American Horror Story Recap: Episode 1.12 – Afterbirth
With the bulk of the surprises happening in the previous two episodes, the finale of American Horror Story served mainly to tie up loose ends. Last week we saw Vivien bite the dust after delivering the twins, one of which was stillborn. The demon-seed child however, ended up in the crazed hands of Constance. I had my suspicions about how the finale would play out, and even though it didn’t really punch me in the gut, it did manage to surprise me here and there.
The episode starts with a flash back to nine months previous, when the Harmon family were still living in Boston. Vivien has bags packed and tells Ben that she and Violet are going to her sister’s in Florida. Ben begs and pleads with her to go look at this great house in L.A. that he found on the internet. It’s a steal and it’s beautiful and it’s the first step in putting their family back together blah blah blah. He jokes that because the price is so low, it much be haunted. Oh Ben…..if only you knew the truth back then.
Fast forward to present day and Ben is all alone in the house hollering for Vivien and Violet. They don’t appear. He heads next door to Constance’s house to pick up the baby but she doesn’t want to give him up. Reluctantly she hands him over, but not before Ben sees a picture of Tate and Addie on the counter. He’s finally figured out that Tate was her son, a fact that really kind of pisses him off.
Back at the house, Ben puts the baby in a bassinet and heads downstairs to lay out the most comprehensive suicide note ever. After laying out all of his keys, cards, documents, alarm codes and the like for Vivien’s sister to deal with, he heads to his office for a quick smoke and a drink before he eats a bullet. He tries once, with the gun in his mouth, but can’t do it. He takes a beat, tries again by putting the gun to his temple instead. He looks determined, but Vivien steps him and tells him that he needs to raise their son. He tells her it’s not his son and that he wants to be with her. Violet pops up and jokes about how she saved him a shit ton of money and that each minute he and the baby stay in the house, they are in danger.
Ben gathers up the baby and starts to make his way downstairs to leave when he’s stopped by Hayden on the staircase. She brought reinforcements with her too. One thing leads to another and next thing we see is Ben being hanged from the chandelier, and Hayden taking the baby. Seems that Ben is now a permanent resident of the house too. Ok sidebar….I knew Ben was going to die. There was no other option for him. What I didn’t expect was for it to happen, like, 15 minutes into the episode.
The police are back at Constance’s house asking her to go over her statement again about what she saw next door. She explains how she went to check on Ben in the wake of Vivien’s death and found him hanging and how she thinks Violet took off with the baby. What the flashback showed however, was her looking up at Ben calling him a stupid son of a bitch. Then Ben appears and says how he can’t believe that she (Hayden) killed him. Constance has her I-told-you-so moment, then heads down to the basement. Hayden has the baby and refuses to give him up. Travis helps the cause by slitting Hayden’s throat and taking the baby, then giving him to Constance. How on God’s green Earth can you slash a ghost’s throat and have it mean something? Anyhoo….back to the cops, once they leave, Constance retrieves the little guy from her crazy closet of mirrors.
Over at the house, Marcy is trying to sell it again, but the Murder House Tour is in full effect. Then a nice couple show up with their teenage son to look at the house. Marcy discloses how the previous owners died in the house, but doesn’t go into the detail about ALL of the previous owners. The kid tries his skateboard out on the hardwood, falls and has a moment with the red-headed twins, which kind of freaks him out but he doesn’t say anything and of course, the Ramos family decide to buy it.
Once they begin unpacking, the ghosts start appearing. Violet is the first to make her presence known to Gabe (the son) when she shows up in his room chastising him about his music collection. Tate looks on from a distance and grows more jealous by the second. Meanwhile, Vivien and Ben observe Miguel and Stacy (mom & dad) in the kitchen where their unpacking leads to sex. Because that’s what really happens when one has to unpack a kitchen. They overhear the couple discuss having another baby once Gabe heads to college. Vivien and Ben, along with Moira plan to intervene to get them out of the house so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.
The good ghosts put the plan into action and follow the formula that was put into play for the Harmon’s when they first moved in. Hot Moira leads a sleep-walking Miguel downstairs to play with fire, while Stacy is awoken to the sight of the Rubber Suit Guy. This time it’s Ben. Tate is otherwise occupied with trying to kill Gabe so that Violet has someone to spend eternity with. He can’t do it though, while Gabe is looking at him. Violet steps in to distract Tate, and while Violet is kissing him goodbye, Gabe is able to make his escape.
Miguel snaps out of his sleep-walking state to Moria and Larry’s burned wife. He freaks out and runs to find Stacy. Stacy is frantically trying to get away from Rubber Suit and in her attempt she sees “RUN” written in blood on the walls, has a run in with Beau, who jumps out of the attic, and also sees the drowned nurse in the bathtub. She runs, of all places, into the basement where she meets up with Miguel. The two huddle, horrified, in the corner while Ben hovers. Vivien shows up and tells him to knock it off, then basically disemboweled him saying “you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.” Then Ben shoots Vivien in the head, repeating her same words. Once they rise again, they tell Miguel and Stacy that this is what the house does to people and they need to get out. In a scene that resembles the original Amityville Horror film, Miguel, Stacy and Gabe flee the house in their jammies, never to look back again. As Ben, Vivien and Violet watch the family leave, Vivien mentions that another family will be along to take their place. Ben says that they know what to do now. I thought this would be the end, but not quite.
The next scene shows Marcy applying a “reduced” sticker to the for-sale sign that once again, occupies the front yard. Inside, Ben is cleaning up when Tate shows up. He tells Ben that he wants to talk because his sessions were really helping. Ben tells him that he’s a psycho and that therapy is just a bunch of malarkey. Ben tells him that they are alike because he’s a bad person too. Tate tells Ben that his family forgave him and that’s what he wants. Ben tells him that only those he has wronged can forgive him. Tate gets all teary-eyed and admits to burning Larry, killing 15 classmates, and raping Vivien. Ben gives him a slow-clap for his performance and tells him he doesn’t want to be Tate’s priest. Tate just asks if they can hang out once in a while.
Vivien is seen playing her cello when she hears a baby crying. She follows the sound to the basement to see an exhausted Nora trying to rock the stillborn baby to sleep. Vivien takes him and he immediately calms down. I guess even in death this kid would know who his mommy is.
Later on we see the Harmon family, along with Moira, doing what ghosts do….decorating a Christmas tree. It seems that all this family needed was a little drama, some frights and their deaths to bring them all together. I said in the beginning of this series that it was like a supernatural Melrose Place. I really think that now especially since they’re all dead. There will be ghost hook-ups aplenty! But I digress. Tate and Hayden look on from the darkness of the other room and scowl at the happiness taking place. There’s a war brewing me thinks.
Fast forward three years and Constance pays a visit to her beauty parlor. She explains that she’s been away because she’s been caring for her distant cousin’s orphaned child, Michael. She goes into an in-depth monologue about her “son” and how he’s destined for greatness and the two were meant to be together. I’ll say it again, Jessica Lange absolutely crushed it in this role. She had two parts in this episode alone that were just mesmerizing.
After getting her hair done, she heads home to relieve her nanny, Flora. Flora is nowhere to be found and Constance sees the refrigerator door open and blood on the floor. She follows the trail to Michael’s room to see the body of Flora on the floor with her neck sliced open. Pan up to see a three-year old boy giggling with blood on his hands and face. Constance regards him with maternal affection asking “What am I going to do with you now?” It’s all very similar to Damien in the original The Omen. The kid is evil. You can see it in his eyes. And that, my friends, is Jenga on season one.
So next season I foresee a new family in the house, and the kid causing all sorts of evil havoc. Evil kids are creepy so maybe that factor will amp up the scares. The season had some hits and misses but overall, it was entertaining.
So now that the season is over what did you think? Will you be back for Season two?
Tags: AHSFX, American Horror Story, American Horror Story finale, Brad Falchuk, Connie Britton, Dennis O'Hare, Dylan McDermott, Jessica Lange, recap, Ryan Murphy
