American Horror Story - Roanoke / Chapter 8

 

Jesus, this episode was BRUTAL. A lot of fucking people die. A lot. Dominic gets hatcheted by PigHead ghost. Shelby stabs herself in the throat with a butcher knife. Mama Polk gets the hammer by Audrey to the head. Jeffer (son of Mama Polk) is trapped in a Lee chokehold then stabbed in the head with a knife. Audrey has a tooth pulled out by Mama Polk. Lee had pieces of her leg flesh cut away and her ear cut off. The house in Roanoke falls apart and all the ghosts have a paranormal raid as the survivors (before some of them die) try to avoid certain murder. Honestly, the characters, for the most part, are often quite horrendous. Shelby smashed Matt's head in due to his desire for Lady Gaga's witch, and decided later to end it for herself. Dominic was promised his own spin-off by Sidney, and his antics to make Matt and Shelby's life miserable certainly didn't paint him as anything but a crass opportunist looking to be the most hated man in Reality TV. Matt wanted to bang a witch, with no interest in Shelby anymore despite making her feel guilty. Lee is strapped to the chair in Ma Polk's basement, endures Ma Polk (and her son's) mocking her while also carving flesh from her leg. Ma's boys continue to torment Audrey and Monet, until Monet's chair breaks when one of them tries to break out one of her teeth. Monet actually leaves Audrey there, fleeing into the woods! Audrey, in retaliation for Ma pulling out a tooth, just bashes her head in. Believing Dominic had killed Shelby, Lee and Audrey kick him out of their room once they enter the Roanoke house, and PigHead takes the hatchet to him. While Monet flees into the woods, Ma's boys go a hunting for her. And the ultimate reveal has Lee talking into Jeffer's camera, telling her daughter that she killed her husband because he was going to take away her rights to see her.

The camera angles are immense and every kind of shot of the characters are here and accounted for. Lee gradually gaining Jeffer's trust before the chokehold was masterful. Ma leaving him behind was probably a mistake considering she was grooming him to be as vile as her other sons. But this episode is very much all about The Polks. They are this chapter. The Butcher and her colony remain outside for the most part while the paranormal activity inside the house seems to be mostly those who died inside the structure.

This is just non-stop violence and depravity. The Polks are certainly a relative to the Sawyers...they are very much in the vein of that Chainsaw family. 4/5