American Horror Story: Apocalypse pre-season re-watch!

Tate Langdon “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in AHS: Murder House, Episode 1 – via FX

“You’re doing that the wrong way”, Tate says to Violet,”if you do it vertically they can’t stitch it up”.

and of course there’s the hilarious “If you’re really trying to kill yourself, you might want to lock the door”.

Violet pretty much becomes immediately smitten by Tate, as I think most teenage girls who watched this show, and maybe some adult women, did. I mean, not me, of course not, but I digress. In this episode we also meet the deceptively sweet southern belle, Constance Langdon, mother of Addie. She enters the house without permission while Vivian is stripping some wallpaper in the room that will become her music room. Underneath the wallpaper is a somewhat macabre mural that doesn’t get much attention drawn to it in this episode for whatever reason.

Addie can’t seem to keep returning to the house without permission and Constance says she always finds a way in, but this time Vivian had kept the back door open. Constance informs Vivian that she had initially moved to Los Angeles from Virginia in hopes of becoming a movie star but that she wouldn’t get nude in front of a camera, all chances of her career were dashed. Then after giving birth to Addie (who she so charmingly refers to as “the mongoloid”..which is so cringe-worthy to hear, honestly) she was pretty much resigned to stay at home.

The second time Addie somehow gets into the house and seemingly makes a mess of the whole kitchen (it was actually those damn twins), Vivian grabs Addie by the face and tells her never to come back to the house, which sets Constance off. We start to see some of the genteel veneer slip away.

We also meet the housekeeper that somehow came with the house, Moira (played by both Alexandra Breckenridge, who would also star in Coven, and Frances Conroy, who has been in most of the consecutive seasons of AHS). In the eyes of Vivian and Violet, Moira is a somewhat frumpy older woman with a cataract in right eye.

However, Ben sees an overtly sexual 20 something in a super short French-maid costume with garter belts and fish-net stockings. Ben is somewhat shocked that Vivian would hire someone like this, especially considering the reason they moved to Los Angeles. Moira continuously taunts Ben, while being a strong support to Vivian.

Some things that I noticed while closely examining this episode for the purpose of this article, that I never noticed before. Tate is wearing an exact replica of an outfit Kurt Cobain wore in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video. He also mentions Nirvana a lot, which are two clues to in what era Tate actually grew up. Also in the scene where Tate is “scaring” Violet’s classmate, he yells out “Helter Skelter”, which sort of points to his later performance in AHS: Cult. Are these two seasons somehow connected as well?

I can’t believe so many iconic scenes are packed into one episode of the show. There’s that lovely vinyl costume they find in the attic, which Vivian thought Ben threw away, but he didn’t because he (or, you know, someone) ends up wearing it in the bedroom later. There’s Ben’s trances and weird obsession with fire. I also forgot that Constance sort of rescues Ben by coming into the house and turning off the stove while Ben is staring at it, with all the burners on. She says “It’s not your time yet. Enjoy the house!”

The burned man (Denis O’Hare) and Ben in Murder House.

Finally, I cannot forget the at-first nameless burn victim that keeps following Ben around. Played by the amazing Denis O’Hare, we first think that he is psychotic, but of course, we later find out something a little bit different actually happened.

This episode of American Horror Story cemented my fandom for more or less the next seven years. I’m going to go watch episode 2 now, and you’ll read my take on it here very soon!