Pig Authority (American Horror Story: Roanoke âChapter Twoâ)
Whether through a pig roast or a civilized trial, authority sucks. At least it does for Shelby, Matt, Lee, and whatever poor creature pissed off the righteousness of Kathy Batesâ leadership.Â
âChapter Oneâ introduced us to Shelby and Mattâs story, on camera to the audience of âMy Roanoke Nightmare.â After a gang physically assaulted Matt, prompting Shelby to miscarry, they moved from L.A. to a quiet country home in Roanoke Island, North Carolina to emotionally heal. However, in âChapter Twoâ Shelby and Matt begin to learn the true history and nature of their happy home.
The inciting incident of âRoanokeâ isnât so far from American Horror Storyâs Season One âMurder House,â but thatâs not where the similarities end. This weekâs episode brought back the Piggy Man, an urban legend who will slaughter anyone who repeats âHere Piggy Piggyâ three times in front of a mirror.
But the pig man is far more gruesome and real in this installment, as when Shelby ran into a pilgrim-y-dressed cult at the end of last weekâs episode. Led by Kathy Bates, the âqueen of every hive, the fire on every hill, the shield over every head,â and assisted by a rabid Lady Gaga, the group execute a man for deserting his colony by nailing a pigâs tail to his ass, sawing his hands and feet to hooves, stacking a pigâs head on his own, and roasting him over the campfire.
And this is how we start the show. Unfortunately, after those opening moments, the episode slows its pace, forcing the audience to acquire unbelievable faith in the charactersâ stupidity in staying in the house: âitâs amazing how long a person can rationalize the irrational,â Matt says.
Mattâs awakening moment comes when he witnesses the murder of an elderly woman by the two ghostly nurses from the first episode. These ghastly events prompt Shelby and Matt to follow a pilgrim figure outside to a cellar where they find the tapes of Academic Elias Cunningham (Denis OâHare), whoâd moved to the house in 1997 to complete his book âHelter Skelter.â Apparently, his subjects were the two previously-seen nurses, who joined together to open an assisted living house for the elderly, just so they could murder their patients based on the first letter of their name.
Like a game to them, they killed together to spell out the word âmurder,â though they only got to âMURDEâ before they disappeared. Their story evokes a kinship with the New York Alphabet Murders, which brings a terrifyingly energetic background to the house. Furthermore, according to Cunningham, the house had been empty 15 years prior to his moving in, when a family had resided for a couple of months before suddenly vacating. Their story should be interesting also.
Meanwhile Lee struggles to reconnect with her daughter, Flora, but when dad Mason hears that Florâs âfriendâ in the house, Priscilla, told her everyone in the house will die, he resolves to take her away. Leeâs inability to truly see that her actions are hurting everyone leads to her breaking her sobriety, when the piggy man comes. Â Unfortunately, we kind of leave that at that. And the next day, sober but still crazy, Lee kidnaps Flora and manages to lose her. As the three of them run throughout the woods searching for her, Lee screams. Floraâs jacket is swinging from the top of a tall Pine Tree.
âChapter Twoâ was unimpressive, as we delve into the backstory of the house, which was excitedly fascinating but poorly divulged. âMurder Houseâ was able to weave the history of the house into the very fabric of the charactersâ plots and the setting. âRoanokeâ however, fails to connect all of the puzzle pieces together.
Legal ties bind all of our characters, whether to the house through un-refundable real estate deals, or to isolation through custody issues. The barbaric trial in the woods, in contrast, liberates the colonies from the constraints of civilized authority. I wonder how this will play into the rest of the season.
OâHareâs character is raw and crazed, but he enunciates his words so perfectly to show his academic background. Heâs amazing.
 Matt doesnât trust Shelby. He asks the doctors to give her a drug test. What in her history might have influenced his decision in this?
The real Lee admits her faults on-camera; itâs interesting to see that sheâs not ignorant of the wrongs sheâs committing, but itâs also interesting that it doesnât seem like she truly cares.
 The bonnet with the broken lamp is very creepy.
 I looked up that symbol that we keep seeing (what I call the Blair Witch symbol); this is what it said: A five-pointed compound symbol with a center triangle pointing down. The five lines resemble the microcosmic man with arms and legs outstretched inside a circle (with a pentagram in the background); a magic symbol or charm among medieval alchemists and wizards.
The pig squealing is genuinely creepy.
The pig tails spelling out âPiggyâ are great!
The houseâs overly spacious rooms, high ceilings, and unnecessarily tall fireplaces create the sense of isolation, similar to the surroundings of the house.
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