In a culture where shows like Jersey Shore, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo engross TV viewers everywhere, it's important to acknowledge programming that engages audiences with clever writing and stimulating material. Every so often the networks get it right and support a series that is a breath of fresh air with clearly developed characters, perfectly cast actors, and a luring and often intricate plot. In appreciation of such shows, I have started this commentary.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

AHS Cult Episode 2: Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

The second episode of AHS Cult finds Ally struggling even more with her sanity and follows Kai as he hopes to rise to a position of power. With the addition of new neighbors it seems we have quickly moved on from the Changs, and Kai is all too eager to capitalize on Tom Chang's untimely (or maybe very timely) death. Does Ally have a chance at getting her shit together? Does Kai suffer any additional consequences from his ass-whooping last week? Here's what went down in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark."

Put Me In My Place
The episode opens where we left off last week as Ally screams when she comes face to face with a clown in her bedroom. Still screaming, she runs downstairs to the kitchen where Ivy grabs a knife and considers stabbing this crazy bitch and runs upstairs because Ally cries "Ozzie is upstairs!" Why Ally wouldn't have grabbed Ozzie on her way downstairs is beyond me. Anyway, Ivy and Ally first go up to their bedroom (you're really not checking on the kid?) and no one is there. Not in the closet (heh) and not even under the bed that seems too low to the ground for anyone that is not a cartoon to fit under. At that point the ladies still don't think to check any other room. Instead, they hug as Ally says "I don't think I know what's real anymore." Ivy sees an opportunity to get it on. After all...it's been a while.

Meanwhile Ozzie, who has the worst nanny ever and moms who check exactly two places in just one room of the house for a potential killer clown, awakens from his slumber to see the same damn clown that Ally screamed about as well as Twisty. He's smart enough to run into a bathroom and lock the door, since no one else is protecting him, but the clowns bust through the door and find his hiding spot in the bathtub. He screams, Ivy has to remove her hand from Ally's boob, and they find Ozzie in his bed "having a night terror." Cue the opening music. 

You Don't Fight Fair
Kai's ass-beating video has made the local news thanks to Meadow and Harrison (Billy Eichner!) Wilton, who filmed the indecent but just from the part where the fists started to fly. Now WBNR's Channel 7 reporter, Beverly Hope, tells us that the attackers may either stand trial or just be deported immediately. Yup, these migrant workers are not U.S. citizens. Kai is eating this up and gives a press conference outside of City Hall...announcing that he is running for Tom Chang's open City Council seat. Such convenient timing, no? 

Ally watches this report on TV and peeks outside her window to see a moving van at the Chang's house. My that was quick. Several suspicious looking barrells are unloaded in the garage and Ally dashes across the street to investigate. She hustles up the front steps, looks through a window, and is then startled when a man in suit that could have popped out of E.T. approaches in the driveway. Ally dashes back across the street because nothing is ever easy with this chick. Turns out the folks moving in just happen to be Meadow and Harrison Wilton. 

Let's Get Down To It
Ozzie comes home from school with Winter (with WINTER) and he's super pissed at her for making his moms believe he didn't see the Changs get murdered by clowns. Winter suggests that she and Ozzie do the pinky truth game and she asks him a series of questions about how he feels about the Changs' house and the new neighbors. "You're going to give me your fear, Oz. I'm going to keep it for you. It's gonna make us both stronger." Well duh. Ozzie's scared shitless of that house and anyone who moves in it. 

Ally and Ivy arrive home and call out for Ozzie. No response. Winter pops up and says Ozzie is across the street with the "super cool" new neighbors - she just came home to grab a jacket for him. What is WRONG with you? Ally and and Ivy run across the street and through the new neighbors' gate in a panic. Ozzie is hanging out with Harrison and Meadow....and Harrison's bees. Harrison is a beekeeper which at least explains the weird suit but not so much the barrels. Honey? Ally looks at the honeycomb and sees blood, but thankfully she does not scream and cry. The Wiltons are excited there are lesbians in the neighborhood because they think their property value will go up (ha!) and Harrison asks Ally why she was snooping around earlier and didn't introduce herself. Ally says she's still a little shaken by the Changs' demise (since it's been, like, a week since that shit went down) and Harrison explains that the Changs were just the renters of the house. He says they called the actual owner as soon as they heard about the "murder-suicide" and the owner was more than happy to sign the lease over immediately. This worked out well for the Wiltons since their credit scores are bad and stuff. 

The Wiltons invite their neighbors inside for some Crystal Light and Meadow reveals that she had skin cancer and can only be outside for 10 minutes at a time. She works from home now and spends her free time being and obsessed Nicole Kidman fan. I don't blame her - I'll actually be listening to the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack when this episode is over. Harrison says Nicole Kidman's performance in Big Little Lies transcendent and Meadow tells him his "gay is showing." So Harrison is gay...and married Meadow because they had a pact ala My Best Friend's Wedding where they would get hitched at 35 if they were still single. Meadow doesn't like to be touched anyway, and Harrison is allowed to see who ever he wants as long as he is discreet. These folks might be oversharing just a tad and Ally and Ivy make an exit before they share anything about themselves. 

Put Up Your Dukes
Ivy is still trying to manage the restaurant mostly solo and she needs to head out early tonight with Ally. She plans to leave chef Roger in charge and he is quick to walk around like a douche and bark orders at the other employees, namely Pedro. Roger goes so far as to say English will be the only language spoken in the kitchen and Pedro takes offense, saying something in Spanish that I don't quite catch, but I'm sure it wasn't complimentary. Roger threatens to shove a ladle up Pedro's ass, and then Pedro pulls a knife. Ally comes into the room and yells at both of them. Roger demands that Pedro be fired but Ally whispers "I am not going to fire an immigrant in this climate." Oy. 

Much later that night Ally and Ivy are sitting in bed discussing their new neighbors (Ally remains incredibly suspicious) when Ozzie knocks on the door. He says he can't sleep and is afraid of his bedroom. I feel like that's a total understatement, but I like this kid and I feel incredibly sorry for him. Ozzie jumps into bed with his moms and Ivy can go ahead and add this evening to the list of nights she will not be getting laid. Just as well because she gets a notification on her phone that something has tripped the security system at the restaurant. Uh oh. Ally offers to go check it out when she senses Ozzie would rather be anywhere than in her care solo, and Ivy is totally okay with this. Yes Ivy. Send your wife who sees blood and clowns everywhere to see if someone broke into the restaurant. God help me. 

When Ally pulls up, the alarm is still going off. It's loud and lights are flashing but I'm not going to waste any time wondering why the police might not have been tipped off here. She disarms the system but hears sounds coming from the freezer. I'm half hoping she'll walk in there and see clowns having sex over a large rack of meat, but instead Ally finds Roger's body hanging on a meat hook. Bummer. This would be bad enough on its own, but Roger is actually still alive until Ally attempts to get him down and the hook sinks deeper and kills him. 

When the police arrive, a very, very shaken Ally tells the detective (same guy from the grocery store) about the incident with Pedro. Ivy says she's known Pedro for years and there's no way he could kill anyone. I don't know Pedro at all and he's not anywhere near the top of my suspects list. 

Hit Me With Your Best Shot
The next time we see Ally she's at home and having bars installed on all of the windows and doors. Ivy comes home with Dr. Vincent who "happened to be in the neighborhood." Ally has been missing her appointments and he's been worried, but Ally says the recent murders have made her feel vindicated. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to keep my family safe." Dr. Vincent tells Ivy that Ally is experiencing the early signs of agoraphobia (is that all?) and someone needs to keep an eye on her. Ivy says she just hired a full time nanny and that should help. Facepalm. 

Ally ends up at the Wiltons' house and Harrison shows her his gun collection. Meadow explains that Harrison started collecting guns when Obama got elected and to my surprise, Ally doesn't turn immediately and leave. He tells Ally she can have any gun in the case aside from the most important one - the pistol that Nicole Kidman used in Cold Mountain. Fabulous. Am I the only person thinking that having a gun might be the worst possible thing for Ally right now? 

Kai is all dressed up and making his way through Ally's neighborhood in his efforts to campaign for City Council. I didn't realize he was the door-to-door type, but the bow tie is a nice touch. Ally calls him out immediately for throwing his drink on them in the street and Kai admits it was a mistake he'd like to be forgiven for. He also says he feels humiliated from the beating he took and he wants to be remembered as someone who made a real difference in their town. Kai asks to come in and talk with Ally about his ideas and she shuts him down, especially after he spews a bunch of "facts" from Facebook about illegal immigrants. She hops up on a soapbox and talks about building bridges and reaching out to people, but Kai is quick to point out that she is standing behind a door with bars...and he knows she is holding a knife behind her back. "It's so easy until it's you they are coming for." Ally yells for Kai to get off her property and he eventually complies, but the damage has been done. I think she's more afraid now than she was before the bars went up. 

Fire Away
Ivy is at the restaurant talking to Pedro who has not taken a leave of absence or been put on administrative leave for being a murder suspect. He's super stressed out over the police coming to his house and questioning him. "I was born in San Diego!" Ivy tells Pedro that he is a good man and that the people who work at the restaurant are like family to her. Funny that she seems more upset about having to replace all of the tainted food in the freezer than she does about Roger being impaled there. In the midst of this discussion, the power goes out.

Meanwhile Winter (!) is putting Ozzie to bed since Ally is really busy checking all of the alarms. Ozzie wants to do the pinky thing again because he's worried about the clowns coming back to get him. He says he's not sure if he's awake or asleep when he sees them. Winter's advice? "If you're not sure, just ask." Winter then goes downstairs to find Ally staring at the medication Dr. Vincent had prescribed. Ally still hasn't taken any pills and doesn't want to, so Winter offers to make Ally a bubble bath and get her some wine to relax....as all nannies do. Ally does take a bath with a glass of wine and she does actually seem to be unwinding a little. She dozes off temporarily but Winter is suddenly there to, uh, help with the bathing. She sponges Ally's back, then Ally's shoulders, then Ally's....other areas. Ally stops her and Winter says, "Don't stress - I won't tell your wife you didn't take your meds. This is between us." The alarm goes off just then...and the power goes out.

A clown walks through Ozzie's room and he asks it if it's real or if he's asleep. The clown tells him he's asleep and the kid rolls over and doesn't give it a second thought. Ally is collecting all of the candles she can and asks Winter to light two in each room. There's a knock at the door and Harrison is yelling "Lesbians! We're under attack!" Ally partially opens the door and Harrison tells her it's terrorism - he heard that 8 states blacked out all at the same time. Winter is scared and Harrison tells the ladies to stay inside because he's sure rioters will be coming. Ally begs him not to leave but he heads back across the street to be with Meadow. At this point Winter also wants to go home. She feels she needs to protect her belongings and peaces out. Ally calls Ivy and starts the breathy/screaming/crying thing. "What if it's the Russians? Or ISIS? We're by ourselves and my battery is going to die! When are you coming home?" The phone dies while Ivy is explaining that she's really busy trying to get the backup generator working at the restaurant. Ivy asks Pedro to take a portable charger, some water, and a few other things over to the house to help Ally and I just don't see why she thinks this would be a good idea. Can't Pedro mess with the generator? He's worked at the restaurant a long time, right?

Ally's cell phone is dead and we are in full on freak out Sarah Paulson mode. Ally sees an ice cream truck parked outside and starts checking all of the windows and doors...which I feel should have been done around the same time she was checking the alarms earlier, but what do I know? In the process of going through the entire house with a candle (having not checked on Ozzie), Ally realizes the cables in their power box have been cut. She also realizes there's a clown standing next to her and he blows out her candle. Screams and screams ensue. She runs past another clown and grabs the gun in her bedroom. Then FINALLY she grabs Ozzie and heads for the door. Poor Pedro has arrived just outside the door then and Ally shoots him...not entirely sure where, but Pedro drops like a ton of bricks. Pretty sure he's dead. 

The episode ends there and Ally may have just lost all of those vindication feelings she had a little while ago. Sure, we the viewers know that somebody is screwing with Ally's mind and terrorizing Ozzie, but what's going to happen when the police arrive at the house and Ally tells them she was running from the clowns from the grocery store that cut her power and blew out her candle? Will she be committed? Is Ivy hoping she'll be committed? Is that why she brought Dr. Vincent (also shady) to the house? I feel like she might be in on some of this stuff - why else would the "responsible" person in the relationship leave her wife and son in Winter's very incapable hands? Did she know about the Pedro/Roger thing before Ally told the police about it? Did she even care that Roger was murdered? 

Moving on to the Wiltons... they are linked to Kai and Kai is trying to get rid of immigrants. Granted, Pedro was born in the U.S. but I doubt Kai cares about that. Kai popped up at Ally's door at a very opportune time to make her feel unsafe. Harrison popped up at Ally's door at an even more opportune time to make her lose her mind. And Winter? Well, she's just the worst (love you, Billie). Though she might be on the opposite side of the political spectrum, Winter's mind game tactics are very similar to her brother's. Why has Ally been targeted? Who are the people in the non-Twisty clown costumes? And at what point in time is child protective services coming to take Ozzie away? Seriously. There aren't enough pinky games in the world to keep the kid out of therapy at this point.   

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