The penultimate episode of AHS: Roanoke switched up the storytelling, yet again. Are we entering The People v. Roanoke?
“Chapter 9” features a plethora of brutal deaths, keeping the amount of blood per frame average of the episode at about a liter. This is not Lee’s first rodeo when it comes to dealing with the undead of Roanoke. So instead of crying over a few corpses, she doubles down on her mission — get a confession from Polks about her ex’s murder.
In the process, Ryan Murphy slips in another irritating trio ala Hotel (we all remember Darren Criss whining about kale, right?) This time they materialize in extreme horror hunters Todd, Milo, and Sophie (Taissa Farmiga!) These superfans want to capture the annual blood moon massacre. #BloodMoon
Now, with the cast levels out at the Murphy quota of too many people to care about, some action starts to take place. Look, this episode is nothing more than a bridge for the season finale. Which, not surprisingly, will add a third show into the show within a show within a show format.
There is one shocking realization that struck me during “Chapter 9” — I am oddly immune to disembowelments. Thanks, AHS! Let’s run down the exposition portion of the episode so we can begin the fun work of brainstorming what will go down in the finale.
Team Insta-story: After finding the dead producer in their car, this rag tag group of explorers take their findings to the police. Of course, they could care less and threaten the group with jail time if they return to the house. But the team motto is, “Do it for the likes,” and so off they go back to the house that Mott built.
Team “I didn’t kill my husband:” Incriminating evidence in hand, Lee must fend for herself after Audrey, Monet and Dylan leave her at the Polks hideaway. That’s alright because on her way to the house she meets the witch of the Roanoke woods. She eats a bit of a pig heart and suddenly she’s the Butcher 3.0.
With the spiritual Butcher preoccupied gutting Dylan on the front lawn, Lee turns her sights on Team Social Media. Lee only gets her hands on one of them, but the villagers take care of the other two by burning them at the stake. [insert crying Facebook reaction here]
Team “Everyone is DEAD”: Audrey makes sure that she gets some incriminating evidence on her phone before she shoots one of the Polk brothers. Her spiritual counterpart Marcia Clark must have been whispering trial advice to her. Before the Polks can offer them another plate of their own flesh, Audrey and Monet make a run for it.
Back at the house, they discover that Lee wanted to return to the Polks farm to retrieve a tape that shows her confessing to the murder of her ex-husband. As they are chatting about her, the Butcher 3.0 arrives. She wastes no time pushing Monet over the railing and makes quick work of stabbing Audrey in the back and pushing her into the basement.
Team Polks Rule: The Polks are a terrifying group of woodland cannibals. On the one hand, I don’t blame them for wanting to stay away from their bad side. However, with corpses piling up by the minute, maybe they should take everyone to jail just to get them off the property. Instead, they show up when day breaks and the Blood Moon cycle ends to find bodies, gutted, staked and burnt.
As they attempt to get Lee to safety, Audrey fights with her last breath to take Lee’s life. She reaches for a cop’s gun and in the process gets killed by his fellow officer.
Blood Moon has set and with it, the sixth AHS installment. We still have one episode left, but for some reason it feels as if this series has already had two finales. “Chapter 10” feels more like a novella, a companion piece to this odd experimental season of television.
Regardless, I still have a few questions I want answered before I pack up my AHS bag for good.
9 questions for the finale of ‘AHS: Roanoke’
- Will someone finally shatter the fourth wall and say, “Hey! Lana Winters! You look like the Supreme and this British actress, and this psychic I saw on Lifetime once.”
- How many shows within a show are there?
- What is our role in all of this? Who is packaging this for us? Are we meant to be bored on a Saturday night binge-watching this on Discovery ID?
- Was Ryan Murphy not able to pack away his courtroom sets in Fox storage?
- Is this special Lana Winters hosting part of a longer running series? If so, where can we watch that?
- Why did it take the crew 3 months to find the dead producer’s footage in the car?
- What type of lawsuit is the network facing for this series?
- Where can I get one of those iPhones? No one EVER used a charger!
- What happened to the house? Did they burn it down? Is the site now overwhelmed with tourists?
Watch AHS: Roanoke chapter 10, Wednesday, November 16 at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX.