American Horror Story - Roanoke / Chapter 7

Agnes really got into her part. So deeply was the effect of the role, she wields an actual hatchet and attacks reality television crew members and then goes after Shelby (the actual Lily Rabe Shelby), with Dominic having to rescue Shelby before Agnes could drop a death blow. Granted, Agnes still "buries the hatchet", leaving Shelby with quite a wound. Continuing to reiterate that something is very present at this house in Roanoke, when Agnes is in the basement, briefly we see wicker crosses. Despite the melodrama of Shelby, Matt, and Dominic (Matt tells them they can do whatever they want, he's done with Shelby), certainly Agnes' psychopathy becomes far more troublesome.

Characters die...horribly. Matt's reasons for returning to this house weren't for Shelby. To say she responds violently is an understatement. Shelby can sure wield a mean crowbar. Poor Lee returns, gun in hand, even knocking hatchet-wielding Agnes down, but those damned Polks and their cattle prods that shock want their "sweet meat tenderized". Right out of Texas Chainsaw, the Polks love to torment chained victims, making them eat some human cut meat from another victim. And, sure enough, the real Butcher and her clan emerge under the red moon. Agnes really gets into the part, but the Butcher looks down upon her and with one hatchet right to the head, the episode fades to black as Dominic and Shelby look down at them from inside the house. Shelby coming to realize what she had done to Matt, sufficed to say, her actions are recorded on video. Not that it will probably matter!

The episode falls into that reality television issue where found footage depends on characters recording everything with phones when set up cameras don't. So you have Lee, Audrey, and Monet with phones recording everything even though I think most would drop those damn phones and focus on locating a way to safety. I am the kind of found footage fan who can forgive that. There is a Blair Witch moment for Paulson, the Heather Donahue direct-to-camera "final testament", with blood droplets from the open-stomach Rory, hanging from a group of trees above. Rory just disemboweled is quite a gory image, as is the crushed head of a victim similar to a crashed melon. 

I think the entire cast is terrorized except Dominic, who is trapped but hadn't altogether been put through something horrifying. Poor Audrey and Monet are forced to eat some of Lee, so even they seem destined to suffer from Polks' depraved sense of humor. Plenty of coke-snorting, disheveled hair, filthy clothes, pot plants, and cattle prods. The Polk Family, the Sawyers would be so proud. 4/5