[ENTERTAINMENT] ‘AMERICAN HORROR STORY: APOCALYPSE’ EPISODE 6 ‘RETURN TO MURDER HOUSE’ RECAP

by sloppyvinyl | Oct 18, 2018 | Entertainment

It’s “AHS: All Stars” in the sixth episode of “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” and as the episode title says, it’s finally time to return to Season 1’s Murder House, which not only brings answers to questions that have been left open-ended for eight years, but the long awaited return of Jessica Lange.

This week begins with Madison (Emma Roberts) and Behold (Billy Porter, playing the warlock whose ridiculous name I just learned) buying the Murder House to learn more about more about Michael Langdon’s (Cody Fern) past. Madison gives Langdon the amazing nickname “Boy Supreme.”

The “worst possible version of Heidi Klum and Seal” perform a séance in the house to summon the spirits, and the first to appear is a nursing student who was murdered in the house in the 1960’s. She’s not alone for long, as the two burnt to a crisp girls (the children of the man in Season 1 with half his face burnt) quickly appear.

Madison and Behold explore the house and walk in on Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott, who hasn’t appeared on “AHS” since Season 2) giving Tate (Evan Peters in his second role this season) therapy as Violet (Taissa Farmiga, also in her second role of the season) successfully ignores Tate.

American Horror Story – Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton), Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott) and Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) Photo by Robert Zuckerman via filmreviewonline.com

Even though the exposition gave a good recap of “Murder House” I’ll try and refresh everyone’s memories. The therapist Ben, his wife, Vivien, and daughter, Violet, move into the house which holds the ghosts of everyone who’s died in it. This includes Tate, who shot up his school in the 90’s before being killed by a S.W.A.T. team in his room. Tate’s ghost rapes Vivien and impregnates her with Michael, a fact that causes Violet, who had been in love with him, to shun him. By the end of the season, the whole family is dead, stuck in the house for eternity.

Back to the episode. Ben doesn’t take too kindly to his new house guests, telling Madison and Behold he can’t help them because he has to “look out the window and cry while I masturbate” — a callback to his potentially favorite pastime in Season 1. They walk out of Ben’s home office and Behold is attacked by Beau (Tate’s deformed brother who was forced to live in the attic before his would-be stepfather smothered him). Just as the warlock is about to attack him, Billy Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson, who’s also this episode’s director) shows up and warns him not to.

Another quick reminder: Billy Dean is the “medium to the stars” who was not only Paulson’s first role in the series, but one of the first characters to bridge the gaps between seasons, as the psychic appeared also had a big impact on “Hotel” as well as “Murder House.”

After leaving at the end of “Freak Show” Jessica Lange makes her “AHS” reappearance as Constance Langdon, the nasty neighbor from Season 1. She finally gets to drop an F-bomb on FX in only her second line, and I already knew I was fulfilled.

Billy Porter, Emma Roberts and Sarah Paulson at the bottom of the stairs while Jessica Lange makes her grand entrance.
Photo courtesy of TVLine.com

Constance’s least favorite ghost, Moira (Frances Conroy) also appears. In the 80’s, Constance walked in on her husband trying to rape their maid Moira, and in a jealous rage, killed them both. A big subplot of “Murder House” was Moira trying to get somebody to find her remains buried in the yard, but those dreams were crushed when Ben built a gazebo over her after burying his dead baby mama next to her. Now, Moira cleans the house for eternity and Constance inspects it for dirt.

Frances Conroy plays Moira in “American Horror Story” and reprises the role in “AHS: Apocalypse.”
Photo courtesy of eonline.com

Madison and Behold are still looking for dirt on Michael, which Constance promises she has but says “I don’t spill a drop of tea for free.” Before she gives them the details, they have to get Moira out of her afterlife, so they dig up her bones and rebury her remains in a cemetery, next to her mother, who comes to her now shared grave to guide her daughter into the afterlife. Moira was one of the most interesting characters in “Murder House”, not only because she was able to appear as a hot, young maid to the men in the house, but she was a genuinely kind woman who wanted freedom. It was nice to finally see her getting out of the house after over 50 years.

Now it’s time for the monologue, Lange’s specialty. Constance sits down with Madison and Behold to talk about how she raised Michael after Vivien died in the house giving birth to him. As a child, Michael would clip the wings off insects and quickly moved on to hanging mutilated cats from nooses on the kitchen ceiling. Constance referring to this as a gift to show his love for her reminds everyone just how crazy and self-serving she is.

Jessica Lange makes her long-awaited return to “American Horror Story.”
Photo courtesy of dailyheralds.org

We circle back to the final scene of “Murder House,” Constance coming upon Michael, no older than 5, as he makes his first human kill, the babysitter. Constance was somehow able to convince the police she killed herself so no suspicion fell on her or Michael. Not long after that, Langdon ages at least a decade overnight and tries to strangle Constance in her sleep, but he stops at the last second, breaking down in tears as he asks if he can have a glass of water. Constance, still gasping for breath, correcting him “May I?” shows how much she genuinely wanted to be a good mother and raise the boy properly, as well as how warped she is.

Constance realizes her grandson has outgrown her when she walks into his room and finds him playing video games next to a freshly murdered priest. Realizing she’d rather kill herself than let a man kill her, she goes to the Murder House, puts on a record and overdoses. When she reappears as a ghost, she sees her children standing over her and is finally happy.

Season 1 mentioned that Constance had four children but only ever showed three (Tate, Beau and Adelaide, her down syndrome daughter who died in a hit and run just outside the Murder House and therefore not a ghost). When Constance’s kids are consoling her newly dead body, her fourth child is there too. She’s a cute little girl with no eyes, only dark hallow sockets.

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And with that, Jessica Lange’s epic return to “American Horror Story” ends, but the episode does not.

If you were worried the only reference to Ben jerking off and crying would be a verbal one, rest assured because we get to see him doing it—at least until Madison interrupts and convinces him to tell her what happened next.

Teenaged Michael breaks down when he comes across Constance’s dead body in the house. Ben’s ghost tells him that she doesn’t want to see him. Ben agrees to take him on as a patient, but it quickly becomes a surrogate father situation.

One day, Tate walks into his room only to see Michael there. It really underscores how good the casting on this show is; Fern genuinely looks like Peters, especially with the matching wigs. Tate tells Michael there’s no way he’s his son because he couldn’t create something that evil. This sets Michael down a dark path, and he starts spending his free time in the basement, re-scarring the Black Dahlia victim’s face.

When a lesbian couple move into the house, they can barely walk through the first floor before Michael murders them in the Rubberman suit. When their ghosts appear, Michael summons fire and burns their souls.

Madison and Behold decide to leave and tell Cordelia, but Vivien (Connie Britton, returning to the series after the first season) stops them to recite a verse from Revelations. “A beast with 10 horns and seen heads rising out of the sea and all who dwell on Earth will worship him.” The old school horror music that plays as Vivien says this line could have been cheesy, but Britton really sells it as creepy.

After the murder of the lesbians, Ben won’t see Michael anymore. The soon-to-be Boy Supreme spends his days standing eerily outside the house as crows fly above circling him in the red sky, until a priest and two cardinals (including Kathy Bates) from the Church of Satan show up to tell him of his potential. They kidnap a girl, tie her to a table, cut her chest open and pull out her heart, which they serve to Michael. As he eats it, a shadow of a winged and horned Devil appears behind him.

Vivien sees all of this and decides that, as his mother, she has to kill Michael. He senses her coming for him ]and tries to burn her, but Tate saves her at the last second. After that, Michael never returned to the house.

With the story complete, Behold and Madison head back to Cordelia to report their discoveries. On their way out, Madison sees Violet crying in the corner and, in the true twist of the episode, she’s actually nice to her. She doesn’t point out that the ghost-girl looks identical to Zoe, but she does tell her that Tate really isn’t evil. It’s the house that’s evil, and the evil left with Michael. I’m not really sure how I feel about blaming all of Tate’s horrible actions in Season 1 on the house, as he always seemed at least partly evil in my mind, but I’m not complaining about anything in this episode.

Taissa Farmiga and Evan Peters behind the scenes on the resurrected set of “Murder House.”
Photo courtesy of comingsoon.net

“Return to Murder House” ends with Madison strutting out of the house as Tate and Violet finally embrace after eight long years.

I know I said this about “Could It Be … Satan?” but this was without a doubt the best episode of “American Horror Story” ever. They tied up all of the plot threads that “Murder House” left open while simultaneously giving so much backstory on Michael. I can’t believe first time director Sarah Paulson was able to lead this so beautifully. Is there anything she can’t do? And I forgot just how much I missed Jessica Lange until she showed up and gave one of the best monologues in “AHS” history.

The preview for next week’s episode promises the witches teaming up with the Voodoo Queen to try and stop Michael, as well as the return of Papa Legba, the gatekeeper of the spirit world in “Coven” that has Cordelia’s last witch, Nan, in his grasps.