American Horror Story Recap: Episode 1.10 – Smoldering Children
First off, let me say that if you haven’t seen this week’s episode, and don’t want anything spoiled for you, turn back now. There were some reveals this week and even though it was exactly as I suspected, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else. We know that Tate is dead and he was responsible for the school shooting. We also know that Larry has a serious thing for Constance and that his wife set fire to herself and their children because he was going to leave her for Constance. This episode served as a sort of filler episode to fill in some of the gaps left from previous episodes as well as answer some other questions.
I noticed that this episode was written by James Wong which made me smile. I have a soft spot for him due to his work on The X-Files, Millennium, and Space: Above and Beyond. Anyway….the show starts back in 1994, prior to Tate’s attack on the school. Constance, Tate, and Addie are at the dinner table enjoying a nice, dysfunctional family dinner with Larry. This is obviously after his wife and children died. Larry tries to play the father figure but Tate is resentful and won’t have any of it. The next morning, Tate does a fair amount of meth, gets his arsenal ready and prepares for the day’s big event. I expected this to be the school shooting scene again, but instead of the school, Tate arrives at Larry’s office. He brings with him a can of gasoline, which he pours on Larry just before flicking a lit match on him. So that’s how Larry got all crispy.
After the opening credit sequence, Vivien is still institutionalized and Ben shows up telling her that he’s sorry for his asshole-ish behavior from last week and how he knows that she was telling the truth about being raped. She asks what changed his mind and he breaks the news that the Doctor told him that only one of the twins was fathered by him. He asks if she can remember anything about the man in the rubber suit she tells him that the guy didn’t speak. She also tells him that she doesn’t want to go back to the house.
Two detectives show up at Constance’s door asking her questions about Travis. They show her the photos of his body to which she positively identifies. They tell her that due to the nature of the body, they’ve nicknamed him the “Boy Dahlia”. She’s horrified and grief-stricken telling them that everyone loved Travis and he didn’t have any enemies.
Back at the house, a truant officer shows up informing Ben that he has a blowfly problem and that Violet has missed 16 consecutive days of school. He also tells Ben that if she misses anymore, they will have to be seen in juvenile court. Ben confronts Violet and tells her that she has to go back to school even if it’s a different one. She resists, then relents saying she’ll go. She heads to the basement and Tate convinces her to stay with him one more day.
Constance heads over the Larry’s place for what looks like emotional support, but instead pulls a knife on him telling him that she knows he’s responsible for Travis’ death. He tells her that he just moved the body and that he’s not sure which one of “them” was responsible for his actual death. Larry tries to profess his love for her but she shuts him down once again laying down the best line in the entire episode telling him “Even dead, even a boy, he’s twice the man you are.” Then Larry delivers the best comeback: “He is now.” Brilliant!
Constance gets back to her house to find the detectives there wanting to talk to her again. She tries to blow them off, but when she pulls out her keys the knife she pulled on Larry falls out of her purse. This results in Constance getting her ass hauled down to the station to be questioned. Once at the station, the cops press Constance about all of the people in her life who are either dead or missing. Her son Beauregard, her husband Hugo, Moira. The detective tells her that they fingered her for the murders of Hugo and Moira back in the 80′s, but they didn’t find the bodies. Cue the flashback that show her burying Moira (which we knew), and dragging her husband’s body to the basement where she puts him through a meat grinder to become kibble for their legion of dogs. After the flashback, a lawyer shows up and when the cops leave he tells her they’re looking to pin the murder on someone and she’s not to say anything else.
Back at the house, Ben brings in an exterminator to deal with all the flies. He tells Ben that he has to get into the crawl space to see where the problem is. Ben tells him to proceed, and give him an estimate on cost. Phil, the exterminator, suits up and goes into the cavernous crawl space and comes across something horrifying. Then Tate shows up and gives the guy a taste of his own medicine. He pumps the guy full of his bug killer stuff, killing him.
Meanwhile, Ben is on the phone looking into boarding school options for Violet. Tate freaks out and heads to the attic to tell her that Ben is going to try to split them up. He tells her that he’ll take care of it and that they’ll be able to stay together. Tate then dons the rubber suit once again.
Larry shows up in the basement digging in a wall retrieving Travis’ bloody clothes and the murder weapon. Travis shows up asking if he’s been in the news, then asks Larry to bring him some newspaper clippings because he’s thinking of starting a scrapbook. Larry watches as Travis sits down to have an after-life tea party with two “smoldering children” who turn out to be Larry’s daughters. As he watches his, dead wife Lorraine shows up and when questioned, tells him that he can see them now because he’s “on the cusp.” He swears that Constance will pay, but his wife tells him that isn’t wasn’t Constance’s fault.
Ben is seen taking a shower and after he gets out Tate shows up in the rubber suit. Fisticuffs ensue and surprisingly, Ben’s towel seems to stay on. Tate knocks him out with what I can only assume is chloroform, but not before Ben is able to rip the mask off, revealing Tate. Tate heads back up the attic and tries to convince Violet to commit suicide so they can be together forever. She agrees but wants to set it up and heads down to run a bath. Instead she runs through the house screaming for help. She makes it out front and sees a couple walking their dog and screams for help. The couple doesn’t pay any attention to her but the dog notices her. She runs out the gate only to find herself back in the house. After several minutes of this she finally stops. Tate tries to calm her down and she tells him that she doesn’t want to die. To which he replies “Too late.” This was supposed to be a big reveal but for me it wasn’t. It was a little heartbreaking to see, but I had my suspicions that this would happen. I’m thinking in the end everyone is going to die….except maybe Ben.
Violet naturally wants to know what’s happening. Tate takes her down to the crawl space and shows her what the exterminator happened across. Her decaying fly infested body. He explains that she died when she OD’d and that despite his efforts, she died anyway. Then the two go and play a card game discussing the afterlife. My question is: what is Ben and Vivien going to do when they find out she’s dead?
Constance’s lawyer shows up at her house telling her that they need to go to the police station. She protests, but goes anyway. The cops tell her that Larry confessed to the killing and gave details that weren’t made public. Later on, Constance goes to visit him in jail and he tries to get her to tell him she love him. Instead she simply tells him that he’s going to die in there and walks away. Ouch!
So that’s it for this week. Did you already suspect that Violet was dead? Next week’s episode is titled “Birth” so I’m thinking there will be a birth. I’m also thinking that the ghosts aren’t going to want to let those babies go. Two episodes until the season ends and I’m really curious at how this is all going to play out. Final thought: Smoldering Children should be the name of a band.
Tags: AHSFX, American Horror Story, Brad Falchuk, Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, F/X, Ryan Murphy
