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! --