So… yup. Just as Ryan Murphy promised weeks back, there's a lot more going on than meets the eye in American Horror Story's sixth season, which finally pulled the rug out from under us tonight. With Matt and Shelby's story seemingly resolved last week, the focus shifted to the behind-the-scenes crew of My Roanoke Nightmare, which turns out to have been a major hit.
Here are the seven key things we learned from the game-changing 'Chapter 6.'
1) That is the real Matt and Shelby after all.
Speculation's been rife throughout the season that the "real" Matt and Shelby aren't actually alive, and that Lily Rabe and André Holland are playing actors in the talking head segments. That's not the case, as the Millers and Lee all reveal themselves to be alive and well—but not for long.
2) There's a sequel to My Roanoke Nightmare in the works.
The episode began with series producer Sid (Cheyenne Jackson) pitching the network a follow-up entitled Return to Roanoke, in which the entire reenactment cast go back to the house, accompanied by Matt, Shelby and Lee. Because what could go wrong there?
The trio are all reluctant to get involved, because they have at least some sense of self-preservation remaining. But all three are eventually persuaded to return—Shelby because she wants to be close to Matt (more on that in a second) and Lee because she wants to clear her name. The viewers, we learn, were dissatisfied that the show never revolved Mason's murder, and most people believe that Lee is guilty.
3) The Butcher is a role that demands method acting.
Or possession, depending on your point of view. Agnes (Kathy Bates), who played The Butcher to such terrifying effect throughout the reenactments, got a little too deep into her role. Not Jared Leto deep, but criminal violence deep—she was charged with assault, we learn, after going on a delusional rampage in full costume.
Unsurprisingly, Agnes was chomping at the bit to be involved with Return to Roanoke, but Sid refused to let her near the production, and took out a restraining order to make sure she stayed away. Furious at being shut out, Agnes went on a deranged rant that sounded unmistakably like The Butcher had somehow taken genuine control of her.
4) Matt and Shelby's relationship never recovered after Roanoke.
It was noticeable that during the talking-head segments, the couple never spoke about each other in the present, and now we discover that their relationship's on the rocks. During production, Shelby had a fling with the actor who played Matt in the reenactment, Dominic (who is played by Cuba Gooding Jr.—yeah, there's a lot to keep up with here).
In fairness to Shelby, she was probably still a little bitter towards Matt for banging Lady Gaga in the woods.
5) The My Roanoke Nightmare set is a lot like the Glee set.
In the sense that everybody was hooking up and/or messy as hell. Like Shelby and Dominic's thing wasn't enough, Audrey (Sarah Paulson) fell head over heels with Rory (Evan Peters), as they filmed their respective reenactment roles of Shelby and Edward.
Meanwhile Monet (Angela Bassett), the actress who played Lee in the reenactments, has developed a serious drinking problem since production on the first series ended. More method-acting? Or something more sinister?
6) The rest of the season will be a grisly, dread-filled found-footage movie.
Remember the vague sense of morbid disappointment when you realized that the reenactment set-up meant that Matt, Shelby and Lee couldn't die at Roanoke? It felt like a drastic lowering of the stakes, but that was all before we knew what was coming midway through the season.
Creepy things start happening immediately on the Return to Roanoke set—somebody eats their own chainsaw, an assistant is slaughtered by the Pig Man, and several of the reenactment actors are being haunted. Finally in the episode's last moments, we learn that every single person involved in the three-day production of Return to Roanoke was killed… except one.
Place your bets here on the survivor. It's got to be Agnes, aka The Butcher, aka Kathy Bates, right? Except that she's not technically a part of the production. We're rooting for Audrey, mostly because Sarah Paulson is everything.
7) The killer nurses finally got their "MURDER."
Back in Episode 2, we learned that the murderous nurse duo chose their victims according to the first letter of their names, so as to spell out their favorite word, "MURDER", on the wall in blood. But the pair were killed before they could finish the thought, leaving "MURDE" unimpressively on the wall of Matt and Shelby's house.
A series of increasingly violent events on the set culminates in Rory being stabbed to death by the nurses, finally giving them the "R" they needed. This show really just loves to kill Evan Peters.
