October 4th

American Horror Story 1.09: "Spooky Little Girl" (2011) directed by John Scott
Hey, the Black Dahlia was killed in Murder House!  Meh, I don't care.  She seems to be there to illustrate how the fame-seekers who flock to Hollywood are so screwed up, they'd be happy if they are only famous for dying a grisly death.  It has no affect on the story of the Harmons at all and, I bet, is probably only here due to interest in the case from the writer.  More interesting, the psychic lady suggests that a baby born from a ghost and human will become the Antichrist.  Neat, I guess.  That gives the show a big, super-evil event to look forward to at the end.  There were lots of Omen and Rosemary's Baby references so far, so that makes sense.


American Horror Story 1.10: "Smoldering Children" (2011) directed by Michael Lehmann
I can't say I was too surprised to find out that Violet was already a ghost.  Her friend/enemy with the scratched face was abandoned from the show, as we never saw Violet outside of house after Violet's last hangout with her.  I'll admit, the appearance of the bloated flies emerging from the cracks in the floorboards, then Tate killing the exterminator after he freaks out over seeing something under the house, then Tate showing Violent her fly-eaten, bloated corpse was an effective horror sequence.


American Horror Story 1.11: "Birth" (2011) directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Events lead to Vivian giving birth inside of the house, with Ben's baby stillborn and Tate's baby perfectly fine.  I love the way the birth scene was shot.  The frames were selectively blurred, canted angles were everywhere, and reality seemed fluid.  As much as I may find the writing weak in the show, the technical side of things has always been very strong.


American Horror Story 1.12: "Afterbirth" (2011) directed by Bradley Buecker
Bizarre.  Instead of exploring the problem that is the supposed Antichrist just born in the house, the show decides to end by pretending to be Beetlejuice.  Sure, it's a fun sequence when the Harmons pull a Maitland and scare the crap out of the new homeowners.  But, it feels like the showrunners had no idea how to end this thing.

The last we see of the Harmons -- now all dead and trapped in the house -- they are a super-happy ghost family celebrating Christmas.  Really?  Really?  They are trapped in a hell with no apparent way of escape.  Their children will never grow up.  Their stillborn baby will be screaming in the night for centuries, lacking a living brain to grow and change.  Violet will be a messed-up teenager for eternity.  They're forced to exist with an increasingly large number of other people who die in the house, many of whom are very bad entities.  Why is no one bringing this up?  Violet touched on some of this in a previous episode very briefly -- worried that her laptop will go out of date and Youtube will no longer work -- but that was it.  I would've never have guessed this family and the show would be given such a saccharine ending.

And, at the very end, we find out the 3-year-old Antichrist has killed his babysitter.  Woo.  I fear for the fate of the world.  Sigh, how disappointing this thing turned out to be.  At least next season is an entirely new story.