Roughly half the first season of American Horror Story has now aired, and by now most of the questions that were originally raised by the show have been answered, paving the way toward a season finale where the true mystery is what will happen rather than what happened in the past except for, perhaps, the question about what exactly it is about the house that makes it apparently full of evil, a question that I myself don’t expect to find an answer to until the very season finale or perhaps the episode before that one.

Nevertheless, the flawless storytelling that’s been moving the series since its premiere makes yet another appearance in this episode, which centers itself mainly on the past of one of our favorite ghosts (Tate), along with giving us several clues as to the nature of the ghosts in the house and the reason why they’re there.

The strongest of the storylines here, though explained during the first few minutes of the episode, deals with the main mystery about Tate, that being whether he’s a ghost or not and how he came to become one. However, said storyline, which has Violet nearly going crazy, is quickly woven with the mystery surrounding the house, particularly after Constance gets told by a medium that Addie is glad she didn’t bring him to the house grounds because she fears Tate now. This last comment by Addie is a pretty interesting one, since I’ve been thinking since episode 2 that we might be seeing a Pet Sematary-like storyline where anyone buried (Or in this case anyone who dies) within the house grounds becomes a ghost that walks the house and interacts freely with its inhabitant. An even more important plotline here is how Constance seems to be aware of it, since she herself struggled to get Addie into the house before she died only to have her pass away in the gutter outside of it.

The second ongoing storyline touched here dealt with Vivien’s baby, who two episodes before caused a nurse to faint during a hospital procedure. Though not as strongly touched this time around, we see Vivien having nightmares about the baby having claws and later on she confronts the nurse, who has quit her job and now spends the day in a church and tells her that what she saw in her womb was nothing less than the beast itself. It is also notable that Constance seems to be particularly interested in Vivien’s baby, which makes me think she’s probably somehow aware said baby isn’t Ben’s but the rubber man’s, though she might just think the house is affecting the baby anyway.

Other than that, Ben’s storyline in this episode is the single disruptive one, having him deal with a patient who’s afraid of pretty much every single urban legend there is and who finally gets killed while attempting to confront his fears. It isn’t nearly as interesting as the rest of the storylines, though I highly suspect the situation surrounding his death will likely hit Ben pretty hard during the following episodes.
All in all, even when this episode wasn’t as highly filled with drama or as quickly paced as the previous one except for Violet’s storyline and attempted suicide, American Horror Story has delivered yet another amazing episode that keeps on advancing the storyline almost perfectly while always keeping a mystery (or several) around for the viewers to wonder about. This time around, though most of the original questions have been answered the main focus of the story is the future of the house and its inhabitants, which is a very good turn to take considering there are only seven episodes left until the series is over and the apparently planned new beginning for season two happens. There’s still a lot that could happen before the season ends, but so long as the writing and the storylines go on as they have so far I believe American Horror Story will prove itself to become one of the best series this year.

Final review rating: 4.5/5