Sid the producer (Cheyenne Jackson) welcomes the camera into a boardroom where he pitches the idea of filming a sequel called Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell. He wants to bring everyone – the real people and the actors who played them – back to the actual house during the next blood moon, with cameras filming everything 24 hours a day. The network executives want to know if he’s planning on faking the ghosts, and the network head points out the audience wasn’t satisfied that Mason’s killer wasn’t brought to justice. Plus, is it even possible to film at that house anymore? Sid reveals he bought the house from Matt and Shelby, but the network executives aren’t sure the cast would want to be involved in a new season.
Sid’s assistant, Diana, pulls him aside to tell him Shelby doesn’t want to do it, delivering the bad news right after he receives a 13-episode order from the network.
Shelby (Lily Rabe) agrees to an interview and Sid and Diana pay a visit to her 10 weeks before the blood moon. She’s gotten blasted on social media and people torment her all the time. In fact, her marriage with Matt suffered because of the series and now they’re separated. Shelby was even caught out on a date with Dominic, the actor who played Matt in the docuseries. When asked about the affair, she steps away from the interview to say it was just a stupid weekend fling. But, Shelby has decided to do the show after all because Matt can’t possibly avoid her if they’re locked in the house together. She does, however, make them promise Dominic will not be involved in the show. Sid agrees.
Two weeks before the blood moon and all the camera are being installed, with Sid insisting the cameras be placed out of the way so the participants will forget they’re there. The special effects are also in place, including a sink that vomits up Sulphur. Draws pop out, a fire explodes out of the oven, and tables vibrate…the house is rigged to scare everyone involved. Sid defends his decision to rig the house to Diana, saying he’s doing it partially to get Lee to admit she killed her husband, Mason.
While they’re setting up the house for the show, Sid and the crew discover a ring of fetal pigs out by the trees in the yard. No one has any idea who put them there.
Next up we meet Agnes Mary Winstead (Kathy Bates) who played The Butcher in the flashbacks. Sid interviews her to find out what life has been like since the show. Agnes claims The Butcher was the role of a lifetime. Her audition tape is shown and Sid talks about how she was a huge fan favorite as the show’s villain, but Agnes says she never saw The Butcher as a villain and that she just wanted to get it right. Agnes does admit that the role was taxing, but was also one of the greatest roles in history. Sid then brings up an episode in Hollywood where she went a bit crazy on Hollywood Blvd, terrorizing people while dressed as The Butcher complete with a meat cleaver. She was diagnosed with schizo-effective disorder and had to undergo treatment for six months in a facility. Agnes says she just dove too deep into the part and now the meds are working and she’s fine. Sid shows her a photo of the ring of piglets and she claims to have nothing to do with it. He calls in an officer who serves her with a restraining order. She thought she was going to be part of the sequel, but Sid tells her she’s no longer involved in the series. He warns her to stay away from the set or face being arrested. She chases him out of her apartment, screaming as if she’s The Butcher. Sid admits to Diana he actually hopes she doesn’t stay away from the Roanoke house.
Lee (Adina Porter) sits down for an interview with E! News where she confirms she’s part of season two. She wants to protect her name, and she knows fans think she killed her husband. Plus, her mother-in-law is trying to get Flora away from her.
Back at the production office, Sid wants to make sure they’re covered legally if they put a suspected murderer on the show. He’s told they’re on solid ground, but there could be a problem with Monet (who played Lee) because she has a drinking problem. That means they can’t knowingly provide Monet with alcohol during the shoot.
Sid and Diana rush back to the house after getting a call about an emergency on the set. One of the workers was killed by a chainsaw while working outside. Sid has to make a decision about whether to give the crew time off, but the cast will be there in four hours and, per Sid, “S**t happens.” Diana is angry Sid’s not upset about the death and she thinks there’s something freaky going on on the set. She’s done and leaves, recording a video while driving in case Sid tries to make her out to look like a crazy person. She spots someone who looks like The Butcher on the side of the road and then suddenly Pig Man appears in her backseat and attacks her. Diana rolls her car and according to a note on screen, her camera was found three months after the accident however her body was never recovered.
Audrey (Sarah Paulson) tapes a confessional (a la Big Brother) and we learn she’s British. We also learn that she and Rory (Evan Peters), the actor who played Edward, fell in love on the set. Rory joins Audrey in the confessional where he pretends to be British and then reveals they got married! Audrey looks completely happy and in a flashback we see their outdoor wedding and hear the vows they wrote expressing their love.
Audrey and Rory check out the room they’ll be staying in, and it turns out it’s the same bedroom she shot scenes in in My Roanoke Nightmare. Rory gets a call for a screen test with Brad Pitt and will have to miss the sequel, and Audrey claims to be totally fine with him leaving to go shoot a film for six months (although her face tells a different story). They’re discussing him telling Sid he has to leave when Rory sees a movement outside the dining room window. He goes to the window and The Butcher shatters the window. Just then Sid, Shelby, and Monet (Angela Bassett) arrive and confirm they didn’t have anything to do with the window breaking. Audrey is sure it was Agnes because Agnes stalked her after they finished with season one. Audrey even had to call 911 because Agnes tried to break into her house.
Matt (Andre Holland) and Lee are the next to arrive and Sid gives them all phones (disabled) to be used as cameras. He wants to make sure they shoot anything weird. Sid tells Matt to share a room with his estranged wife but Matt doesn’t want to, although Shelby would like to talk it out. Lee tells off her sister-in-law and the tension in the room rises as Lee tells Shelby that because of her everyone believes she murdered her own husband. Shelby apologizes – again – and then tries to tell Matt the fling with Dominic only happened once.
The actors – Monet, Rory, and Audrey – gossip about Shelby, Matt, and Lee, and talk about how they don’t believe their story of ghosts and The Butcher. Nothing happened when they shot there for eight weeks, and then Matt enters the kitchen and asks what time of year it was when they shot. They shot in the summer but Matt points out that now is the time of the blood moon. Monet, Rory, and Audrey make jokes about it, not taking Matt or the threat seriously. A note on screen reveals all but one of the participants died during the three-day shoot. The planned sequel never aired and what we’re seeing is the found footage.
Audrey and Rory have a little sexy fun in the outdoor hot tub while in the house Matt sets up his bed in the basement. Monet pours herself a drink in her room and Lee wanders the halls. A crispy – and dead – Mason is behind her in the hall, and he looks directly at one of the hidden cameras. Lee turns around, sensing something but there’s nothing there.
Rory stays in the hot tub while Audrey heads inside to take a shower. Shelby wanders the halls and sees Lee in the kitchen. She doesn’t want to talk to her but instead sneaks down the stairs to visit Matt. She wants him to come upstairs to her bedroom, but he’s having second thoughts about returning to their old house. Shelby says it’ll be different this time with more people and cameras monitoring their every move. Matt thinks it will happen again and warns that he doesn’t think they’ll survive this time.
Monet and Lee fix snacks in the kitchen, where Lee and Monet admit they have nothing in common. Monet’s been drinking and says she’s a drunk because of Lee, playing her made her turn to alcohol. Lee tells Monet that people in the street who yell at her are actually only seeing the person Monet played in the series.
Shelby and Matt’s talk is cut short when Dominic knocks on the front door. Matt records a confessional where he says it felt ‘nice’ to meet Dominic in person, while a flashback shows Matt immediately attacking Dominic before he could make it more than a few feet inside the house. Shelby tries to break up the fight along with Rory and Monet, and Shelby heads straight to a camera, flips it off, and yells, “F**k you, Sidney! F**k you motherf**ker!”
Lee and her brother share a quiet moment in the kitchen after the fight while Shelby finishes up her shower. She looks into the foggy bathroom mirror and sees the Pig Man standing behind her. She runs down the stairs, crying in a panic, and gives Dominic a hug, wondering why Sid set it up so that someone would scare her. Upstairs, Rory looks through closets and under beds. He also yells, “F**k you, Sidney,” after not finding anything unusual in a closet. Unfortunately, the body count increases by one as he’s apparently slashed to death by the dead nurses.
Matt is downstairs by himself when he sees the word “murder” is once again painted in blood on the wall…but this time it’s the complete word.
The rest of the cast are gathered in the dining room when Matt comes in and announces, “R is for Rory.”
