The only shocker: Violet’s betrayal.
So, I was thinking that the Harmons had been living in the house at most three months by this point in the story, but according to the flashback this week they have been there for six months. This kind of doesn’t fit into the way things have been going, especially with Vivien’s pregnancy. We knew by the end of the first episode that she was pregnant, but yet it was only a few weeks ago — during the Halloween episode — that she goes to the hospital and believes she’s feeling the baby move, but, it was too early in her pregnancy to be feeling such movement. Oh well, I guess I’ll chalk it up to the magic of television.
The big “wow” the writers were going for this week was the revelation of who the man behind the rubber suit was; the man who really is the father of Vivien’s unborn twins and who killed the previous owners of the house, Chad and Patrick. I guess I would have been more excited about this if I hadn’t figured out a few weeks ago that is was none other than Tate. Before he removed his face mask though I was really hoping for a twist and that I would be wrong. Horror stories always have a way of being a bit predictable unfortunately.
The big “wow” for me was Violet who committed the ultimate betrayal against her own mother so she can continue her relationship with Tate. Instead of corroborating the story her mother told regarding seeing the man and women who terrorized them a few episodes back in the backseat of their car she says that she didn’t see anything and only initially agreed with Vivien because of how hysterical she was. This in turn only makes Vivien appear crazier to Ben who believes that she’s suffering through some sort of psychosis.
We all know that Vivien isn’t crazy and that in fact Hayden is behind all of her hysterics. Hayden was a bit crazy when she was alive but that’s tenfold now that she’s dead and stuck in the house. She gets her wish though and at the end of the episode, Ben is left with no choice but to commit Vivien to a hospital after she shoots him claiming that she thought the man with the rubber suit was in the bedroom with her. Vivien goes willingly as she’s happy that she will finally be out of the house.
Some stats and info about American Horror Story, “Rubber Man”
TV SHOW – American Horror Story
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 8
AIRED ON – November 23rd, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Hulu/FX
GENRE – Horror, Drama
CREATED BY – Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy, Halley Feiffer
CAST – Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Denis O’Hare, Lily Rabe, Kathy Bates, Frances Conroy, Emma Roberts, Jessica Lange, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, Angela Bassett, Cheyenne Jackson,
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.