S06.E04: Chapter 4

[RedheadZombie]

aaaaaaaa

3 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

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.

I know it's frustrating, but that's part of the trope.  They never leave their haunted house until the end, if ever.  Shelby did attempt to flee, but was sidetracked by the butcher, which was surely no accident.  Also, terrible things have happened to them outside the house, and I completely understand why they wouldn't attempt to run now that Butcher & Co. is disemboweling humans in their drive.  There's also the fact that if they had left, they wouldn't have been there for Flora.  It seems she was being chased to be killed when she encountered the Uber.  And if Cricket didn't conveniently provide an alternate target, Priscilla may not have saved Flora without Matt/Shelby's help.

I don't enjoy torture, regardless of the show.  But it bothered me a lot less when it happened to the nurses.  They were stone cold monsters.  I thought the worse death was when the old man was deliberately choked to death.  His eyes were staring right at the killer, and she continued shoving that magazine (?) into his mouth, giggling and having a grand time as she tortured him to death.

[Britty]

Quote

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?

I know!! After I found MURD under the wallpaper, I would have skipped on back to town, built a creepy ass web site, invited every ghost hunter with a crappy tv show, and started renting that thing out.  An actual haunted historic house in the woods with multiple physical manifestations?  You would be raking in the cash hand over fist.  Those six days of the Blood Moon would be booked years in advance!

[iMonrey]

Quote

There's also the fact that if they had left, they wouldn't have been there for Flora. 

They didn't have to stay in that house to find Flora. This could have been easily fixed if Flora had simply disappeared into the little closet at the top of the stairs instead of being taken out into the woods. Like how the little girl in Poltergeist disappeared through the TV set. If Flora's trapped in some sort of alternate dimension within the house, it would at least explain why these idiots aren't leaving.

[Empress1]

2 hours ago, Britty said:

I know!! After I found MURD under the wallpaper, I would have skipped on back to town, built a creepy ass web site, invited every ghost hunter with a crappy tv show, and started renting that thing out.  An actual haunted historic house in the woods with multiple physical manifestations?  You would be raking in the cash hand over fist.  Those six days of the Blood Moon would be booked years in advance!

OMG YES. I can think of like seventy-'leven marketing avenues for the house, but they wouldn't even really need to market it once word got out. It's a HUGE niche! They're so worried about losing their savings, they can make back that forty grand very easily.

Shelby and Matt staying there is a total idiot plot. There's nothing tying them to the house. Flora wasn't in the house. There's no supernatural force preventing them from leaving. They're staying because they're idiots.

Lady Gaga's Transylvania accent is terrible. I hope the big shift that's coming in a couple of episodes is major, because we're really treading water at this point. Scary thing happens in/near house. Matt and Shelby scream and cry but don't leave said house. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[LittleIggy]

Matt and Shelby are the stupidest people on earth. Period.

I thought Matt said Gaga had been an "English girl." If so, why the weird accent.

I hate that they killed off two awesome characters in one episode.

[Sile]

4 hours ago, Nutjob said:

The only main or secondary "living" character whose fate is still uncertain is Flora's.

Not sure if this counts as a spoiler, since it's something I gleaned from the credits, but just in case....

Spoiler

The credits had a character called "Flora Harris TV", so I assume that means the actress playing Flora is playing "actress Flora" and at some point they'll have the "real" Flora in the documentary TH portion of the show.

[ShadowHunter]

Ratings are down from last season already though things could change.

[psychoticstate]

I may be done with AHS.  Boring despite all the action.  And Matt and Shelby are too stupid to live. Get your dumb asses in a car and get the hell out.  When your "heroes" annoy you with their stupidity, you have no one to root for.

Gah.

[caracas1914]

I don't care if there is a "twist" to the documentary format in Episode 6, the point is until then the action should be compelling with whatever format is presented, and this whole docu setup stops narrative and  tension in mid air, so to speak.  It's frustrating.

What is fundamentally different from this haunted house versus season 1? Costumes and accents?  These  characters are even more stupid than MH characters and that was a high bar.     I wouldn't mind it but Ryan and company always change the rules to basically say there are no rules.  (Still Can't get over how a ghost could impregnate Connie Britton in Season 1)

Edited October 7, 2016 by caracas1914

[RedheadZombie]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

They didn't have to stay in that house to find Flora. This could have been easily fixed if Flora had simply disappeared into the little closet at the top of the stairs instead of being taken out into the woods. Like how the little girl in Poltergeist disappeared through the TV set. If Flora's trapped in some sort of alternate dimension within the house, it would at least explain why these idiots aren't leaving.

Well, they wouldn't have been in the house to run out and snatch her if they were safely in a hotel.

[caracas1914]

The problem is that you can suspend disbelief (somewhat) for a two hour movie (take your pick of Haunted house flics) of why the idiots don't leave, over 12/13 episodes its harder to justify.  I"m sure there's ways but Ryan and company haven't devised them yet.

[candall]

11 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

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;

Druids!

(I love Druids.  I'm a big fan of the trees.)

 

11 hours ago, RedheadZombie said:

aaaaaaaa

I know it's frustrating, but that's part of the trope.  They never leave their haunted house until the end, if ever. 

[...]

I don't enjoy torture, regardless of the show.  But it bothered me a lot less when it happened to the nurses.

Always immensely satisfying when sadists get the tables turned.

 

It would be hysterical if "real" Matt and Shelby wrapped up filming at the studio, picked up a pizza and drove back home to their haunted house at the end of the day.  "What?  We couldn't afford to move--we invested our life's savings into it."

 

.

Edited October 7, 2016 by candall

[Mabinogia]

Maybe it's all a hoax. Matt and Shelby are pulling an Amityville Horror style fake out. "ooh, look at our haunted house! It is spooky. Now give us money to do a documentary." That is really the only thing that wouldn't make them the two stupidest people on earth most deserving of being brutally murdered by killer ghosts.

Who, so far, has actually witnessed all the spooky? Matt Shelby and Lee? Three way split of the documentary money, possible book and then movie rights would be a nice income.

[darkestboy]

First of all, the Uber driver was fit. Can we see him again?

Secondly, Cricket and Elias were both killed off too quickly and one of them too gruesomely but that's part and parcel with this show.

I am loving learning more about the Butcher, the Witch of the Woods and the Colony in general but I am losing my patience with Shelby and Matt though.

Plus side, at least they found Flora and Lee sat the episode out but we need to see more points of view here. 7/10

[sugarbaker design]

16 hours ago, Nutjob said:

17 hours 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.

That's exactly what I'm assuming!

[DangerousMinds]

To me, Season 1 was absolutely brilliant and truly scary, and this doesn't even compare.

[RazzleberryPie]

I just rewatched 1. Still the best season, because of the lack of gore, lack of 1000x plot lines, and there was so much human element - they were flawed and tormented because of more realistic issues - loss of children, failure, break ups, trauma, antisocial behabior, etc.

this feels like an entire weak rehash of murder house but with more gore. Cross country move  for a fresh start, miscarriage, haunted money pit, nurse ghosts, the whole Roanoke haunted story (Billie the psychic explains), etc

the only thing it do like is Kathy bates and sons' accents. She is always dead on accurate with whatever she's attempting. That's certainly a rural English/slight Elizabethan barely removed accent. You can indeed hear a lot of the same accent and terms in older people in more rural parts of Appalachia now.

[LoneHaranguer]

14 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Shelby and Matt staying there is a total idiot plot. There's nothing tying them to the house. Flora wasn't in the house. There's no supernatural force preventing them from leaving. They're staying because they're idiots.

I don't know about Shelby, but maybe Matt really did remember the ghost sex and when he was caught in the act wasn't the first time,  so he may not have taken the threat of death seriously before now, or figured that wasn't a bad way to spend eternity.

[MaggieG]

20 hours ago, Britty said:

I know!! After I found MURD under the wallpaper, I would have skipped on back to town, built a creepy ass web site, invited every ghost hunter with a crappy tv show, and started renting that thing out.  An actual haunted historic house in the woods with multiple physical manifestations?  You would be raking in the cash hand over fist.  Those six days of the Blood Moon would be booked years in advance!

OMG can you imagine Zac and the Ghost Hunters crew in that house? "Dude, there's a pig man dude!! Dude, I think something touched me! Dude, did you see those nurses?!?"

I'm hoping Denis O'Hare and Cricket come back as ghosts. Count me in as being confused by Gaga's accent.

[FlyingEgret]

On 10/6/2016 at 2:24 AM, Snookums said:

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 also hoping there's some sort of exam to check for ghostly venereal diseases

[Snookums]

"SPIRITUAL SYPHILIS? What the hell, Matt!"

[iMonrey]

Quote

I don't care if there is a "twist" to the documentary format in Episode 6, the point is until then the action should be compelling with whatever format is presented, and this whole docu setup stops narrative and  tension in mid air, so to speak.  It's frustrating.

I agree. It doesn't really matter, at this point, if the whole story turns out to be something other than what we are currently being led to believe it is. We have to keep watching up until they decide to reveal some huge twist in the show's premise, and four episodes in, it's already becoming tedious. Frankly, the show seems to be relying too heavily on publicity that promises some huge twist in episode 6. It's about the only thing that keeps me watching at this point. We seem to be expected to put up with an awful lot of stupid behavior just to get to that point. 

[goodbyeglittergirl]

I was enjoying the lack of gore up until this episode (I know not everyone feels that way) - so I was bummed to see a return to bowels and gushing blood!

I'm glad Flora is alive, but she's going to need a LOT of therapy. 

I know we need the characters to stay in the house in order to keep the story there, but man they are a special brand of stupid. 

I was SO SAD to see Denis O'Hare and Leslie Jordan BOTH killed off this episode. MAN. That's a bummer. Love them both. 

[Primetimer]

How long until the actual Lady Gaga starts referring to herself as 'the bitch with the real power'?

View the full article

[seveneightnine]

So here's what I don't understand (and maybe it's just my early American History failing me), but if Kathy The Butcher et al were the Roanoke folks, who did Lady Gaga catch a ship with?
I thought Roanoke was the 'earliest' settlement, right? Like before the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.
It seems implied that Gaga had been roaming around the woods for a while before she found Kathy with the cage on her head.
And don't the soldiers that arrested Gaga look like Spanish conquistadors (those helmets?) That makes better since time-wise. But if they are calling her 'an English girl' then that doesn't jive.
Maybe it's just the history buff in me, but that's one thing I would like explained.

[Merneith]

Roanoke wasn't really the first settlement, even if we discount mythological stories like the Maddoc ap Owen who supposedly sailed from Wales in the twelfth century. There were Dutch, French and Spanish settlements going on all around the continent. Gaga could have come with any one of them.

It wouldn't surprise me though if AHS's story has Gaga coming over with the Vikings or even the (purely fictional) Phoenician or Egyptian explorers. For story purposes, you could still have the Conquistadors trying to burn her, but she might have been here centuries before.

See here -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_European_colonization_of_North_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_settlements_by_year_of_foundation

Edited October 7, 2016 by Merneith

[Snookums]

Quote

They walk inside to discuss their next course of action, though they must have spent a couple of hours shooting the shit on the porch first, if the establishing shots before and after the commercial break are any indication.

To be 100% fair to "Continuity? What's That?" AHS, it gets dark FAST at that time of year once the sun goes down. It can be all creepy dark golden light one minute and "can barely see shapes in the horrid dusk" literally two minutes later.

[Terrafamilia]

On 10/7/2016 at 6:32 PM, seveneightnine said:

And don't the soldiers that arrested Gaga look like Spanish conquistadors (those helmets?) That makes better since time-wise. But if they are calling her 'an English girl' then that doesn't jive.

Just tell yourself, "It was only a reenactment."

Someone needs to explain to Thomasin that if she wants to keep interlopers away she's going about it wrong. Killing the trespassers only insures they stick around "for all eternity".

[Canada]

So, basically Gaga is playing exactly the same character as in Hotel, but this time a scruffy, brunette version.  Her 'acting' is as horrific as ever.  I think RM just likes her because she's willing to screw anything that moves.

[Captanne]

I am completely lukewarm on Lady Gaga.  She became famous when I was too old to listen to her music or to care about her "pushing the envelope."  I had Madonna in my day (cone boobs, anyone?  "Like a Virgin" offending the Pope?) and before her I had the genius, David Bowie.  Following those folks, we had the Sex Pistols and shirtless Iggy Pop.  (The folks I mentioned aren't even in Bowie's league; who never, ever became irrelevant or outdone.)*  And before that, my sister had the Beatles (that scandalous hair!  *gasp*) and the Stones (mantra:  sex, drugs, and rock and roll.)  

So, that said, I don't mind her performances -- they are fine and fit in well with the look and feel of AHS.  Also, AHS has several examples, too numerous to mention, of self-reference and characters recurring through the seasons.  So, her playing the same character as she played in Hotel but "new day, new costume" doesn't phase me at all.  (If it is even the case.  I'm not sure it dovetails but can't be bothered to think it through.)

 

*Hotel, in many ways, was an homage to David Bowie, the transcendent Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon in "The Hunger."

Edited October 10, 2016 by Captanne

[valandsend]

On 10/7/2016 at 7:32 PM, seveneightnine said:

So here's what I don't understand (and maybe it's just my early American History failing me), but if Kathy The Butcher et al were the Roanoke folks, who did Lady Gaga catch a ship with?
I thought Roanoke was the 'earliest' settlement, right? Like before the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.
It seems implied that Gaga had been roaming around the woods for a while before she found Kathy with the cage on her head.
And don't the soldiers that arrested Gaga look like Spanish conquistadors (those helmets?) That makes better since time-wise. But if they are calling her 'an English girl' then that doesn't jive.
Maybe it's just the history buff in me, but that's one thing I would like explained.

I was confused by this, too. I thought the Gaga character said she stowed away on an English ship, and it appeared they landed at a settlement. The writers could just have easily made it a Spanish ship and settlement.

Another "historical" inaccuracy: The Partridge Family performed "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" in their first season (as evidenced by the original Chris on the drums), which was a couple of years before 1973 and the Chen family murders.

Also noticed that the newspaper clipping said the house is in Martin County, N.C. That's in the eastern part of the state, between Roanoke Island and Raleigh, which makes sense in terms of the characters' comments; however, there are no mountains there as seen behind the house.

[TudorQueen]

I would be very happy to have spent this season mostly with the Roanoke folk, delving even deeper into their mysteries.

I mean, I love Lily Rabe forever, but she deserves to be more than a talking head. I don't dislike Sarah Paulson as much as I usually do (I know: heresy), but the changeable stupidity of the characters (we're staying, no we're leaving, no, we're staying, this house is haunted or possessed or just plain evil, but no, it's just the local hill folk messing with us...) makes me less and less interested in Matt. Shelby and Lee. I like Flora, though.

Like most of you, I was sorry to lose Cricket and Elias (I'm always sorry at the thought of losing Denis O'Hare, and this is the most I've ever liked Leslie Jordan, who brought a great energy to his scenes.). I imagine they will be around as ghosts.

Can you imagine what it was like for the actors, filming Cricket's horrible death?

"Leslie, you're going to have to scream more than that... Kathy, you need more dirt and blood streaks... Wes, you'll take this hook and pull at some ribbon-like meat until Kathy snips it like an umbilical cord..."
 

[autumneleaves]

11 hours ago, valandsend said:

I was confused by this, too. I thought the Gaga character said she stowed away on an English ship, and it appeared they landed at a settlement. The writers could just have easily made it a Spanish ship and settlement.

Another "historical" inaccuracy: The Partridge Family performed "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" in their first season (as evidenced by the original Chris on the drums), which was a couple of years before 1973 and the Chen family murders.

Also noticed that the newspaper clipping said the house is in Martin County, N.C. That's in the eastern part of the state, between Roanoke Island and Raleigh, which makes sense in terms of the characters' comments; however, there are no mountains there as seen behind the house.

One theory that i heard was that after gaga's character uses her old gods in the new world and becomes this god or whatever she can bend time like she did with cricket? of course that could also just be a memory idk

[seveneightnine]

I'm sure we are all just way over thinking this Merneith, but if they are going to call Gaga "an English girl" who came over on "an English ship" then all the Spanish, Dutch and French settlements don't really figure in.

Now I think there were a few scouting missions before the Roanoke folks came over in 1587, maybe 1584 and 1585, so I guess Gaga could have hitched with one of those...

Again, probably way too much thought on our part. The writers apparently weren't that concerned.

[J-Man]

From the recap:

"Included in the list of former owners are the Chens, a Vietnamese family who immersed themselves in all the TV dinners and Partridge Family performances America had to offer."

I thought Cunningham said they were from Taiwan.