It’s time for the conclusion of this season and after the
last episode, is it possible to go any further?
Well we have an episode all about Lee – which is pretty
extremely rare in itself and worthy of note
After seeing the lead up to season 2 of My Roanoke
Nightmare – the huge fan hype for it, we then see the aftermath of it finishing
The show – with everyone dead (or not – it was TV after
all) is very controversial and we continue the original format of this show –
with lots of youtube clips, fan vids, reality shows et al
Including a “true crimes” style dramatised show following
Lee – and the prosecutor who’s really had it in for her. With all the footage
from the show, they have evidence of Lee committing many many murders.
Of course there are extenuating circumstances – not that
people believe “the ghosts did it” – but it turns out the Polks were handing
out hallucinogens in addition to being cannibals which was more than enough for
the jury to acquit Lee given what she went through
After that, prosecutor-with-a-grudge goes after her for
Mason’s murder – again. Because now he has her confession and an Ace: Flora.
Turns out Flora saw Lee beat Mason to death with a rock and she testifies
against her mother on the witness stand
And you thought that you had a difficult relationship
with your parents!
Of course, the fact that Flora is a child and one who
openly talks about her invisible friend… she isn’t a convincing witness and with
a good lawyer she is discredited
But that hardly makes Lee happy – after all, everything
she’s ever done has always been Flora. And her relationship with her daughter is
non-existent. Flora is living with her grandparents and won’t talk to Lee.
This is pretty devastating to Lee. Over and over and over
again it is made clear during this very good episode that her child is her
life. Even as she becomes celebrated and reviled and a highly controversial and
well known figure, that’s her obsession
And to reconnect to her daughter she agrees to an
interview: with Lana Winters
Yes, American Horror Story: Asylum Lana Winters. Because Lana is very like Lee – she’s a woman who has endured a horrendous experience and don’t terrible things in order to survive.
I’m actually starting to love these little cameos for
past seasons.
And Lana was awesome. She is sympathetic and then the
interview takes a turn – she demands to know were Flora is. Yes, Flora has gone
missing and Lee is a natural suspect. The interview is then interrupted by the
remaining Polk with a machine gun. And I am a terrible person but I kind of
laughed at the Lana’s excellent, super dramatic speech to talk Polk into
putting his gun down completely failed and he hits her instead. He doesn’t
shoot Lee because security shoots him
Cut to another bunch of people who have decided they
absolutely have to visit the Roanoke House because the gene pool is improved
this way. They’ve brought with them another actor – this the one who played
Cricket – and the predictable happens. There’s no need to go into details –
except it’s super super super creepy and everyone, including police called in,
all end up dead. Many many murderous ghost and the Butcher all show up and
slaughter them all. And lo the gene pool is improved again
How many people need to die before people leave this damn house?
However while there they run into Lee.
Seriously Lee? You went back a third time? Why do you want to die so?
Ok, actually, this is the one time when someone went to the House where I actually understand this. Again this episode has done an excellent job of establishing Lee’s motives. Flora is everything and after 2 weeks of searching for Flora she’s headed for the last resort. On a Blood Moon. She’s looking for Flora playing with her friend Priscilla.
She finds Flora and begins the powerful, heart rending
process of trying to connect to her hostile daughter who is not willing to
trust her mother any more. Flora wants one thing – to stay in the house with
her ghostly friend, protecting her from the Butcher and living on berries. Or
she will die and be Priscilla’s ghostly playmate
This is not the life Lee planned for her daughter. After
much painful attempts to try and get her to change her mind, Lee makes an
offer: she will burn down the house, she will die and she will look after
Priscilla and Flora can go live with her grandparents
Lee sacrifices herself
Ok, on the one side we have a Black woman who has been
the complete focus of this episode. Her story has overwhelmed everyone else’s.
She is the focus of this episode. Her emotions, her struggle, her passion and
her love are perfectly displayed. She dies – but she does it for her child, she
has, freely admitted, to being a floored mother but no-one can doubt she would
give her life for her child or do absolutely anything for her child. That is
powerful and tells the story of Lee to it’s end.
On the other hand this ultimate act of Black motherhood
is to pass her child on to her grandparents. The ultimate act of Black
motherhood is to leave her child and look after a white girl instead. That,
that right there, is such a toxic painful trope right there. This is the Mammy
trope writ large and gross.
Despite that element of the ending, on the whole this
season of American Horror Story has
been shockingly lacking in awful. Really, we normally rely on American Horror Story to give us at
least one Friday
Discussion each series! Hey, American
Horror story we had a set up – we endure the awful for 10 weeks or so and
got some good material to point out the homophobia, misogyny, racism et al.
Oh it wasn’t perfect, don’t get me wrong. I’ve already
discussed Lee’s ending. And the gay characters appeared for one episode to die
like 10 seconds afterwards (as ever).
But there was a large number of POC who were not
demonised. There was a relatively respectful depiction of drug and alcohol
addiction (Lee’s personal battle with addiction is a nuanced and emotional
journey which lacks demonization despite her own harsh self-judgement).
I also really liked the format – it was original,
interested and kind of twisty to see this reality/documentary/television based
horror which adds a whole lot of question about what really happened and what
was artifice for ratings. And then we have the contrasting kinds – from shaky
cams by amateurs with a phone, to over-dramatised true-crime “documentaries”
(showing excellently the bias of these shows. What always fascinated me since
my mother’s a huge fan of these shows and can passionately declare “an innocent
man was persecuted!” and “how dare he show his face!” depending on which show
actually depicted the crime), to re-enactments and faked reality TV. I liked
it, it was an excellent way to show how our media has split recently.
For, perhaps, the first time ever we actually liked this
season.
