Tonight’s AHS: Hotel episode 2, “Chutes and Ladders,” followed the body trail deep into the hotel’s history where some of our pressing questions were answered.
The super-sized episode of AHS: Hotel explored the origins of the Hotel Cortez, dove into the personal fears of John Lowe, and put on a fashion show that makes other fashion weeks look tame in comparison.
Detective John Lowe’s worst day
In sharp contrast to the others living in the Hotel Cortez, John Lowe does not need a drink to get him through the hotel’s odd waking hours. The worst hours are between two and three am. Lowe finds himself at the bar next to Sally where he recalls his last drunk. Seeing a man turn a gun on himself after accidentally killing his family through exposure to carbon monoxide, took John down a dark path.
After bailing on his own wife and kids for two days, John returned home and took them to the beach. Only three of the four returned home.
Sad Sally is trapped
Poor Sally is all alone in the hotel. Trapped in isolation, her only companions are the junkies she lures into the hotel with the promise of a quick release. Betraying their trust and handing them over the Addiction Demon, Sally sews the corpses into the mattresses until the next one arrives. Perhaps in exchange for her “life” the Hotel demands some form of payment from its permanent resident. She explains to Lowe that her addiction was the result of trying to achieve pure light. The higher she climbed the ladder to get closer to that feeling of heaven, the further she got away.
There’s a part of everyone that wants to get lost, but she may be too far gone for her own good.
Who stays, who goes
We know that Sally and the loyal Mrs. Evers are bound to the Hotel in some after-life capacity. As we saw tonight, Mr. March also dwells on the abandoned seventh floor. But not every invited guest is welcome forever. Donovan learned that the hard way tonight after The Countess took up a new lover whom she claimed for her own–eternally. He may be high and mighty now, but at one time Donovan was the chosen one. As The Countess says, it is important to live beyond the virus. And heartbreak, well the bigger the better.
The mythology of the blood virus
So many details surrounding the blood virus were revealed in tonight’s episode. The quasi-immortal creatures on AHS: Hotel are not vampires (we heard you Ryan Murphy) but they are pretty damn close. Last week’s premiere revealed how The Countess and one of the people she turned, Donovan, feed their lust for blood. The fresher, the better.
Using her glove, The Countess rips a line down her arm and pours her own blood into the mouth of her selection, rather than sucking theirs. It is meant to be an intimate, erotic act that leads to perfect complexion, a unquenchable sexual appetite, and immortality if you aren’t too reckless. The Countess suggests that Tristan avoid falling in love with anyone other than her. After all she has been around since 1904, she knows a thing or two about surviving.
The mysterious Mr. March
1925, James Patrick March put every part of his being, and many parts of other beings, into building a monument to his extraordinary wealth and odd tastes. A self-made man in every way, money could only appease his eccentric tastes for so long. Killing, and killing extraordinarily, filled the void. The Hotel Cortez was built with hallways to nowhere, plenty of chutes, and a staff that could handle getting blood and gray matter out of anything.
When the police caught onto his extracurriculars, Mr. March and Ms. Evers became the last two victims of his killing spree with a bullet to the head and a knife to the throat respectively. His unseen wife (perhaps the future role for Emma Roberts?) was thought to be behind turning her husband into the authorities.
Long, lost son
Bored with the fashion show happening in the entryway, Scarlet, who is visiting her father at the hotel, goes off with Lachlan to explore the hidden swimming pool of the hotel. Deep within the vast emptiness the children of The Countess sleep in glass coffins. Scarlet recognizes her brother. Keeping her mouth shut, she runs away to revisit his new dwelling and tries to convince him to come home. But he enjoys his new space and invites her to visit whenever she pleases.
Her parents are less than thrilled with her little escapade, but when John Lowe looks at the photo she tried to take of them, he gets the dd feeling that there is something more going on in the Hotel than his own mind playing tricks on him.
Connecting the Ten Commandments
John Lowe may think the tall tale of Mr. March is false, but it does lead him to investigate his crimes a bit further. One of them, the dumping of a pile of bodies of migrant workers with Bible’s strewn about, provides the key to unlocking the connection of the present day crimes Lowe is investigating. Starting with “Remember the Sabbath,” Lowe works backwards to connect Commandments to the other crimes.
Stray observations for the future:
•Claudia, the editor for Vogue attends Will Drake’s fashion show at the Hotel Cortez.
•Tristan’s visit to the seventh floor is not going to be a one time affair. Mr. March’s return to the present will continue in the coming weeks.
Watch AHS: Hotel episode 3, “Mommy,” Wednesday, October 21 at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX.
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