If you’re keeping up with the American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare fan theories, the one that seems to have really taken root is the idea that each episode of this sixth season represents a prior season. Episode three, titled ‘Chapter Three,’ aired on September 28, 2016 and falls in line with this theory as it introduced Lady Gaga’s witch character, involved a medium contacting the dead, and laid out the gruesome backstory of the character played by Kathy Bates. That would suggest that episode four will be a freak show and five will somehow involve a hotel, which makes sense as Cuba Gooding Jr. as Matt suggested they stay at a hotel.
Whatever the case, this season of FX’s American Horror Story is truly scary. The decision to completely alter the storytelling style has proven to be the right one and ‘My Roanoke Nightmare’ could wind up being one of the show’s strongest seasons.
The Chapter 3 Recap:
Current Lee (Adina Porter) says there’s no fear like the fear of losing a child. Flashback Lee (Angela Bassett) watches as searchers lower her daughter’s jacket from the top of the tree. The cops wonder why everything seems to be happening to this family. Current Lee recalls she was thankful for the volunteers, but didn’t trust the cops. She thought they might be in on it. Dogs are brought in to help the search, with grids assigned and lots of volunteer help.
Current Shelby (Lily Rabe) was scared of being in the woods alone, and Matt (Andre Holland) says your mind plays tricks out there. But, it wasn’t all in their imaginations.
Flashback Lee screams for help when she comes upon Flora’s doll, limbs severed but arranged neatly with a pig’s head in place of the doll’s. Matt, Shelby (Sarah Paulson) and Lee stumble on a farmhouse and in front of it is a pig’s body cut up with the missing doll head attached. They enter the house, calling out for Flora but there’s no answer. The place is disgusting, filled with flies, and there’s a ram’s head in the refrigerator. They race outside when they hear a noise and head to the barn, walking past dead baby pigs. Inside the barn two kids are suckling the momma pig. They look feral and are filthy, but aren’t scared off by the appearance of Matt, Shelby, and Lee.
Current Lee says the cops were brought to the barn. The rest of the hillbilly family were gone and just those two wild kids were left behind.
At the police station, the cops say the hillbillies took Flora and fled since it wasn’t really their farm. In rushes Flora’s dad, Mason, extremely upset and wanting to talk to the two boys. The boys can’t really talk and only scream out one word when questioned. Current Matt and Shelby say they came to understand what that one word meant.
Flashback Lee, Matt and Shelby are still searching the woods at night, with Flora gone 72+ hours at that point. Current Lee says at that point she had to accept the possibility they were looking for a body. Current Matt says they needed to take a break and Lee agreed.
Back at their house, Mason demands to know where Flora is. Flashback Shelby says not to blame Lee but Mason will have none of it. He thinks she hid Flora somewhere and is going to sneak away with her later. Mason slams Lee to the floor in anger and then leaves.
Current Shelby says they were exhausted, and Matt says they fell immediately asleep that night.
The phone rings and Flashback Matt wakes up Lee and Shelby because the cops have found a body. They drive to the spot and Lee pushes her way through the cops. The body is tied to a post (just like the other man who was burned alive) and is completely unrecognizable because the flesh has all burned away. One thing was recovered from the body – a ring. It’s Mason’s body, not Flora’s!
Current Matt remembers that he was so shocked after seeing Mason, he almost missed alerts on his phone about movement at the house.
Flashback Matt and Shelby look through the security footage and see Lee left the house 15 minutes after Mason and returned four hours later. Shelby thinks the cops need to know, but Matt doesn’t think it’s true. Just then Lee walks in and can’t believe Shelby thinks she murdered Mason. Matt thinks they should all pack up and go to a hotel because something doesn’t want them there. In walks a short stranger with an interesting haircut who says he was called to find Flora.
Current Lee says they had no idea who he was or who called him. She was leery of strangers at that point.
The stranger explains himself, saying he was home in New Orleans when he was told by a spirit that Flora won’t be found through regular means but only through someone who knows the “comings and goings of the other side.” Matt thanks him for coming but says he’s letting the FBI handle the investigation. However, this man knows the FBI director and has helped out on multiple missing child cases.
Current Shelby verifies they looked him up and he was telling the truth about working with law enforcement.
The stranger remembers as a child he could find missing items. Current Lee says she was skeptical until he did something she couldn’t explain. The stranger walked through the house and then made them all stand still and asked if they could hear something. He’s right at the door under the stairs where he says Flora hid. On the floor of the little closet is a bonnet. He declares Flora is not dead and she wasn’t taken by the living. She’s with Priscilla, but Lee says Priscilla isn’t real. The man says Priscilla is a real child who loves corn husk dolls and died in the late 1500s.
Current Shelby believes the stranger, Cricket (Leslie Jordan), actually has the sight. Matt didn’t believe him and thought psychics just target people who are desperate, but Shelby gave him permission to try a séance.
Cricket leads the group as they sit around the table. He calls for Priscilla and the candle goes out. Priscilla is not the one who did it, and Cricket demands they all join hands to keep themselves safe. A woman answers and Cricket tells her to show herself. She does, and Cricket asks for the patron saint of mercy, the patron saint of those who live and work in the forest, to keep them safe. It doesn’t work and the spirit chops the candle in two.
Current Lee says it got too real. She didn’t see any wires or special effects. Matt couldn’t explain it, either.
Cricket surrounds them with the white light of protection. He says she has a cleaver, she’s called The Butcher, and she died centuries ago. He wants to know why she is haunting the house. She says she’s protecting the place and Priscilla hid the girl away from her. The Butcher is here to protect the land from trespassers, and Cricket calls her the trespasser. All the windows in the room shatter and Cricket yells Croatoan, the same word the two feral boys yelled.
Flashback Lee wants to know if Cricket learned where Flora is and Shelby wants to know what Croatoan means. Cricket says he has the answers and the spirits are dark and malevolent and have Flora. He can take her to them for $25,000. Matt calls him a con artist who preys on a mother’s hopes.
Current Matt says he thought it was a Cirque du Soleil act, a shakedown perpetrated by the group and he wasn’t going to stand for it.
Cricket tells them he understands their skepticism. Flashback Shelby tells him he’s awful, but Cricket says he only wants to help. Lee pulls a gun on him and Matt tries to talk her into putting it away. Matt kicks Cricket out of his house, and Cricket says he’ll be back. “You will invite me,” says Cricket, leaving but not before whispering in Lee’s ear.
Current Shelby claims to not know what Cricket actually said before he left, only that it shook up Lee. Lee says Cricket didn’t say anything, but the interviewer asks from off-camera if maybe Cricket said something about her first daughter, Emily. Lee looks confused.
And now we learn what Cricket said. It was, “Emily says hello. She wonders why you quit looking for her all those years ago.”
Current Lee asks how the interviewer (was that the voice of Evan Peters or Cheyenne Jackson?) knows about Emily and he says they learned it through background checks. She breaks the fourth wall, demanding they stop filming and turn off the cameras. We see a brief glimpse of the crew behind the scenes. The cameras are turned back on and Lee reveals she was 17 when she had Emily. She was just four years-old when Lee needed to run to the grocery store for sauce. She didn’t take Emily in and when she got back to the car, Emily was gone. She never saw her again. Lee knows how Flora’s disappearance looks to the outside world, but she didn’t do anything to her daughter. She paid Cricket to learn where Flora was being kept.
Flashback Lee gives Cricket his $25,000 and asks for Priscilla and Flora’s whereabouts. Cricket wishes it was that simple. His mind was blasted by spirits in the woods after he left the house before, and they need to find out everything possible about The Butcher. Her real name is Thomasin White and she was married to the governor of Roanoke. He went back to England for supplies, leaving Thomasin in charge. It was a harsh time and her son (Wes Bentley) wanted them to travel inland to survive. Thomasin said no, they have to stay put.
Current Lee says everyone knows the history of 116 settlers disappearing without a trace from Roanoke. She did not believe that had anything to do with Flora’s disappearance.
Flashback Lee thinks Cricket is selling her a crock of s**t. Roanoke wasn’t near the farmhouse, but Cricket says she only thinks she knows the story. In another flashback, the townspeople lock Thomasin in a metal head cage complete with spikes on the outside. The townspeople want to send her out into the wilderness, and her son begs them not to do this. If he doesn’t put the lock on his mother’s mask, then they will kill him. He tells her to beg for a reprieve, but she won’t bend her knee to any man. He locks her in and they abandon her in the forest. She’s close to dying of hunger and thirst when boars chase her. She prays and prays, saying she repents. She surrenders her soul but someone saves her from the beasts before they get to her. The witch (Lady Gaga) tells her to eat the pig’s still beating heart, freeing her from her chains. She smiles as she eats.
Returning to Roanoke, Thomasin slices the town’s leader in the head with a cleaver and slices the throat of another man who speaks out. She makes her son beg for a reprieve, and if he wasn’t her son she would kill him. She tells him they are all going inland.
Cricket explains to Lee that The Butcher settled on this very property and will kill them all because it’s hers. Lee and Cricket rejoin Matt and Shelby and they search the woods at night. He uses the bonnet to call forth Priscilla, but then he says they aren’t alone. The Butcher and some of her people are gathered, and Cricket tells them there is a way they can get what they all want. Matt, Shelby, and Lee can’t see The Butcher and the other ghosts, but Cricket tells The Butcher to make Priscilla give up Flora because there can be no friendship between the dead and the living. When Flora is returned, Lee, Matt and Shelby will leave. Lee even throws in an offer to burn the house down so no one else will ever live there. Shelby says she didn’t agree to that, but Lee assures her Matt did. Just then they notice Matt is missing.
Current Shelby says she wasn’t shocked Lee turned to Cricket for help and gave him the money he asked for. She was, however, surprised Matt agreed to the terms. Matt says he has no memory of slipping away and no memory of what Shelby saw when she found him.
Flashback Shelby calls for Matt in the woods. She finally comes upon a dead pig, two men masturbating, and a disturbing scene of Matt having sex with the witch.
Current Lee says Cricket and The Butcher did strike the deal. They then looked for Matt and Shelby for an hour, and Matt finally emerged confused and with no memory of what occurred. Shelby returned to the house by herself.
Flashback Matt runs up to the front door, past the cops, and yells for Shelby. She pushes him away and he doesn’t know why. She tells him he agreed to burn their house down without consulting her, and he was in the woods having sex with a woman. Matt has no idea what she’s talking about and Shelby describes what she saw. Matt sounds sincere when he says he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Lee returns and the cops arrest her. Matt asks Shelby, “What did you do?” and she replies, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
American Horror Story Season 6 Recaps:
