HOLLYWOOD—I will start this recap with a warning: make sure your children are not watching this show! This episode has brought the gore back in full force, and I have no clue what is in store for the next six episodes.
Shelby is flipping out on Matt for having sex with the witch, played by Lady Gaga, even though he doesn’t remember it, and Lee is currently arrested for Mason’s death. Once Matt breaks down due to his lack of memory, Shelby starts believing his story. Shelby goes to take a shower and as she swings open the curtain the man with the pig’s head stands there and comes after her with a knife. Matt saves her, then Dr. Elias Cunningham comes out of nowhere and saves them both with the yelling of “Croatoan.”
Cunningham since he bought the house has kept it so no one else would live there, but after a missed property bill the house went back to the bank. He starts to fill the couple into the history of the house, Roanoke and “Croatoan.” “Croatoan” is part of a dark power and blood magic, and was left as a message to the colonists. As for the house, every person who has owned and stayed living in the house has either gone missing or was found dead.
This has been happening since 1792 when Edward Phillip Mott built the house. For anyone interested in the theory that all the seasons of “AHS” are connected, the last name of Mott is not new to “AHS.” In Season 4, the psychopathic rich kid was Dandy Mott. Perhaps a descendant?
Back to this season, Cunningham has hidden files showing the evidence of everyone who has lived in the house. What he has also found out is that the disappearances and murders all happen in the same moon cycle every October up until the blood moon. Cunningham tells Shelby and Matt that this cycle during when the dead can kill begins that day and all of them have to leave the house.
When they mention Flora and that Priscilla has her, Cunningham says she knows where Priscilla is and can take them to her. They arrive at the edge of the woods when Shelby sees the witch, and runs off to chase her. The dead spirits of the past are playing games with Flora, but when Cunningham tries to convince Priscilla to give Flora back, he gets shot with arrows from the colonists!
Matt and Shelby run back to the house where Cricket is waiting. It is night time, and Cricket says he needs to find out the enemy’s strengths to find out their weaknesses. He returns in the morning to tell them that the Butcher isn’t the issue, it is the witch, and she wants Matt. Cricket also agreed to give her Matt if she told him her story, which Shelby is not happy about.
The lost colony of Roanoke was never lost, but had moved to the land, where the house now sits on. The land was full of bounty, but the Butcher made human sacrifices, including Priscilla, to keep the land bountiful. Ambrose White, the Butcher’s son, is not happy with the fact that his mother and their leader has turned away from God. Another revolt seems to be in the works, so the witch tells the Butcher to kill them all and open the power of the blood moon which will make their spirits slaves to the Butcher. The Butcher pretends to repent, and holds a feast with a special fruit that keeps the colonists weak so she can kill them all with her cleaver. At the end she offers herself to the witch who kills her.
Cricket says he knows a spell that can get rid of her, but he has to go gather his things. As he leaves in an Uber they almost run over Flora, and Cricket chases her into the woods. At the house, Shelby and Matt fall asleep. Matt wakes up at night and is lured outside to the cellar where the witch puts him in a trance so the debt to her is paid. Matt is able to learn her past and finds out she was a girl from England who had stowed away to America. When the colonists found her and planned to kill her, she used her magic with the old druid gods to kill them all.
Shelby wakes up and goes outside to find the colonists and that the Butcher has Flora. Her screams break Matt from his trance, and he runs to tell the Butcher that they will get Flora and all leave. The Butcher says no deal, but Priscilla pushes her so Flora can run to Matt and Shelby. As the couple watches the colonists from the upstairs bedroom with Flora safe on the bed behind them, they see that the colonists were able to capture Cricket and the Butcher disembowels him as a warning.
Until next Wednesday on FX, horror fanatics!