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..

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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?