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?

source

source

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?

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

source

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?

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

source

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. 

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.