This episode is called ” Neighbors From Hell” and yep, I’d say so. More on that in a bit.
Tonight, we were introduced to a new couple. She has a severe case of Cleithrophobia, which is a fear of being trapped in confined spaces, with soupçon of claustrophobia added for interest. All this is courtesy of her sadistic father who’d lock her into a console cabinet next to the old Curtis Mathews floor model. He is a typical husband wanting to make love to his wife but conventional sexual positions trigger all her phobias. Well, thanks to the same shrink Allie sees for clownaphobia, she’s, do they go hone only to be greeted by a cadre of the same creepy clowns who lock them into coffins, leaned up against the wall, with a spray painted smiley face on it. The same smiley face on the wall of the Chang’s house when they were murdered. They lived across the street from Ally and Ivy.
The coffined couples are also neighbors of Ivy and Ally’s.
Next scene: Ally is dealing with the trauma of having shot and killed Pedro, who arrived at their home with supplies during the blackout, which is still an ongoing problem. A cop is there and tells her there’s a castle doctrine/stand your ground law. Suddenly, the power comes back on . Apparently, the terror “attack” was just a slight terror “inconvenience”. It’s never mentioned again for some odd reason which is typical in every AHS episode. Dangling plot particles everywhere.
The next scene has our Sapphic couple going back to work at their restaurant and there’s an angry mob of protestors in front of the building protesting the murder of an unarmed Hispanic man, devoted husband and father of three, killed by a white entitled, racist woman . A news reporter covering the protest calls her “the equivalent of a lesbian George Zimmerman” (The Florida security guard who was no billed after shooting Trayvon Martin). Tragic event , but the craftily worded moniker made me laugh.
So, then the gay man and his essentially frigid wife,,,the beekeeping creepies who moved in across the street, knock on the front door, wearing of all things, sombreros. Ally answers the door and is immediately berated for her white privilege that entitled her to kill a poor unarmed Latino, who she saw as the thieves and murderers and rapists they are.
Dialog stripped straight from today’s headlines.
tomthevrestsursntbNow, Ivy is standing at the door taking all their vitriol. but only REALLY seems to react when they accuse her of not being a true Progressive. Them’s fightin’ words. She starts yelling back at them they throw Taco Bell coupons at her. Hilarious.
She goes bsck to the restaurants to deslnwithbthevmib, Kai suddenly appears at her car window and tells her that it took courage to kill the man who for all she knew, could have been a threat to her and her family. As for the mob in front of the restaurant he told her not to worry, he’ll take care of them.
I guess she believes him because Ally decides to confront the protesters to assure them despite killing Pedro, she’s one of them. They see her, surround her car and she screams at them that they’re wrong about her, she believes as they do. When they ignore her, she starts cussing at them like a cranked out stevedore. Then Kai appears out of nowhere and the mob quietly disbands, just as he promised.
Then then there.s Craig’s list ad placed indicating an opportunity for a white man to be fellated by a hot sndbhirny lesbian couple. Proof of this? There’s a portly naked man who answered the add and he’s standing in their living room ready for his perverse treat. They kick him out. Then the whacky bee keepers give young Oz, Ivy and Ally’s son, a guinea pig which is a no no for a no pets household. It’s due to allergies or cruelty or something. Yet, oddly enough, Ivy is a chef and handles all the butchering at their in-restaurant butcher shop.
There’s a black truck driving slowly in front of their house, emitting a phosphorescent greenish mist. Like the old DDT mosqito misting trucks from back in the day. The next morning, 30 birds lay dead in their front yard. Later on, the black truck emitting the dayglo green mist is back for a repeat performance and Ally makes like the guy in Tienneman square and stands defiantly in front of truck which doesn’t slow down. She jumps out of the way and is sprayed with the green stuff and breathes it in, swallows it. Ivy comes running to her aid and Ally’s nose is bleeding.
Moving ahead for time and my carpal tunnel addled right hand, the couple and Oz come home from somewhere only to find a big red spray painted happy face on their front door. They go inside, just in time to see the guinea pig explode in a bloody burst in the microwave. Ugh!!! Sooooooo done to death. Anyway, in a fit or rage, Ally runs out and straight across the street to the whacky couple’s house accusing them of doing all the shenanigans. When they tell them about the smiley face spray painted on their door, the frigid wife looks serious and tells them that’s obviously a tag—-by the local neighborhood killers. They panic. And run back home only to find a spray painted smiley face on the side of their garage door.
This, just as the big black trucks comes back. This time, two men in black gilleybsuits suits with breathing apparati get out and start to spray their front yard with the green stuff. Ally freaks and confronts them and demands to know who they are. Who Sent Them! She asks if they’re from Monsanto (the company that weaponized the chemical, Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War) or if they’re there at the behest of Halliburton (Dick Cheney…need I say more???)
She rips off one guys mask and it’s a clown face. Too much for this chick and she faints and gets dosed again with the green mist.
They call the same cop who investigated Pedro’s accidental shooting and Ally frantically tries to convince him that the whacky neighbors are doing all the crazy shit. Then Oz, is sent a video of Ally in the bathtub with Nanny Wynter sponging her tenders. Ivy understandably gets angry and grabs Oz and leaves but not before seeing the gay husband from across the street arrested for waking up next to his wife in a pool of blood very, very dead.
Oz is missing do they run back in the house looking for him and blood is everywhere, and there is (Surorise!!!) a smiley face painted in blood, this time inside the house.
OBSERVATIONS: This show is rife with left leaning or pure Liberal types from the actors down to the dishwasher in Craft Services. . I mean, this is a Hollywood production after all, but the show actually seems to be mocking the left’s overblown reaction to Trump’s win. The paranoia, safe spaces, white people accusing other white people of white privilege when they both live in close proximity to each other in a lovely, upper middle class neighborhood. It takes it even further because the gist this season, seems to be all about irrational fears as they pertain to the election, and how they’re contributing to the dissolution of what we once knew as the comfy, all familiar American way.
As for Kai, whose a pinky clutching soul confessor of some sort, also says “have a nice day” at the end of every encounter. Back in the early 70’s when the smiley face was everywhere, it was often accompanied on cards, stickers and T-shirts with the phrase “have a nice day”. Interesting.
Plus, it’s hilarious that clowns have all access pass keys to the homes of every intended victim and apparently they also have stealth capabilities, along with knives, access to chemicals and video recording equipment, power tools, coffins, spray trucks, chemicals and unlimited amounts of red spray paint.
Personally, I think Ivy and the shrink are behind it all.
And maybe Paul Ryan, too.
