A group who idolizes famous murderers tries to recreate one of the murders that took place in the house, while Ben deals with the consequences of his affair.
**CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of home invasion and gruesome deaths**
Synopsis
Like the first episode, this one begins with a flashback to the house, this time in the sixties where some nursing school students room together. Two of the students become victims of a home invasion by an intruder faking an injury in order to get inside, where he then attacks and murders them, one by drowning in the bathtub and one by stabbing.
Back to the present, Violet tries to convince Leah that the prank was truly just a prank, that nothing crazy happened and everything she thinks she saw was just Tate in a mask. Leah doesn’t believe her and Leah’s hair is starting to turn white from the stress. That night, the family is awakened in the night by their alarm going off, but it turns out to be Addy. Ben is concerned about how easy it is to get into the house. Vivien is shaken, but more so due to her underlying fear that something is wrong with her unborn baby.
The next day, Constance brings a peace offering in the form of a cupcake, which for some unexplained reason she laced with ipecac, and is bound and determined to get Violet to eat it. Violet isn’t home at the time, but Constance joins Vivien for coffee when she notices Vivien is pregnant and Vivien asks for advice, since she’s worried about the baby and Constance has a daughter who was born with a disability. Constance reveals she also had three other children, two of whom also had disabilities from birth. She sadly lament about her one “perfect” child who she felt was her gift, until she lost them to “others things.”
Ben meets with a new patient named Bianca who describes a recurring dream she has about being cut in half. She then starts poking for information on the house, which she calls the Murder House (the first time that term is used in the show). Ben also gets a call from Hayden (Kate Mara), the woman he had an affair with, who claims she’s pregnant and convinces him to come to Boston to support her while she has an abortion. Of course, he lies to Vivien about why he’s leaving.
Alone in the house that evening, Vivien tries to bond with Violet, offering her the cupcake, but it doesn’t go well and Violet leaves the cupcake out. A stranger knocks on the door and tries to convince Vivien to let her in, using the same fake injury tactic as the home invade from the flashback. Vivien is smart enough to be suspicious and keep the door closed, but it’s not enough because the stranger’s two buddies have already snuck in to capture the two women. One of the intruders is Bianca, the woman posing as Ben’s new patient to get info. They claim they are going to recreate the home invasion from the past by drowning Violet in the bathtub and stabbing Vivien. Violet fights back and gets away for a moment, running into Tate who has just enough time to instruct her to get the intruders to the basement before she is caught.
Vivien sees Addy has snuck back into the house and hopes she go for help. Which she does, but unfortunately her mother doesn’t believe her because apparently Addy has been known to lie. Constance locks her in the “bad girl closet” in a scene reminiscent of Carrie.
Bianca eats the laced cupcake and quickly gets a stomachache, separating her from the others. Tate attacks her with a hatchet to the stomach several times. Violet is able to trick one of the others into going to the basement, where the real drowned ghost rises up and kills her, though Violet runs off before seeing it happen. Vivien is also able to fight off the remaining invader and she and Violet are able to get out of the house, calling for help and catching Constance’s attention. The last invader goes to the basement to find his buddies, but finds the one dead and both the drowned ghost and the stabbed ghost, who murder him. Constance meets up with Tate and Moira in the basement where they agree to hide the bodies, so that Tate can continue seeing Ben for therapy.
Ben, who has been manipulated by Hayden to leave his phone off all night, accompanies her to the abortion clinic. Once she is called back, he finally checks his phone to see tons of missed calls and runs out of the clinic and hurries back to LA. The police discuss the situation with them, having only found the body of Bianca, cut nearly in half (much like her dream), who had crawled away from the house. They assume the others turned on her and got away. The episode ends with a distraught Vivien declaring that they are going to sell the house.
New Ghosts
This episode introduced us to two new ghosts, Maria and Gladys, who died in the house invasion in the sixties. Since these two in turn murder two of the new home invaders (it sounded like Bianca got far enough away from the house not to count), these two might now become ghosts as well. Also, when Addy snuck-in early in the episode, she was rolling a ball to someone we didn’t see, so she might have a friend in there (or could it be one of her siblings who we’ve never seen? Based on how Constance talked about her children, I got the impression all but Addy are dead, so maybe one died in the house and Addy goes to visit them).
The Family
Ben is a mess. He claims he’s trying to set things right, but then he lies about going to see his ex-mistress. I understand why, but trust is so vital in their relationship at this point that it honestly probably would have been better for him to just be upfront about it. Although, Vivien would never have let him go. Vivien is understandably worried about her baby, considering she had a traumatic miscarriage and she’s in her forties. Despite this, she is very brave during the invasion and keeps her wits the whole time. Violet also remained calm and fierce during the encounter, and even was able to outsmart the invader who was trying to drown her. I expected Leah to become a bigger problem for Violet, but it seems as though she was genuinely scared enough to not want to mess with Violet anymore. I feel really bad for her, though. Leah wasn’t a great person, but she didn’t deserve to be terrified like that.
The Neighbors
Good lord. Constance is the last person who should be the mother of three disabled children. Locking a girl with Down syndrome in a closet? Threatening to tie her down at night? What the heck, woman?
Hayden
I remember hating Hayden the first time around. I thought maybe I was overreacting. No, she’s awful. She was only in two scenes and she was obviously manipulative and annoying. And she’s a psych major. Yikes, I would definitely not want her as a psychiatrist.
Spoilers
Ben speaks on the phone with Tate’s mom, who he calls Mrs. Langdon, saying he can’t continue treating Tate. I don’t know if they’ve confirmed yet that Constance is Mrs. Langdon and Tate is her son. It’s odd because it’s actually all spelled out if you’re looking, but it hasn’t been deliberately pointed out, so I think you’re not really “supposed” to know. I’m just not sure if Ben knows that he was talking to Constance.
Ben literally accompanies Hayden to the abortion clinic and sees her get called back, but I know she doesn’t have an abortion. Maybe she called it off after he ran out because she found out he’d left. Or maybe the whole thing was an act to convince him that she was getting an abortion when she never intended to do it. Time will tell.
Conclusion
There were things I liked and disliked about this episode. I like home invasion plot lines, and thought this one was an interesting take. Plus there are real life fanatics and copy cats of famous murderers, so that was a fitting aspect to incorporate into a story like this. I also liked that the cupcake kept getting passed around before it was eaten by one of the intruders. It built up a lot tension of “who’s going to get poisoned?” But they never made it clear why Constance has it out for Violet. Hopefully they’ll explain that soon; it was just frustrating that this episode heavily featured the laced cupcake and we still have no idea why it was laced in the first place. In any case, another thing I liked was that Bianca ended up dying in a symbolically similar fashion to her recurring nightmare (assuming that was even real and not just a made up story as an excuse to visit Ben and case the house). The burned man mentioned that the house turns your own fears against you, so it was fitting that it would turn hers around on her. Hayden is annoying, but her plot line adds drama. I didn’t really expect the Harmon couple to live happily ever after, but this just adds to the obstacles in the way of their reconciliation. It was very smart of the family to put in an alarm system, but then they didn’t use it for the rest of the episode. They were literally home invaded because the alarm didn’t go off when the first intruder snuck in. You’d think they would have made extra sure to leave it on, with Ben gone for the night. So all in all, more things I liked than didn’t, but it had its issues.
One other thing I’ve been enjoying about the show is all the actors I now know, who I didn’t know back when I first watched it. This show was my introduction to Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, and Kate Mara the first time around. Now I know them from several other things, and many of the side characters I also recognize from other shows such as Walking Dead, Gotham, Agents of SHIELD, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It’s been fun getting these little surprises throughout (though I had a little trouble taking Lil’ Kevin seriously as a home invader).
Despite some minor misgivings, I’m still invested in the show and can see how well thought out it is, for the most part. Onto the next one.
Score: 6/10
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