American Horror Story Recap: Lullaby-Bye

Last week I was so busy being proud of everyone who knew Violet was really dead from the overdose, I never took the time to realize how incredibly sad that is.  It definitely sank in this week as the future for everyone in the dreaded Murder House gets dimmer and dimmer.  For both human and ghosts.  There are a lot of things I like about this show.  It refuses to follow the formula of most TV fictional stories.  Does anyone think this will have a happy ending?  I’m totally okay with “no”.  (Quick side note to commentor Buffy:  Twin Peaks was my favorite show EVER and I just re-watched both seasons on Netflix last summer, so I’m with you there.  But I really hope you stuck with this one).

Moving on:  The acting in American Horror Story is absolutely top-notch.  So much so, it reminds me how inexplicable it is David Caruso is still cashing paychecks for “acting”.  That is the real American Horror Story.  But the most important take away for me this week (and maybe only me) is how blurred the lines are between the “good” and the “bad” people.  Both dead and alive, these characters are a collection of people who have almost all (with few exceptions) done or have the potential to do, horribly vile things to each other and others outside the house.  Despite that, the pain and loneliness the house evokes makes even the most evil people seem sympathetic at times.  And I thought this episode was very, very sad.  Enough of my rambling…these recaps are long enough!  Let’s take a deep breath and go.

Truly horrifying

This week we begin in 1984.  A passed out Constance is on the couch next to a table filled with a stack of bills, most marked “Past Due” and “Cancellation Notice”.  A young Tate is playing with a toy truck in the hallway when the basement door opens.  He pushes the truck down the steps and when he goes downstairs to get it, he has to venture into the bowels of the basement to retrieve it.  As he crawls along the floor, a demon-faced thing (?) reaches out and pulls him and starts dragging him.  Immediately Nora is behind Tate, saying “No, Thaddeus!” and pulls Tate in to comfort him.  Wow, I’d almost forgot about the Frankenbaby Dr. Montgomery created!  Nora asks little Tate his name and when he responds, she tells him if Thaddeus scares him again, just shut his eyes and say, “Go away!”.  She tells him she’ll protect him and smiles sweetly at him.  Tate whispers to her, “I wish you were my Mommy.”  She tells him to dry his tears as life is too short for so much sorrow.

We fast forward to an older, present time Tate holding the very same truck when he hears weeping.  He walks into a room in the basement to find Nora sobbing and asking, “Who are you?”  He responds, “It is me, Tate.”  And he repeats to her that life is too short for so much sorrow.  She tells him he’s wrong; it is an eternity.  She asks where her baby is.  Hey, glad you brought that up!  He tells her that is what he wanted to talk about with her.  She tells him he promised her one.  And that she knows he made one with “her”.  He tells her Vivien is the “her” and everything has changed.  He can’t give her that baby any more.  Vivien is Violet’s mother.  And he is in love with Violet.  He just can’t take her brother away.  He doesn’t mention awkward Christmas mornings and other family holidays, but that’s neither here nor there.  Nora says she can take him away and furthermore, she will.  That baby is hers.

I’ve already picked out booties for the new feet my husband is going to attach.

After the opening credits, we see Ben dragging Violet by her arm down the steps trying to get her to go with him.  She’s arguing she doesn’t feel well and wants to stay there.  Ben tells her he doesn’t trust her anymore and he doesn’t trust Tate.  Okay, help a sister out here.  Ben clearly saw Tate as the rubber man a couple of weeks ago and as far as Ben knows, Tate is alive and well and not a ghostly psychopath, who by the way, has a mother who lives next door who has been apparently been paying Tate’s therapy bills.  Did he call the police (or Constance) and report Tate as an intruder and possible wife rapist?  Or is he just intent on getting the hell out of there and the police have been to their house so many times, they might even view him as the boy who cried rubber wolf?  Either way, Ben is doing everything he can to get Violet to go with him to pick up Vivien.  Ben also tells her when they come back, they’re leaving the house for good.  Violet asks if Ben and Viv are back together now and Ben doesn’t really have an answer for that.  All he knows is Vivien wants to have the baby in Florida at her sister Jo’s house.  Violet (still getting yanked by the arm) tells him he really doesn’t want to do that!

Geez, Violet.  Florida isn’t that bad.

Ben forcefully tells her Vivien has been locked up in a psych ward for weeks now (really?) and he’s not keeping in there a moment longer.  He pushes her into the back seat of the car and crying, she lies down.  As the car pulls out of the driveway, the camera pans to an upstairs window where Violet is looking out at the street.  She turns away from the window and addresses Tate, who is playing on her computer.  He is stumbling over pulling up Youtube, a not so subtle reminder he died before the internet craze.  Violet tells him when her parents find out she’s killed herself, they’ll go insane.  Literally, this time.  And she doesn’t want them to know.  Tate tells her she can’t control it forever and it is what it is.  Gee, he sure seems to know a lot about it for someone who has a very selective memory.  Violet laments the advances of technology she will miss and soon they’ll be like the others in the house.  “Prisoners in a windowless cell”.  She wants to know who is going to show her the new ways of the world?  Violet continues, telling Tate that no one is happy in the house, but Tate tells her they are different.  They have each other and that way, they’ll never be lonely.  She reminds him they’ll never have kids.  Just then we hear the tinkling of a lullaby from another part of the house.

We head to the nursery where Chad and Pat are busy painting and stenciling the walls.  Pat wants to paint the two cribs red and when Chad starts to argue, Pat shuts him down.  Chad takes a deep breath and says, “I know…our babies, not my babies.”  He tells Pat he’s happy with the red cribs and Pat tells him he’s adorable when he’s happy.  Tate and Violet come in to break up this (rare) happy scene and Violet asks them who said they could be the ones to decorate the nursery?  Chad tells her it is their house and they are having twins.  Violet smirks and asks who their surrogate was, one of the nurses hanging around the basement?

Chad….call meeeeeee.  I’ll take a bath first!

Chad calls her Elvira (HA) and tells her their surrogate is the very human Vivien.  Tate jumps in and says, “You’re going to steal the twins?  You two homos couldn’t steal the shit out of your own ass.”  Before Chad and Pat can respond Violet tells them it doesn’t matter.  As soon as her parents return, they’re leaving.  She starts to say “we’re leaving” and then corrects herself.  My guess is she still doesn’t have her arms wrapped around the fact she is never leaving.  Chad tells her (correctly) her parents aren’t going anywhere as long as Violet is there.  And that she just doesn’t get it.  He starts getting threatening and Tate jumps in at her defense and gets in Chad’s face.  Chad tells him he’s got him quaking in his loafers and after all, what’s he going to do?  Murder him??  And with that, Tate and Violet leave the room.  I find it ironic the reason Chad and Pat are dead in the first place is because they weren’t getting along and weren’t going to be bringing a baby into the house.  So Tate killed them.  Now that there is a baby (or babies) coming, they’re getting along well.

Violet is sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette when Constance comes barreling in, very impatient to get on with whatever Violet might want from her.  Violet asks her if she remembers the two guys who lived there before them.  “Frick and Frack?”, Constance asks.  How could she forget?  Violet lets Constance in on the whole plan from Chad and Pat to steal Vivien’s babies and raise them as their own.  This certainly gets Constance’s attention and she assures Violet that will never happen.  Violet tells her Vivien is on her way home and she just doesn’t trust the couple.  Furthermore, Violet wants to talk to medium Billie Dean to see about getting rid of them.  There has to be a way.  Constance tells Violet she will take care of it.  It is somehow important to keep in mind here Constance does not know Violet is dead.  She only believes Violet has “powers” that let her interact with the ghosts in the house.  Well, at least I think that’s important…

Constance is now going upstairs, calling out Chad’s name.  She goes into the newly painted nursery and as she approaches the cribs we see Chad behind her, drinking a glass of wine.  He tells her if she lays one hand on those cribs, she’ll be pulling back a bloody stump.  Which makes you wonder how Constance has stayed safe around these particular ghosts who apparently hate her guts.  With good reason, of course.  When Constance asks him where he found these things, he responds, “Around.  You’d be amazed at the little treasures left behind by previous occupants.”

Amazed might be an understatement.

This scene is so great, forgive me if I just basically transcribe it:

Constance:  “What you are planning to do I unnatural.  Men shall not lie with men.  It is an abomination.”

Chad:  “So is that hairdo, but I figure that is your business.”

Constance:  “Why can’t you people just content yourselves by having pets?”

Does anybody else think (and sincerely hope) Jessica Lange laughs out loud when she reads these lines for the first time?  They continue to argue about same sex couples raising children.  Constance opens a HUGE can of worms when she retorts her children all came out of her body, which is something Chad and Pat could never say.  Naturally, Chad chuckles at this saying this means absolutely nothing.  She’s just the hole they crawled out of and while he’s at it, he remarks that he can’t walk through his own home without tripping over one of her dead offspring.

Constance:  “I loved my children.”

Chad:  “To death.”

Well, this really raises Constance’s ire and she tells him her children are a part of her and she will not have his filthy hands on her grandchild.  And…oops.  Chad says, “Grandchild?  Wait a minute.  Norman Bates Jr. is the baby daddy?”  HAHA.  When Constance doesn’t respond, Chad remarks, “You gotta love this house.”  Constance tells Chad he can have the other one—the one Ben fathered, but Chad thinks a blonde and a brunette would be perfect, as he and Pat are also blonde and brunette.  So, Chad tells her they will be needing both children.  Constance calls him vile and says they are not suited to raise children.  Hmmm…did she say, “raise” children?  See, every ounce of sympathy I ever felt for Chad goes right out of the window when he explains their plan of raising the kids until they are 1 or 1 ½ and then killing them, by smothering them with a (hypoallergenic, naturally) pillow.  That way “their” children will be that adorable age for eternity.

And now I’m wishing I had a fire poker.

And Billie Dean is in the house!  (no, not Jimmy Dean.  Although that would be delicious).  Ben and Vivien must have been trying to save money on electric because  the house is always so dim.  As Constance and Violet watch and listen, Billie Dean is droning on in her medium-ish voice, “There is so much pain here.  So much longing and regret.  Fearness…sadness…guilt.  And Precious Moments.”  Constance interrupts her with, “Can you ferret out the fairies for us?”  Constance reminds Billie Dean that is their main concern.  Billie Dean tells them getting rid of individual spirits might be difficult and this house is very crowded.  And she hasn’t even seen the basement!  Billie Dean looks over at Violet and in her mind, she says, “You are so young.  I am so sorry.”  Violet freaks out a touch and with her mind responds, “Please don’t tell.  They can’t know.”  Constance interrupts the mind chatter with, “So what can we do?”  Billie Dean tells them they need to somehow dislodge them from the paramagnetic force of the house.  Violet (and me), “Uh, what?”  Okay…here it is in summary:  There is an evil force in the house created by horrible events.  These horrible events created an energy and the house absorbed it.  Like a battery stores energy.  Normally, places like prisons and asylums are common places for this.  Anywhere negative energy feeds on trauma and pain.  Which totally explains the license bureau.  The force in the house is larger than any of the individual traumas.  Most importantly, this force has a need.  It wants to breakthrough and move into the “real” world.  It is using those persons trapped between the worlds as its conduits.

“But what do we do about the gays?”

LOL!  Billie Dean starts to tell her there might just be a way, but then she stops and says, “He can’t be here.”  We see Tate watching and listening from the hallway.  Constance says, “But that’s my boy.  Tate.”  Tate tells them he just wants to help.  Billie Dean says he’s done enough already.  (Oh, my what does she know???).  Constance shoos Tate out of there, but Violet wants to know what all that was about.  Constance attempts to blow it off by saying when a medium comes in direct contact with a spirit, it can have a very powerful effect.  Really.  Nothing to worry about here.  Okay, I want some answers on that whole exchange.  Billie Dean knows something even more about Tate and Constance knows that she knows more about Tate.  After everything we know about Tate, what in the world more can there be?  Is it more than just the murders we know about?  Or was Constance just protecting Tate in front of Violet?  I shudder in dreaded anticipation.

What???!!!  Untreated Halitosis?   Bunny killer?  Do you park in handicapped spots?  WHAT????!!!!

On to a more cheerful scene at the psych ward, Vivien is asking why Violet didn’t come with Ben to pick her up and take her home.  Ben tells her Violet’s been having a rough time.  Rougher than being locked up in a psych ward?  Well, technically I guess, yes.  Vivien doesn’t have bugs coming out of her mouth, so there’s that.  Vivien is telling Ben how Violet didn’t come to see her even once while she was in there when a doctor enters the room.  He asks Vivien how she’s doing and she tells him she is anxious to go.  The doctor then asks Ben if he’s had any luck convincing Vivien to put off the trip.  Vivien blows him off saying she realizes she should be on bed rest, but a) she’ll be in a wheel chair at the airport b) sitting on the flight on the way to Florida and c)  she is only six months pregnant.  In 24 hours, she’ll be surrounded by people she trusts (with a sly look at Ben) and doctors who can help her.  Ben’s not buying all this and questions the doctor further.  After the doctor talks a little more…)Why would an obstetrician want to do an emergency C-section?)  The doc fills in Ben.  One of the babies is developing much more rapidly and is basically ready to come out and live on its own.  Well, not apartment + job kind of independence, but you know—using his own lungs and all.  The other baby is far weaker.  The larger baby (the alpha) is actually devouring all the nutrients intended for both babies.  The doctor excuses himself but throws in they may want to make sure there is a doctor on the flight.  Naturally, Ben is pissed and wants to know when Vivien was going to tell him all this.

Relax, will ya?  We only had one name picked out anyway and Damien is just lovely!

Back at the house, Billie Dean is knocking back some whiskey and telling Violet and Constance that although it is difficult to banish a spirit, it is not impossible.  Her example of a success story was from 500 years ago.  Violet is naturally skeptical because honestly, that is not a very good track record.  But Billie Dean tells her spirits do not share in the same timelines we do.  All they have in common with the living is the way we all suffer.  Pain, regret, loneliness.  Billie Dean is a real laugh riot.  She tells the story:  In the 1590’s, on the coast of North Carolina, one hundred and seventeen men, women and children died inexplicably.  It became known as the Ghost Colony because that was catchy and nobody could really spell “inexplicably” at the time.  The spirits remained, haunting tribes around the area and killing at random.  The Elder knew he had to act so he cast a banishment curse first.  He burned the personal belongs of the 117 people and that causes the spirits to be summoned.  While the spirits were there making smores and watching their stuff burn up, he issued the final curse.  He uttered a single word.  A word he found carved on a post at the abandoned colony.  And no, that word wasn’t “Leave”.  It was Croatoan (or something similar–sounds like “Crow-a-Toe-In”).  Constance looks at Violet and tells her, “Now you know what you have to do.”

Tate is nervously pacing around Violet’s room when Violet comes in.  He asks her what they have to do.  She tells him they have to gather belongings from the ghosts, like a talisman or an heirloom.  She tells him if they do this ritual, Chad and Pat will be gone.  Tate tells her that sounds like total BS.  Violet defends Billie Dean’s idea.  She tells Tate the bigger guy (Patrick) wears a wedding-type ring, but she can’t remember which hand he wears it on.  Tate angrily bursts out that he doesn’t trust Billie Dean.  He wants to know why she said all that stuff about him.  He looks at Violet and asks, “I did something bad, didn’t I?”  Violet wants to focus on getting the ring.  But yeah…they probably need to have a heart to heart on that whole “bad” thing.

Or at least a heart to what-should-be-a-heart…

So, Tate goes into the nursery where Patrick is painting and immediately starts tormenting him about being two male mommies.  Pat gets pissed and Tate immediately apologizes saying he was just messing with him.  He asks Pat if he’s seriously ready for all this, indicating the nursery.  Tate says Pat never struck him as the baby type and Pat’s response, “Maybe you should have taken a few minutes to know me before you stuck a fire poker up my ass.”  If I had a nickel for every  time I’ve heard that…Tate tells him that’s fair and maybe it is time they learn how to live together peacefully.  Pat yells, “I’m dead because of you!”  Normally, that would shut down almost any argument.  In fact, I’m going to try that the next time there is a conflict at work.  Tate ignores that however and actually proceeds to hit on Pat.  He tells him even though they’re dead, they all have wants.  He’s standing in front of a crouching (painting) Pat with his groin literally inches from his face saying, “It must suck. Being with that guy.  And only getting strange once a year, on Halloween.”   Does anyone else think it is odd Tate used such modern slang, like “strange”?  Ah…the Harmons must spring for cable.  Pat stands up, staring at Tate and just when you think there’s going to be some man on man, BAM!  Pat head butts Tate.  Hard.  They scuffle with Pat beating the crap out of Tate, saying he shouldn’t be here.  He was going to get out.  Oooh…so, JungleJim4322 was more than just a fling!!  Pat is yelling he was in love and he was going to leave him when Chad comes in.

Oh, my.  Agreeing on colors for the nursery will most like not heal this wound.

I am no expert, but if you’re going to be screaming about personal affairs of the heart, you may want to avoid doing it in a house FILLED with ghosts who can come and go on a whim.  Especially if one of those ghosts is your partner.  Pat goes after a heartbroken Chad, while Tate lies on the floor bleeding, but triumphantly holding Pat’s ring.  Success!

Ben and Vivien pull up to the house and Vivien tells Ben she is not going into the house.  Ben tells her she doesn’t have to do that; he packed for her.  Hopefully nothing in the rubber or French maid variety.  When she asks if Violet is packed, Ben says he told her they were leaving so she better be.  As soon as he gets out of the car she glances warily in the back seat, no doubt looking for serial killers.  Those people are always looking to hitch.  Then she starts having some serious stomach issues and it becomes quickly obvious these are not gas pains but excruciating labor pains.  Meanwhile Tate is hanging around Violet’s room when she enters, holding Chad’s watch which he took off to paint the nursery.  Just then, Ben starts banging on her door.  He’s yelling, “You disappeared on me.  What the hell happened to you?”  He tells her they need to go to the airport now and that her Mom is waiting in the car.  She opens the door and nervously tells him, “Go far away.  Just don’t bring Mom in the house.”  Naturally, he blows that off and she says she will stay there and she can take care of herself, but trust her, they have to get out of there!  She tells him, “Tell Mom that I love her and good luck with the babies!”  Ben wants to know what the hell is wrong with her.  He wants to know if she is high and she says she wishes.  He said he stopped at a red light and she was gone.  Where did she go?

See?  Not so easy transporting these ghosts, man.

She tells him she was nowhere.  She was right here.  She wanted to come but she couldn’t leave the house.  Ben assumes she is on drugs, which normally I would take issue with him getting his “shrink” on again, but that does kind of make more sense than the truth, right?  He pushes her to tell him what kind of drugs she’s on and she looks right at him and says, “I’m dead.  Don’t you get it?  Once you die in this house, you don’t get to leave.”  Ben looks stunned, but not really believing.  (obviously).  Violet tells him again he has to go and take Mom and the babies with him.  He tells her that is exactly what he is going to do.  And he tries to take her with him.  Back outside, Vivien is screaming even louder and trying to get out of the car when Constance comes running up to her.  Constance:  “Is the baby coming?”  Vivien is yelling, “No, no, no!!”  And while Vivien struggles, Constance is pulling her closer to the house telling her when a child is ready, it is just ready.  Inside the house, Violet is telling Ben she took some pills and she didn’t mean to kill herself, but then they hear Vivien screaming, “Ben!!” from outside the house.  Constance opens the door and pulls Vivien inside the house.  Ben asks, “What’s wrong?” just as Vivien’s water breaks and she tells him the babies are coming.  Violet looks horrified and Constance shuts the front door.  Rut-Ro.

Constance has Vivien on a couch, telling her to breathe.  Ben is trying all the phones but none of them work.  Constance tells him there is no time to drive her to the hospital or for 911.  Vivien is already crowning.  Constance sees Violet watching and goes to her.  Violet tells her she can’t give birth here because it is not safe.  Constance tells her to make it safe.  She knows what to do.  Ben is still trying all the non-working phones when he hears loud crashes outside, where it is interestingly now nighttime.  Huh?  Ben looks out the window and the ginger twins are beating the crap out of his car and he can actually see their wounds when…fizzle…all the house lights go out.  He turns around and sees Constance lurking creepily behind him.  “Dr. Harmon.  It’s time.”

He goes back into the living room, where Vivien is laid out and candles are lit.  Hey, look who’s here!  It’s Doctor Montgomery and his nurses Gladys and Maria!Ben starts muttering, “This is wrong.  We have to get her out of here.”  But he’s doing this with a real sleepy and stunned look on his face.  He can actually see the wounds on the nurses uniforms and his mind is flashing back to Hayden and old Moira and him playing jiffy pop with his fingers on the stovetop and we all know he’s starting to see everything.  Shivers.  Like almost Lost shivers.  He says (thinks?), “THIS HOUSE!!”  Suddenly, Constance slaps him right across the face and tells him that right now this house is trying to help and he is in absolutely no position to refuse.  His wife needs him so he better get his act together.

Reason #8413 why adoption is so appealing.  Or sewing my knees shut.

He goes by Vivien’s side and she’s all sweaty and delirious, but not too out of it to notice the dubious maternity help she has.  I mean, blood covered nurses with out of date hairstyles?  Ben tells her it is okay; these people are there to help them.  Constance asks the doctor if he has a little “something” for Vivien and he gives her some Ether.  Vivien calms down some and we can see Ben is really starting to lose it.  In his mind, he can see himself calling out for help.  Folks, I’m not going to lie.  I watched this last ten minutes with tears in my eyes and on the edge of my seat.  I’ve given almost everyone in this show the highest amount of credit for acting abilities, but this one is all Dylan McDermott.  Then as another contraction hits, we can hear the cello music in the background and we just know, dammit.  We just know this is going to be heartbreaking.  With tears in his eyes, Ben is telling her to breathe and he starts getting flashbacks to the last time Vivien was in labor, which of course was little Violet.  The scenes are cut back and forth between a smiling Ben telling Viv how much he loves her and the current labor situation where they’re both terrified.  Current Vivien is telling Ben she doesn’t want to lose him and he tells her she never will.  And then the joy of baby girl Violet coming into the world.  Then dark cello music with Dr. Montgomery telling Ben the baby is stillborn.

More than just a nice butt

Vivien asks deliriously if it is a boy or a girl.  The doctor takes the dead baby away and Constance tells Vivien she can’t see the baby yet–she still has another one coming.  And then Vivien screams again.  We see Dr. Montgomery handing the stillborn baby over to Nora.  And I swear I heard a baby crying.  But it was hard to tell over Vivien’s scream.  Hmmm…Was the doc lying?  Am I just hearing things?  Did anyone else hear it or was that “hopeful hearing” on my part?

Downstairs in the basement, Violet is throwing Pat’s ring and Chad’s watch into the furnace fire, when Chad asks her what she thinks she is doing.  His watch was $12,000 for goodness sake!  She starts screaming the word (Grow-a-toe in???) and he tries to fake her out like it really worked, but hahaha.  It did not.  So, he starts mocking her for listening to the press-on nail medium.  Violet is still stunned it didn’t work.  Chad tells her that of course it didn’t work.  He says that people make up these things to feel like they’re in control, but guess what?  Not so much.  She asks him what he’s doing down there and it looks like he’s breaking up the wooden crib and throwing it into the fire.  He tells her there will not be a nursery and that he and Pat will not be parents.  He tells Violet her mother’s babies are safe.  (he definitely said plural “babies”).  From them at least.  And he tells her he is doomed to spend eternity with a man who doesn’t love him. Once again, normally I’d be sympathetic to his plight, but really?  Smothering children?  Sympathy:  revoked.  He continues, telling Violet it could be worse.  Sure, Tate loves her but he’ll always be a monster.  She tells him he’s wrong.  Tate has changed.  Chad wants to know when this big change came?  After he murdered him and Patrick?  Or was it when he raped her mother?  We know Violet knew nothing about Tate’s role in why Chad and Patrick were there in the house and besides, wasn’t she told the story of murder/suicide?  If she believed that story up until this point, why wouldn’t she have thrown it in Chad’s face with his whole “unrequited love” saga and him being mean to her?   So, yeah, this is all news to Violet.  She can hear her mother’s labor screams and  he tells her she’ll be finding out the truth soon enough.

I am so not going to the High Ghoul Prom with him.

Back upstairs, Vivien is covered in bloody sheets screaming and Ben is yelling at her she has to breathe.  The doctor comes across a problem and has to use forceps to get the baby out of Vivien.  After a few minutes (okay, probably a few life times to Vivien), we hear the crying of the newborn baby.  Suddenly the doctor says that Vivien is bleeding.  Constance tells him to cut the cord—time to separate mother and son.

Gee, add the “It’s A Boy!” balloon and this little scene would have been just perfect.

Vivien wants to see the baby, but Constance takes him away to “wash him up”.  Vivien is fading fast.  Constance is cleaning the baby in the kitchen sink when, hey it is Moira!   Constance says to a teary-eyed Moiria, “What is the matter with you?”  Moira says it is the most beautiful baby she’s ever seen.  Their joy is interrupted by Hayden, who says, “Hey bitches, you get all that slime off my baby yet?”

Oh, Larry.  You couldn’t hit her in the face with a shovel in someone else’s backyard?

The doctor tells Ben Viv’s going into shock.  Then she sees Violet.  Violet is crying saying she’s sorry she didn’t see her in the hospital.  When we see Ben’s point of view in this shot, we don’t see Violet, which is odd.  I thought everyone could still pretty much see her.  Or was that Vivien’s point of view?  Ben tries to reign Vivien in, asking her to please listen to him.  They can be happy again.  Like before everything–the affair; the house; the gazebo.  Violet is telling her it is okay.  If she is in pain, she can let go.  Vivien says she doesn’t think she has a choice.  Ben is begging her to stay and Violet is asking her to join her.  Ben:  Don’t die on me, Vivien.  And just like that, Vivien dies.  Ben looks around and everyone is gone.

Violet goes running upstairs to her room where Tate is lying on her bed.  “My Mom is dead.”  He tells her he’s so sorry.  He knew they were close.  He goes to reach for her hand and she pulls away.  Violet tells him they were close and now her Dad is down there all alone now.  Tate tells her that makes him sad because Ben was nice to him.  Violet tells him he’s nice to all his patients.  Violet then asks why he started seeing her Dad in the first place.  Obviously Constance thought he needed help.  He says he did need help and he does now.  Violet says you knew you were dead.  (aha!).  He admits that yes, he did know that.  Do you know why?  The cops shot me?  Violet asks the obvioius:  “Why did they shoot you?”  Tate says he doesn’t know.  Violet tells him he murdered people.  Kids like them.  The teens that showed up on Halloween.  Tate is crying when he hears this.  “Why would I do that?”  And then Violet starts piling on:  “Why would you kill those guys who lived in the house before them?  Why would you rape my mother?”  Tate tries to tell her he’s sorry.  I was different then.  Violet tells him she thought he was like her.  Attracted to the darkness.  But now she believes Tate IS the darkness.  He tells her before her, that’s all there was and she is the only light he’s ever known.

You make me want to be a better ghost

I took from all this that it is pretty clear he let her die.  It would have been the only way to keep her with him forever.  Tate tells Violet she changed him.  She tells him she loves him but she can’t forgive him.  He has to pay for what he did and  all the pain he caused.  Didn’t Hayden say that very same thing to Ben??  Tate murdered her mother.  That baby killed her.  Violet tells him she can’t and won’t be with him.  She tells him to “go away”.  Crying harder now, Tate yells, “You’re all I have!!”  And when Violet opens her eyes, he is gone.  She’s crying and moaning and then behind her, Vivien appears and holds her close.  Ghost Vivien (who cleaned up nicely!) tells Violet that was very brave and that she is proud of her.  Violet tells her she’s so sorry.  So sorry she had to die.  And she’s sorry she lost her baby.  Viv looks at Violet and says, “But I haven’t lost my baby.”

And that’s the end…

I won’t lie—I was crying (embarassingly hard) at the end, but as they say…life is too short for so much sorrow…

I’m still having a hard time not feeling sorry for Tate, despite everything he has done.  His sorrow and pain seemed so real.  How weird is that?  And I finally have garnered a ton of sympathy for Ben because despite everything he did in the past, he really did love his family.  What will happen to him?  I hope Constance and Moira gang up on Hayden and send her packing.  And does Tate really have more power (and a lot more evil) than the rests of the ghosts?

Next week’s finale looks absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait!  As always, thanks for joining me.

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