American Horror Story: Roanoke Episode 605 recap and a preview for next week
This week’s episode starts with real-life historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talking about the house’s first owner, Edward Mott. Fans of AHS will recognize this name from season four’s Freak Show: Dandy Mott. According to Doris, the last Mott died out in Florida in the 1950s (which is where and when Dandy died).
Anyway, Edward suffered from what would probably be described today as extreme social anxiety. He bought this plot of land and hired Shakers to build him a home. He left his wife and child in order to live here with an army of servants, including one he took as his lover, and his prized possession: hundreds of portraits. He insisted on having a series of tunnels built, in case “kidnappers” came for his paintings and he needed to escape.
The house had only been completed for two days when things got weird. Edward woke to a cleaver stuck in the wall and was nearly suffocated by his bed canopy. Hearing noises, he goes downstairs and discovers all of his paintings torn and defaced. Edward sobs, screams, throws a huge temper-tantrum. He assembles his staff, demanding to know who did it. The staff cowers, but one woman swears she saw a big white woman and a man in the woods. Edward doesn’t buy this. He strips his servants naked and locks them in the root cellar. His lover is angry and walks away.
Edward is grabbed from his bed by the colonists, who drag him outside. The ritual is all set up. The Butcher tells him she will consecrate the ground with his blood, and he is impaled on a huge stake, then roasted on the fire like a marshmallow. Despite the fact that there was no evidence a fire had been burned on the property, and Edward’s body was never found, his lover ended up in jail for the crime. He didn’t bother to tell anyone about the people in the root cellar. By the time the authorities found them, they were nothing but bones.
Returning to Matt and Shelby’s story, they stare out the window at the Butcher and her followers. Matt will go outside and lead them away, allowing Shelby and Flora to escape in the truck. The trio heads downstairs, but halfway down, a J-horror ghost girl grabs Flora and crab walks off with her. Matt and Shelby give chase, and eventually find Flora upstairs. Matt also sees the colonists setting fire to their cars. The J-horror ghost is there, as is the pig man and the three hunters. It’s like the ghosts were leading them to the cellar, lambs to the slaughter. But in the cellar they meet Edward, who wants to help them escape. He leads them through his tunnels and admits he is only helping them because he doesn’t want any more souls haunting the place. Once out in the woods, Edward gets tired of their constant questions; of them wondering why they aren’t heading towards the road. Edwards decides this is the end of the road for them and disappears. Matt, Shelby, and Flora keep walking – until burlap sacks are thrown over their heads and they are knocked out.
When the trio comes to, they find themselves in the Polk family barn. Elias is there, alive but barely. He is in bad shape, moaning. “no more.” “They’re all crazy,” Elias whispers to Matt. “Get out while you can.” He is missing most of his leg and arm.
Then we meet Mama, the demented matriarch of this family. She cut off Elias’ limbs and made them into jerky. She offers a piece to Flora, who is too scared to say a word. Mama is offended that her hospitality is being ignored, and she eats the jerky. Turns out, Elias isn’t as delicious as Mama thought he would be. Screaming “bad meat!” Mama smashes Elias’ head into pudding. Mama isn’t about to renege on her deal with the Butcher. In exchange for providing her people to kill during the “lean times,” they leave the Polks alone.
The Polks have loaded the Millers in the truck bed. One son keeps a gun on them, while another son drives. Mama is in the passenger seat. When gun Polk is distracted, Matt tries to wrestle his shotgun away. The gun goes off and kills the driving Polk. Shelby kicks gun Polk out of the truck and the trio run, taking their chances in the woods. Matt’s buzzing cell phone gives them away, and they are recaptured. If the Butcher didn’t want the Millers so badly, Mama would kill them herself. Instead, she settles for crushing Shelby’s ankle and takes them back to the house.
It was Lee who called Matt. She was finally released from the police station, and when she got her phone back, she saw dozens of insane texts from Matt – but the only one that mattered was the one where he said they found Flora. Matt ignoring her phone call had Lee suspicious, so she got one of the cops to take her back out to the house. Lee and the cop arrive, but the cop gets out of there fast when he sees what is going on. Clearly, he is in the know. Lee can’t worry about that right now, as she hears Flora scream.
The colonists are ready and waiting when the Polks show up with their victims. Priscilla is mad because the Butcher promised Flora would be the last. Now she will be the first. The Butcher chants, but suddenly Ambrose grows a backbone and hits her over the head. He won’t let her shed another drop of innocent blood, and tackles her into the fire. Edward appears and unites Matt and Shelby while the pig man comes at Flora with a knife. Lee runs him over in the car, scoops up her kin, and they drive off.
Matt called it a miracle. Shelby was grateful to never see the house again. They stayed in the cheapest motel they could find until Shelby’s sister could wire them the money for plane tickets to Los Angeles.
So that is basically it. The Millers’ story is over. But we are only halfway through the season. It looks like next week this story turns into an episode of Ghost Hunters. Shaky cameras, producers jumping at the tiniest sound, things getting worse and worse until we see a post script, stating that the crew was never seen again… all that remained was their footage. I would say Spoiler Alert, but come on, that is the only possible direction for this season to go in.
You can watch a promo for Chapter 6 using the player below!
