The house has a perspective buyer who plans to tear the whole thing down. A new connection emerges between Constance and the burned man.
**CONTENT WARNING: Violence, death, suicide**
Synopsis
The opening flashback is set slightly after the events with Tate and the shooting. Larry (the burned man) lives in the house, pre-scars, and is having an affair with Constance. Constance is distraught because child services is planning to take away her son Beau, and asks Larry to do what needs to be done. Larry goes to the attic, where Beau, highly mentally disabled and disfigured, lives chained up like a dog. Larry tucks him into bed, then smothers him with a pillow.
Vivien and Ben, unaware of Violet’s recent suicide attempt, at least notice that she’s been depressed and rarely leaves her room anymore. They try to talk with her about it but have little success.
Vivien and the realtor hold an open house to sell the Murder House, attended by man named Joe who seems particularly interested, followed by Larry, who neither women have met before or recognize. In secret, Moira tries to seduce Joe because she thinks he plans to install a pool, which will dig up her bones and give her justice. Unbeknownst to her, Joe plans to tear down the house and install apartments.
Vivien doesn’t want anyone else to have the surprises her family did when they moved in, so she is determined to be honest with all perspective buyers about the house’s history. In order to do this, she attends the Murder House tour once more, having missed the end of the story the first time. Charles (the original owner) attempted to bring back his son by transplanting the heart of one of the aborted babies from their black market operations. The baby did come back to life, but was no longer quite human. Nora was so upset by this that she shot him, then herself.
Violet starts seeing more ghosts, including Beau in the attack. Tate tells her that they are revealing themselves to her because she has “evolved”, but she just needs to tell them to leave her alone. He shows her a box of photos of the original owners.
When Ben finds out Larry stopped by, he tracks him down and threatens him to stay away, having found proof that everything Larry has said was a lie. The house never coerced him into killing his family. In reality, Larry had tried to divorce his wife for Constance, and she had locked herself in a room with their daughter and set the room on fire. He tells Larry about Joe’s plans to tear down the house, which Larry passes along to Constance, who clearly no longer has an interest in him. She is, however, alarmed by the prospect of potentially losing the ghosts of Tate and Beau when the house is torn down. She goes to the house to say vague goodbyes to both her sons, though Tate tells her that he’s realized he hates her. Constance finds Moira, mocking her that by convincing Joe to buy the house, she may have sealed her own doom, before begrudgingly agreeing to work with her to stop this from happening. Moira lures Joe back to the house and down to the basement, where Larry sneaks up and smothers him with a plastic bag.
Vivien goes back to the doctors for a checkup on the baby. Turns out there are actually two babies! They are apparently perfectly healthy (no signs of the supernatural), but Vivien always get nauseated when she leaves the house. Vivien later visits Violet in her room, worried about her, and Violet shows her the pictures of the original owners. Vivien is surprised to recognize the wife as the woman a few episodes back who claimed to be considering buying the house.
The House and Its Ghosts
It’s possible that the abomination Charles created when Frankensteining his son may be the cause of the house’s haunting nature, since he messed with something evil. Although it was unproven, it was an interesting theory that tearing down the house might destroy the ghosts. That would not be the worst thing in the world, though I can understand that Constance does not want to lose her sons permanently.
As for ghosts, we meet Beau, another of Constance’s children. He’s playing with the same red rubber ball we saw Addy roll to some offscreen ghost in an early episode, so she must have been visiting her brother. Joe was murdered in the house this episode, so he should be a ghost now as well.
The Family
We hardly see Ben in this episode, though it is nice to know he’s finally noticed something going on with Violet. Took long enough for a psychiatrist to realize his daughter has depression. Vivien’s intentions of being honest with the new owners is understandable, but if she’s as desperate as she claims to get out of this house, she might consider being a little less upfront about the whole history. Anyway, now she knows for a fact that she’s seen a ghost, so it’ll be interesting to see what she does as a result. Also, twins is an interesting development, but I’m not at all convinced that the babies are as healthy as the doctor claims. Violet has apparently accepted the fact that her boyfriend is a ghost, because she is totally fine about hanging with Tate in this episode.
Constance and Larry
I’m very confused about the timeline here. Constance lived in the house, then moved next door, presumably after Tate died. Larry must have moved in soon after, but… Beau was still living in the attack? He must have still been in the Murder House when he was smothered, because we saw Beau’s ghosts. Why would Constance have moved next door, but left her son behind? Did Larry’s family know that the neighbors disabled son was locked up in the attic? Such a bizarre situation. In any case, I can’t believe Constance was actually upset that CPS was going to take away Beau and charge her with criminal child neglect. She literally had Beau chained up as though he was an animal. She is the worst. And then she acts all protective of him and is willing to murder someone so that she won’t lose him for good. Sure, Constance. Tate was on the right track when he realized he hates her.
Conclusion
The story seems to focus less and less on the family as it goes on. Which isn’t necessarily the worst thing. I don’t much care for Ben anyway, and it’s good to finally learn more about the house’s history and the other characters with a vested interest in the house and its ghosts. This wasn’t my favorite episode, and I really don’t understand the whole Larry/Constance/Beau timeframe.
Score: 6/10
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