The penultimate episode of each American Horror Story series is typically where all hell breaks loose, and the current Roanoke series is no different. Delivering what is undoubtedly one of the most excruciating television episodes I’ve ever seen, it is near perfection for horror fans, but beware if your stomach is easily churned, the scenes towards the end are some of the most horrendous imaginable. This is not for the fainthearted.
We open with another new set of characters; 3 super-fans of the original show My Roanoke Nightmare, Sophie (TAISSA FARMIGA), Milo (JON BASS) and Todd (JACOB ARTIST) search the woods, kitted out with go-pros and a multitude of cameras to share their experience with their online followers, desperate to go viral. They don’t have to wait long to experience their first supernatural encounter, as a disorientated, Diana (SHANNON LUCIO) leads the group to her own dead body trapped inside an overturned car. While Todd reacts perhaps in the more normal vain and starts freaking out, Sophie and Milo are excited at having genuine footage to prove the Roanoke Nightmare stories were true. At this point we’re not entirely sure where these teenagers fit within the timeline; they could be after everything has happened in 3 Days in Hell, they could be between the series, or a the same time… The displacement here is a really intriguing addition to the story as we try to understand how the three youths will impact or be impacted by the (few) remaining cast of 3 Days in Hell.
Back at the house, we pick up with Dylan (WES BENTLEY) being desperately questioned by Audrey (SARAH PAULSON) and Lee (ADINA PORTER) over just how and what he’s doing there. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any direct means of help, having arrived by Uber under strict instructions from Sidney (CHEYENNE JACKSON) for his call time, and no contact since. On inspecting the house, Dylan appears calm and methodical. He’s an army man, having served 2 tours in Afghanistan, and seems to be the saviour the two women have been waiting for. Despite his initial plan to start walking towards the nearest town during the remaining daylight, Lee convinces the trio to instead head towards the Polk farm to search for Monet (ANGELA BASSETT), and steal a car. Unable to leave someone behind, Dylan is persuaded, and yet again we find our primary characters moving away from the safe path and back towards danger.
At the Polk farm, Lee and Audrey split up with their priorities straight, as Dylan attempts to hot-wire a car. Audrey goes in search of Monet, while Lee heads off to find the video camera with her murderous confession. Both find what they’re looking for, but the Polks are lurking and test Audrey’s resolve as the two women attempt escape. Dylan isn’t so fortunate, as we see blood splatter over the interior of the car, just as he gets the engine to start. The camera position gives us the first-person view of his death, in another unpleasant yet effective use of the documentary style show. Lot Polk (FREDERICK KOEHLER) is the only survivor of his family, and escapes in the car at the sight of the Butcher’s torch-bearing gang. With no-one left to help them, and the only trace of Lee being the camera she’s left behind, Audrey and Monet flee to the only place they can; they return to the cursed farmhouse.
With the women pondering Lee’s fate, Monet becomes suspicious of Lee’s obsession with retrieving the camera and watches her confession. In this great scene, as the audio of Lee’s confession plays, we watch the woman herself on a night-vision camera Sidney set up in the woods. We get a sense of familiarity with the history of the Butcher, as the Witch of the Woods offers her a pig’s heart to eat. We understand that Lee has been the real person of concern this entire time; the Witch drawn to existing murderers and enticing them to commit further crimes on her behalf.
Unaware of the dangerous situation they’re in, the teens return to the woods in search of further proof of the ghostly goings on. As the trio stumble across the site where Mason was burned alive, we realise that the teens are exploring the woods during the same blood moon as the cast of 3 Days in Hell, as Lee emerges from the woods and immediately slashes Todd’s throat. Sophie and Milo flee through the trees, discovering Sidney and his crew’s bodies at the trailer. Locking themselves inside and ignoring the groans for help from the wounded Dylan banging on the door, they see Lee going towards Audrey and Monet in the house. Unable to get the police to believe their situation, the pair decide to go to the main house to save the actors from Lee.
Inside the house, an inebriated Monet rounds on Lee, antagonising her. She doesn’t read the situation very well, as Lee is in full-on Butcher mode. Monet ends up impaled on the broken chandelier, and although Audrey fights her way out of the house, the moment of hope that she might be the one person to survive is short-lived, as Lee catches her at the bunker. Things don’t look too good for Audrey as she receives a hatchet to the shoulder in a throw-back to Agnes’ (KATHY BATES) attack on Shelby (LILY RABE).
Sophie and Milo arrive at the house, unaware that they’re too late to save the remaining women. Circumstances are about to get worse though, as the familiar torches of the Butcher arrive, and we see through Dylan’s body-cam a first person view of him being disemboweled, mirroring the death of Cricket (LESLIE JORDAN). Horrified, the pair turn to find Lee standing behind them. The following scene comes with its own warning that the footage was recovered from Sophie’s iCloud account, and comes in its ‘raw form’. You honestly need a strong stomach for the next 5 minutes of screen-time, because this is where it becomes truly the stuff of nightmares. The next scene will have your heart-racing and hands shaking with tension as much as that episode of The Walking Dead.
Thanks to the go-pros attached to their helmets, we experience the horrors that Sophie and Milo undergo as if from their own eyes. Dragged into the centre of the Butcher’s gang and begging for their lives, Sophie and Milo are skewered on stakes, before being burned alive. It’s honestly one of the most haunting scenes imaginable, and the medium of the documentary style is the primary reason it comes across as so terrifyingly real.
The show could easily finish the episode at this point, and honestly you’re so emotionally drained you’re not sure where it can go. There’s one final, major twist to come, and the last scene of the episode is a perfect pay-off for the build-up over the series. It’s the following morning, and police dash and body-cams show officers discovering the gruesome scenes at the house, tipped off by the teens online followers growing concerned. An officer finds Lee, and at that moment all hope of justice seems to fall away. Disorientated and in shock she’s taken towards a police car and freedom, but at that moment Audrey manages to climb out of the bunker. Hope is once again lifted as Audrey can reveal Lee’s murderous actions, but as she reaches for the officer’s gun to extract her own revenge, a barrage of shots hit her from unaware of the true threat.
While some viewers may be put off by the extreme gore and violence, the clue is in the name. This is a horror series, and while some of the previous seasons have perhaps been less violent, American Horror Story: Roanoke take full advantage of the range of fights available under the banner ‘horror’. The creators deliver an episode with plenty of pay-offs from moments earlier in the series, mirroring events with the Butcher, and previous death scenes. Furthermore the way the audience’s emotions are toyed with as the possibility of Lee getting her comeuppance is constantly evaded keeps you completely hooked, really feeling the tense situation. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk could have finished the series with this episode, and it truly would have been great. However American Horror Story has a habit of liking to tie up loose ends a little too well, and tends to give out unnecessary happy endings. I’d argue that even though Lee appears to get away with murder, knowing there is plenty of camera footage to prove her guilt would have been a satisfying enough ending.
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE IS STILL AVAILABLE ON CATCH-UP SERVICES IN THE UK
