This week’s episode of American Horror Story: Roanoke opens with a new face in front of the interview camera: an elderly historian who delves into the backstory of the house.

As previously stated, the house was built in 1792 by Edward Mott, an ancestor of Dandy Mott, from American Horror Story: Freakshow. (Theories!) Edward not only sports a powdered wig that Mozart would be jealous of (and a robust family fortune), but he's played by Evan Peters, ergo solving the mystery of who the AHS vet would play this season.

Turns out Edward Mott was a fabulous, antisocial queen back in the 1700s who loved seclusion, but that love was nothing compared to the love he had for the arts — and young men. (Yaaaas.)

So Edward builds this haunted house as a means of escape; a place to kiss his lover in the sunlight and be surrounded by the art that made him feel at home. Except this house is not a home. It only takes two days for the Roanoke members to begin terrorizing dear ol’ Edward. In the middle of the night, he's haunted by ghosts. In his scared state, he decides to explore the house in a luxurious nightgown that would make RuPaul proud. By candlelight, Mott goes downstairs only to find all his art destroyed by The Butcher. In an act of pure rage, he takes his anger out on the help and condemns all of his workers to live in the underground shelter, naked and hungry, until someone fesses up to the barbaric acts committed against his precious art.

American Horror Story Mott Roanoke
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Shortly after, The Butcher sets her full sights on Edward. She has him ripped out of bed and brought outside, where he is speared to death like a fish, marking one of The Butcher’s earliest kills. It's said that Edward’s lover, Guinness, got away by horseback. But in his haste, he forgot to about all of the hired help reenacting Naked and Afraid outside in the shelter. By the time someone finds them, they are nothing but skin and bone.

In realtime, the blood moon is high as Matt, Shelby, and Flora all attempt to leave the house. In their escape, Flora is plucked away by some Samara-Grudge looking ghost that scurries around the house sounding like a damn demonic crab. They successfully retrieve Flora from Samara 2.0, only to be assaulted and hoarded into the basement by all the ghosts, including Piggyman.

As they escape to the basement, they are met by the ghost of Mott, who helps them escape the house through an underground tunnel installed under the house. Yet this underground art railroad has one flaw: it leads them back into the woods, where they are bagged and taken hostage.

When the dirty potato bags are lifted from their traumatized heads, they are stuck in the worst episode of Duck Dynasty ever. Turns out our Scooby gang was abducted by The Polks, who were those dirty hillbillies from earlier this season. They come to their senses in the very house they found those feral children in, only to be surrounded by more dirty kinfolk.

On a table in the center of the room lies Elia, who apparently lived through getting shot by multiple arrows, only to become a science project. His leg and arm have been chopped off by Mama, as if this were a Saw movie. Mama can only be described as a cannibalistic, skinnier version of Mama June.

While chewing on pieces of Elias’ flesh, Mama brings to light the fact that her and her troupe are spared by The Butcher in exchange for helping The Butcher ensure victims for her bloody consecrations. So The Polks bring back Shelby, Matt, and Flora to the house in order to be sacrificed by The Butcher, and all the other ghosts with a perchance for murder.

To ensure that they will not run again, Mama breaks Shelby’s ankle with a sledgehammer, a la Kathy Bates in Misery.

American Horror Story Kathy Bathes Roanoke
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When they show up, the ghosts of the haunted house’s past align next to the bonfire. Flora is taken first to be sacrificed. However, in the nick of time, Flora’s mother Lee returns to the house, only to be abandoned by the cops at the sight of the murderous colonial people because he, in fact, does not get paid enough for this nonsense.

From the distance, Lee watches as her baby girl is about to burnt to a crisp like overcooked bacon — that is until The Butcher’s son, in an act of true ghostly rebellion, rebukes his mother’s spilling of any more blood and throws himself and The Butcher into the fire, effectively saving Flora’s life.

Lee, in one of the Miller's cars, comes barreling through this ghost town and saves the day, but not before the lit Butcher's one last ditch effort to kill them all. All four of our protagonists escape the murderous clutches of a house they should have left weeks ago.

Ryan Murphy did tease a game-changing twist to come in next week’s episode, and in the quick teaser, we see the My Roanoke Nightmare cameras turn around to the producer of the reality show, played by Cheyenne Jackson, telling his crew that no matter what happens, to never stop rolling. It begs the question: did the Millers really escape all the ghastly horror of Roanoke once and for all?

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