We... still have four episodes of this season left to go, right? This episode felt deceptively like a season finale, with Matt and Shelby's 'Roanoke Nightmare' drawing to a dramatic close as they narrowly escape being burned alive and/or disemboweled by The Butcher. Lee saves the day, the gang flees to a motel, and back in the documentary Shelby reflects on how the experience has haunted her.
As we know from Ryan Murphy, there's a big twist coming next week, and the nightmare is definitely not over. For now though, here are the seven key things we learned from 'Chapter 5'.
1) Evan Peters really is in this season!
No Gaga this week, but in her place we finally saw Peters make his debut—and despite rumors to the contrary, he's not playing a documentary producer. His character is Edward Mott, the 18th century nobleman who originally built Matt and Shelby's haunted house, and became The Butcher's first victim.
Mott kind of had it coming, though—on the night of his death, he flew into a rage upon discovering that his beloved artwork had been destroyed, and locked all of his servants in the cellar as punishment. Only Guinness, the sexy manservant Mott is having an affair with, gets spared, because nepotism is real. Their steamy bath scene should be some consolation to the Evan Peters fans who've waited this long only for him to die within ten minutes.
2) Edward Mott is the ancestor of a previous AHS villain.
Mott's backstory isn't the last we see of Peters. Mott reappears later on as a surprisingly helpful ghost aide to Matt and Shelby, leading them safely out of the house where they've become trapped… and then abandoning them in The Forest Where Nothing Good Ever Happens. Thanks a bunch, Ed.
His character's one of the most significant callbacks we've had to previous seasons yet. Ryan Murphy promised a while back that Roanoke would be connected to the Mott family from Freak Show, and it turns out that Edward is an ancestor of that season's villain Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock). Watching Edward's meltdown, you can see that Dandy's particularly bratty brand of insanity runs in the family.
3) Flora might be possessed.
One of the episode's creepiest moments, easily overlooked given everything else that followed, saw Flora being attacked and dragged through the house by what seems to be a ghost of one of the Chen daughters. It's part-ghost, part nasty reptilian slimy thing, and after it leaves Flora cowering against the wall, she looks… weird, and almost dead-eyed. Could be trauma. Could be she's possessed by something terrible, and that's going to come into play in the present day.
4) The Polk family have a deal with The Butcher.
It makes sense that these guys would find common ground in being terrible. The Butcher agreed to leave the Polks and their pig-suckling kids alone, on two conditions: the Millers'' house was to remain empty, and the land was to be re-consecrated with fresh blood each year. Which explains why the Polks were so determined to drive Matt and Shelby out—and here we were thinking it was plain old-fashioned racism towards an interracial couple.
5) Poor Elias just cannot catch a break.
You'd think being haunted, driven to beardy insanity, and finally impaled in last week's episode would be enough suffering for one lifetime. But as it turns out, that arrow didn't kill Elias last week—instead he's been kept alive, more or less, at the will of the terrifying Polk matriarch (Frances Conroy). He's missing a few key body parts and appears to be septic, begging Matt to kill him. Upon realizing he no longer tastes good, the Polks grant his wish.
6) The Butcher really shouldn't have spared her son.
Remember when she nearly killed him for betraying her, but spared him out of motherly love (or something)? Yup. Big mistake. Right as The Butcher is about to sacrifice poor little Flora, her son whacks her over the head and declares "I shall not stand by and watch thou shed another drop of innocent blood!"
It's still not entirely clear how the rules of this ghost colony work—getting hit by a car didn't slow The Butcher down back in Episode 1, but being hit over the head is enough to temporarily disable her. Sure.
7) Matt and Shelby's nightmare is over.
…Seemingly. Again, we're clearly meant to take this with a huge pinch of salt – the moment in which Shelby declares "I'm just grateful that I will never have to see that godawful place again!' might as well have had a laugh track.
Here's a question, though—are Matt and Shelby still together? The "real" Matt and Shelby don't mention each other except in reference to past events, and although we hear how Shelby's been readjusting to life after the trauma, we get no mention of how Matt's coping now. Hmmm.
