American Horror Story (Season 1, Episode 2): Second Episode Recap

American Horror Story continues to baffle in a delightful way.

Tonight’s episode was every bit as confusing as the first, but it was very suspenseful and was a great continuation to the plots the pilot put in place.

The episode begins with a flashback to 1968, with a scene from the Harmon’s new crib, where a bunch of women apparently live together. A mysterious man comes to the door with a gash on his head, and two of the women let him in. While one woman is dressing his wound, he blasts her in the head with a ceramic ashtray. While she’s unconscious, he accosts the other girl, making fun of her because she is overweight. (It should be noted that Ryan Murphy finds a way to incorporate some usual Glee themes into this show so often it’s kind of weird.)

Cut to the woman he previously knocked out when she’s coming to. This strange man makes her dress up as a nurse, and then he hog ties her. He tells her Jesus can’t save her while she whispers prayers to herself while she’s bound on the couch. The guy disappears for a few moments, and then begins stabbing her a bunch of times in the back. So, I suppose the gist is that Jesus could not or did not save her.

In the next scene, Ben Harmon and Tate (who is still dressing and looking like Kurt Cobain) are in the midst of a psychiatric session in the Harmon home. Tate describes in vivid detail to Ben that he routinely jerks off to visions of Ben’s daughter, Violet. He tells Ben that rubbing out to his daughter helps keep the evil thoughts out of his mind. Tate leaves and Ben gets a phone call from someone who was probably the woman he was banging on the side when he and his family lived back in Boston. She tells him via phone that she is pregnant. I would have at least used Skype.

The show picks back up with Violet and a girl she met at her new school who I believe is named Leah. This is the girl who was attacked by the Chucky-like character in the basement during the pilot, and she has apparently been so traumatized by this that she takes up smoking. She insists to Violet that what attacked her was not human. She’s got some serious gashes on her cheek covered by bandages, and she wears a hat to conceal the hair on her head that’s turning white “because of fear.” Leah says she believes in the devil because she “has looked into his eyes.”

In the next scene, mini Kurt Cobain is standing in the Harmon home, getting all voyeuristic on Violet while she slumbers. The house’s fire alarm goes off, and Ben comes down all shirtless, like he wants to make me feel like I’m fat. Turns out Addie was the one who got into the house. She’s down in the basement playing with a red ball when Ben finds her. He is still shirtless. I think he may have done some crunches before walking down the basement steps.

After kicking Addie out, Vivien tells Ben she is worried about not vomiting regularly during her pregnancy, the catalyst of which was either Ben or a man in a full-body black leather bondage suit. She gave both a shot at the title during the pilot.

Cut to Ben with a new patient, who is weirded out by a woman who dreams about being cut in half while stuck in an elevator shaft. The woman has picked Ben, apparently, because his house is famous for people having been murdered inside of it. Her name is Bianca. Poor girl.

(I’m going to stop doing this whole “cut to” and “in the next scene” garbage and just start a new paragraph for each scene. Since some scenes are longer than others, I’m sure some paragraphs will seem cumbersome, but I think this will be easier and more enjoyable for all of us.)

Ben tells Tate’s Mom he can no longer treat her, via telephone. (Again, Skype. Actually, in person. What kind of Mom doesn’t accompany her son to his psychiatric appointments?)

Constance and Addie are cooking up some grub at their place. Constance puts ipecac into the cupcakes she’s baking, then gets Addie to spit in it. I assume I’ll have more to tell you on this later.

Ben is jogging. He’s jogging fast, and having flashbacks about cheating on his wife. He starts sobbing, and is approached by the man with the half-burnt face. (I have a feeling he could be the equivalent of the cigarette smoking man from X-Files, and if you don’t’ know what I’m talking about, get after it on your Netflix queue right now because that show is fierce.) They have an odd conversation about misguided morals. Ben feels very guilty for cheating on his wife, and the burnt dude chastises him for it. When Ben points out that he shouldn’t really cast judgment since he murdered his entire family, burnt dude points out that, well, at least he was never unfaithful. It was the most absurd moment where the word “touché” can be used that I’ve ever seen on television or elsewhere. Burnt guy tells Ben he’s gonna have to lie to his family after Ben reveals to him that his chick on the side said she got one on the way and wanted him to come to Boston. Ben lies to Vivian, telling her he has to go across the country because one of his former patients has attempted to take her own life and will only speak to him. Vivien tells him he’s a good man.

Constance comes over with the cupcakes she’s baked, and tells Vivien they are for Violet. She also somehow realizes that Vivien is with child. She says she has a nose “like a truffle pig.” Constance reveals to Vivien that she had four children before Addie, and that all except one had Down syndrome or another disability. Ben and Moira, the made, enter, and Constance says she used to employ her. They seem hostile toward one another. Ben keeps seeing Moira, an older woman, as a smoking hot younger maid. Ben tells Vivian he wishes she could come with him to Boston.

Viven tries to connect with Violet, who seems kind of upset that her Mom is pregnant. She says having a baby will not keep her parents together.

Ben is with the other woman, and it is revealed that she plans to have an abortion the next day.

A woman is at the door, with a wound in the same place as the murderer from tonight’s first scene. She says someone is outside who may kill her. Vivien turns around and there is a man in a black mask bearing down on her (not the bondage suit guy, either).

Three people, all masked, are in the home. One man and two women. They have knives and seem to be holding Vivien and Violet hostage. They bust out the ceramic ashtray that was used to knock the first woman in the head. They say a dude named Franklin was kind of like their Manson (Charles, not Marilyn), and they seek to recreate the double-murder he committed in the house decades ago. They will do this, apparently, by drowning Violet in the tub and then stabbing Vivien. Violet runs, and Vivien, who is tied to a chair, incites an altercation. Tate somehow appears and meets with Violet. He tells her she needs to get the three wackos into the basement. Violet fools one of the women by telling her the tub where the woman was drowned is in the basement.

Constance has some random model-like man in her home. He is shirtless and they begin dancing and snogging. Addie cock blocks her to tell her there is a bad man next door, but she ignores her. Constance gets pissed and puts her in a room where she has to look at herself in the mirror, which makes Addie begin screaming maniacally.

Finally, someone eats one of the cupcakes. It’s one of the occult murderers. She is vomiting and not feeling very swell at all. Tate finds her and straight up mercks her in the abdomen with repeated axe blows.

Man murderer tries to make Vivien change into a nurse’s outfit. She struggles, and ends up bashing his head in with the ceramic ashtray (which may not really be an ashtray, but something similar and decorative). One of the women comes downstairs, and Tate is by the bathtub. The murdered girl from 1968 comes busting out of the tub, effectively scaring the shit out of me. Vivien and Violet flee from the house.

The would-be murdering man comes to and finds one of his colleagues with her throat slit on the basement floor. He is encountered by what I assume are the ghosts of the two women murdered in the 60s.

Ben and his mistress are at the doctor’s for the abortion. When she goes into the office, Ben checks his phone to find 13 missed calls. He bolts from the waiting room.

Constance, Tate and Moira are standing over the dead bodies. They seem convinced they were killed by the upset spirits. Tate says they need to get rid of the bodies if they want Ben to continue treating him. Moira gamely takes charge of the cleanup.

Ben and Vivien meet with two detectives who are asking questions about the murdered people. One of them was the woman, Bianca, who Ben saw earlier. Tate speaks with Violet about Tate being in their home and helping her and Vivien escape. Vivien, quite understandably, says she wants to sell the house.

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