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.

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: Fantastic Interview with Kate Mara, Hayden on AHS

The Hollywood Reporter did a wonderful writeup on their interview with Kate Mara, Hayden on American Horror Story. THR asks Mara some of our burning questions -- such as, how does Hayden plan on getting Viv back in the house to have the babies? We also found out that in tomorrow's episode -- we learn a little bit more about the beginnings of Hayden and Ben's relationship back on the East Coast.

Check out the interview here.

My favorite parts of the article:

"THR: How sure is Hayden that Vivien's "twins" are Tate's/The Rubber Man's?
Mara: Hayden is definitely convinced those are Rubber Man's babies. You're going to discover a lot more than that in next week's episode where you find more information about that; it's pretty shocking. You find out more information about the pregnancy and the twins -- it's not as simple as it seems."

This TOTALLY did not EVEN cross my mind until I read this article -- how do we know that Tate is the father of the babies? We don't! Hayden tells us that he is, but no one else does -- and the main point in the scene where Hayden reveals this to Viv is to make her crazy, so can we really trust this statement? Both Tate/RM and Ben have relations with Viv on (seemingly) the same day -- so we don't have enough information to really decide who is the father. Could be that Ben fathered the babies and Tate/RM inserted some sort of evil into them?

Notice Mara says about the pregnancy and the twins -- is it possible that what we learn about Popes and a key and spirits and humans during the promo for episode 9 doesn't apply to Viv's pregnancy? Wouldn't it hold much more weight if a VIRGIN (like VIOLET!) was impregnated by a ghost? Hmm.... They did do it in the last episode... hah.

"THR: Violet (Taissa Farmiga) is standing in the way of Hayden getting Tate behind her. Is Violet a friend or foe to Hayden?
Mara: Hayden doesn't really care about Tate; she thinks she'll seduce him and then he'll do what she wants. But when she realizes that won't work, that's when her brain goes, "OK, what does he want? He wants Violet, so how can he get Violet?" The easiest thing for Hayden is seducing him, which is what got her into trouble in the first place. When that fails, she goes to her next tactic: How can Hayden help him spend the rest of his life with Violet? You'll discover in maybe the next episode how that plan is going to unfold for Tate. Hayden doesn't care about Violet because she hasn't been in her way. Hayden's biggest concern is Vivien: How do I destroy Vivien and take her babies?"

This is definitely a 'triangle' that we've got to pay close attention to. The dynamic between Hayden and Tate is an interesting one -- Hayden tries seducing him to get her to do what she wants, after her seduction tactics fail, Hayden seems to be pleasantly surprised that her master plan is currently coinciding with Tate's plan to keep Violet in the house and in his 'afterlife.' (I almost typed life, as this seems like such a sappy high school love story between Tate and Violet and then I realized, its not. haha.) How long will Hayden's plan of driving Viv crazy and stealing the babies for herself work for Tate? It seems like Tate really just wants to make Nora happy -- what happens if Hayden goes nuts and takes both babies, or if there's only one born -- will Tate turn against her?

Really interested to see what happens between Tate and Violet -- with all of the rumors floating around that Violet might already indeed be dead -- I think it's fitting to point out Tate's line at the end of episode 8.

"It's sort of romantic. Now they'll be together forever."

Great way to end the episode because it makes us think that maybe this is what Tate is after for him and Violet -- could Tate's violent ways end up hurting Violet? I've also read on various forums, people suggesting that by Violet dying -- either at the hands of Tate or Hayden or both even -- would be a great way to keep the Harmon's in the house for the next season -- that's what's holding Constance there, right?

Now go read the rest of the article -- it's interesting! :)

Hayden's Rules of Ghosts

Have I already mentioned that I really sort of had to like Hayden in this episode? As grimey as she seems to be at hurt, she was pretty funny. I really like that the newest ghost of the house (who wasn't killed by Tate!) gives us the breakdown of the rules. I also thought it was a fitting point in the season to give the audience a little break down on how it actually works in creepy house ghost land.

Here's the breakdown on what I think we learned from the scene in the master bedroom with Hayden and Nora:

1 -- When Hayden walks in on a crying Nora, we learn from the scene that ghosts can be both driven crazy and act crazy, or more nicely put, feel eternal pain?

"There are other souls trapped in here. Beautiful, innocent souls that never knew malice or anger. It's not fair they are trapped in a palce like this. It's heartbreaking... Then there are other that are just in on the game."

2 --  Apparently, as we've probably already learned -- the house holds onto all souls, whether they be good or bad. What we haven't learned is if there's a difference?

3 -- There is some kind of game?

"We linger here with the living. No rest for the them, no rest for us. Its this place, it has a hold on us. But that's not all -- there's a power in it, a power we can use."

4 -- They can use the power of the house to their advantage -- the ghosts (all of them?) are able to make themselves invisible and seen as they wish.

5 -- The ghosts of the house (duh!) mess with the living.

6 -- I know these are supposed to be rules, but I have to ask is the power of the house somehow related to the game that Hayden references in this little speech?

7 -- The ghosts seem to feel all sorts of emotions -- Hayden explains that she vibrates with rage, which is often depicted in other ways -- we see Nora constantly crying out of pain and anguish, is there one particular emotion that haunts the ghosts in the house? For example, could this relate somehow to Tate's violent ways?

8 -- The ghosts can get it on.

9 -- Some ghosts have appetites? As made evident after Constance's husband (?) and Hayden's escapade.

10 -- Ghosts can be rekilled.

"We're supposed to fix our issues, we never can. It doesn't stick."

11 -- By this statement, it seems as though each of the ghosts needs to get over something in the house -- each of them is obsessed with something: Moira is constantly coming up with schemes to get Constance caught for murder, Nora is in an eternal search for her monster baby, Hayden is continuing her quest for revenge against Viv. What could this mean for Tate? Is it just that he's destined to continue in his violent ways or is it something deeper? Perhaps what Moira said about his constant need to please the ladies of the house?

12 -- It seems as though all of the ghosts have evidence of their wounds that killed them -- Nora has the exit wound in her head, we see large black and blues on Hayden, the two from the home invasion episode in the backseat of Episode 8 have their wounds, the 'Dead Breakfast Club', Moira's eye, where were Tates?

13 -- We've also learned in this episode and others that the ghosts are able to touch actual objects and move them -- participate in the life of the house as a living human being would.

I'm eventually going to make a page of the rules, so please add if you have any to add to this list! :)