American Horror Story Recap: Episode 1.06 – Piggy Piggy
With each passing episode I’m becoming less and less sure about this show. I loved the beginning but now six episodes in and I’m losing interest. The only thing keeping me from ixnaying it is the fact that I really want to see what is gestating in Vivien’s womb. It’s a morbid curiosity but there you have it. The events of this week make things a tad more interesting even if the episode as a whole fell kind of flat.
Back to the flashbacks, and this time it’s 1994. Constance is living in the house when S.W.A.T. storms in looking for Tate. Even though, through the Halloween episodes, we were able to surmise Tate’s story, we actually get to see it. He did storm through his school busting caps in anyone and everyone who got in his way. Then he went home, sat on his bed and waited for the law to show up. Constance was freaking out of course, but her son was pretty messed up. He went to pull a gun on the 80 officers that were in his room with their guns fixed on him, so of course they all opened fire. All of them. They totally unloaded their clips into Tate, because apparently one bullet wouldn’t do the trick. Go big or go home right?
So Constance has a chat with Violet after she starts to piece things together about Tate. She does some research and finds out all about the massacre he inflicted at his high school and then reads that he was shot and killed by the police. So now she knows for sure that Tate is a ghost. Constance however tells her that she needs Violet’s help with him because he doesn’t know what he is. She introduces Violet to her friend Billy, who is a bona fide medium and is going to get a show on Lifetime. Violet doesn’t buy it, but then Billy proves her medium-ness by telling Violet about Mary. I suspect Mary was Violet’s grandmother and she died, but not before telling Violet the same thing that Billy is relaying to her. Violet freaks out and runs home to hide in her creepy bedroom. Billy then tells Constance that Addie is there and that she says she’s a pretty girl now and that she’s happy that Constance didn’t get her back to the yard of The House before she died because she didn’t want to be stuck there with Tate because he scares her now that she knows what he did.
Violet has a need to know everything so she goes to Tate’s old school and heads to the library where he killed the kids who came after him in the Halloween episode. Gothic chick told him though that he asked her if she believed in God before he shot her, but when they showed the flashback, he didn’t ask anyone anything. C’mon writers! Anyhoo….Violet meets one of the teachers that got shot who is now in a wheelchair.
All of this info has her reeling so she starts to pull away from Tate even after she found the creepy “I Love You” message written on the chalkboard in her room. She meets up with mangled popular girl from several episodes ago and they two discuss how they both know evil and how neither of them can sleep. Mangled Girl gives Violet of bottle of pills which Violet promptly takes when she gets home. Tate finds her, drags her down the hall, runs a shower and forces her to barf them up. They end up spooning on her bed after he tells her he loves her again.
There wasn’t much Ben in the episode at all. He’s not living in the house but he still has to work and after a tongue lashing from Viv, he goes about his business. It was a ridiculous side story that wasn’t necessary at all and involved him “helping” a new patient who has a ridiculous fear of urban legends. Mainly one concerning Pig Man. Legend has it Pig Man is a former hog butcher who used to wear a hog’s head as a mask but fell and got devoured by his stock. Now when you look in a mirror and say the repetitive phrase three times, he comes back and guts you like a pig. Naturally this guy has a fear of mirrors and his appearance shows that fact. Ben puts the verbal smack down on him telling him to face his fears which he tries to do. After going home after a session he goes into the bathroom and says the phrase, but gets shot in the head by a burglar who is there to rob him. It’s all very Twilight Zone-ish if you ask me.
Vivien dreams about her baby and it’s not a good dream either. She wakes up and decides to hit the panic button on her alarm system so the hottie security guard will come a runnin’. He does and they chit-chat about being victims of infidelity. Ben’s jealous of this guy too. Frankly, this guy has more going on than Ben in my opinion. The security guard then tells Ben that the chick he was hauling down to the station (Hayden) never made it because she disappeared out of his car. Ben just cocks an eyebrow at this news and Vivien doesn’t say anything. Whatevs.
Vivien seeks out the nurse who passed out after looking at her ultrasound and she finds out that the woman quit her job and has been staying at a church. She goes to meet the woman who proceeds to tell her that her womb is unclean and on the ultrasound she saw hooves instead of feet. Viv just chalks this up as a glitch in the equipment and after the woman starts to hurl insults, Viv leaves. To make things even more strange, while she’s at home, Constance brings over a plate of offal for her to eat because it helps with the baby’s development. After Moira cooks up some sweetbreads (not actually bread folks) Vivien grimaces but eats them anyway. She then sniffs at the raw pancreas that was sitting on the counter. Then later in the episode, Moira tells her that Constance brought another scrumptious treat and this time it’s raw brain. Vivien doesn’t think twice and eats the whole thing. Sprinkles it with some pepper and dives right in. I’d think she’s at least want to hit it with some Frank’s sauce or some cayenne pepper, but nope. Afterwards she has a look on her face that says ” Ummmmm, what did I just eat??”
A few side notes about this episode:
This is the first time that we’ve seen Violet acting closer to her age. After finding out the truth about Tate, she genuinely seemed like a scared young girl when she called out for her mom.
Violet also had a run in with a few of the previous occupants in the basement, but nothing really came of that so not quite sure what, if anything, to make of it.
Less crying Ben is a good thing.
Vivien tried to fire Moira but Moira wouldn’t hear of it. When Viv told her she had bad news, Moira’s first reaction was to question the health of the baby. She was relieved that wasn’t the issue and proceeded to tell Viv that she would stay on for free to help keep the house clean so that they could sell it.
Looks like next week we get to see all sorts of shady ghosts. I really hope things start to pick up and get back on track because this week left me a little bored if I’m being honest. I want to know just what the deal with the house is. Let’s get some answers and stop with the unnecessary side stories.
Tags: AHSFX, American Horror Story, Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, F/X, Ryan Murphy
