‘American Horror Story: Roanoke’ Season 6 Episode 8: Recap
Picking up right where the last episode of American Horror Story: Roanoke ended, Shelby and Dominic watch from the window in horror as the real Butcher kills Agnes in cold blood.
Fearing for their life as they watch the Roanoke mob surround the house with torches, the two decide to leave through the tunnels to the woods — only to be stopped in their tracks by the Chins, those itsy-bitsy, creepy spider Grudge ghosts.
Meanwhile, the Polks are still skinning Lee alive, like she's a Christmas ham out on their farm. Mama’s son, Jether, sits behind the camera and films as they strip away pieces of flesh from Lee's leg and shoulders. They decide to indulge Lee and tell her the story of their humble beginnings: their ancestor, the great Kincaid Polk, was the original Piggyman. After bringing pigs to state fairs, he would skin them, sew a nice little bacon suit and go kill humans. As result of the Depression during the 1920s, the Polks became a cannibalistic people, regularly feasting on pickled human ears and barbecued flesh.
Lee tries to convince Jether to let her go and see her baby Flora, and tries convincing him to get his moment in the limelight on My Roanoke Nightmare: Three Days in Hell. Though he falters, he remains strong in his murderous intent and keeps her tied up, leg muscle exposed.
After the Chins attack Dominic and Shelby in the house, they're assaulted from all sides by ghosts of Roanoke past, including the demonic nurses and Piggyman. Suddenly, the chandelier in the main foyer comes crashing down and falls on top of Shelby’s leg, mirroring her ankle mishap with the Butcher the first time around.
Fighting their way to the top of the stairs and into the bathroom, Dominic and Shelby are locked in with nowhere to hide. Shelby, as if all the trauma catches up to her at once, realizes that she killed the only man she ever loved — she bashed his head in because he was mid-coitus with Mother Monster. In her grief, she slits her own throat, and another one bites the dust as Shelby bleeds out on the bathroom floor.
Back on the Polk farm, Jether comes back once more to terrorize Lee. In a desperate plea, she begs him to film a goodbye for Flora. With heartbreak in her eyes, Lee films a goodbye message to her daughter that includes the confession that she did indeed kill Mason, Flora’s father.
As if an appetite for murder is an aphrodisiac, Jether finds himself attracted to Lee and tries to seduce her amid the blood-soaked bales of hay on the farm. Lee plays into it, only to use this as her window to escape, ultimately stabbing Jether in the side of his perverted neck.
Mama’s other ugly, inbred sons still have Audrey and Monet, however. And since Lee was being stripped for food, it seems as if Audrey and Money are being stripped for vanity, as the Polks want more teeth for their collection. Monet somehow fights her way free and, while untying Audrey, hears Mama coming and runs off, vowing to come back for Audrey.
Mama’s sons set off into the woods on the hunt for Monet, while Mama sets her sights on Audrey and her pearly whites. Mama succeeds in taking one of Audrey’s teeth, and while she goes in for another like the world’s worst oral surgeon, Lee bashes Mama over the head with a pipe.
Audrey, clearly mourning the loss of her bicuspid, takes the pipe from Lee and kills Mama with a couple blows to the head, effectively furthering the theory that this season should have just been called American Horror Story: Smashing Skulls.
Audrey and Lee escape the farm, only to find themselves back in the basement of the house, where Lee is greeted with the image of her brother Matt’s brains smashed on the floor like a rotten tomato. As they continue through the house, they can’t find anyone — only the wreckage that the melee of ghosts left behind. They ascend the stairs and find themselves in the main bedroom where Audrey finds Shelby, dead and throat-slit, on the bathroom floor, with Dominic just sitting there staring in shock.
Lee and Audrey believe Dominic is lying, and think that he's the one who killed Shelby since he's holding the knife. Lee locks him out — and only seconds later, Dominic is slaughtered by the Piggyman, with Lee and Audrey on the other side of the door.
Somehow, Audrey and Lee survive the night, but not without their share of troubles. Audrey realizes that they both killed Polks last night, and that the videotapes left at the farm are evidence enough to incriminate them. And though any sound jury would realize they were being tortured by the murderous second cousins of Hannah Montana, they vow to go back and destroy the evidence in hopes of leaving it all behind.
As they go to leave the house, Piggyman is at the front door — except it's not the real Piggyman: it's a man named Gillian, the man who portrayed the murderous swine on television. And now, with Gillian newly added into the mayhem, four survivors remain in this Roanoke Nighmare.