odd.) Also, Vivien told him when he came to visit her in the hospital, “I think you’re the one that’s crazy. I really mean it.” And then there was the way Tate, in his Rubber Man suit, attacked Ben. He seemed genuinely angry, especially when he hissed, “The only reason I’m not killing you is for her.” If Tate kills Ben on the premises, something he might want to do if he knows Violet’s dad is the real reason for her death, Violet will be stuck with Ben for eternity. So Tate refused to do it."
I'm not sure what I think about this -- it seems that Violet died in the same position that she was in lying on her bed after downing all of the pills, with her arms curled up. Even though her arms/hands do like they're grabbing at something around her neck. However the ghost Violet shows no outward signs of a struggle from being killed.

I wouldn't put it past Ben to do something like that, but I just don't see how it could make logically sense. It would make sense to me that Violet died in her bed and the whole shower scene with Tate was merely a lie to get her to think she didn't die alone.... but I'm not so sure that's even worth exploring.

The other thing that I looked into was the blowflies, that seem to have given away that Violet was indeed dead. First, I want to ask -- what do we think is going to happen with the missing exterminator in the next episode? I really hope the cops come investigating the Harmon's in one of the next two episodes -- there have been so many weird happenings and missing people in that house. It's just odd. Though, I guess most of the cases have been resolved -- the patient who slit her wrists, one of the home invasion people -- isn't someone seeing a pattern in Ben's patients? What about the other two burglars?

Regardless, it seems like blowflies start acting a corpse pretty quickly, and will grow in numbers even more rapidly -- which also seems like there would have been an explosion of them alot sooner, but perhaps that was a detail that was just overlooked.

What do you think, did Violet really die of the overdose? How do you think Viv and Ben are going to find out? Will they believe her?

Check out the spoilers if you can't wait for answers to some of those questions.

LINK: INTERVIEW WITH CASTING DIRECTOR, ERIC DAWSON & AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT MOIRA

Check out this interview with American Horror Story Casting Director, Eric Dawson -- explaining how they decided on each of the main characters -- including the Moira's.

Apparently, Frances Conroy was in an accident and wears a contact normall because her eye is cloudy -- they decided to write it into the story because when she auditioned she offered to keep the contact out.

Cool fact!

Tate/Rubber Man to Kill Son?

I wonder... in Episode 10: 'Smoldering Children' -- Larry says in quite a foreboding manner, "One day you'll understand... there are sacrifices you have to make for the people you love."

Larry had to give up his own daughters to be with Constance, could Tate have to give up (can I go as far as to even say, kill) his own baby to be with Violet?

Also an interesting choice of words, a sacrifice means 'giving something up' -- but in a more religious sense in many cases, literally killing something as an offering. Could Tate have to get rid of a demon?

What do you think, is this a possibility? Or do you think maybe that the devil Tate baby is just going to eat the good Ben baby in the womb and be done with it?

RECAP: Episode 10, Smoldering Children (Part 1: Larry & His Smoldering Family)

Let me just start out with, WOW. That episode was sort of mind-blowing; I read a few recaps this morning that say we didn't learn much in this episode and there were no shocking relevations -- did you watch the same episode as me? I thought this episode was chock-full of information, clues and revelations about the story outside of the twins.

Instead of going scene by scene, I'm going to go topic by topic in this episode and break into up into a few posts..

source

Let's talk Larry first since it seems the audience has said goodbye to him in this episode. I had assumed Tate's mass-murders were committed before Larry had moved into the house, but we learn at the very beginning of Smoldering Children that I was very wrong. Apparently, the real story goes: Larry was cheating on his wife with Constance, who had already lost the house and was living next door. He 'loved' her, she just wanted a way back into the house, according to Tate. Larry tells his wife that they need to get a divorce because there's another woman, so she sets herself and their two daughters on fire. Larry finds them, but it's too late.

Apparently after this 'little' incident, Constance moves into the house with Addie and Tate, who are both still well and alive. They are all sitting down to enjoy a wonderful 'family dinner' when Tate offers to say grace -- which launches him into a tyrade about being thankful for the stupid man that is blind and can't see that his mother is taking advantage of him, his father leaving the family when he was six and Tate wishing he could have come along, among many other things. Constance gets visibly upset, accusing Tate of not being appreciative of the gifts he was blessed with, unlike his other siblings. Addie remarks that she's excited to see Larry in a theater production, which sets Tate off -- he screams that she's a smart girl and should know that Larry killed their brother Beau. Wonder if Larry killed Beau before his family died in the house or after? Also, I wonder how much Larry knew about the house at this point -- he must have known at least some of the details of the ghosts of the house, given that he knows it now, and the day after this dinner he is burned by Tate...

Regardless, it seems like Larry was making a genuine attempt at creating a family for him and Constance in the Murder House, but had no idea when moving into the house what trouble Constance and the rest of her brood would cause for him. Sort of makes me think that Larry started out as a good person, and was somehow corrupted by either the house or Constance. There's an adulterous theme that runs through the house -- beginning with Hugo cheating on Constance with Moira, Larry cheating on his wife with Constance, Patrick cheating on Chad, Ben cheating on Viv... does the house have something to do with this? I'm going to say that it must in some way -- we know that both Viv and Chad feel like they're going crazy since moving into the house and remark that their partners are acting differently. Although Ben doesn't cheat on Viv specifically in the house, he does cheat on her in Boston when he goes to visit Hayden for the abortion while he is residing in the house. What is it about adultery? Why are each of our 'families' ruined by it? Does this tie to the fact that Nora and Charles Montgomery's relationship was broken in the house or that infatata was created there?

Back to Larry -- so we now know why he is burned the way he is. Tate seems to have stayed up all night after their 'family dinner' doing drugs and getting mad -- he sets off at 7am to Larry's job, storms into his office, throws gasoline on a half-paying attention Larry and sets him on fire. He then makes his way to school to do the things, we already known he did that faithful day. Larry goes into a burn ward after this, and I have to wonder what happened to the house? Did Constance get to stay there or did she have to move back to the next-best-thing-next-door?

Apparently Larry wasn't exactly the most stand-up guy after moving into the Murder House -- he cheated on his wife, watched her and their kids burn in a fire in the house, killed Hayden, lied to Ben, tried to set the house on fire in one of the Halloween episodes, disposed of Travis' body among many other things I'm sure we don't know about. Wonder what else Larry did that he is repenting for in jail right now?

The scene with Larry's children was wonderful -- Larry is in the basement looking for Travis' bloody jeans and the murder weapon in the wall when Travis appears, asking what he's doing. Travis asks for newspaper clippings so he could read about how famous he has become. Larry looks distracted: it seems like here his thought is to take the evidence and plant it to frame Constance for the murder, even though Hayden really comitted it. While talking to Travis, a young girl's voice calls him over -- we see two children, burned and smoldering playing tea time in the basement. Larry looks at them bewildered -- it's his children. His wife, Noreen, appears sporting a burnt look as well. We can infer that Larry has never seen his wife and kids in the house before, and is wondering why now? Noreen answers the question for him -- he's ready, he's on the cusp. Cusp of what? I'm not sure -- but I'm thinking it's the cusp of repenting for his sins.

Larry tells Noreen he's going to make Constance pay for what she did to their family, and Noreen tells him he broke his vows, not Constance and demands he prove he's sorry for what happened. Larry decides to go down to the police station and confess to murdering Travis.

Was Larry's only reason for confessing to repent for his sins against his own family and the Langdon family? Or was there a hint of wanting to protect Constance in there? In the scene in his apartment with Constance, it seems like Larry can't let go of the fact that Constance never loved him -- he didn't want to believe it when Tate told him in '83 and he doesn't want to believe it now. This carries throught to the last scene of the episode, when Constance visits him in prison to find out why he confessed. Larry explains his reasoning and says that he can deal with anything that comes his way if she just tells him she loves him, Constance ignores his request and leaves, with one of the iciest looks I've seen.

So what have we learned about Larry? Well, he didn't kill his family, he still loves Constance, he got his burns in a very metaphorical way from Tate, and he seems like he used to be a good guy before the powers of the house got to him. Which, in earlier episodes when he's stalking Ben -- he explains that he can relate to feeling 'weird' and strange happenings since moving into the house.

I thought it was interesting that Travis calls Larry's daughters, sweet girls, just a little 'needy' -- why needy?

I'm sort of sad to see Larry go, he was a really interesting character. I also think it's sort of comedic that for a character to be 'killed off' on this show -- they need to be sent to prison out of state, haha. I don't think this is the last we will hear about Larry -- we've seen a fair share of foul play come from Larry and I can't help but think those aren't all of the crimes he committed...

What do you think?

Total sidenote: Do you think Tate knew about the powers of the house before he killed Larry? Is that why he made it a point to attempt to murder him OUTSIDE the house?

LINK: Interview with Ryan Murphy about Smoldering Children

Tim Stack conducts an exlusive interview with Ryan Murphy for EW.com, here.

"Will Ben and Vivien find out that she’s dead?They will eventually find out if she’s dead and imagine what you would do as a parent if you found out your child was dead. Would you want to live? Would you want to die yourself? I knew that it would be ripe for that family"

Wonder if Violet's death will provide a segway into Season 2, even though Taissa Fleming said in the interview I posted with her that she still has no idea if she will be appearing in season 2.


"So are we gonna see Constance’s fourth child?
Maaaaaaaybe"
I'm dying to know about her fourth kid!

Check out the rest of the great article for some more hints and exciting information about the upcoming episodes.

LINK: Interview with Taissa Farmiga, Violet

Denise Martin interviews Taissa Farmiga for TVGuide.com, here. Found it really interesting that Taissa had no idea that her character, Violet was dead until she read the script for Smoldering Children -- seems like a common theme with the producers, not giving the actors any extra information, much like Evan Peters not knowing that Tate was Rubber Man till that episode.

Also, learn more about Violet and Constance's relationship and where's its going, what it was like for Taissa to see her own corpse, and her relationship with Tate.

"She's already been OK with having a dead boyfriend who killed a bunch of his classmates (not to mention various previous owners of Murder House). But knocking up her mom seems, somehow, extra wrong?Farmiga: It's a pretty big secret! I think she handles it the right way — I won't tell you how she does it, but I think she does it the right way. Tate's pretty messed up, but she's drawn to him because she's drawn to darkness. He started empathizing with her about her cutting and school and her parents, so she started to trust him. He's the only person she can talk to. She loves him. But, yes, there are some things that are just...too much."

I can't wait to find out how Violet reacts to this and where her and Tate's relationship is going to go after that revelation is made in the next episode!

RECAP ROUNDUP: Smoldering Children, Episode 10

AfterElton.com -- Bryan Juergens does a great job recapping the episode, he includes all of my favorite quotes from the episode except for Tate's, "Hey I'm Tate, I'm dead, wanna makeout?" hahaha!

Washtington Post -- Jen Chaney and Paul Williams ask us some pretty provocative questions this time around -- did Ben really kill Violet? Will Constance's refusal to tell Larry she loves him bite her in the behind later on? Thought I have to disagree with them on their wonderings of how Violet didn't know Tate was dead, she did! Constance told her, but Constance also told her Tate didn't know -- so she was pretending not to know the whole time to protect Tate as she said, the real question here would be, why did Constance lie to Violet?

Tragic Comic -- This recap details the entire episode, as it was written live -- good read if you want to refresh your memory of all the little clues we might have missed.

Have a good recap you'd like me to add to the list? leave it in the comments! :)

LINK: Constance's Fashion

Kind of interesting article about Constance's costume designer, found here, and how her style plays into her role, character and air of mystery surrounding her.

Interesting Note:
"In a recent episode, Constance was painting very dark images as part of a back story and Karvonides found a dress from Tahari that perfectly matched the background of one of her paintings."
(Source)

I'm pretty sure that dark image was an Eve type figure with a devil looking character, perhaps holding an apple? I'm trying to find a still on google, with no such luck. Have one? Comment with it!

Interesting nonetheless, how Constance is purposely dressed to convey a certain 'moment' -- including the print of her fabric -- "chaotic" symbolizing her feeling like her life is falling apart when she thinks the house will be demolished.

Definitely a good read!

LINK: Sneak Peek of Episode 10 - Kind of Spoiler

Check out why Constance gets questioned by the police in the upcoming episode here.

Can't say I didnd't see that one coming....

LINK: Special Preview of Episode 10 Video!

Hello All!

FX just posted a special preview of tomorrow night's episode, check it out here.

Pretty intense fight scene between RM and Ben -- I love RM's shake of the head when Ben demands he show him his face. I still can't help but think the latex suit makes Tate into a different character completely -- just like the clerk in the S&M store said, it dehumanizes.

So what do we think?? Does Ben get killed by RM? Will Viv come home? What does Tate do to Violet that she's screaming for her dad in the promo?

EEK! I'm getting so excited!!!

ROOM OF TEARS, THE POPE AND THE ANTICHRIST

So, upon hearing Billie, the medium's recount of what happens in the "Room of Tears" a new Pope is decided on, I decided to do a little research.

Interesting Fact: The process of electing a new Pope is called a "conclave," which is the world's oldest means of electing a leader of an institution. (Source)

The "Room of Tears" does exist, as a small room next to the Sistine Chapel. The Pope enters once he has been officially elected, and puts on a robe and is proclaimed as the new Pope in a speech. Unfortunately, I find no mention of a box anywhere.

Billie's interesting twist, of course, is that once the Pope enters the room, he is given the key to a box that contains a very emphatic small piece of paper that holds the ultimate secret. The secret to the end of the world: The antichrist will be a spirit-human baby, the essence of pure evil. Billie goes on to explain that it would be a perversion of the Immaculate Conception -- if Mary got pregnant through a whisper from an angel, you'd think the devil would "want a litlte more bang for his buck."

Yikes, really?

So, what do we think? Expecting a twist in this in the upcoming episode? I think at this point we all are. My guess is that the evil baby kills the good baby somehow, but I'm wondering how the whole end of the world scenario is going to play out -- I mean we've got a second season scheduled already... haha.

I like how the writers took a lot of pieces of reality and added their own elements to them -- this something accomplished in many of the story lines that I think is executed pretty well.  The Black Dahlia murders for example, as made evident here, were based in a good amount of fact: the condition of the body was accurate, the overall character was based on alot of what was speculated about Elizabeth Short in the media after her death. We also got a fairly logical (be it just wrong.) explanation for her death, plus the AHS-esque element: Dr. Montgomery preparing the body for portability. The whole antichrist thing is based in some truth about the room the Pope enters, and does make a bit of sense when you put yourself into this strange world where ghosts roam and behave like humans, with no obvious signs of their lack of life.

What do you think? Are they getting a bit overboard with the storyline or does it seem like a normal progression giving the circumstances of the show? How is this going to pan out?

Getting back to what Billie actually told Constance about this spirit-baby antichrist, she mentions that the archangel Michael merely whispered in Mary's ear to get her pregnant and this is the devil. This got me thinking: if the archangel Michael did it to Mary, who's the opposite that would impegrante? So I did a bit of googling and reading...

When I first googled I found this site that basically asserts that Lucifer is a fallen archangel, equivalent to the archangel Michael and is NOT satan himself. Does that mean Tate is Lucifer?

"Lucifer was a "great" Archangel, Prince, and the anointed Cherub (7th Dimension - Cherubim). Ever after his fall he still seems to retain some of his power and ancient title. There are many different variations of stories and legends on Lucifer." (source)




Interesting -- this could make sense, if Tate was originally a good soul as a child, but then corrupted by the devil/evil forces (the infatata in the basement or perhaps the house itself?), an archangel's story of being cast out of heaven would be quite a fitting metaphor. Wikipedia also notes that the theory of Lucifer being a different entity from the devil has recently been growing popularity.

I find it interesting that the quote mentions that after his fall he retains some of his power -- what power does he retain? Maybe Tate doesn't 'remember' shooting the DBC because it was at that point that he was taken over by evil and his morals went out the window apparently.




I can't wait to find out what happens in the next episode and where this story goes. Can you? Do you think Tate will turn out to be some sort of devilish being? Will there be a loophole to get out of it being born? Will Viv and the good baby survive the birth?

As a closing note, did you notice the AHS writers manage to add yet another 'american horror story?' A fear of many Americans, the rapture or end of time...

RECAP ROUNDUP: Spooky Little Girl Episode 9

Although last night's episode, took the intensity down a few notches from the week before, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode -- we learned ALOT and have so much to decipher and discuss before next week.

Below is the recap roundup for Episode 9 -- if you have any articles to add, please leave a comment with a link and I'll update the post. :)

AfterElton.com -- Brian Juergens amuses me again, his snide remarks get me every time. Though I have to disagree that this episode was the weakest one yet.
Higlight? The stills Juergens picks for the reveal of old Moira to Ben.

ScreenRant.com -- This short recap from Kevin Yeoman about episode 9, summarizing the episode's happenings, without much commentary.
Highlight? The connection Yeoman makes between the title of the episode and Ben's struggles with the women of the house during the episode.

WallStreet Journal SpeakEasy -- This deatiled recap written by Michael Calia is definitely worth the read, as he walks us through the entire episode.
Highlight? His suggestion at the end of the article that maybe Billie isn't right about the antichrist?

Washington Post 10 Questions About... -- Paul Williams takes over this week.
Highlights? His suggestion to compare Viv and Constance's sanity against eachother. Along with his question about LA zoning for ghosts.

The Black Dahlia, After the Episode

Thought it was really interesting what they did with Elizabeth Short's story -- in terms of the AHS world, they gave us a really plausible story. The Black Dahlia case, as everyone knows, is still unsolved and the subject of media coverage to this day -- countless books have been written on theories surrounding her murder. I thought it was fantastic that the writers took a real life American Horror Story in the case of the Black Dahlia and applied it to the show, all the while answering the great mystery.

They followed what happend to the body pretty closely -- from what I read on Wikipedia (I claim to be no expert on this, haha.) her body was cut in two, sort of meticulously and severly mutilated. Apparently some had believed that it might have been done by a doctor because of the precision. Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth to near her ears, apparently this is called a "Glasgow smile." We got a reason for this -- Dr. Montgomery was getting drugged up, doing what he does best -- mutilating dead beings. Gross.

He offers his fellow doctor the explanation that he drained the blood for easier transporting. Charles also explains that her face was just too sad looking and that's why the slashings were there.

Interesting.

However, she was also said to severly beaten and it looked as if she or her body had been tied up.

"Gilmore surmised in his book that before the coroner's report was handed to the police working on the case, only Elizabeth and her mother knew about her sexual limitations. Knowledge of this fact only added to her mother's pain in the few weeks following the murder when the press portrayed her daughter as a man-chaser and a hooker."

Check out the article the excerpt from above is from -- a good read about Elizabeth short if you're interested.

So apparently, the writers stuck more with the media-fabricated story than the truth, but I'll take. I thought it was really interesting. Not sure if it plays into the story any further than the piggy man guy did, but it was cool and she is a ghost in the house we haven't met yet. What did you think?

Leads to me to think that maybe she was supposed to serve as an example for what Tate needs? She wanted help from Ben because he was a therapist. It seemed like after their talk Hayden helped her -- she snapped her out of her dream and made her perhaps accent her death and the circumstances surrounding her? Could Tate just need to accept his death and the circumstances leading it to be a peaceful soul?

Back Miss Short. I was happy to see her reappear and her story be given an present day ode-to (for the second time!) later in the episode after Hayden kills Travis who just wants to be famous as well. Travis' ghost, Hayden and Elizabeth plan for him to be found just as Short was, convincing Larry to cart him to some grass near a basketball court.

In that scene, it really does seem like Elizabeth has come to grips with her death and achieving her dream because she encourages Travis to follow her lead.

Wonder if we'll see her again? I doubt it, but it would be fun!

What do you think of the whole Black Dahlia inclusion?

-- EDITED --

Apparently, the story AHS fabricated for Elizabeth Short's death isn't too far off from one of the actual suspects' in the case -- Walter Bayley is now considered a suspect -- he was a fine surgeon at the time, suffering from a degenerative brain disease. It is said that he was seperated, but his mistress knew a deep, dark secret of his. Read more about him and other suspects in the case here.

RECAP: EPISODE 9 "SPOOKY LITTLE GIRL" (PART 1)

An old school yellow cab pulls up on a residential block. Black pumps step on the sidewalk and a beautiful woman steps out; she looks up at none other than the Murder House. She's there to Dr. David Curan, a dentist new to her and to the rest of us. She's dressed all in black with a white dhalia highlighted in her shiny black hair. It's 1947.

They enter his office and she explains that she hears he helps girls without a lot of money, she makes an advance for a mutual unofficial arrangement, putting a mask on her, Dr. Curan says "Just breathe."

-- Cut To Credits --

Well, at least we didn't have to wait to see Mena Suaveri in the episode. We cut back to present day: Ben walks into the bedroom where Moira is making the bed.  He asks her to make a sandwich for Violet and she just starts talking... and he just starts looking. She tells him that she misses Viv, they became close, makes a few advances at him in between.

"Don't worry your secret's safe."
"What secret?" Ben replies, bewildered.
"The way you look at me, the way you fantasize about me. You have a diseased mind, Ben, must be why you become a therapist."

They go back and forth taking shots at eachother, Ben gets loud and Moira walks away to make Violet's sandwich, muttering "It's only a matter of time, the mind is unwilling but flesh is weak." (I think!)

We cut Constance (so glad to see her again) painting in her kitchen. Ironically enough it's looks like a demon thing, maybe the devil, with an apple and a naked woman, presumably Eve.  Her young beau comes in and she starts talking to him like he's absolute garbage-- meanwhile she's committing an ultimate crime: smoking his last cigarette. He elects to run down to the store to grab a carton (chain-smokers?!) with the dog -- on his way he runs into a very clever Hayden.

She's hanging on the fence of the house as he walks by and strikes up on a conversation. Hayden suggests that the lady next door seems a little old for him and is a royal b*tch, he suggests they should run away together.

They have a grand old time -- Hayden gives him some advie on his relationship with Constance -- leave her alone for a bit and she'll miss ya, basically. He says he's in love, then asks her story, how she lives there -- Hayden confesses she doesn't yet, but she will soon be moving in -- her and Dr. Harmon are in love.

The next morning presumably, there's a ring at the doorbell. Ben goes to answer it -- apparently it's Hayden's sister and the missing person's police officer, that Ben creepily recognizes. Anyone else seeing a pattern here? Hm? Hm?

They start harassing him -- bringing up things like how Ben was digging around the time Hayden went missing on her master plan to move to LA and get him to take care of her and their baby. Ben's starting to sweat, when to his surprise, Hayden walks in and acts like the world is just peachy keen.

Cut to Hayden cleaning up after guests like a good wanna-be wife, when Ben walks in declaring she has ten seconds to give him some answers. Hayden plays apologetic -- saying she was a crazy hormonal pregnant bitch when she came here last. But she's always been there for him, and she had the abortion -- just so he doesn't have to worry about it anymore. Right. What an actress of a ghost!

Cut to the woman from the opening scene, obviously the Black Dahlia, in Ben's office, unexpectedly. He's insisting she needs an appointment, she sits on the couch and starts talking about a dream that she can't wake up from. Ben makes her an appointment for the next day, and she offers herself as payment -- Ben has a vision that he succumbs to her, but then snaps out of it when his phone rings. It's the OBGYN, she declares that she doesn't want to have to tell him and not Viv, but the twins have two different fathers.

WOW. Rubber Man and Ben?

Ok, I just needed to acknowledge that, as I guessed something crazy like that was coming, but what a twist. And what are the consequences of this? Is this evil baby of Tate's going to eat Ben's good baby or something? Creepy.

Now, I want to note that the during their little 'session' -- the woman tells Ben her name is Elizabeth Short -- doesn't that ring a bell to him with her appearnace and all?

Anyway, our next scene is with Moira and Constance -- Constance is convinced it was Violet that fooled around with her beau and dog-walker, Travis the other night, but Moira insists that Violet wouldn't do that. Afterall, she's 'in love' with Tate. Moira then spills the beans that Viv is pregnant with two different men's babies and declares Violet won't believe in love so more when she finds out the truth about that.

Constance rushes down to the basement, calling out to Tate -- who appears looking quite timid this time around. Constance asks if what's she's heard is true. I thought it was interesting that Constance says they finally have someone to help him - how does Constance think Ben's therapy is going to help Tate cross over? It's hard for me to believe that Tate doesn't come to grips with the fact that he's a ghost, how else does he think he gets away with the things that he does? Appearing in a flash, for instance.

Also, I thought that the house held all of the souls that died there, or are we not being told something? Why else would Constance have told Violet she needed her help in getting Tate to 'cross over'? It seems like Moira is pretty with it though and understands what the deal, why can't she cross over? Or Beau? Why is he just a tortured soul in the house? Maybe Hayden doesn't have it all figured it, because Constance seems hell-bent on this issue of freeing Tate.

Could be that it's not to free Tate of the house, but free Tate of his violence actually. Anyway, back to the recap.

Upstairs, Ben walks in on Miss Short and Moira getting kinky -- they ask if he wants to join, Ben is drawn to them, has a mini-fantasy about it and then demands they leave. Moira retorts, Ben fires her and walks out. The Black Dahlia starts crying and exclaims, "You told me this was what he wanted!" and that she needed the help. Hayden appears: "She's using you."

Hayden sits down to chat. She explains that her selfish dreams about coming famous will never come true. We see a softer side of Hayden, ask if she knows who she is -- Elizabeth Short. Hayden starts to explain that she is famous -- we cut back to 1947.

Dr. Curan is having some fun with a passed out, now dahlia-less girl. He takes the mask off her, to begin the dental procedure (way to pretend to be a good guy!) and realizes that she's unresponsive. He panics and brings her down to the basement and man startles him -- who just so happens to be none other than Charles Montgomery. He assures him he will take care of it and goes to work.

He ends up cutting the body in half, and draining it of blood for easy, traceless transporting. Apparently, he also thought her face looked so sad, so he gave her a creepy, creepy smile. Cut back to present day, Beth is saddened that she was found naked and dead. Hayden comforts her with the fact that she was on the covers of newspapers for 2 months. Beth realizes that she finally did become famous.

Next we join Ben on a visit to the insane asylum. We learn from a nurse that Viv had be restrained because she attacked one of the workers after he offered the theory that the rubber man rapist was a sexual fantasy. Ben walks in and Viv seems overly enthused. Not. She won't even look at him, when he goes off on this tyrade about how everything was a sham this whole time and she played him out worse than he did her. Blah Blah Blah. I thought it was a low blow how he started the monologue, "You're probably thinking 'Thank God' he's here to get me out of this terrible place -- it's like hell."

Speaking of their were a ton of Catholic references in this episode -- including Ben's reference to Viv being in hell here. As well as Constance's weird painting -- more on that in a separate post.

-- End Part 1 of the Recap, my fingers are tired! --

LINK: SPOOKY LITTLE GIRL SPOILER!

Source

**SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT!**

Check out this link on tvfanatic.com for a few spoilers about tonights episode, if you just can't wait like me!

Note: Just so you know, it's just 6 bullets that don't give away much, no character details just events. :)

Spooky Little Girl

I'm getting REALLY excited for tonight's episode of American Horror Story, entitled, "Spooky Little Girl."

Here's a link to the promo from FX if you haven't already seen it -- go watch!

The promo opens with Constance talking to the Medium, through the promo she explains that when a new Pope is chosen -- he is given a key, a key to the "ultimate secret." "A child born of human and spirit, the essence of evil, the end of the world. In the mixed of us learning this from the Medium -- we see Constance walking into the basement of the Murder House calling for Tate then we cut to a scene of the two of them in the basement, Constance caressing his face, hyseterically crying "What have you done?"

I'm not sure why I think this -- it probably isn't based on any real clues within the show, but I wonder if Constance and the Medium aren't talking about what Tate did with Viv, but instead what he did with Violet -- wouldn't whatever he did hold way more weight having sex with a virgin and impregnating her?

Can't wait to find out how this is tied into Catholicism, and what is really born when a spirit and human mate -- I'm in the process of doing research about the key and the Pope... look for an update before show time if you're interested!

We are also treated to scenes of Viv in the insane asylum, tied up to a bed, and bleeding. The OBGYN calls Ben, and tells him she would normally tell his wife this but..... We also see Ben asking young Moira (I'm guessing this as I see the back of her head with red hair) "What happened to Viv?"

In between we also see a flash of young Moira on top of what seems to be the Black Dahlia? Interesting -- always thought Moira had a bit of a lesbian vibe to her. :)

So what do we think is going to happen? Does Viv escape the insane asylum? Do we finally find out what is wrong with the twins? Will they both even be born?

The Black Dahlia Murder

So we learned from the preview and various interviews with the cast and Ryan Murphy that this episode is going to feature a very special guest star -- Mena Suvari as Elizabeth Short. (Check out an article announcing this here.)

I thought it would be interesting to explore a bit of the back story of the Black Dahlia before tonight's episode, so here goes nothing. **Note: Credits are at the bottom, if you'd like to do further reading on the subject!**

Elizabeth Short
Short was born on July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park, MA to Phoebe and Cleo Short -- she spent most of her childhood in MA. In 1929, her father dissapeared -- many ruled it a suicide as his car was found abandoned at the foot of a bridge. Years later he sent a letter to his wife apologizing for dissapearing, but she refused to let him back into the family.

Apparently Beth matured quickly and enjoyed going to the movies with her mother growing up. It was there she decided she wanted to be an actress, so at 19, Beth moved to Vallejo, CA to live with her father -- who soon kicked her out for being lazy and staying out too late.

Beth moved closer to Santa Barbara, where she was eventually arrested for underage drinking -- the police urged her to return home to MA. Apparently, she had listened to them, but soon returned to CA to continue to pursue her dream of being in the movies.

Many have labeled her a tease, manipulative playgirl, but it is apparent that Elizabeth Short, was immortalized by the media as an American girl, with a dream to be in the movies, who came to Hollywood and became "the pin-up girl of Los Angeles Noir." (Source: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/dahlia/index_1.html)

Beth was last scene mid-January of 1947, it is said that she was to meet a gentlemen at the hotel but after leaving, she was never seen alive again. Her body was found, severed in the Crenshaw District on January 15, 1947.

The Murder
"On January 15, 1947, a passerby spotted her nude body in a vacant lot near Hollywood. Her body, cut in half, was bruised and beaten. Grass had reportedly been forced into her vagina, and she had reportedly been sodomized after death. Rumors of henna in her hair and BD carved into her body, as of yet to this outlet, have not been verified." (Source: http://www.bethshort.com/the-murder.php)

Apparently many came forward (a figure quoted around 50) to confess to the murder of Elizabeth Short, coined "The Black Dahlia" for her black hair and attire by the press, but none could be confirmed.

"So, what is it? Murders happen every day, everywhere. What makes Elizabeth Short any different?
First, she was a small town girl who reportedly wanted to make it in movies. Other peoples dreams are a huge factor in why we become interested in a case. She was considered, at times, a drifter. Couple that with her beauty -- yes, the appeal factor of both a female victim and suspect play a role. Then add the fact that she was severed in half, hacked, brutally murdered. The headlines were shocking, and the descriptiveness in the news stories even more so. Take note that the crime scene images published in 1947 were far more graphic than what we'd see in any city newspaper today.
Not to mention the hordes of people who admitted to the crime. More than 50 "confessing sams" attempted a claim to fame in this case." (Source: http://www.bethshort.com/the-murder.php)

NOTE: The girl who comes into the house, pretending to be a patient of Ben's explains that she keeps having a dream where she is cut in half by an elevator -- later that night during the Home Invasion -- she is essentially almost cut in half by Tate. The police later tell Ben/Viv that she was found a few blocks away, severed in half -- the police offer the explanation that maybe since the crew's re-enactment in the Murder House went awry, they decided to go Black Dahlia on one of their own. Also to note, in the murder of the Black Dahlia is noted everywhere that her body was drained of blood (Ice Truck Killer anyone?) -- we also know that the Infatata feeds off blood, relation?

Further Reading/Sources:
The Black Dahlia Website -- here.
The Black Dahlia story on TruTV's website -- here.
Wikipedia -- here.

Have to say that TruTV's breakdown of the Black Dahlia murders was the best I read -- I'm really interested to see how this plays out on tonight's episode. Think the references to cutting in half from earlier episodes will be interesting. Also I've read in various places that this episode shows a relationship between Moira and the Black Dahlia -- I wonder how that will play out.

What do you think about the draining of her body? Could this relate in anyway? Apparently from the article I linked to at the beginning of the post, it has been suggested that tonight's AHS episode will provide it's theory on this unsolved murdery mystery.

LINK: Twilight and AHS Pregancies Comparison

Though I haven't seen a single Twilight movie, I thought this article was pretty interesting and thought some of you Twi-Hards might think so as well. Hosted on the Washington Post's website, Jen Chaney does a great comparitive study of the two pregnancies, and gives us some clues on what to expect in the upcoming Birth episode.

Check it out here.

What do you think about the similarities?

One thing that struck me in the article is the reference to Viv's babies wanting blood -- hence the pancreas and brain eating -- doesn't this tie into the infatata wonderfully? We've already learned that the infatata (through Nora's intial encounter, the twins death, etc) craves blood, what's the relation here, since there's got to be one?

Recap Roundup! Episode 8: Rubber Man

This will normally be posted the Thursday afternoon after each episode -- however, with the holidays I'm a bit late! I figured I would post to do, so those who wish could do a little bit of reading to jog their memories of last week's CRAZY episode!

Basically each week, I'll be gathering up links to the best recaps for the previous night's episode that I've found on the web.

Here's the roundup for Episode 8: Rubber Man
EW.com -- Jeff Jensen does a wonderful job recapping the entire episode; Jensen pays special attention to the many details that can be easily overlooked in this episode filled with clues.
Highlights? On the first page, Jensen's evaluation of Tate as Rubber Man is incredibly interesting!

AfterElton.com -- Brian Juergens is a comedic genius. No matter how heinous the topic on American Horror Story, Juergens manages to make me giggle reading through his recap.
Higlights? The entire last page! Juergens does a weekly round up of best comedic moment, best shriek, and "Blood, Beasts & Buns."

Wall Street Journal -- Michael Calia's run down of what happened in episode 8 is a great short version of the happenings, while he does little analysis, it is still a good read to get you up to speed.
Highlights? Not sure there are any -- just a solid walk-through of the episode.

Washington Post -- Although this isn't a recap per se, Jen Chaney and Paul Williams ask themselves 10 questions about each episode after it airs -- it's really a quite interesting read!
Highlights? Question #4 "Did anyone else think it was weird that Violet said this to her father: “You’re so weird and pathetic, I’m surprised you haven’t gone after me”?" -- Totally forgot about this line and what it could mean until I read this article, go read Jen and Paul's thoughts on it!
Know of any other great recaps? Leave them in the comments!

LINK: Interesting interview with Alexandra Breckenridge, Young Moira

This article written by Lesley Goldberg is a bit old -- posted after the third episode on The Hollywood Reporter.

Check it out here.

Interesting to read nonetheless, Young Moira gives us a little insight to why the ghosts are the house -- hinting that this will be explained later this season.

"There's a reason the spirits, including both versions of Moira, continue to haunt the joint. "Essentially if you pass away on the property and your body remains there, you're stuck in the house," Breckenridge offers. Adds Conroy: “The explanation of everyone and why they’re there is quite moving -- and why the house is revealing so much -- it’s a deep, deep story and you learn a lot.""

Can't wait to find out why the spirits can't leave the house!