S06.E04: Chapter 4

[Tara Ariano]

No description available.

[Valny]

At least we have a promo. 

 

[rustyspigot]

"Maybe he just wanted the house back." Really, Shelby? A an ax wielding pig headed man that just tried to kill you vanished when the guy said "CROATOAN" and you thought maybe he just wanted the house back?

By all means go out into the woods to discuss this train of thought more.

Can the "My Roanoke Nightmare" interviewer please do every one a favor and murder this stupid couple.

Edited October 6, 2016 by rustyspigot

[Dancingjaneway]

NOOO! Not Cricket! Can we swap Cricket for Matt & Shelby?? Please? I'm also not happy that the professor died. 

[ShadowHunter]

My interest in this season is slowly fading.  The only thing I liked was hearing that the House was owned/built by the Mott family.  A  Freak Show connection I want to see that backstory.

I cant stand Shelby. You know what she can leave check into the Hotel Cortez annoy James March and he will do me a favor lol. Speaking of Mr. March where is Evan Peters?  I know he was filming a movie that didn't wrap until the end of June and filming for the season had started but still he is in the main credits.

[SlovakPrincess]

Well, damn, that was gross.  And i liked Cricket. :(

[Straycat80]

Yes,  Matt and Shelby win the stupidest couple ever award! Let's not worry about poor Lee being arrested, a pig man chases you thru your house, basement guy chases him off ,then calmly have a conversation with him , but then almost kick him out because you think he wants this hell house back. Then when Cricket leaves they STAY in the house. I would have been like, hey, we'll go back with you. Get out of that house! You can stay at a hotel and still look for Flora.

I liked the backstory about Roanoke and the crazy butcher lady and Lady Gaga, at least they are explaining things as they go along this time. That's what I didn't like about some of the past seasons, they left you hanging a lot of the times. 

This episode was like a slasher movie to me. Lots of blood and gore. Poor Cricket didn't deserve to die like that. I'm going to have nightmares about the nurses' arms flying off. 

What is up with Kathy Bates accent this time? It's kind of an Irish/Scottish/Fargo accent? 

[TudorQueen]

A friend of mine is an American history buff with family connections to the Carolinas, and she says that Kathy Bates and Wes Bentley are handling the 'colonial' accent very well.

[BuddhaBelly]

Their accents are painful.

[LJonEarth]

I've always heard that early American accents were super awkward compared what we have now.

[mamadrama]

22 minutes ago, TudorQueen said:

A friend of mine is an American history buff with family connections to the Carolinas, and she says that Kathy Bates and Wes Bentley are handling the 'colonial' accent very well.

Deep in Appalachia you can actually still hear this, along with Old English words. It is interestingly well-preserved.

[bilgistic]

Here's a short video about current coastal North Carolina dialects. Early settlers in the area were largely from England and Ireland, which is still reflected in the native language today.

I live in the southern Piedmont area of NC (middle of the state). I grew up in the northern Piedmont. I'm at least eighth-generation North Carolinian. My ancestors are from England, as well, and settled in the foothills (just east of the mountains) of NC after coming over.

[Inkmaster0345]

American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare, or as I like to call it "Murder House: Country Style". I mean seriously, move the mansion from Los Angeles to Carolina and change the evil doctor to the Roanoke Colony--it's all the same tricks. Evil house, residents die and then become part of the evil gang themselves, delusional couple that insists on staying despite everything going on around them. 

I actually really enjoy the Roanoke backstory. The most amazing thing that AHS does imo is create rich and interesting backstories that support the story arcs.

I'm wondering where the season is going to go from here. We've actually had quite a bit of the backstory revealed at this point considering it's only episode 4. In previous seasons we've been kept in the dark far more. I'm guessing that the progression of the story will have a lot to do with the introduction of some of our favorites (please Evan Peters just show up already). 

Also, this episode had very American Gods heavy vibes, if any of you are familiar with that work.

[WhosThatGirl]

Yeah.. I liked this at first but now it is a retread of AHS Murder House. And that's getting kind of boring. 

Also the true crime part of it is what keeps me from feeling any fear towards the main characters. Because they're alive and well if they're shooting this documentary. I was worried about Flora and her wellbeing.  But now it's like obviously they aren't going to  e disembodied because they're telling us this.

Love that the documentary thought to include the uber driver for a nano second. 

Edited October 6, 2016 by WhosThatGirl

[Xazeal]

I love what we have so far, and I can't wait to see where it goes when the documentary format inevitably ends.

HOWEVER, this part does feel like a retread of Murder House. I get that we're still basically in the prologue, but if we're going to spend half the season in a "pretend" story while we wait for the real stuff to start, at least make it fresh. 

It's not a huge gripe and I'm still very much enjoying the episodes. I just wish I was thinking "wow, this is different and cool!" instead of "wow, this season will really be awesome in episode 6!"

Edited October 6, 2016 by Xazeal

[Arynm]

I heard a lot of the Peaky Blinders accent in Kathy Bates tonight. This episode was gross, but I enjoyed it. I like the way this season is going so far

[Jade Foxx]

Note to Gaga: Nell did the wild bitch in the woods first. And she did it better. (shout out to Jodie Foster)

The Uber driver for the win! ?

[Petunia13]

1 hour ago, LJonEarth said:

I've always heard that early American accents were super awkward compared what we have now.

It makes sense they talk weird. It reminds me of Penn Dutch and how they think they speak Deutsch and English.   But very accented and weird cadences and the German words they use are isolated and passed down without hearing natives so it's warped. 

[mortonsalt]

1 hour ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Love that the documentary thought to include the uber driver for a nano second. 

I didn't even think about the uber driver's name, Rhett Snow, until I saw someone else bring it up in connection with the unfinished MURDE.

[Snookums]

"Gay for pay?" Who asks that of a stranger who is their ride out in the middle of nowhere? Cricket is all Coke Zero this and Uber that but he's never heard of Craigslist?? The stupid is clearly spreading.

Now that Flora's back I hope Shelby and Matt beat feet--there's no reason to stay, at least until the Blood Moon thing is over. And also to get Lee out of jail! At least Shelby admitted she didn't really know why she did it, and she did forgive Matt when he insisted he didn't remember anything. Good thing she didn't walk in on that second encounter, though...something tells me she wouldn't be quite so understanding. 

I'm frankly a little less interested in Gaga/The Witch now that she has a backstory--not her fault, but I liked the whole "roaming in a perpetual present of anger and desire" thing more when that's all it was. Because that's what deals with the Devil get you--exactly what you wanted in the worst possible way. Eternal life, eternal youth, and nothing to do with it except enthrall more lost souls to the same neverending story you're stuck in--serving a dark master for nothing but more of the same. What have her allegiances procured for her but nutty Kathy Bates and her cleaver? There's no growth, no change. Just reclaiming your worthless "rights" over and over and over again. 

I'm assuming that Evan Peters is This Little Piggy Went To The Human Sacrifice at this point.

[candall]

In Memorium, Chapter Four:

--Pig Man (temporary)

--Pig Man (original, review)

--The Family Chen

--Nurse Miranda and Nurse Bridget

--Three rando hunters (off-screen)

--Denis O'Hare ("Maybe he crawled back"??)

--Sweet Priscilla

--Kathy Bates' son, Kathy Bates' entire community, Kathy Bates

--Superstitious sailors, all

--Cricket (presumed)

 

Forty-two [est.] killed in an hour by a dozen different methods.  Could be a Ryan Murphy personal best.

(But I thought it was boring.)

Edited October 6, 2016 by candall

[lallalla]

8 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Here's a short video about current coastal North Carolina dialects. Early settlers in the area were largely from England and Ireland, which is still reflected in the native language today.

 

I live in the southern Piedmont area of NC (middle of the state). I grew up in the northern Piedmont. I'm at least eighth-generation North Carolinian. My ancestors are from England, as well, and settled in the foothills (just east of the mountains) of NC after coming over.

Large parts of NC were also settled by Scottish.  There's a town where the Scottish accent still prevails to this day, it's really fascinating.

Edited October 6, 2016 by lallalla
typo

[bosawks]

It's like Matt and Shelby are actively trying to win the Darwin Award...........

[candall]

37 minutes ago, bosawks said:

It's like Matt and Shelby are actively trying to win the Darwin Award...........

I liked it when Shelby and Matt scooped up Flora from the mob of demonic killers crowding the front door and fled--upstairs to the Master Bedroom to plop Flora down and ask her some pertinent questions.

(And Shelby, before you go charging out into the hellmouth:  shoes.)

Edited October 6, 2016 by candall

[Chaos Theory]

We are seeing what is ultimately the problem with haunted house stories.  The protagonists seem stupid by not leaving the house but the story ends when they do.  There needs to be a beliavable reason to stay or at least something else going on as well.  Honestly I understand the complaints that Matt and Shelby are idiots for not leaving.  Besides a kid that's not even theirs (ahh niece to Matt) they have no reason but money and hubris keeping them their.  

Until now.  Now the show may actually be turning into a full scale murder porn narrative which may be a good thing.  

Also did Cricket pimp out Matt to the forest witch because that was kind hilarious.

[BuddhaBelly]

I wish the show would make it clear that they are being compelled in some way to be at the house other than just being dumb. When Shelby was like, maybe the man is lying to us to get this house back I literally threw my hands up. You have encountered all kinds of spirits and craziness and the weird guy just wants the house back? Are you nuts?

I keep expecting a mid-season reboot of some sort. We find out that they're really dead and it's a whole new family getting drawn to that house. I don't know how RM does that without a retread of everything but things are progressing at lightening speed so I'm trying to be prepared for anything.

[Sakura12]

If I thought some guy just wanted his crazy murder house back, I'd be like "Sure, have it. Bye". 

I know Horror movies have to have the people act stupid for plot and I guess I can put up with it for a 1 - 2 hour movie. For a show it's starting to test my patience. They should make it clear that the house is somehow alive and compelling people to stay there when any normal person would've just run out of house and never look back. Also why run back into the house, they've seen them get in the house before. It's not a safe place. 

Having said that I'm waiting for the crazy twist that Ryan Murphy likes doing. They are probably all dead or aliens or something. 

[sugarbaker design]

Sure, Matt and Shelby were beyond dumb for staying in episodes 1 and 2.  But in episode 3, Flora was abducted, so I can understand them staying, and now in episode 4 they got Flora back, but the house is being beset by the spirits.  This I can live with.

I'm enjoying this season very much, the pacing is perfect, the plot is unfolding in the right way, not too much, not too little.  All I need is some Evan Peters and Cheyenne Jackson.

Thanks to the poster who mentioned the house being built by the Mott family, that flew right over my head.

[laffytaffy997]

I didn't really notice the in the previous episode, but in this episode Cricket reminded me of a Zach Galifianakis character.

[tennisgurl]

Well, that AHS gore has returned again! That was nasty as hell, between the nurses and poor Cricket. Plus we got our AHS dubious consent magic scene. Good times...

As others have said, this is basically Murder House Southern Fried edition, but with different historical periods. I am torn by this. On the one hand, its just a retread of season 1, but on the other hand, I really like ghost stories with historical ties, so I still like this stuff, even if the gore was pretty unnecessary. 

Also, Shelby and Matt? When you think the crazy guy wants to take your Murder House...YOU LET HIM TAKE IT! Get a hotel room, and keep looking for Flora there! They should have left ages ago, but you are literally being chased around by a guy in a pig head! Its time to move on!

The backstory with the Roanoke colony was interesting, and I like the costumes and sets and the weird colonial accents, its different than what the show has done so far. This show is at its best when it uses actual bits of history and legend and gives it some creepy twists. I feel like at some point maybe the ghost colonists are freed from The Butcher, and they turn on her, and she is doomed to wander alone in her head cage thing. 

The Witch backstory was well delivered, but I kind of wish we never got a real backstory for her, or she was some kind of mythical creature of the land or something. Was she some kind of druid priestess or something? What has she been doing other than hanging out with the dead colonists. 

11 hours ago, Inkmaster0345 said:

Also, this episode had very American Gods heavy vibes, if any of you are familiar with that work.

I got that vibe too, with all the talk of blood sacrifice and old angry gods and ancient religions. Plus with American history, and how the Woods Witch seemed to bring her old gods to the new land. I hope we get more of that, it would actually be really interesting, and shake things up from the ghost story stuff. 

Edited October 6, 2016 by tennisgurl

[Chaos Theory]

It's funny others are complaining about the gore but I have felt the show has been incredibly light on gore this season.  To each is own I guess.  'Maybe because I haven't been "feeling" this season.  By episode 4 in Hotel I had an "emotional connection" ** to most if not all the characters in one way or the other.  I am just not connecting with anyone here. 

 

** I hate when people use emotional connection or lack there of as a reason to like or dislike a show/character but it is the only explanation I can see.  The writing is the best it has ever been and the acting like always is superb.  I am just not feeling it.

[tennisgurl]

23 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

It's funny others are complaining about the gore but I have felt the show has been incredibly light on gore this season.

I think the reason the gore stands out so much in this episode is that this season has been so light on gore. It makes it stand out more. Its like they realized they had been too light on gore this season, and they needed to tear some limbs apart or they were nervous people would forget what show they were watching. 

[Inkmaster0345]

16 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I think the reason the gore stands out so much in this episode is that this season has been so light on gore. It makes it stand out more. Its like they realized they had been too light on gore this season, and they needed to tear some limbs apart or they were nervous people would forget what show they were watching. 

For me, gore is an essential part of the AHS formula. Be honest, if someone had shown you one of the first couple episodes without any information, would you have been able to guess that you were even watching AHS? Maybe not. But there's no doubt what series episode 4 belongs to.

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

Besides a kid that's not even theirs (ahh niece to Matt) they have no reason but money and hubris keeping them their.  

And not so much the money since they could have gotten all the cash they needed to leave with a quick home equity loan, no questions asked. Once they're out of danger they could worry about salvaging their life savings.

I can't hear "Croatoan" without thinking of William Shatner. Did they have to use the same word as Haven?

[Snookums]

Forgot to mention: I loved the "daylight horror" aspects of this episode, especially the scene where Flora is playing blind man's bluff with the various spirits in that crazy, pouring golden light. Very cool and unnerving.

[rubinia]

Maybe it's been mentioned elsewhere, but there's a theory going around that the first 5 episodes of this season tie in to each past season, with this season "beginning" with episode 6. 

Ep 1: Haunted House. Ep 2: Nurses (like in asylum). Ep 3: Cricket from New Orleans (Coven). Ep 4: Tie-in w/ Freak Show (Mott family). Ep 5: Some tie to the hotel.

Episode 6 might be the end of the "documentary" and then we'll see the real-life Shelby and Matt interacting with the ghosts.

 

Quote

I'm frankly a little less interested in Gaga/The Witch now that she has a backstory

Same, and the same thing happened with Twisty in season 4. The monster becomes waaaaaaaaaaay less horrifying when you sympathize with it.

Edited October 6, 2016 by rubinia

[Mabinogia]

4 minutes ago, rubinia said:

Episode 6 might be the end of the "documentary" and then we'll see the real-life Shelby and Matt interacting with the ghosts.

I hope so. If Matt and Shelby are going to be terrorized by ghosts for their bad decision to stay in that house I want it to be the "real" Matt and Shelby, not some actors pretending to be Matt and Shelby and acting out what happened.

[Jade Foxx]

2 hours ago, laffytaffy997 said:

I didn't really notice the in the previous episode, but in this episode Cricket reminded me of a Zach Galifianakis character.

Dale Baskets, perhaps? ?

[luna1122]

I'm still mostly digging this season, and found Piggy Man completely terrifying. I did finally lose all patience with Matt and Shelby and their incredible stupidity, but as most have noted, there's no there there if they just leave, so I try to not get too impatient that they don't just freaking FLEE. But falling asleep in the (inexplicably) dark house?? Come on. at the very least, I'd have lights blazing at all hours. Well, no, I wouldn't, cuz I wouldn't be there.

I have to think the house is compelling them to be stupid as well, or I can barely stand them. Wanting to throw out Denis O'Hare, or suspecting he just wanted the house back? I'd be clinging onto every word he said, every bit of info he had, instead of treating him like a crazy, criminal intruder. And where has he been all this time? I'm so sorry Shelby and Matt basically got him finally killed, after he'd managed to escape death for so long. And Cricket dead too? Boo.

So we didn't get Shelby's reactions to Matt's being 'enchanted' by Gaga again. Does she know just how enchanted he was?

We need Evan Peters really soon.

Croatoan really was the word etched into the Roanoke colony trees, so they had to use it, William Shatner or no William Shatner.

 

ETA: oh, wait, the hot uber driver, who looked like Smith Jerrod in his talking head, is named Rhett Snow, and might be related to Myrtle Snow. Cool.

Edited October 6, 2016 by luna1122

[BuddhaBelly]

40 minutes ago, rubinia said:

Maybe it's been mentioned elsewhere, but there's a theory going around that the first 5 episodes of this season tie in to each past season, with this season "beginning" with episode 6. 

Ep 1: Haunted House. Ep 2: Nurses (like in asylum). Ep 3: Cricket from New Orleans (Coven). Ep 4: Tie-in w/ Freak Show (Mott family). Ep 5: Some tie to the hotel.

I actually though Gaga's character could be a tie in with Coven too as a weird sort of how the covens got started in the Colonies thing.

[ClareWalks]

Oh my GAWD, just GTFO OF THE HOUSE ALREADY. 

Hand to God, I yelled at my TV when they finally got Flora back...and ran back into the fucking house! And then saw Cricket being disemboweled and was like "the message was clear: we were next." THEN LEAVE, you dumbasses! Holy hell! I haven't seen stupidity this rampant since...well, the presidential debate was actually pretty recent.

[iMonrey]

Quote

The only thing I liked was hearing that the House was owned/built by the Mott family.  A  Freak Show connection I want to see that backstory.

Who were the Motts in Freak Show? Can someone refresh my memory?

The issue I've raised before is even more pertinent now: if Dr. Elias has "cracked the code" about the ghosts becoming murderous during the blood moon and knows exactly when this will happen every year, there was no reason for him to lose the house to the bank because of back taxes. Open the damn place up to tourists.  Hell, he could have made a fortune. Here is a place that proves, positively and once and for all, that ghosts exist. They could have reporters and guests crawling all over the place during that particular week; what's Kathy Bates going to, kill them all? The premise really falls apart with you pick at it just a little. 

Also, if Elias has spent years studying this land, and the house, and the ghosts, and is even on a first name basis with some of them and know where they like to hang out, why was he so easily dispensed with once he met Shelby and Matt? Did their monumental stupidity suddenly rub off on him? Shouldn't he have known better than to approach the ghosts like that? To think he escaped their wrath for so long only to walk right into a deathtrap deliberately is kind of preposterous. Either he's an "expert" about this stuff, or he's not.

Same with Cricket. I can't see him getting out of an Uber car in the middle of nowhere to chase after a child after having learned what he did from the Gaga ghost just hours before and knowing exactly what danger lay in wait. 

[morgankobi]

16 hours ago, Dancingjaneway said:

NOOO! Not Cricket! Can we swap Cricket for Matt & Shelby?? Please? I'm also not happy that the professor died. 

I am also sad those two were dispatched so easily, but if some ridiculous reason we stay at this house, at least they can return as ghosts/Others.

 

You know, it wouldn't have been too hard for at least Matt or Shelby say that they should stay at the house in case Flora comes back on her own. Would have justified them staying there when not actively looking for her.

I am also surprised they haven't pulled out the "cell phones aren't working at all out here for some reason" trope. Weird shit like this, they should at least be recording some of it!

Count me in with the hating the stupid, yet seemingly now pointless, reaction of Shelby to Dennis O'Hare. What purpose did that even serve now that he's dead? (Plus, she believed him about 20 minutes later once he took them out to the woods. It was so pointless.)

[Tony]

It looks like they're planning to have everyone on this show die except Matt, Shelby, and Lee. This is pretty lame. I think random Uber driver is the only one who's made it out alive.

[sugarbaker design]

Mother and son Gloria and Dandy Mott, played by Frances Conroy and Finn Wittrock.

 

[sugarbaker design]

51 minutes ago, Tony said:

It looks like they're planning to have everyone on this show die except Matt, Shelby, and Lee. This is pretty lame. I think random Uber driver is the only one who's made it out alive.

It's only episode 4!  The destinies of Matt, Shelby and Lee is still up for grabs.

[Nutjob]

1 hour ago, sugarbaker design said:

It's only episode 4!  The destinies of Matt, Shelby and Lee is still up for grabs.

That's if we assume the storyline will shift to the "real" world at some point and away from the reenactments. As of the "filming," they are all still alive. The only main or secondary "living" character whose fate is still uncertain is Flora's. Now, I do think the story will shift--as quick as the plot is moving, I think it has to because there's not much suspense left to be had otherwise.

[yourmomiseasy]

I wasn't a fan of Asylum because of the everything but the kitchen sink approach, but this season I'm so tired of stupid Shelby and Matt that I'm praying for aliens and nazis and serial killers.  Anything to take screen time away from those idiots.  Maybe the local hillbillies will be exposed as serial killing alien nazis (that are just trying to steal Shelby's murder house from under her).

[Tipsymcstagger]

7 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

I know Horror movies have to have the people act stupid for plot and I guess I can put up with it for a 1 - 2 hour movie. For a show it's starting to test my patience. They should make it clear that the house is somehow alive and compelling people to stay there when any normal person would've just run out of house and never look back

Good lord...amen to this. There's horror movie stupid and just plain stupid. And I think Shelby and Matt are actually trying for a suspension of the suspension of disbelief. There's literally nothing compelling them to stay. And then to run back in the house? Oy vey...

Also..why the backstory of Gaga being an "English girl" when she's clearly speaking in a demented Bella Lugosi "Dracula" accent? Simple English "girl" by way of Transylvania? 

[SimoneS]

I am loving this season. I find it genuinely scary. The pig man, especially scares the shit out of me. Poor guy who was disemboweled. The other guy was killed fast, but at least less painfully.

I cheered when Priscilla saved Flora. She did not want Kathy Bates' character to kill Flora like she killed her. I hope this means that Lee will be freed.

While  I agree that staying in the house is ridiculous, but if I know my child was out there, I wouldn't leave. However, I would get a bunch of people with guns to stay there with me. We would be mowing down those ghosts/shadows.

Edited October 6, 2016 by SimoneS