The ghosts took a break from their non-stop orgy to flip the scales, and add one more member to their cast. Yes, the big plot reveal — which many of you have been predicting — came true last night and hooey was it a doozey! Behold the spoilery reveal!
Last night American Horror Story revealed that yes, Violet has been dead and rotting beneath the Harmon's family floorboards, for some time now. It was a horrific reveal, and a pretty gutsy thing to do. And that's okay: This is a horror series after all, so the more bodies the better, right? Well, perhaps. Violet's rotten corpse was one thing, but perhaps we didn't need to see the charred remains of Burning Man's family. That was a bit hard to take (as crazy as the smoldering ghosts looked).
But let's break things down in order — because that's not all that was reveled this week.
First and foremost, we found out that Tate really is a horrid little murdering monster. The first flashback showed Constance, Addie (we miss you Addie!!!) Tate and Burning Man sitting through and awkward dinner in 1994. Which means that Burning Man didn't get his terrible scars trying to save his children. Instead it was Tate, in the office, with the gasoline can. Clearly, Tate was none too pleased with his mother's decision to invite Burning Man into their lives and promptly set him ablaze in the middle of his office. It was highly dramatic. After a pill-snorting binge, Tate toasted Burning Man and then apparently headed off to his school to massacre his fellow classmates.
I've been treading water about this new turn for Tate, since I really enjoyed the fact the AHS was trying to make the audience feel for a boy who unloaded buckets of bullets into a collection of classmates. It was pretty hard to find sympathy for Tate but with the urgings from Constance and the shame shower scene I was getting there. No more. After last week's cruel murder of the adorable gay couple, I was beginning to suspect that Tate is simply a selfish little shitbag. But after watching him set another human being on fire, I think it's safe to say that this kid is a nightmare, plain and simple. Thankfully the show has decided to go full monster with Tate, as opposed to trying to justify the actions of a teen hellbent on proving to the world that he's not Constance's golden boy. At least I hope they're not trying to justify it. If you're going to make a monster, make a monster.
Meanwhile Ben visits and tries to undo the giant mental dump he took on Vivian by locking her in a mental institution and then accusing her of cheating. Perhaps Vivian is trying to play it cool and get herself out of the mental ward, but I still can't understand how she let Ben into the same room with her? Just a few episodes back Ben showed up and told her he was going to watch her rot in the psych ward. And now Ben is asking Vivian if they can find the answers behind the Rubber Man rapists "together." Ha. I'm sorry by Vivian should have told Ben to just fuck right off. Tate might be a murdering psycho, but Ben has a twisted, ugly soul. Die, Ben, Die.
But there's no time for the spousal showdown because the police are hot on the trail of Travis' murder. Remember Travis? Constance's pretty puppy boy toy? He was killed by crazypants Hayden (Ben's ex-lover) and now lives in the Murder House, where he spends his times having tea parties with the charred remains of Burning Man's family. Also, none of this seems especially weird to Travis.
The reveal of Burning Man's family was extra-disgusting. I just didn't need to see two horribly burned children — it was gruesome. This was also the first time Burning Man had been able to see his family, because his wife felt he was finally ready. His still-smoldering wife tells Burning Man that she didn't blame Constance (which, WOW) because she didn't break any vows. Thus explaining to Burning Man what he needed to do, to win her forgiveness. He needed to pay, which apparently meant going to jail for the murder of Travis.
I'm not sure how this would make her happy, but that's what Burning Man decided to do. True he did murder Beauregard, but I can't see how his ghost wife would be particularly pissed about that. No, Burning Man needed to go to jail because he left his wife who then took out her anger on him by lighting herself and their children on fire. I assume this is the end of Denis O'Hare's AHS run, which is sad. But at least it ended on an excellent note, with Constance giving him the coldest shoulder ever committed to film. Once again proving that this show lives and dies on the curled eyebrow of Jessica Lange. Well done, lady.
And while the police were trying to pin the murder of Travis on Constance, her beloved son Tate was delicately trying inform Violet that she was dead, by knocking out her half naked father with chloroform. Which also fulfilled the monthly "naked Dylan McDermott" quota AHS is contractually obligated to show. Violet's corpse-reveal was disgusting — but in comparison with the burned children, it was much easier to swallow. That said, the mouth full of flies and rigor-mortis-curled hands will probably live in a special hell in my brain forever. As Tate explained, Violet has been dead since her suicide attempt, which he tried prevent (don't know if I believe that, coming from a boy who set someone on fire. But OK, sure).
What does Violet's death mean for the rest of the show? Will the Harmons stay in the Murder House forever now, so they can be close to their daughter? Will Vivian turn into the more modern day Constance? Will Violet even tell Ben and Vivian the truth? She can't keep this ghostly charade up forever. While her death kind of throws a wrench in any future growth for her character, it does give me great delight to think of what will happen to Ben when he finds out.
Honestly, the whole Harmon family can't be long for this world. We can envision this season ending with at least one more Harmon doomed to haunt the Murder House for all eternity, while a new family with matching Volvos and a pair of West Highland white terriers moves on in. But you never know — Vivian might just make it. This series has been so cruel to her character, we're hoping there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps she'll go mad after giving birth to the spawn of Satan and decide to raise her cloven-foot baby in the mountains of Montana. Who knows? The tornado of insanity that is this show knows no bounds. But one thing is certain: We're kind of glad the creators weren't afraid to kill Violet.