Review

Back in 1984 Constance is pissed in front of the television leaving a much younger Tate to his own devices, which seem to be playing with a big yellow dump truck near the basement stairs. Naturally the truck goes arse over tit down the stairs, with Tate following. The young psycho killer comes face to face with Thaddeus, the Nosferatu looking Frankenstein baby created by Dr Montgomery. Tate is rescued by Nora Montgomery who takes a shine to him, explaining Tate's decision to get a replacement for Nora's murder child that doesn't look like an evil Elf creature.

In the present Ben is off to pick up Vivien from the Asylum, a place he put her in, and berates Violet for not wanting to go get her mother. Violet tries to explain she wants to but can't leave the house due to being dead and all. Ben naturally is so self obsessed he fails to listen to his daughter. Chad and Patrick are decorating the nursery because Chad has gone broody over the babies; Violet with the help of Billie Dean devises a scheme to banish the gay couple from the house. Constance confronts Chad and lets slip Tate is the father of one of Vivien's babies. Ben picks up Vivien from the sanatorium, with Vivien adamant she wants to go and have the babies at her sister's place in Florida, Ben agrees and they speed back to the House to pick up Violet. Naturally Vivien goes into labour and Dr Montgomery and the two murdered nurses are called on for an emergency delivery. Ensuring the Harmons aren't going anywhere the two ginger twins smash up their car. Get ready for some real death and mayhem, and Hayden arriving to collect a baby.

Well guess we know who the big evil is this session, it's the house, this episode pretty much spells it out for us. The ghosts are trapped in the house due to a malignant force wanting to use them to break through to the living plain of existence. Not entirely sure this metaphysical bullshite really warranted being trotted out in the penultimate episode of the year, and yes the Writers seem slightly embarrassed by the whole thing and dropped it pretty darn quickly from the agenda after throwing it onto the table. What was more interesting were the ghosts circling Vivien's babies like a school of sharks. Expect some real maternal rampages in the final episode as various entities lay claim to both the living and dead babies.

Some plot arcs are tied up, the season final episode is being built toward, all is right with the world

Once again this week Ben turned out to be so self absorbed that I wanted to smack him one in the face. Having committed Vivien to a sanatorium, after not listening to her, Ben has the audacity to berate Violet for not caring about her mother as Ben single-mindedly followed his latest poor decision. Really, either this character is so poorly written it's cringe worthy, or the Twilight influence of having male leaders who are totally misogynist is spreading, or just maybe the Writers are trying to push some sort of road to Damascus thing. Regardless Ben just goes from one low level to the next week in week out, if this ends up happy families then I'm going to be severely traumatised by the whole thing.

Tate reaped what he had sown this episode, with Violet discovering the full nature of his crimes and taking the appropriate action. While the episode was for mine marred by a touch too much teenage angst it was good to see at least one character getting his just rewards for being a self obsessed moron. Pity Ben isn't clever enough to see the parallels between his actions and Tates', but that would involve a degree of self analysis, something Ben seems incapable of doing.

Nice to see some disparate plotlines and apparently throw away characters coming together in logical fashion. The ginger Twins who have been popping up from time to time during the session finally reveal their purpose, destroying the Harmon SUV to ensure Vivien isn't going anywhere. Equally the two nurses who were killed during the home invasion episode are here utilised to help Dr Montgomery in trying to save Vivien. Nice to see things being tied up and bagged rather than leaving you wondering why a character was included that has no real purpose.

Director Gomez-Rejon went right off the reservation with this episode, aiming for movie style effects and atmosphere, achieving those with ease. The episode is dark, gothic, and brooding, the Audience weren't given many chances to relax as the Director kept coming at us with dark mutterings that worked in Murder House's creepy hallways. Added bonus for mine was some crazy camera angles adding to the surrealistic nature of the episode, and lots of looking into the background where things might have been. Gomez-Rejon is over all aspects of the episode and turned in one of the most stunning examples of what can be achieved with television I've seen this year. An object lesson to movie makers in how to achieve atmosphere and tension on a tight budget, the birthing scenes become almost unwatchable at stages, with Ben's daydreaming the icing on the cake.

The episode managed to pick up 2.59 million viewers in North America, which is a pretty good return for FX. Clearly with things gearing up to the season climax a lot of people wanted to catch what further shenanigans Murder House had on offer. By this stage FX had ordered a second season, though notably season two is based on an entirely different story line set in an Asylum.

I was digging the Director's work behind the camera in this one and grooved on out to the overall dark atmosphere being sent my way. The episode is going to only work for people who have stuck through the season as a lot of plot arcs are tied up, Chad and Patrick for example, rather than sometime viewers. Recommend to American Horror Story devotees only, things are simmering nicely with the final episode coming at us next week.