Never mess with a ghost with a grudge. Hayden confronts Vivien with the truth about Ben, while Tate and Violet are stalked by a group of disgruntled teenagers.
**CONTENT WARNING: Violence, death, disturbing images**
Synopsis
This one technically doesn’t start with a flashback, unless you count how it replays the ending of the previous episode. But to be fair, it is the second part of a two-parter, so I don’t think it truly breaks the theme so far.
The Violet cliffhanger was a misdirection. Nothing bad happens—the burned man and the latex man both end up leaving her alone. She’s only missing because she went off with Tate on their date and didn’t turn off the house alarm. They go to the beach for some canoodling but are interrupted by a group of teenagers who have really taken on the Halloween spirit, with blood and wounds and all. They recognize Tate, but he doesn’t know who they are. The couple goes home, but the group follows them. Violet confronts them and they claim the wounds are real, not Halloween makeup, and that Tate did this to them. Tate chases them off the property, away from Violet, and again tells them he doesn’t know them, much to their chagrin. They elaborate on their story, revealing that Tate apparently murdered them in a school shooting many years ago, which freaks Tate out.
Constance tells Violet that Addy is dead, and reveals that Tate is her son. She makes Violet promise not to tell Tate about Addy, as though he wouldn’t wonder why his sister suddenly is never around.
Things heat up at the house. Vivien finally tells Ben that he needs to move out (you go girl). But it soon becomes clear to each of them that Hayden is around. Ben assumes her death was a hoax in collaboration with the burned man in order to get money. After terrorizing each of them separately, Hayden finally forthrightly confronts Vivien, at which point both realize the other is/was pregnant. Of course, Vivien was already so over Ben that she didn’t need more reasons to hate him, but now she realizes that he must have slept with Hayden again, almost a year after he supposedly stopped. The police show up, having been alerted by Vivien’s alarm system, and whisk Hayden away.
At dawn, all the ghosts who went out on Halloween night return to the Murder House, forlorn about being trapped here, yet again, another year. Hayden disappears out of the cop car. Ben packs up and leaves.
The Ghosts
Pretty much all the ghosts we’ve seen throughout the show appeared in this episode, mostly as they returned at dawn, and we also got some new ones. The group of dead teenagers are clearly a reference to Columbine—one even mentions that Tate asked her if she believed in God right before he shot her. They were clearly only around due to Halloween (not Murder House ghosts), and won’t be showing up again, though. Nora, the wife from the original house owners, helped out Ben during the Hayden crisis. I kept expecting Addy’s ghost to show up, just because it was still Halloween so she should be able to walk around even if she didn’t die on the property, but oh well.
I’m a little unclear about some of the rules for the ghosts. In Part 1, they said ghosts could roam on October 31st, but apparently they actually were able to roam until dawn on November 1st. Not just dawn, either, but they returned to the house in broad daylight at a leisurely stroll, and Hayden had an entire ride in the cop car with sunlight pouring through the car window before she disappeared. When do they get cut off from the rest of the world?
The Family
Not much of a family anymore, I suppose. Vivien has officially broken it off. Although she still doesn’t know about the murder. I thought it was almost humorous how Hayden kept trying to show her how awful Ben really is and Vivien was like, “trust me, I already know, you don’t have to convince me of anything.” Violet is starting to learn some pieces of info about Tate. We’ll see if she investigates this claim that the teenagers had more thoroughly.
Tate
I’m sure they’ll dig more into this soon, but how on earth did he straight up forget that he murdered a bunch of people? Does this mean that he genuinely thought those “fantasies” he told Ben about were actually just fantasies, not realizing he really followed through with them?
Encompassing Theme
A theme has been gradually emerging throughout the show. At first I thought it was just that Vivien happened to have a miscarriage/pregnancy storyline. But it’s starting to feel like all anyone ever talks about is: babies babies babies. Hayden was also pregnant when she died. The gay couple mentioned they were planning to have a kid together before their relationship took a sour turn. Nora had a tragic backstory where her baby was kidnapped and murdered, and in this episode she gave Ben a spiel about how important it is to have a baby. Constance has… interesting opinions on motherhood and seems to have lost many of her children. It went from just a fairly common plot line to practically getting shoved in your face. Not my favorite theme, as someone who doesn’t want children.
Conclusion
I’m glad Vivien finally learned most of the truth, but it honestly would have been more impactful if she hadn’t already determined Ben was absolute trash by then. The storytelling is generally well done, often presenting just the right amount of tension. But I’m getting disgruntled by the amount of minor missteps or unclear content, and by the emerging theme centered around how having a baby is pretty much the most important thing you can do with your life. I knew it wasn’t perfect going in, though I still think as a whole I’ve been enjoying it more than the first time, but I’m also starting to see why I eventually lost interest in it. Still pressing on, though. I want to see this season through to the end this time.
Score: 6/10
About Author
