Will Drake is moving into the hotel with a whole team of
builders to do so – and telling his son that he and the Countess are going to
be together long term – yes he continues to be de-gayed on this show. Who knew
the key to conversation “therapy” was vampirism?
Except for those pesky steel walls and hidden chambers in
the hotel when James turned it into a murder lair. There are also apparently
long forgotten vampires sealed in the walls.
Iris takes the Countess to see the newly chomped on
construction workers and she claims to not know what killed them – but she
looks frightened.
Those wild vampires eat another random guest.
Now to a random retro film set which looks like it’s
filming a cringeworthy racist film with staff members throwing out homophobic
slurs. We’re in 1925 in Hollywood for some reason. They’ve resurrected one of
the actors to be a 1920s leading man with a dreadful Italian accent – Rudolpho,
a small part actor – the Countess, presumably in her human days, a really
really long dance scene, a 3 way dance off and a bisexual threesome. After he
dies, the countess nearly commits suicide in James’ hotel (when the
hotel-owning serial killer was still alive) and is grabbed by him.
She visits the grave – and Natasha and Rudolpho, alive,
find her. Apparently while she thought Rudy was dead she decided she might as
well be rich and grieving so married James. She was quite happy to join him in
and encourage his murdering spree.
While Rudy describes, with nifty retro-imagery and lots
of elegant language and Nosferatu homage – how he was turned into a vampire.
They, in turn, offer to turn her and she accepts – but James appears to be a
witness
And to the present and our two starving raging vampires
are, of course, Rudy and his wife. And his wife blames his infatuation for the
Countess of them being locked up – describing her as his “pet”. They continue
to feast on the guests until they are fully restored
Also in the present, James and the Countess sit down to
dinner –apparently a monthly habit they have (much to Hazel’s distaste since
she’s infatuated with James and hates the countess). She tells him her upcoming
plan to marry Will Drake which, despite pleasantries, does not thrill him.
James pretty much expects her to kill him and there’s a whole lot of bitter
tension and sniping across the table. He then tells her what he did to Rudy and
his wife, out of jealousy for her loving Rudy but not him – locking them up in
his hotel behind steel walls for decades.
The calm and collected Countess rages in fury and horror
at the revelation
John is being checked into a mental hospital, recognising
his need for professional help (In addition to what we’ve seen, John also
assaulted his old partner, Hahn, to try and get at the suspect to the serial
killing). And it seems while doing that he saw evidence pointing towards this
hospital. Yes, he’s faking… (well, ish. Not faking his reactions and behaviour
anyway).
Inside he hears a guard talk about the imprisoned
suspected serial killer. He commits assault, steals keys and finds... a small
girl called Wren. Running now! Running oh so fast. Ye gods running!
He goes in. WHYYYYYYYYYY?!
She says she didn’t tell the police anything – the police
seem think she is traumatised and needs protecting, so does John. But Wren
happily explains she helped the serial killer of her own free will and even did
some killing of her own.
John, why have you not run now? Whyyyy?
She was at every crime scene… and John still doesn’t run!
She claims everything that happened is her fault which has John go into massive
guilt with huge, clumsy comparisons to Scarlett and how she must blame herself
for John’s meltdown.
And Wren is a vampire – another of the Countess’s
creations in 1986. She finally agrees to tell him who the killer is if he gets
her out. He goes so – and she says they need to go home to the Cortez hotel.
Yup back to the hotel. Then she turns and runs –in front of a truck
So we have Will Drake simultaneously being mocked and
made a joke of for “waxing and bleaching his anus” while at the same time this
gay man is now in a dedicated relationship with a woman. Well, I have to say
this for American Horror Story,
different seasons bring an entirely different flavour of homophobia. None of
them are palatable.
The Countess and Rudy’s past bisexual relationship seemed
better – yet it’s worth noting that my wording there is deliberate. Rudy’s wife
seems very much an afterthought throw into this mix rather than a realised
character or a real part of the relationship between Rudy and the Countess. On
top of that, his wife blames and hates the Countess – and makes it clear that
the infatuation with the Countess was more him than her – which makes their
relationship feel more put on for his benefit than any affection or attraction
from her
I’ve complained before that all of the plots of American Horror Story were too random
and unrelated – but this episode, in addition to nicely bringing in the Countess’s
history did a really good job of connecting all the plots (except John who this
show really does not need).
Though I do kind of like how John is completely unable to
see Wren as anything other than the poor innocent. You can see him almost
completely ignoring everything she says and super-imposing the narrative he
almost desperate needs to believe
