American Horror Story: Roanoke - Chapter 3

 This episode is quite shockingly gory. The hatchet to the head (a direct shot) and across a throat (a direct slice) gushers blood, with plenty of rotted pig remains, including Kathy Bates (as a leader of a colony considered lost in North Carolina) eating a boar heart offered to her by Lady Gaga (a native of her land later seen banging Cuba Gooding, Jr, lost in some hypnotic fog); these various visceral moments are showcased in an episode built around Lee trying to find her daughter, Flora. The neighbor Polks leave behind two filth-covered (their hair matted and skin covered in dirt) boys sucking on pig teet milk, later Shelby discovering Matt (who later has no knowledge of what she sees) banging Gaga while two of the adult Polk males kneel and watch...lots of those WTF?! moments in the episode. There is even mention of Lee's last daughter lost and how that sort of settles on the mind while she searches for Flora. Lee's ex, Mason, later found burned alive and the emergence of Cricket, the psychic from Louisiana, sure only compile upon an episode chock full of shock and awe. Cricket asking for $25K from Lee in order to provide her details on how to find Flora, knowing about ghost girl, Priscilla, and foretelling the Bates Lost Colony story (another member of the party mutinies, only for her to give him a chop to the head, making sure he is no longer a problem); he quickly becomes quite a significant character. Then you have the knowledge learned from Bates about this area being hers, even after centuries of death, so a negotiation must be made by Cricket with her to leave in order to secure Flora. A lot involved in a single episode, for sure. I'll give this episode a 3/5.

This review got CRUSHED on the IMDb. So I'll just drop it here.

Leslie Jordan shows up in a hilarious Andy Warhol moppish wig as a psychic offering his services of clairvoyance (for a fee, of course) to Lee, to help find her daughter, Flora. He sees Kathy Bates while performing a séance with Lee, Shelby, and Matt in their home. Roanoke history where Bates was betrayed by colonists and her son because she refused to move inland is revived which revealed her left for dead, with a head cage locked on her, as a pig moves about. A creepy witch offers the heart of the pig in a swap for Bates' soul! Flora seems to have befriended Priscilla, a spirit who has carried her off somewhere. Wes Bentley is actually Bates' son, who chose to join the man who left his mom to the forest pigs. Wielding a hatchet, look out for Bates! Bates wants the mortals off her land, away from her *dominion*. So a trade for Flora in exchange for Shelby and Matt leaving is offered. Shelby isn't all that pleased with this trade, while Matt is ready to just go. Meanwhile Lee's husband, Mason, arrives with plenty of blame and rage aimed at her for taking their child from school illegally. Jason is later found burned alive, and Shelby feels Lee might be responsible as Matt's camera footage revealed her leaving for four hours and returning right around the time Mason was killed. Fun showcase for Jordan, who has that clicking sound he makes, this coy delivery, and diminutive size that might remind us of Zelda Rubenstein. Matt caught, in some trance, humping a forest urchin while her two hillbilly brothers watch and the two Polk boys drinking from a pig in a barn are two bizarre scenes. Lee reminded of another child, Emily, doesn't place her in a positive light, and Mason's death puts suspicion on her. Neat, off the cuff scene has Lee wanting the camera crew to stop while she recovers from the interviewer asking her about Emily. It reminds us that this is a documentary using reenactments. It keeps things interesting.