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This week’s episode titled “Neighbors from Hell” posed a couple of intriguing questions, at least in my head. Like who exactly is the leader of the creepy, murderous clown cult? And which pair of neighbors are the “bad guys”? Because this week it became an all-out war between the Mayfair-Richardses (well, at least in Ally’s mind) and the Wiltons with the ramifications of Ally’s actions during the blackout that left poor Pedro dead. The police are treating the incident as an act of self defense, but the rest of the town has now branded Ally a racist — including the Wiltons who showed up on her doorstep in sombreros to berate and throw Taco Bell coupons at her. And Harrison’s gun is in police custody, so none of that sat well with them.
But how much of their rant at Ally did they believe? We know that they were the ones who shot the video of Kai’s staged beating, and they both had one-on-one pinkie sessions with him that may not have ended well for Meadow after Harrison admitted to Kai that he wished she was dead. But Meadow had some concerns of her own about Harrison and his new friend who just happened to be Detective Samuels. So this opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms. Is Samuels part of Kai’s group? He does seem to humor Ally more than believe her reports of clown sightings, so his new relationship with Harrison is sudden and a bit sketchy.
Things with the Wiltons and Ally deteriorated when, first, they gave Ozzy a guinea pig as a gift (because even though they hate Ally, they like Ozzy) even though they have a strict — and a bit OCD — no pet policy (Ally eventually agreed to let Ozzy keep the rodent) … but that was short-lived because after a night of family bonding, they came home to find the smiley face painted on their front door and Mr. Guinea in the microwave. RIP Mr. Guinea. Ally tore in to the Wiltons, punching Harrison, and putting an even bigger wedge between herself and Ivy, not to mention how all this is affecting Ozzy. The Wiltons denied painting the smiley face and told them they were marked for death by the serial killers. What they probably didn’t know was that there was a smiley face painted on the side of their own house as well, and Ally had no intention of alerting them. So are the Wiltons also marked? And if so, why would Kai want to target members of his cult?
After two fairly unpleasant encounters with Ally, Kai seems to have found a way in with her (besides planting Winter with the family as the nanny who does inappropriate things like letting strange men into the house). After finding a crowd of protesters at their restaurant, Ivy needs to open up but she tells Ally to go home. Before she can hit the gas, Kai shows up and actually sympathizes with her plight, perhaps even shows some empathy towards her as well, telling her he understands what she did and why, promising to take care of the protesters for her. Later, she runs into the group again who surround her car. Her intention was to speak with them to prove she isn’t racist, but surrounded by an angry mob is more than a bit unnerving. For a moment, I thought she was going to step on the gas and just mow them down, but Kai suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said “leave” (in a voice similar to the one Jesse Custer uses on Preacher when he wants people to do something) and the crowd dispersed. It all seemed just a bit too convenient, so are these protesters actually plants that he put there to help him woo Ally to his cause?
Things only got worse for everyone by the end of the episode. Ozzy was snooping around on his computer where he shouldn’t have been snooping, getting around the parental locks and seeing a video he should not have seen. No, not another one of those murder videos Winter was showing him, but video of Winter and Ally during Ally’s bath. Ivy saw just enough to make her fly into a rage and take Ozzy out of the house so Ally could do some thinking. When Ally begged Ivy not to leave her there alone, she just snapped back that maybe she could call Winter. Ouch. But Ivy’s departure was delayed when police arrived and Harrison came running out his house covered in blood, claiming he was asleep and rolled over to find Meadow murdered. Seeing Ally watching, he immediately blamed her but the cops cuffed him. Meanwhile Ozzy, who was supposed to stay on the porch was seen inside the house staring at … something. Inside, Ally and Ivy saw blood streaked along the walls and a smiley face painted on another wall. How did that get there in the space of just a few minutes and did Ozzy see who did it?
And what is that black truck that keeps driving through the neighborhood spraying? It’s killed a bunch of birds and given Ally a nosebleed, so it’s not mosquito spray, that’s for sure. And who sent it?
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Who indeed. I’m not totally positive about this theory just yet but I’m wondering if Kai is truly the cult leader we’re being led to believe he is or … is there someone else? Well, the episode opened with a couple in therapy. The wife had a traumatic childhood where her father had locked her in a kitchen cabinet. So as an adult she had a terrible fear of being buried alive, or taphophobia. But when her father died and she was able to close the lid of his coffin, that action basically set her free. After their session, the couple returns home and find themselves confronted by the band of clowns and two open coffins, one for each of them. The couple was found a week later after not responding to phone calls.
All of this begs the question: is Dr. Vincent the actual “ringmaster” or is he just another devotee of Kai? It seems awfully convenient that Ally has her coulrophobia and suddenly these clowns keep showing up to taunt her. And then right after a sesson with Dr. Vincent, this couple suffers a fate related to the wife’s own phobia. It seems like a few too many steps to report all of these things to Kai and then have Kai direct his merry band on where to go, so perhaps the not-so-good doctor himself could be pulling the strings, especially after the way he handled a call with Ally right before she was surrounded by that angry mob. I don’t know yet if he’s the actual puppetmaster or just another puppet, but his actions this week raised a lot of red flags including his collection of smiley face buttons.
What did you think of this episode? Is Kai or Dr. Vincent behind everything? Sound off in the comments below!
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