By CWS
As most fans know, the newest season of American Horror Story is called Apocalypse, and will be a crossover episode between two of the better seasons of the show, Murder House, the first season, and Coven, the third. And yes, this does mean that FINALLY Jessica Lange will return to the show. They just released the first trailer for Apocalypse which is coming September 12th. Take a look:
Did you see that flash of Jessica Lange’s face? Sigh. For the next couple weeks, I thought I would become an Apocalypse prepper (har har) and recap both Murder House and Coven, so we can all know wtf is going on with this complicated crossover. I'll cover Murder House first—after all, it’s been a whole seven years since it came out.
Murder House Recap
The Harmon family
The season begins with the Harmons, a family of three, moving from Boston to Los Angeles. into an old Victorian that the realtor admits has a dark history. The previous owners had died in the mansion from what police believed to be a murder/suicide. The Harmons are already struggling with their own demons, Vivien (Connie Britton) is recovering from a miscarriage, and is also attempting to heal from Ben's (Dylan McDermott) affair with one of his college students. They decide to go ahead and buy the house, which is selling for a fraction of what it's worth because of its history.
Soon, the family's new neighbors, Addie (Jamie Brewer) a teenager with Down's Syndrome, and her mother Constance (Jessica Lange) start entering the home without knocking. Constance ominously alludes to Addie's obsession with the house and its past. Moira O'Hara (Frances Conroy/Alexandra Breckenridge) also appears, explaining that she has been the housekeeper there for some time. Moira appears to Ben as a young, seductive woman, and Vivien sees her as an old maid. Ben is also pestered by a badly burned man named Larry Harvey (Dennis O'Hare), who speaks cryptically about the house.
Ben is a psychologist who starts to see patients in the home. One of these patients, a disturbed teenager named Tate (Evan Peters) who Ben believes has psychotic tendencies, begins an intense relationship with Violet (Taissa Farmiga), the teenaged daughter of the family who has issues with depression. Tate is also the son of Constance, as well as a ghost trapped in the house, unbeknownst to the family.
Tate
Strange and unexplained things begin to happen, and soon it is revealed that over 20 murders have occurred in the house. It appears that those who have died in the house remain there for eternity as ghosts, dealing with their earthly issues. Vivien finds a black latex bondage suit in the attic. Moira continues to try to seduce Ben into another affair. Since Ben's affair with his student, Vivien has been unable to have sex with him until one night. Later that same evening, Vivien in lying in bed and someone she believes to be her husband enters wearing the latex suit. The man rapes Vivien, but she doesn't realize that the man isn't Ben at the time. Vivien becomes pregnant with twins from two different fathers, an extremely rare phenomenon. It turns out that the man in the latex suit was Tate, who wanted to provide a baby for another ghost in the house, Nora (Lily Rabe), whose own child was killed.
Hayden (Kate Mara), Ben's student, shows up at their home to tell him to leave his wife. She threatens to reveal to Vivien that she is pregnant with Ben's child. Larry appears and murders Hayden, and Ben burns her body in their backyard, so she too returns as a ghost.
Constance and Addie
That Halloween, Violet discovers that Tate was a school shooter that killed many of his classmates, and also set Larry (a teacher there) on fire. He apparently did these acts as revenge against Constance, who who was responsible for smothering to death her own child (Tate's younger brother) due to his deformities. When Addie is hit by a car, Constance rushes her into the house so her ghost can live there with her brother, but does not make it in time.
The Harmon's home is so famous for its history that there is a "Murder House Tour" that frequents the neighborhood. From the tour, Vivien finds out that the house was once a back alley abortion clinic. Vivien is taken to an asylum because she is continuously seeing ghosts.
Violet, in an emotional response to learning about Tate's history, kills herself accidentally. She doesn't realize she has come back as a ghost until she cannot leave the house.
Constance meets with psychic Billie Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson) in an attempt to communicate with Addie. Billie Dean informs her that the child conceived by Vivien and Tate will become the Antichrist. Ben learns the truth about Tate and frees his wife from the asylum. She then gives birth to the twins inside the house. Vivien, as well as one of the twins, do not survive the birth, leaving Ben alone with Tate's child.
Vivien and Violet will not show themselves to Ben, who grows more and more morose. Eventually, Vivien appears to tell Ben to leave the house for the sake of the baby. As he is leaving, ghost Hayden hangs Ben to make it look like he committed suicide and takes the baby. Constance and a benevolent house ghost are able to take the baby from her. She tells the police that Ben hanged himself because of his grief, and that Violet (who's body had not been found) took the child and ran away.
There she is there she is!!
The Harmons remain imprisoned inside the house and join forces with Moira and the other good ghosts to scare others away from moving into the Murder House. Separated by a force that Violet applies, Tate and Hayden are blocked from being able to contact the Harmons, but Tate promises to wait for Violet for all eternity.
Some years later, Constance returns to the house to find that the child, Michael, her grandson and the Antichrist, has killed his nanny. She smiles and whispers "Now what am I gonna do with you," implying that she will now take the Antichrist into her care.
Phew. Did you follow that? I hope so. Ryan Murphy shows are always so difficult to recap, because they are so endlessly complicated. Come back next Wednesday, when I will recap Coven to make sure you are prepared for the coming Apocalypse, and for the return of the best part of AHS: Jessica Lange. Thank our lucky stars.