More twists and turns and even an answer or two pepper this latest episode of American Horror Story.  Seven episodes in and with the winter finale approaching, I’m really hoping we’ll get more answers than questions.  Although that really wouldn’t entice viewers to tune back in after the break right?  There’s a lot going on with this show and the audience knows more about what’s going on than the characters do.  This fact leaves me a bit impatient with the characters because I just want them to see what I see.  However if that were the case, this show would be over too quickly.

The beginning flashback takes place in 1994.  I don’t know if this is pre-school shooting or post, but Constance still lives in the house and seems to have something going on with Crispy Larry…before he turned crispy that is.  Constance is going on and on about how “they” are going to take “him” away from her.  At first I thought she was referring to Tate but come to find out she’s talking about her other son Beau, who is chained up in the attic.  He’s deformed and mentally disabled and she doesn’t want CPS to come in and take him so she asks Larry to do what they discussed.  Apparently that discussion consisted of smothering Beau because that’s what Larry did.  Problem solved.

Back in present day Viven and Ben are at the doctor’s office where the OB/GYN tells Vivien she’s actually pregnant with twins and the babies are healthy.  Both Viv and Ben are shocked and Viv is relieved that the sonogram didn’t show any hooves.

At the house Marcy the Realtor is hosting an open house (hence the title).  An Armenian (because it was necessary to point out his ethnicity??) man shows up to look at the house and is very interested despite Vivien telling him about the previous owners/deaths.  This fact doesn’t phase him at all and he mentions how he’d dig up the back yard to install a pool.  Moira (young and hot) tells Mr. Eskandarian that she thinks it’s a great idea and asks him how deep he would make it.  He replies that it would be deep to which she comes back with “Good. I like it deep.”  Crafty writers.  The prospect of a pool means that Moira’s remains (as well as Hayden’s and God only knows who else) will be found and she’ll be released from the house.  Mr. Eskandarian leaves his card and Marcy goes ballistic on Viv for spilling the beans about the house’s dirty laundry.  Viv tells her that she’s not going to hide anything because whoever thinks about buying, should know the truth.

The next potential buyer that shows up is Crispy Larry.  Apparently Viv hasn’t had a run in with him yet.  Marcy on the other hand thinks he’s up to no good and brandishes a gun.  After a pity story about how he got burned trying to save children from a burning bus, Marcy holsters her weapon and they give him a tour.  He shows interest in the fireplace (go figure) and tells them that the walls would make for an excellent mural (hmmmmm…..).

Later that evening (I think) Vivien is getting down with her bad self and…..we’ll just say she’s taking care of her business.  While she’s enjoying her alone time she fantasizes about that hot security guard, then Ben, then Rubber Suit Guy pops up and totally kills the mood.  Alone time is over.

Violet is back to her cutting ways, much to Tate’s displeasure.  He tells her to promise him that she won’t cut anymore, which she does.  As if having a ghost for a kind of boyfriend isn’t bad enough, Violet has to sit down with Vivien and Ben for a family dinner.  They tell her they’re worried about her and she blows them off saying how they moved her across the country without even talking to her about it, then they split, and now they want to sell a house that she actually likes.  Of course she’s depressed.

Mr. Eskandarian shows up at the house again but only Moira is home.  She gladly offers him a tour and when touring Violet’s room she tells him that she’s paint it red and install a sex swing.  At this point Moira gets very hands on with Mr. Eskandarian and shows him what an asset she could be if he bought the house.  As they’re leaving Violet’s room, Ben shows up.  Moira tells him that she was giving Mr. Eskandarian a tour and Ben lights up thinking he’s got the house sold.  Mr. Eskandarian tells Ben that if he buys, he plans to level the place and build units, which Ben thinks is a fabulous idea.

Larry gets home to his dingy apartment to find Ben waiting for him.  Ben tries to play the tough guy here and it just didn’t work for me at all.  We do find out however that the story Larry told Ben about how he killed his family is a lie.  Cut to a flashback of when Larry lived at the house.  He tells his wife over dinner that he’s leaving her because he’s in love with Constance.  The wife is understandably upset and heads upstairs.  Larry heads that way a little while later and finds that his wife is the one who set herself and their children on fire. Ben doesn’t give a rip about any of it and tells him there is no way he’s going to buy the house.  Larry tells him that he needs to house because it’s the only place he can be happy with “her”, meaning Constance.

Vivien and Marcy go on the Murder House tour and we finally get the whole story of the house.  After the Montgomery’s child was dismembered, Charles went to work stitching him back together, using the beating heart from one of their girls (patients?)  to make a sort of FrakenTot.  Well apparently he succeeded and he informed Nora that the child was upstairs.  She went to check and even though we didn’t get to see the kid, we got hear it hiss.  Nora heads back downstairs praising Charles for his brilliant genius, but the front of her is bloody.  She admits to trying to breastfeed but apparently that didn’t go over so well.  She said that she also tried to kill the child with a letter opener but that didn’t work out so well either.  As Charles hugs on her she pulls a gun and shoots him in the head, then eats one herself.  So they’re both dead but the kid is mostly dead?  What happened to him?  More questions!

Vivien heads back to the doctor’s office to have more tests done just so she’ll feel better.  Meanwhile Constance is in the basement talking to someone and that someone turns out to be Larry.  She insults him, he professes his undying love to her.  Then he tells her that the Harmon’s intend to sell the house to someone who wants to tear it down and questions what will happen to all those spirits that reside there.

Violet hears something in the attic and upon investigating sees a ball rolling toward her.  Then Beau jumps out and scares her, but Tate pops up and tells him to leave her alone.  Tate tells her that she can see the spirits because she’s evolved and all she needs to do is to tell the ghosts to go away and they will.  Tate then shows her some stuff he found in the attic.  Photos and silverware from the Montgomery era.  Violet then has an encounter with one of the dead nurses from the Home Invasion episode and when she tells the ghost to go away, it does.

Constance pays Mr. Eskandarian a visit to try to convince him to not level the house, but her efforts come to nought.  He’s a man with a plan and intends to level the house so he can make millions.  Constance heads back to the house to say goodbye to Tate who only looks upon her with contempt.  Then Constance calls for reinforcements telling Moira that she needs Moira’s talents.  Moira then invites Mr. Eskandarian for another “tour” and takes him down to the basement.  As she gets to work on her….umm…..oral lesson, Mr. Eskandarian tells her “less teeth” but she doesn’t listen and bites it off.  Yup, she sure did.  We don’t see it thank God…even F/X won’t go that far, but you get the idea.  As Mr. Eskandarian is screaming at the loss of his little friend, Larry sneaks up behind him and puts a plastic bag over his head.  Constance tells him to remove Mr. Eskandarian before he fully expires because they don’t want his ghost wandering around too.

Violet is back sulking in her room, this time looking at the old photos.  Vivien walks in telling her about the guy who may buy the house and how she and Violet will go live with a relative until they can find something else.  Violet then shows her the picture of the house and Vivien is caught up in the other photos as well.  Violet tells her that they were the original owners and when Vivien sees a photo of Charles and Nora, she recognizes Nora.  I think she’s now sufficiently creeped out.

So that about does it for this week.  Next week there is a new episode surprisingly so check back on Thanksgiving day for the recap.  It looks like we’ll finally get to find out who’s behind the rubber suit.  Who could it be?  All I can say is this stuff better not end up as something akin to the Bobby Ewing shower scene on Dallas.  If this is all in Ben’s head because he’s gone mad or just a dream or something like that, I’ll be sorely disappointed.  I’m just sayin’.

About the author

Tracy Ladd has written 532 articles on this blog.

Tracy has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she's back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks. Follow her on Twitter: @ReelGoddess

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Television, TV Show Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.