American Horror Story: Roanoke enter a new phase

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Chapter 6 of this season’s American Horror Story totally flipped the script on us. Okay, we knew the first five episodes were part of some kind of reality docuseries, even though some people kept forgetting that all of the horrific things we witnessed were just dramatic reenactments. But when Chapter 5 was a clear finale to that story, we wondered what the cryptic preview for Chapter 6 featuring Cheyenne Jackson was all about.

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And now we know that he is playing Sidney, the producer of “My Roanoke Nightmare,” and the episode begins with his pitch to the network that broadcast the original series (which was the smash of 2015) for a sequel series, “Return to Roanoke.” The real twist is that he plans to reunite Shelby, Matt and Lee with the actors who appeared in the reenactment scenes, put them in the Roanoke house (the reenactments were, as we now know, filmed in the actual house that Sidney bought from the Millers), outfit it with cameras, a la Big Brother or The Real World and watch what happens over the course of three days. Oh, and this will all take place during the time of the Blood Moon. What could go wrong?

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A lot has happened to those involved with the show since filming the first series. Shelby and Matt had some marital issues which lead her to have a one-night stand with Dominic Banks, the actor who played Matt, Monet Tumusiime, who played Lee, turned to the bottle to deal with playing Lee whom she firmly believes murdered her ex-husband, and Agnes Mary Winstead took her role of The Butcher a little too much to heart, going a bit off the deep end mentally, raging down Hollywood Boulevard in costume and with a meat cleaver in hand. She spent some time in a mental facility, is on her meds, but still can’t escape what she considers the role of a lifetime, actually moving to North Carolina near the property. Unfortunately, because of her psychosis, Sidney has issued her a restraining order that forbids her from coming within fifty feet of the production. Of course, he hopes that won’t stop her.

Jackson’s Sidney is a total asshole with only one thing in mind — ratings glory. To ensure the participants get a good scare, he’s had special effects technicians rig the entire house to spook them from faucets turning themselves on to exploding windows. But he may end up getting more than he bargained for as someone has left a ring of fetal pigs on the property, and one of the crew members gruesomely decapitated himself with a chainsaw hours before the cast was due to arrive, prompting his assistant to call it quits, leading to the episode’s first major scare as she encounters the real Piggy Man as she attempts to leave the property. After her mysterious death (on screen text tells us her body was never found and the video from her cell phone was recovered three months after she disappeared), we learn (again through text) that every person involved in the production died during their three day stay … except one. And we don’t know who that is yet.

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The episode took a little while to get through the set-up and get to the scares, but the last fifteen minutes or so really set us up for what is to come over the last four episodes. What we do know is that the “Return to Roanoke” series never aired, and what we will see from here on out is the found footage version of the events taken from the production cameras in the house and the cast members’ cell phone cameras. It looks like it will be quite the rollercoaster ride.

What else did we learn from Chapter 6?

Shelby wanted no part of the new series, but changed her mind because of the negative reaction she’s gotten from the public, and to hopefully fix her marriage to Matt. The one condition was that Dominic could not be involved. Of course Sidney lied and said he would not … and then he showed up, causing Matt to lose his cool.
Sidney did a pretty good Cricket Marlowe impression while overseeing the rigging of the house.
Did Audrey and Rory actually see Agnes outside the house, or was it really The Butcher?
Audrey Tindall, who played Shelby, is actually British and eventually married Rory Monahan, who played Edward Mott, in a ceremony officiated by Brian Wells, who played one of the Polk siblings.
Agnes took her role so seriously that she tried to break into Audrey’s home after Audrey beat her out for a Saturn Award for her performance on the show.
Audrey was also terrorized by Piggy Man in her bathroom, but she believed it was someone acting the role on behalf of Sidney to garner a reaction for the show.
Poor Rory, while looking for whoever was playing Piggy Man, had an encounter with the murderous nurse sisters — the real ones — which culminated with Matt discovering the freshly painted R on the wall to complete the word MURDER.
Piggy Man and the sisters weren’t the only ghostly occupants of the house as we also saw Lee’s crispy ex Mason walk past one of the cameras.
Curiously absent from the new production are the actors who played Dr. Elias Cunningham, Ambrose White, Cricket Marlowe, and the Witch of the Woods.

On the next episode of American Horror Story: Roanoke