Thursday, November 10, 2011

American Horro Story - Piggy Piggy

Some thoughts on this week's "American Horror Story" coming at you after the break... but first let me get this bloody Mexican woman out of my bathroom!


We are now half way through the first season of "American Horror Story" and as I've mentioned in previous weeks, people are embracing it with open arms.  Whatever the reason was that first drew so many to this show (I started because of a deep love for Connie Britton), the clever writing and mysteries are keeping us coming back for more.  Although I didn't find "Piggy Piggy" to be the strongest of the episodes so far, we did get a few interesting things to discuss.

It's official, Tate is a genuine, honest to goodness ghost! Not that we all didn't expect this after so many clues but our suspicions are quickly confirmed after another flashback to start the episode. And man, was this one of the best flashbacks so far.  The suspense and fear that the audience experiences while watching felt so realistic.  After Columbine, the Virginia Tech shootings and so many more, we find ourselves fearful of something like that happening to us at any time and the writers cleverly played off of this fear.  What's even better is that when we should be feeling for the victims, in the end, we feel for Tate and the anguish of not knowing who he is and what he has done. Just some really great writing here.

The Tate story has been the real juice of the last two episodes; but short of Violet finding out and dealing with truth about him, there wasn't enough left to carry the rest of the episode.  In turn, we get some small stories dealing with Vivian's pregnancy fears and a new patient (Eric Stonestreet from "Modern Family") for Ben.  While Ben is attempting to help his new patient, he ironically describes what is the problem within his own house ("The more you fear something, the more power you give it"). As I've said since the beginning, it seems that the house feeds off of their fears and inner demons.

We are also introduced to Billie Dean, a medium that helps Constance deal with her loss of both her son and now Addie. She reveals that Tate is trapped between worlds because he can't come to grips with what he has done and Constance confirms my suspicion that the sessions with Ben were a set up to help him see the light and move on. It's clear that Billie is not bullshitting about her "gift" as she also speaks to a spirit from Violet's past and to Addie as well (who says she's happy not to have become a ghost of the house). I don't know if Billie Dean will be sticking around but I think having her insight on the house would be a nice touch to help progress the story.

Going back to Vivien's pregnancy, it's obvious she now knows something is not right.  She's developing such strange cravings for the so called delicacies that Constance is bringing her and of course there was the dream about what's growing inside her.  The confrontation with the ultrasound tech could have been a little stronger but instead just reiterated the fact that what she saw was not normal (maybe even the devil) and the excuse the hospital gave Vivien for what the tech saw (technical malfunction)  was not so clever.  Plus, what's the deal with the relationship that's progressing between her and the security guard? So far, I don't see how this can help progress the major story arch but we will have to wait and see.

Again, not the strongest episode but I'm still curious to see what is to come for the Harmon Family going forward. Still many questions unanswered and a couple new ones to add.  What did everyone else think?

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