BWW Recap: A Cast of Carnage on AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE

This weeks episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY was bloody, blood, bloody, as if all that death we were waiting for all season finally caught up to us. As members of the cast of Return to Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell quickly get picked off, we soon learn that it might not be just the ghostly demons of the land that are doing all of the killing. While this season is picking up speed, feeling like it's hurtling towards its conclusion, a result that cannot be said for many past seasons, murder-filled blood moon countdown starts to toe the line between horror and torture-porn. Whether it succeeds or falls into its own trap depends on the outcome of the horror that will occur during the blood moon.

One question many viewers had was why none of the production team were doing anything after what happened to Rory at the end of last week's episode. Surely everything is being streamlined into monitors for the crew. We got our answer straight away this episode as we see Sidney (Cheyenne Jackson) reacting in real time to Matt and Dominic's fist fight with excited cheers looking at the monitors in his production trailer on set, thinking only of his ratings in stereotypical producer fashion. He gets distracted, however, when his PA screams outside and he and the camera man run to see what happened. They find her butchered on the floor by the faux butcher herself, Agnes (Kathy Bates). She quickly takes down him and the camera man, thus cutting off the casts' one hope of connection to the outside world.

Meanwhile, back at the house, the cast goes to look for Rory and finds only his blood puddled on the floor. Audrey (Sarah Paulson), in denial, think it is simply a prank by Sidney and the production team, that Rory must have accepted the job offer he brought up last week on a gig with Brad Pitt. Later on, in her confessional, we find out that she thinks that it wasn't just the offer that tempted Rory, but that he must have grown tired of being with an older woman. Paulson delivers a beautifully truthful line about the double standards in relationships with an age difference when it is the woman that is older rather than the man. With an older man, no one bats an eyelash, but with an older woman, she must do everything in her power to be pristinely perfect or else it could all slip away.

Agnes' clear schizophrenia begins to surface she she records her own confessional in the cellar with the camera she stole, ironically inserting herself into the show that she so desperately wanted to be on, despite it never airing. Agnes feels guilt over killing Sidney and his team, but the Butcher does not, insisting that they deserved what they got for intruding on her land. In the middle of her recording however, all the lights go out. When she lights a match and is able to see again, the stick figures from the colonists are everywhere, fear and wonderment plaguing Agnes as she comes face to face with the fact that the false reality she has lived in might actually be real.

It once again seems like Lee (Adina Porter) is the only one looking out for Monet (Angela Basset) and her alcoholism as she pulls out a flask, encouraged by Dominic (Cuba Gooding Jr.) because of the rough night they all had.

Shelby (Lily Rabe), who has avoided Dominic since the fight the previous night, is confronted by him in the kitchen as he attempts to seduce her once more, insisting that they were great together and should go back to it, that there is nothing there for her with Matt. Shelby shuts him down but Matt sees their closeness and in a supremely cold move, tells Dominic he can have her, talking about Shelby as if she were an object that had no thoughts or feelings. He pushes it so far, turning from one of the most sympathetic characters to one of the least, telling Dominic that he could have her there right on the table and he wouldn't even care.

We find out afterwards, as Dominic makes his confessional, that his interest in Shelby is about more than just attraction. Sidney paid him to come back to the show specifically to start drama between Shelby and Matt. Dominic, thinking of his career, knows that villains get the most screen time and offers himself up wholeheartedly to the prospect, even agreeing to wear a body-cam in the form of a necklace to capture every second of possible drama.

That "bad guy" persona quickly turns on its head, however, when Shelby is alone in a room, crying about her interaction with Matt and who walks in...Agnes...with a cleaver! Shelby tries backing away but Agnes comes forward, bringing the knife down right into Shelby's back. Shelby takes out her phone, desperate to record what she believes are her last moments so the world can know who her killer was, as Agnes raises to knife to deal the final blow. Dominic runs in, tackling Agnes and saving Shelby, but Agnes disappears and Shelby looks as though she might bleed out. Dominic clearly cares for Shelby and when crisis rears its head, he steps up to the plate, proving himself to be more than the "bad guy" character he came here to portray. Reality starts to slip into what he believed would be "reality" as we know it on television; false and without real stakes.

Audrey steps in to help, having been a nurse in a theater, and helps stop the bleeding. Shelby, clearly distraught and drained, goes to rest but the rest of the cast sit around and discuss what to do next, wondering why an ambulance hasn't showed up already seeing as how everything is being recorded. The phone lines are down but they remember that their one connection to the outside world is Sidney and the team, so they decide that some of them should go out in search of the production trailer. Matt says he wont go because he doesn't want to leave Shelby after what has happened to her and Dominic challenges him, asking him why he suddenly wants to be there for her again after what he said earlier.

The girls step up to the plate, deciding it would be Lee, Monet, and Audrey to make the trek. The girls go out through Mott's secret exit, Lee packed with a gun for safety. Lee has both her cellphone and her gun out, to protect herself from libel and the horror she knows will be out there respectively, insisting that she record everything to preserve the unedited truth. While down there, however, they encounter on a man that looks like Rory in his costume from the first season, Audrey getting excited that perhaps she was wrong about him, but it turns out it's not Rory. It is the real ghost of Edward Mott. Lee tries to shoot him and he goes down, but gets right back up again. The girls run, screaming, as he comes after them and finally the actors are starting to believe the real horror story they are in.

Matt watches over Shelby and the two begin to talk about their relationship. He tells Shelby that he hasn't felt human for two years, that the house took something from him. Shelby, who thinks this is his way of connecting, says it took something from both of them and that they can try to get it back.

We quickly see that's not true as Matt is carried downstairs when night sets in, into the basement in a ghost-like trance. Dominic sees him and follows him down to see what he's doing. We finally find out why Matt came. He is with Scathach, a much scarier version of her Lady Gaga counterpart. Perturbed and hungry for drama (or perhaps he feels this will relieve Shelby from her guilt) Dominic wakes Shelby up to go downstairs and see what's happening, despite the fact that she suffered from a deep injury and almost bled out a few hours earlier. She goes downstairs will him, seeing that Matt is no longer there, and from then on seems to not be hurt anymore. She sees Matt and Scathach, and in a fit of rage, takes a rod and hits the witch, telling her to get away from Matt. Matt stops her before she can deal a second blow, however, insisting to Shelby that Scathach is the reason he came back. In what can only be the true definition of blind rage, after finding out your ex that you are completely in love with is in love with a supernatural witch that almost ruined your lives, who he was techinically raped by, Lily Rabe channels Eileen Wuornos again as Shelby begins to beat Matt with the rod. She literally crushes his skull, killing him, unable to stop. Dominic watches this murder occur in horror, as the blood moon started setting in, setting not just the ghosts against the inhabitants of the house, but people against each other.

He takes her upstairs to wash her off and calm her down, getting her to put down the rod, as she breaks into hysterics, a truly wonderful performance by Lily Rabe that makes you want to kind of hug and reassure the person who just committed violent murder. She's horrified about what she has done and it's a beautifully realistic portrayal of someone who has just had their whole life taken from them begin to realize they have reached the end of the line and have no choice but to see it through.

Lee, Audrey, and Monet come across the production trailers and the bodies of the team. Horrified, Audrey asks if Sidney is okay and Lee answers back with a snappy and sarcastic dismissal as he is clearly dead. "I'm not American I'm not used to all this carnage!" Audrey shouts hilariously in fear, as they scan the area for the hope of a working car or phone line. They come up blank, but realize they are not alone as Agnes comes out of the shadows. With her knife in the air, she charges, but Lee shoots her down.

The women run off, afraid and have to make a choice about whether or not they should go back to the house or try to press towards town while the blood moon hangs eerily above their heads. They see the colonists with their torches walking through the wood and Lee, who takes charge, ushers them off the road and into the cover of the wood.

It is important to note that it was said all of the recordings from the phones are actually being filmed by the actors and thus, everything outside of the house is being directly filmed by the cast, completely encompassing the meaning of found footage in quite a brilliant way. The show gives us steady anchors of stability in the house cameras, allowing us to prepare for the stark difference of the camera work outside, where everything is shaky and hectic, emphasizing the fear and emotion of being out in the open with the horrors around you.

Audrey makes a confessional on her phone, telling Rory that she loves him in fear that this could be her last day alive. Monet stops her, however, when she notices blood dripping on her face. They look up to see Rory's body hanging above them, his blood spilling onto his wife's face. Audrey crumples in shock, horror, and grief.

Lee continues filming and abruptly insists Monet do the same. Monet protests that she is not going to film her friend as she's processing the loss of her husband but eventually gives in, realizing that this is the only record they will have of what is happening to them.

They don't get to wallow in grief for long as the real-life cannibal hillbillies capture them and take them back to their home, filled with weed plants. They tie Lee up to a chair first, teasing her and rubbing oil and seasonings on her, getting her eat.

Monet and Audrey are chained up, as they plead for their lives and escape, but the family will not relent, screaming at and hurting them until they agree to eat the plat of food they brought to them. Audrey quickly realizes what it is, having been in the staged version of this scene last season, and screams in horror, asking them what they have done to Lee. The family keeps pressing them, however, until they eat and Audrey picks up a piece with shaking hands, gagging as she forces it into her mouth.

It is here when it becomes human on human violence and it starts to feel like it could be leaning towards torture porn over horror. The parallels to the first half of the season are brilliant and offer much needed depth, like when Audrey realizes what is happening because she acted it out once before, so one can only hope that will be what leads the narrative.

Back at the house, Agnes who pulled the bullet out of own her chest with hot pliers approaches. She is ready to cause a ruckus when the colonists approach soon after her, headed by the real Butcher. Agnes finally comes face to face with the woman she has idolized and become and there's a level of fear here now that anchors her in her identity as Agnes. She knows that her fictionalized Butcher has done horrible things, so there's a hesitation when being confronted by the real killer. In a bittersweet demise, The Butcher takes a cleaver to Agnes' head, splitting it down the middle and killing the woman in one fatal swing that has been wholly consumed by the very idea of her.

Dominic and Shelby watch it all from the window; Dominic with fear that we haven't seen in him yet, as he realizes that they are truly in a real horror story, and Shelby with a numbness to it all, having experienced so much loss, pain, and devastation as a result of the horrors of Roanoke.

Thus, we're an entire crew down at the hands of Agnes, and Matt is too out of the picture because of Shelby. Agnes was the only person actually killed by the paranormal this episode and it's clear to say that the true horrors of Roanoke are what it has turned everybody into.

With only two more nights of the blood moon left, and five cast members to go, we're in for some horror and certainly death, but one can only hope that it leans into its horror routes and they break through the tropes that they have set up in the first half of the season, as the cast has prior knowledge about all of the events that are going to take place, having either acted them out or survived them before.

Check out a sneak peek at Episode 8 below:

Photo Credit: FX

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