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This season of American Horror Story has definitely left 1984 behind, placing the main storyline now in 1989. Of course everyone who died at Camp Redwood in 1984 (as well as before and since) are still there, haunting the place, killing passers-by and now awaiting Margaret’s return to slaughter her and anyone who dares attend her soon-to-be ill-fated rock concert … if she can get her assistant Courtney to actually get the place in shape in time for a concert. All she’s concerned about at the moment is making sure the first band to arrive, Kajagoogoo, is taken care of. Well, they are taken care of but not in the way Margaret hoped. Apparently Limahl and the boys signed a contract with the Devil, and Richard Ramirez is there to collect. But this was just a small part of this week’s story. Also, Trevor sees Montana and the two have a passionate reunion but how will that end for him?
The bulk of the episode took us back to 1948 when the camp had a different, Camp Golden Star, where we met the camp’s cook Mrs. Richter and her two boys, Bobby and Benjamin. Yep, this is Ben’s backstory and it helps us understand a bit more about his psyche. Ben’s mom doted on younger brother Bobby, but she was not kind at all to the older, overweight boy, always yelling at and berating him. And when Ben was supposed to be keeping an eye on his brother, he got distracted spying on a lifeguard and his girl making out in the woods. Poor Bobby disobeyed his brother and jumped in the lake where he was hit in the head by the propeller of a motorboat. Mrs. Richter blamed Ben and everyone else for her beloved son’s death and in her madness, she committed the first massacre at the camp. When Ben discovered what she had done, he ran from her and when she followed she dropped her knife. He picked it up and she ran into the blade, accidentally stabbing herself, her blood and her grief pouring out onto the ground, cursing the camp forever.
When Ben returns to Camp Redwood to finish off Richard, he comes across the boys who were dressed like him in 1984 and is confused as to why they are still dressed as Mr. Jingles. Two of the boys attack him but the third reminds them that Montana said no killing until the concert, so they tie him up and take him to the rest of the group. They tell him that they’re all stuck there and are hoping to carry out the massacre so all the paranormal investigators and ghost hunters in the country will come and help them find a way out of the camp. But then there’s also that scary woman in white they have to deal with. Ben tells them it’s his mother and Xavier shows him where she usually hangs out but he’s not going anywhere near the place. Apparently they can all be ‘killed’ over and over again and it’s not fun.
Ben finally confronts his mother and she’s still holding a mighty grudge for his negligence in Bobby’s death. But he tells her she doesn’t have exclusivity on missing him. Ben thinks about his brother every day and even named his son after him. And now he needs to kill Ramirez to keep his son safe. But she says that will be impossible because he’s got Satan on his side. If Ben dies by Richard’s hand, he’ll be gone forever. If he dies by his own hand, he’ll be able to stay at the camp. His mother, now taking pity on her oldest son, tells him to go home and take care of his own son, but Ben knows the only way to keep Bobby safe is to take his own life and he does, right on the pier where his brother had sat. Now it will be a final showdown between Ben and Richard.
Before he died, Ben learned that it was his mother who got into Margaret’s head and made her kill the counselors. Mother has hated counselors since Bobby died and to get back at Ben, she put the notion into Margaret’s head. I liked how they incorporated Mrs. Richter into some previous scenes and it was a thrill to have Lily Rabe back for at least one episode. And as we come closer to the season finale, we’re still awaiting Sarah Paulson’s guest shot, and I’m willing to bet she’s going to reprise her Billie Dean Howard role once again. I mean who else is going to be able to cleanse the camp of all this supernatural activity?
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And while the ‘Lady in White’ story was the main feature of the episode, the secondary story riffed on the 1986 thriller The Hitcher with another AHS alum, Dylan McDermott, popping back in for an episode. Donna has been nursing Brooke back to health after ‘executing’ her, and while Brooke fought her during her detox period, she finally did understand that Donna was trying to right her wrongs by helping Brooke get out of the country with a new identity. But Brooke sees the ad for the concert at Camp Redwood and makes it her mission to confront Margaret (if she can get to her before Montana and company do). Donna tries to dissuade Brooke by taking her to a roller disco to have fun and forget about their problems but a creepy guy named Alex approaches them and asks for a ride.
Donna turns him down but finds her car won’t start. Alex happens to be leaving the rink and offers some assistance which leads Donna to invite him into the car. But his conversation begins to get a bit disturbing and unnerving to the point Brooke decides its time for him to exit the car. As they try to get him to leave, a cop pulls up and warns them about the five girls who have gone missing along that stretch of highway. Donna then admits that the man in the back seat is a stranger but before they can have him removed, he grabs the cop’s gun and shoots him. Hopping out of the car, Donna floors it and they get away but while stopped at a traffic light the cop car flies up behind them and rear ends them hard, knocking out both women.
When Brooke awakens, she’s in the driver’s seat, Alex is pointing a gun at her and Donna … is at the end of chain tied to the car bumper. Brooke has a choice: drag her friend to her death or die herself. She puts the car in gear, but she puts it in reverse and drives over Donna. Alex is distracted by the maneuver and Brooke grabs his gun, forcing him out of the car. Alex then finds himself chained to a telephone pole with Brooke amputating his thumbs, telling him his hitchhiking days are over. But from where they are stopped, Brooke tells Donna she’s going to walk the rest of the way to the camp and thanks her for all of her help. But Donna can’t let her face this alone and reluctantly agrees to go with Brooke.
I don’t think the next episode is the finale, but the preview mentions Brooke as ‘the final girl’ (the one girl who always survives a slasher movie) and a ‘final showdown’ between Richard and Benjamin. But it didn’t say it was the final episode so it should be interesting to see where things go from here and how this season will connect to the others (and that’s where Billie Dean comes in).
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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