How long will FX’s American Horror Story season six keep up the docuseries format and follow the same couple? After episode two it appears we’re going to be sticking with Matt and Shelby Miller reliving their terrifying time in Roanoke, North Carolina for the season. Episode two ups the horror level as the hauntings in the old farmhouse the Millers invested all of their money in increase and turn even more threatening.
Chapter 2 Recap:
Flashback Shelby (Sarah Paulson) is screaming at the top of her lungs while a scalped man approaches at the start of the episode. The scalper is close behind and Shelby takes off running. Meanwhile, a woman (played by Kathy Bates) leads a bizarre group who are torturing a man tied to a pole. Shelby freezes in the woods when she sees a deer while Current Shelby (Lily Rabe) reveals she never considered the danger that could be lurking in the woods. We learn the man is being punished for stealing something and he’s forced to wear a grotesque pig mask as they roast him over a fire. As he’s baking over the flames Shelby’s discovered by the group and forced to flee. She runs in front of a car driven by Flashback Lee (Angela Bassett).
Current Matt (Andre Holland) catches us up on the action by saying the police investigated Shelby’s claim of a human sacrifice but didn’t find anything. They suspected Shelby was on drugs, but she wasn’t.
Flashback Matt (Cuba Gooding Jr.) brings Shelby a stuffed bear while she’s recuperating at the hospital. He says they can move, but Shelby refuses. She thinks the hillbillies planned the whole thing in order to get their house. She doesn’t want them to win, plus they don’t have extra money. Current Shelby says she was ready to fight for her house.
Current Lee (Adina Porter) understands why she lost custody of her child, Flora. She didn’t want to bring her daughter to the house, but had to. She wanted to reconnect with Flora and thought she’d be safe. (Apparently Lee has no short term memory or she wouldn’t bring anyone to this particular farmhouse.) Flashback Lee and Flora spend some quality mother-daughter time but when Lee leaves to get snacks, Flora finds a new friend to play with. Lee discovers her talking to an imaginary friend she says is named Priscilla. (Note to parents: Leave your freaky haunted house when your child starts talking to people who aren’t there!)
Current Lee says she thought it was all because Flora was now a child of divorce and she was acting out.
Flora tells Flashback Lee that Priscilla’s going to teach her to make a bonnet and her new BFF is tired of all the blood. (Seriously, leave now. Don’t even bother packing!) Suddenly something crashes to the floor in another room and Lee discovers a vase of flowers has broken, with a bonnet right next to the shattered glass on the floor. Spooky stuff is happening in the old farmhouse and we’re only 12 minutes into the episode.
Flashback Shelby and Matt get ready for bed, and Shelby’s convinced Lee will never be on her side. Matt and Shelby agree to fight the hillbillies until they can sell.
Current Shelby recalls how she wasn’t happy there and that Matt knew it, and everyone suspected her of making things up.
Flashback Shelby and Matt are awakened by the sound of a pig squealing outside. Mistake number one…they grab flashlights and go into the woods to investigate. Mistake number two…Shelby screams for the noise-maker to show himself. And mistake number three…Shelby races off without Matt. She’s lost and alone as is Matt when a pig comes crashing through the woods and runs past his feet. Matt finally catches up with Shelby at the place of the sacrifice. A fire is still burning and flesh is roasting while on the post the severed pig’s head looks on. Matt attacks the post and knocks it over.
Current Matt says there was something demonic about it. Shelby says the police finally believed her and were going to bring in the hillbillies for questioning. Flashback Shelby yells at the cop, saying she doesn’t think that’s good enough and threatening to go public if the locals come after her again. The cop promises her 24 hour police protection until they figure out what’s going on.
The phone rings in the middle of the night and Flashback Matt answers to hear a woman say, “Please, they’re hurting me.” He then discovers the phone isn’t even plugged in. He hears a moan and walks into another room where he sees two nurses treating an elderly woman who’s in a hospital bed. They accuse her of back-talking them and one whips out a gun and shoots the old woman in the head.
Current Matt recalls he thought he was dreaming.
Flashback Matt watches as they spray-paint the wall with a huge letter ‘M’ in red, saying “M is for Margaret” while maniacally laughing.
Current Lee says she woke up that night after 3am because of a noise. Flashback Lee sees Matt outside pounding on the window of the patrol car and hysterically telling the cop someone is in the house and shot a woman. The cop goes in and looks around, using a flashlight. (Doesn’t this house have indoor lighting?) Everyone follows him around, but the cop shows them there’s nothing written on the wall and no dead body.
Current Lee confesses he thought maybe he suffered some sort of neurological damage from the attack he endured in Los Angeles. In fact, he hoped that was the explanation. “It’s amazing how long a person can rationalize the irrational,” says Matt.
Flashback Lee welcomes her ex-husband in to pick up Flora, but Flora’s playing a special game of hide and seek. They search through the house and finally find her in a small closest under the stairs. Flora’s sad because they chased Priscilla – the little girl with the funny clothes – away when they opened the door. Flora was trying to give her doll to Priscilla as a trade so she wouldn’t kill them. What the what?! Flora says they’re going to kill them all and save her for last. Flora’s dad wisely scoops up his daughter, rushes out of the house, and deposits her in the backseat of his car. He also says she’s never coming back to that house. Flora cries and begs her dad, but he drives away. Lee reacts by falling off the wagon. Matt and Shelby find her wasted on the floor of the dining room next to a broken bowl. Shelby looks up at the ceiling and sees a bunch of knives have been thrown up there. Lee looks confused but denies she did it.
Current Matt says no one believed her. But, he also says Lee was always the rock of the family.
Flashback Matt helps Lee into bed, but leaves the room when Shelby calls for him. As he walks out of Lee’s bedroom, the two nurses he saw the night before approach Lee’s bed. Matt joins Shelby at the window where they see a little girl standing at the edge of the woods staring at the house. They race outside to where they spotted her and find a door that leads underground. A ladder is attached to the side but it’s impossible to see down into the depths of the room.
Flashback Lee wakes up and sees the nurses smiling down at her. She’s startled, and they disappear. Current Lee says at that time she sensed someone watching over her. She gets up and follows a noise and at the end of the hall there are bloody body parts swinging back and forth, protruding from the wall. (It’s an extremely freaky scene that will play over and over again in all of our nightmares, I’m sure.) She closes her eyes and looks again and they’re gone. But, the terror isn’t over for poor Lee quite yet as she sees a pig-headed man that also quickly disappears.
Current Matt says they had no idea who the girl in the woods was but thought she was from that hillbilly family. He thought she was there to lure them into a trap. Still, they headed down into the cellar anyway.
Flashback Shelby and Matt explore the cellar and it’s loaded with supplies and even a TV. There’s a video camera set up and they take the tape back upstairs. The tape is of the same man (played by Denis O’Hare) Lee and Shelby saw on the other tape but this time he’s talking to the camera. He says there are forces that won’t let him sleep and that they’ve actually physically attacked him. He fears whatever is in the house will kill him and has moved into the cellar. He swears he’s not crazy.
Current Shelby said he sounded insane but they were pulled into his story.
The stranger says the date is October 11, 1997 and he is Dr. Elias Cunningham, a professor who’s researching a new book – a true crime novel in the vein of Helter Skelter. The subjects were two nurses, sisters who couldn’t bear to be apart. They were suspected to be behind deaths of elderly patients. After leaving the nursing home, they settled at this house which had previously been occupied by a family who fled and left all their belongings behind. The living facility the sisters opened at the house was specifically for families who just wanted a place to store their elderly relatives until they died. Plus, all of the patients had to have certain names. “They chose people and murdered them because they were using the letters of their names to spell out their favorite word,” said Elias. M-U-R-D-E-R! They thought killing people would ensure that their love would eclipse eternity.
The police investigated the facility on October 29, 1989 and the sisters were gone, but the dead patients were there along with the unfinished word. They only made it to “MURDE” before vanishing. The house was repainted and fixed up, but MURDE kept appearing on the wall. Finally, wallpaper was placed over the wall. Matt starts to pull off the wallpaper and uncovers the red letters.
Current Shelby says everything Elias said on the tape was true.
Back to the tape, Elias says they didn’t actually leave but instead were stopped. Something even more evil got to them. The evil is in the house and he’s going back inside one more time to face the evil. He takes the camera with him and walks through the dark hallways. He hears noises and begins to see things. Shelby and Matt scream while watching the tape and then they hear something. They find a bloody butcher knife sticking into a door.
Current Shelby and Matt say they wanted to get their money back and leave at that point.
Flashback Shelby and Matt met with the banker and he won’t give them back their money. They want to know why they weren’t told about the murders, and the banker says they bought it “as is.” It was their responsibility to do the research, but they didn’t. The banker says he’ll buy it back at a competitive rate, but Shelby and Matt won’t get back what they paid. They’re stuck. After the banker leaves, Lee and Flora drive up. Matt knows Lee has committed a felony by bringing Flora to the house but there’s nothing he can do. But at this point can we just take a moment to think about the fact Lee brought Flora back to a house where an invisible friend told her she’s going to be murdered? What kind of mother would do that?
Shelby takes Flora to do her homework leaving Matt and Lee to discuss the situation. He tells her she’s lost her mind because this is kidnapping. Lee doesn’t care. Shelby talks to Flora’s dad on the phone, trying to explain Lee just wanted to see her daughter. He says he’ll come get Flora and he won’t call the cops.
Current Lee realizes what she did was insane.
Meanwhile, Flora gets reacquainted with her friend, Priscilla. Lee goes to say goodbye to her in the living room but Flora’s gone. They search the house and the woods but can’t find her. Finally, Matt and Shelby hear Lee screaming and find her staring up into a tree. Flora’s sweater is up at the top of it, but there’s no sign of Flora.
American Horror Story Season 6 Recaps:
