S06.E02: Chapter 2

[txhorns79]

Quote

Why does Priscilla say she's tired of the bloodshed and then decide she'll kill them all, Flora last?  Inconsistent, but quick with the millinery. 

Or this.

I didn't think she was saying she did the killing, but perhaps the other ghosts would kill them all, with Flora last. 

[Mabinogia]

That's how I took it. Priscilla is tired of the other ghosts or whatever killing everyone who comes to the house and wants to try to stop it. So she will make contact with Flora, try to get the living to understand what is happening and hopefully stop whatever the evil is that is in the house. And she struck some kind of deal with Flora to help her survive as long as possible so she'd be last. Or she struck a deal with the evil to save Flora for last. Maybe she's a double agent. Which side is she really working for? hmmm. I need something to make this shit interesting.

[Mattipoo]

When Angela Bassett was screaming while looking up the tree, I was expecting to see Flora hanged in the tree. So glad they didn't go there.

I am enjoying the "back to basics" quality of this season so far, but I am pretty sure Ryan Murphy is going to turn it into some kind of "gotcha" moment and when the truth is revealed, it is going to become as over the top and gaudy as "Hotel".

Lady Gaga is credited at the end of the episode, so I think she is definitely the snarling scary looking woman next to Kathy Bates in the "pig sacrifice" scene in the forest. Haha it would be hilarious if she has no dialogue this season and is just a glorified extra in the background. After her horrible acting in "Hotel" she deserves to be put in the background with no lines and no character name. Then again, she might win another Golden Globe next year for "Best Supporting Actress" for her snarling scene.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Mattipoo

[Wryly]

9 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I didn't think she was saying she did the killing, but perhaps the other ghosts would kill them all, with Flora last. 

 

8 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

That's how I took it. Priscilla is tired of the other ghosts or whatever killing everyone who comes to the house and wants to try to stop it. So she will make contact with Flora, try to get the living to understand what is happening and hopefully stop whatever the evil is that is in the house. And she struck some kind of deal with Flora to help her survive as long as possible so she'd be last. Or she struck a deal with the evil to save Flora for last. Maybe she's a double agent. Which side is she really working for? hmmm. I need something to make this shit interesting.

Ah, I guess that makes sense. It was just weird that Priscilla was supposedly tired of the killing, but in the next scene Flora is trying to offer her doll "As a trade. So she wouldn't kill us."

But what about the bonnet? Why would Priscilla throw it through the window? And I thought I recalled Priscilla saying she would make Flora a bonnet. Yet the bonnet that Lee finds looks old and a bit dirty. I'm probably just over scrutinizing.

[Wryly]

On 9/22/2016 at 0:19 PM, Valny said:

Heh.   When they found the pig parts burning in the woods, the first thing I thought was, mmmm...bacon!

On 9/22/2016 at 2:11 PM, tennisgurl said:

I admit, when I saw all the cut up pig, I was just like "how nice of the ghost pilgrims and/or hillbillies! BLTs for everyone"! 

I thought they were pig parts too, but a family member said she thought they were actually the organs of Bill the Provisions Theft. Implying the pig ritual culminated in Bill being gutted and cut up.

[Mabinogia]

Ah, knowing the way Ryan likes his pointless twists, Priscilla is probably the real big bad and she is luring Flora into her child army. haha. More likely, we put more thought into this show than the people who are making it.

[Black Knight]

Well, I'm still loving this season more than I've loved a season since Asylum (although I enjoyed the seasons in between, in varying degrees). I don't think they will continue the docu-format with Shelby and Matt for the full season; with them finding the video that explains much of the backstory plus Flora going missing, it seems like things are coming to a head. Babble about their savings tied up in the house aside, the kid going missing and her jacket being found all the way up in that tree should be sufficient. Lee's not gonna stay there once she retrieves her kid from wherever, Matt's not gonna leave Shelby alone while he travels, Shelby probably wouldn't stay there all by herself either, and if Matt doesn't travel he loses his job and then they're really up shit creek financially. So I figure by the end of the next episode they have all left, they have all disappeared, or they're dead. But the point of the original Roanoke mystery is that those people disappeared, so I'm putting my money on disappeared.

It could be that they got the idea to record accounts of what happened from the Denis O'Hare character, then disappeared (with the town/police figuring that they simply decided to leave the house), and then this show found their footage and decided to air it along with dramatic re-enactments. The show used technology to wipe out the original background behind Matt/Shelby/Lee's testimonials (blocking out whatever room in the house, or cellar or wherever that they actually recorded themselves) so to conceal from their viewers until the last that these people have actually now disappeared, and then ask what really happened to them: Did they decide to leave abruptly with no forwarding address, did something creepy kidnap them or kill them, what? Then maybe AHS picks up with Lily Rabe's Shelby and Andre Holland's Matt and Adina Porter's Lee to show us what actually happened next (which would involve the characters we haven't seen yet or don't yet have full stories for - Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, etc.). Meanwhile the "My Roanoke Story" show ends up having drama/horror of its own with their re-enactment actors: They send everyone out to do a remote at the house, because the Matt/Shelby episodes were so popular with their audience that viewers want a follow-up, and trouble results.

I much prefer having the credits only at the end of shows so that actors' appearances don't spoil major plot points as can happen sometimes, but dammit, couldn't they have produced an actual credit sequence to air at the end?

[kj4ever]

On 9/22/2016 at 2:21 PM, Avaleigh said:

True, but until the interviews are over (and they don't seem to be going away anytime soon) the expectation is that the leads all survive. This is the first season where I haven't felt the suspense that everybody is at risk.

There is this show that I'll run into every once in a while about stalkers and they do this format.  I can't remember the name of it but this one time they got through all the stuff that this poor lady went through and the real time person announced that she was not the actual person, that the actual person was dead.  I can't remember the name of the show but I sure remember that, it was chilling.  It was the first thing I thought of when I started watching this season, that maybe they aren't the actual people since the age gaps seem switched for this type of show.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, kj4ever said:

It was the first thing I thought of when I started watching this season, that maybe they aren't the actual people since the age gaps seem switched for this type of show.

That could happen. I don't think there was anything explicitly stating that Lily Rabe et al are the "real" people, just that Cuba et al are in a re-enactment. My only issue with that would be that any hope for Lily Rabe having a bigger part would be gone. Unless she and the other talking heads turn out to go to the house as some kind of ghost hunters (which, given the format, I kind of expected) as opposed to just people giving talking heads.

It could be pretty cool if after Lee and Shelby disappear, this group of paranormal explorers go to the house to try to find out what happened. Then we have Cuba and Sarah as "ghosts" haunting their "real" counterparts.

[DollEyes]

Ep 2 definitely lives up to its number. This is the second episode in a row where Shelby, Matt & Lee have made bad decisions, proving that they've got number 2, aka shit, for brains. At this point, the only member of this family who's even remotely sympathetic is little Flora, who was not only snatched by her alcoholic excuse of a "mama" Lee, Lee takes Flora to her brother & sister-in-law's haunted house, where she's snatched again by ghosts-or rather, one set of them. Worst of all, Mason, the one sane parent/adult, in Flora's life isn't there. If Flora survives, if I were Mason, not only  would I not let Lee see her unsupervised again-if at all-to paraphrase a line from The Cosby Show (talk about an American horror story!) the next time Lee does see her again, it will be at her college graduation. 

Any neighborhood that performs human sacrifices isn't safe for any sane mortals, especially a child. The dismembered pig parts didn't help. All the pork chops, spareribs and bacon going to waste is a crying shame. 

  Speaking of shame, it's a shame that Matt's not being played by Sterling K. Brown instead of CGJ. At least then, Shelby and Matt would have had some chemistry. 

Edited September 25, 2016 by DollEyes

[califred]

I still don't grasp how they can't afford rent someplace else.  They paid $40k cash for that house and at least he still has a job.  Rent is not outrageously expensive in NC.  I'd have left a long time ago.

[Aging Goth]

Quote

When they were talking to the rep from the bank trying to get him to take the house back, I was like " ... Is that a thing?" I'd think the recourse would be to sell (likely at a loss), not to return the house.

It is indeed a thing.  There was a family in the early 90s that successfully sued the realtors who sold them their house because they did not disclose the fact that the house was haunted (actually the entire neighborhood was haunted) and that they built the houses on a African American cemetery.  It was the true story that inspired the movie "Poltergeist."  There were other cases where the families won because it wasn't disclosed that a house was haunted or that a murder had taken place in the house.,

[ClareWalks]

I too don't understand how all their money is tied up in that house. Didn't they buy it thinking "holy shit, this house is soooo cheap?" $40K on a mortgage, even a 15-year, isn't much per month. And if they paid for it cash, they wouldn't even have a monthly payment, so they could afford rent elsewhere. 

[Captanne]

It's a horror movie trope.

Hey, wasn't there a section where we could complain about the advertisement sponsor images?  I am tired of looking up-close-and-personal at toenail fungus.

 

ETA:  Found the area for questions -- now it's just a matter of time before Toenail Fungus reappears and I tag that baby.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Captanne

[Aging Goth]

4 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

I too don't understand how all their money is tied up in that house. Didn't they buy it thinking "holy shit, this house is soooo cheap?" $40K on a mortgage, even a 15-year, isn't much per month. And if they paid for it cash, they wouldn't even have a monthly payment, so they could afford rent elsewhere. 

It appears to be the running problem among most folks who end up buying a reputedly haunted house.  They pour all of they liquid assets into the house and then are too financially strapped to move.  Moving also entails physically moving your things as well as leaving the house.  Some just choose to deny there is a problem until it is too late or that their house is too well know to be haunted and they cannot sell.  They usually weigh the fear of being in a severely haunted house with the prospect of losing their investment.

[LoneHaranguer]

7 hours ago, Aging Goth said:

There were other cases where the families won because it wasn't disclosed that a house was haunted or that a murder had taken place in the house.

But this property was offered as-is by the bank, so the banker was right that it was up to the buyers to investigate and assume the worst. And it shouldn't have been unexpected that a property that size would have a range of numbers for its address, so they should have tried them all. There are some conventions for what number to use for what purpose in that case, so the banker may not have been trying to hide anything.

On 9/25/2016 at 8:12 AM, kj4ever said:

It was the first thing I thought of when I started watching this season, that maybe they aren't the actual people since the age gaps seem switched for this type of show.

Unless I've missed something, we're only seeing the actual people from the waist or chest up, so they didn't necessarily escape unscathed. Also, I recall a show where you saw the real person telling the story turn out to be a ghost at the end.

BTW, I noticed that Matt suggested selling the property to the "mountain men", rather than "hillbillies". Nothing like thinking somebody might kill you to spark some respect for them.

[Anela]

8 hours ago, Captanne said:

It's a horror movie trope.

Hey, wasn't there a section where we could complain about the advertisement sponsor images?  I am tired of looking up-close-and-personal at toenail fungus.

 

ETA:  Found the area for questions -- now it's just a matter of time before Toenail Fungus reappears and I tag that baby.

I use ad blockers, and am very glad that I missed out on that. Ew!

[Sile]

I get the idea that Paulson, Gooding and Bassett are overacting on purpose, because they are playing actors.  Laying on the cheese because documentary re-enactments are always ham and cheese fests.  Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but Rabe, Brown and Porter seem to be doing such a better acting job that it has to be intentional.  Doesn't it?

The killer nurses reminds me of a case I've seen on a few true crime shows.  I think Deadly Women was one of them and another was that folie a deux series ID has a few years ago.  I can't remember the title and it's driving me crazy!

Anyway, these two real life nurses were lovers rather than sisters and I think it was in Michigan.  I specifically remember them playing the murder game with the patients' initials but can't remember much else other than that I think one of them was named Sandy.  Other than the nurse thing and the spelling game, I don't think there are any other similarities so I don't know if that was just an inspiration for the wall decoration or more will tie in with the real nurses.

Anybody else remember this case?

[Anela]

Since there is no spoiler thread that I can see right now, I'll put this here about a future episode:

 

 

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/09/22/ahs-roanoke-exclusive-twist

Huge twist coming in episode 6.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Anela

[Reghan]

My name starts with R and I was watching this like "I swear if the first person she kills has an R name..." HAHAHA

[FlyingEgret]

On 9/24/2016 at 6:42 PM, Wryly said:

I thought they were pig parts too, but a family member said she thought they were actually the organs of Bill the Provisions Theft. Implying the pig ritual culminated in Bill being gutted and cut up.

That's what I thought as well; certainly hope I was wrong!

[RazzleberryPie]

He is in sales and spends time overnight in hotels, most likely paid with a corporate expense account. She is unemployed. Their lives have been threatened numerous ways. Just go do your job and take your wife with you to the expensed hotels until you can find somewhere else. 

These people are stupid.

$40k is not a lot of money in savings for someone who was at the top of their game in pharm sales and relocated. I'd cash out my 401k to pay rent if I my life was in danger. 

The sister lived somewhere. Crash on her couch. It looks like late summer, you're in NC, pitch a tent in a state park if you have to. 

Repeat: these people are stupid and it's hard to have sympathy for them. 

Edited September 27, 2016 by RazzleberryPie

[Dewey Decimate]

On 9/22/2016 at 10:00 AM, Avaleigh said:

I like psychological horror, so that isn't my problem with this. My problem is that I already feel like I know what's going to happen and that there aren't any real stakes involved. There's no doubt in my mind for example that the daughter will be found and that she'll be safe. 

 

On 9/22/2016 at 10:27 AM, ClareWalks said:

I agree that we are missing that "will they die?" tension because of the format, with the "real-life" Matt and Shelby narrating their own re-enactment. I almost wish they'd done away with that whole aspect of it because, while it's interesting, it overtly indicates that everything turns out okay for the main characters.

Exactly. I figure by default that Ryan Murphy will pull some ludicrous M. Night Shamalamadingdong "twist" at the end that ignores the fact that we have a logo for the "My Roanoke Nightmare"; calm, cool, and relatively collected interviews from the main - and still living - players; and reenactments with exceptionally high production values and fantastic acting. Knowing that the three mains cannot die for the time being takes away from the "gotcha!" aspect. And the docu format keeps reminding me of "I Never Should Have Gone Ziplining" - hilarious episode of South Park, but not so great if I want to be scared.

On 9/22/2016 at 10:34 AM, RazzleberryPie said:

Is ryan bored and over this or stretched too thin? I miss the scary introduced, too. That was the scariest part of coven and freak show.

I sooo miss the intros. The one for Coven was better than some episodes.

On 9/22/2016 at 0:19 PM, Valny said:

Heh.   When they found the pig parts burning in the woods, the first thing I thought was, mmmm...bacon!

 I'm the opposite, so far I don't think it's scary at all.  I'd have to watch again but I think Murder House was scarier/creepier.   But everyone has different levels of what is frightening to them.  Mine is high on the Scare O' Meter.

I thought long pig! And yeah, not particularly scary. I just don't find rustic arts and crafts to be frightening, but everyone's got their thing. Throw in a house centipede and I'll freakin' scream!

[Captanne]

Personally, I was absolutely terrified by Blair Witch Project -- I'm from DC but raised in Maryland and I bear a vague resemblance to the lead "actress" -- so, that may lend to the fear.  (If you identify with the characters and it's set in familiar, friendly surroundings -- it's easier to get completely weirded out.)

I'm not finding Roanoke as frightening as I did parts of Freakshow (Twisty and the whole man-baby thing; as well as the Nazi-noir amputation-thing) but I am enjoying the show so far.  

And I laughed out loud at "M. Night Shamalangadingdong"!  Thanks!

[gunderda]

The first episode I didn't really like because it seemed too much like something else.  Blair Witch, the first season of AHS, among others.... but after this 2nd episode I think I really like it right now.  It's creepy and weird but not ridiculous (yet)

[gunderda]

On 9/22/2016 at 11:06 AM, Empress1 said:

When they were talking to the rep from the bank trying to get him to take the house back, I was like " ... Is that a thing?" I'd think the recourse would be to sell (likely at a loss), not to return the house.

Well usually you go after the seller... but in this case the seller was the bank.... so..... 

But in my opinion I think almost all house selling cases are "as-is" but I think at least in my state there is an actual law that states that you must disclose that someone has died in the house (if you are aware of it) and if you don't and it's found out that you knew then you can get sued.

On 9/22/2016 at 0:02 PM, MrsMoltisanti said:

During the scene in the house when they went upstairs and there were bloody pig tails pinned to the wall and waving back and forth, I actually thought it was bloddy baby arms poking through holes in the walls and swinging back and forth....I was thinking: WHAT?  Later my daughter told me they were pig tails.  For some reason I thought the baby arms were somehow related to the Horror House basement activities in Season 1. 

In any case, it is interesting so far I suppose.  Still waiting for some oomph.

It took me until the 2nd time of seeing them (outside on the trees) that they were pig tails too. 

16 hours ago, Sile said:

I get the idea that Paulson, Gooding and Bassett are overacting on purpose, because they are playing actors.  Laying on the cheese because documentary re-enactments are always ham and cheese fests.  Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but Rabe, Brown and Porter seem to be doing such a better acting job that it has to be intentional.  Doesn't it?

 

That makes sense.  Paulson and Gooding's acting hasn't bothered me but this past episode I was thinking Bassett's acting was HORRIBLE.  Like way too over done, so maybe that's why. I hope it's on purpose.

[RedheadZombie]

On September 26, 2016 at 7:07 AM, Aging Goth said:

It is indeed a thing.  There was a family in the early 90s that successfully sued the realtors who sold them their house because they did not disclose the fact that the house was haunted (actually the entire neighborhood was haunted) and that they built the houses on a African American cemetery.  It was the true story that inspired the movie "Poltergeist."  There were other cases where the families won because it wasn't disclosed that a house was haunted or that a murder had taken place in the house.,

But the movie was made in 1982.  How could it have been inspired by something that didn't  occur until a decade later?  

[qtpye]

I

Quote

think what I don't like about Cuba is his voice.  It sounds like he has a frog in his throat or just sucked on some helium.  It's all I can focus on when he is on screen.

Particularly if you compare it to Andre Holland's beautiful voice.  Cuba was also the weakest part of American Crime Story.  You know how some child stars do not grow into great adult actors....well, Cuba is like someone who was good as a young man, but for some weird reason, not so much in middle age.

[Wryly]

On 9/26/2016 at 2:41 PM, LoneHaranguer said:

But this property was offered as-is by the bank, so the banker was right that it was up to the buyers to investigate and assume the worst. And it shouldn't have been unexpected that a property that size would have a range of numbers for its address, so they should have tried them all. There are some conventions for what number to use for what purpose in that case, so the banker may not have been trying to hide anything.

The property had one address. It had been the same for over twenty years. The bank deliberately changed that address to deceive potential buyers. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Dumb Yuppie should have done their homework, but the point is that even if they had it wouldn't have mattered because the bank was underhanded.

[TheGourmez]

Quote

I think these people should leave and they are crazy for staying. I worry I may lose my sympathy for them since they are staying.

I think it's amazing that their talking head scenes keep featuring them explaining why they didn't believe the crazy things happening to each other while crazy things are also happening to them. Like, what? Once you've seen a man scalped by witches in the woods, you should not have a hard time believing your sister in law DIDN'T throw all the knives at the ceiling.

Quote

 Other than the nurse thing and the spelling game, I don't think there are any other similarities so I don't know if that was just an inspiration for the wall decoration or more will tie in with the real nurses.

I think I can confidently say that's similarities enough to claim inspiration! No way it's not related to the real-life story you shared.

[queenanne]

On 9/26/2016 at 9:29 AM, ClareWalks said:

I too don't understand how all their money is tied up in that house. Didn't they buy it thinking "holy shit, this house is soooo cheap?" $40K on a mortgage, even a 15-year, isn't much per month. And if they paid for it cash, they wouldn't even have a monthly payment, so they could afford rent elsewhere. 

Yes, they bought it thinking it was cheap.  This was, however, twinned with the expected statement about how "that was all the savings we had in the world!"

What puzzles me most about Flora, is why she didn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming back into the house.  It strained enough credulity that she'd tell her father she didn't want to leave in the first place; but at least that's explainable by her not wanting to leave Mama Lee alone with the likes of Priscilla and her murdering kind.  Once I was out of it as a six year old, I don't think anything could drag me back in.

As for the pig's tails, for pig's tails I think they were, I also for some reason remember some piece of intel saying that, once the pig/tail is dead they'll un-corkscrew.  I want to say, this was Laura Ingalls Wilder-related; as it seems like intel I've known for a long time.

[hilaryvm]

While the bank may have sold the house "as-is" I believe that generally covers things like problems with the physical structure of the house.  I think you still have to do disclosures, and the changing of the address would look really bad in court.  In reality, the murder of all those people by the nurses in the house would definitely be something they had to disclose to buyers.  A leaky roof?  That is covered by "as-is."  Murderous nurses killing at least 5 people?  Not so much.

 

Also, Shelby was right.  Go sell it to the hillbillies.  They would at least get some of their money back, even if it wasn't all of it, and that would be enough to get something in town.

[EDTV]

i still dont understand how that mansion only cost 40k and only has 3 bedrooms. that house looks like it has 20 rooms or more, so what are the other 17 rooms?...lol

and why not take a picture of things since no one believes you? when they found the pigs head on the cross they just tore it down instead of taking a picture. and of course they still dont have a gun and go out at night with a bat? and the husband leaves in the middle of the night to get the cop without getting his wife first?

sooo many things that just make ZERO sense and aren't rational or believable.