American Horror Story: Murder House re-watch-E8: “Rubber Man”.

As 1428 Elm’s Lorry Kikta continues to revisit Season 1 of American Horror Story, we reach a point where everything starts to reveal itself. Including all the men (or ghosts) that have been “The Rubber Man” at one time or another, and the origin of the suit that started a whole lot of trouble for the Harmon family.

Caution: This article contains detailed spoilers. If you wish to not have the episode spoiled, watch it first on Netflix or of FX+.

The Eternal Loop

Something I’ve noticed at the various times I have watched episodes from this season of American Horror Story is that from episode 7 onward is the real “sweet spot” of the season where each episode progressively reveals more and more AND MORE twists and turns to the mysteries behind The Murder House.

We begin The Rubber Man on a title card that says “6 Months Ago”. Nora Montgomery is one of the ghosts who resides in the murder house who intermittently goes from knowing she’s dead and not having the slightest clue. One of her complaints almost always is that she hates what the newest owner has done to her house. Of course her chief complaint, that could honestly be the basis of a very eventful drinking game, is “Where is my baby?!?!?!” It’s the eternal loop she’s stuck in which won’t break.

Tate has a soft spot for Nora. He listens while Nora bemoans the loss of her house and child. She wants a baby and Tate says he’ll give her one. We are then transported to the scene from the first episode where Vivian is in bed with “the rubber man” (as has become his official name in the AHS universe) while Ben is downstairs staring into the eyes of the stove. This time we see it from the POV of the rubber man and we see him take his mask off. It’s Tate. Tate had sex with the mother of the future love of his….afterlife.

Leather vs Latex

We’re then transported to Vivian standing in the kitchen with Moira and her beleaguered realtor, Marcy. She swears up and down to both of them, leading from the end of the prior episode, that she had seen Nora Montgomery, the original owner of the house. She had come to look at the house when it first popped up on the market. Marcy definitely has her reservations of this and Moira says “They do say we all have a doppelgänger, Mrs. Harmon.”

We are then transported back to the point in time when Chad Warwick and Patrick are still alive. Chad had his suspicions about Patrick cheating on him and is relaying his concerns to a girlfriend over drinks. Patrick has been sleepwalking and in a continuation of his previous spying, Chad snooped through Patrick’s computer and discovered some rather unsavory chats Patrick had been having on an S&M themed website. Chad’s friend, Peggy tells him she thinks he should fight and maybe be a little more adventurous for the sake of his marriage.

Next thing you know, Chad is in unfamiliar territory at an “adult” store that sells sort of gear in which he believes Patrick might have an interest. Chad is definitely put off by some of the more…advanced wares the clerk is showing him, and then his eyes wander to the rubber man suit hanging from a wall. He ultimately decides to get it, when the shop worker tells him “if anything you can use it as a Halloween costume”.

Zachary Quinto feels rejected when Chad doesn’t like his new latex suit. Courtesy of Fox

Dead as Disco

Later, Chad tries to surprise Patrick by wearing the suit and Patrick laughs at him. Chad touches him and he says he can’t stand the way the suit feels against his skin. Chad is furious and tries to make a declarative statement kicking Patrick out of the house but he leaves anyway, saying he’s going “out” and “I like leather, not latex”.

Now we’re back to present day (2011) and Nora is once again crying in the basement. She wants to know where her baby is and who all these other people are in her house. Hayden approaches her and tries to tell Nora that she’s dead. Nora says “Are you implying–” quite aghast at the implication. Hayden interrupts her, “I’m not implying it, I’m saying it. I’m dead, dead as disco”. Nora is flustered and not only because she has no idea what disco is.

Hayden explains the perks of being a ghost to Nora Montgomery.

Hayden continues her travels through the house and comes upon Moira. Moira is not fond of Hayden and lets her know in no uncertain terms.

“I don’t like you,” Moira says, “I don’t like your type. You’re cheap and horrible and half the lady that Madam is. Why you insist on hurting her is only a reflection of your poor character and lack of breeding”.

“Don’t act all high and mighty with me, you old bat,” Hayden retorts, “I saw you feeding her raw brains.”

Moira insists that it was for the health of the mother and child, which may be something that Constance convinced her of, or might be true?

The Power of the Ghost

Hayden finds Nora again and explains to her what she thinks is happening in the murder house on a psycho-spiritual level with the ghosts. “There’s a power in it, a power we can use. We can make ourselves unknown,” she says as they watch Ben in his office, “and when we really need it, we can make ourselves known. We’re supposed to fix our issues, but we never can, it doesn’t stick”.

We then see a flash to Hayden having sex with Constance’s late husband, Hugo, and she stabs him repeatedly when they’re done, to no consequence because he too, is dead. She continues her conversation with Nora. She has Nora touch the bullet hole in the back of her head. Nora is still confused, until the talk of Vivian’s babies comes about, then she’s as lucid as ever. Hayden says to her, “We should take the babies. After all, they have to have mothers. You can’t raise a child in a loony bin”. This is all part of Hayden’s “No rest for them, no rest for us” haunting campaign. As we get to know her as a ghost, we begin to appreciate her intelligence, as to where before she was presented as a bit of a crybaby. In the house, as a ghost, she seems to finally understand her power and knows that she always mattered, and she’s not happy about it…at all.

Is She Crazy?

The entirety of the episode, Vivian thinks she’s losing her mind. The truth is that she’s simply becoming attuned to the reality she is inhabiting, for better or worse. We see her in the hallway, calling to Violet because she has a strange feeling. Beau, unseen by Vivian, rolls his ball down the hall and then the lights start to flicker. Hayden is knocking stuff over and wreaking general havoc, remaining mostly unseen by Vivian. Vivian is understandably in a panic. She then sees the rubber man mask in the bathroom.

We then see Tate in the past talking to Nora. He is going to kill Chad and Patrick simply so that new people can move in who might have a baby for Nora. Tate sees Nora as more of a motherly figure than Constance (which is explored in future episodes) and wants to do whatever he can to make her happy. His whole psychopathology really can be wrapped up in abandonment issues, honestly.

Ben then discovers that Violet has not been to school in two weeks. Violet is depressed and “not feeling well” and hates the kids at school. Ben is starting to put his foot down with her and is very frustrated that she isn’t living up to the potential he knows she has.

Vivian thinks that the entire incident with invisible ghost-Hayden is a byproduct of the medication given to her by her doctor. She’s beating herself up about it and Moira finds a way to blame everything that’s happening on Ben, due to her own hang-ups with men. Finally, however she breaks down and reveals a little bit of truth to Vivian.

Get Out While You Can

“You’re not crazy and the strange things you’re experiencing aren’t the drugs,” she relays to Vivian, “I’ve never said this to any of my employers for fear of losing their trust or my job, but this house is possessed. Things break, disappear, doors open for no reason. There are spirits here. Malevolent spirits. Mrs. Harmon, please hear me. You need to get out while you still can. I fear for you if you don’t”.

In a frenzy, Vivian wakes up Violet and says that they are going to her sister’s house immediately. The two of them get into the car and who’s waiting in the back seat but Fiona and Dallas, the home invaders who ended up meeting the fate they wanted to dole out. Vivian and Violet both freak out because they don’t know that these people are dead, so they’re afraid Fiona and Dallas are back to finish the job. Ben shows up and is furious that Vivian was going to take Violet away without telling him. Especially because he thinks Vivian is wacko. He doesn’t believe that the home invaders were in the car and he questions her eating the raw brains, mentioning mad cow disease.

Vivian is frustrated and yells “If you don’t believe me, go talk to your daughter! Violet was there too!”

The Only Sane One

While Ben and Vivian were arguing downstairs, Violet is in the middle of losing her virginity to Tate. Afterwards, Violet asks Tate if the home invaders are dead and he confirms her suspicions to be true. He then gaslights Violet and convinces her not to tell her mother this fact because “they’ll think your crazy”. It’s always women that are crazy, right? As Moira says earlier in the episode “That’s what men do. They make you think you’re crazy so that they can have their fun.” In a way that line sums up this whole episode and in many ways this entire season.

Ben has Vivian committed, but was he right? – Courtesy of Fox

Ben then requests Violet come downstairs. He’s still arguing with Vivian and doesn’t believe her at all, saying he threw the rubber mask out “months ago”. Due to what happened earlier in the evening, Vivian thinks Hayden is still alive and playing tricks on her. She’s halfway right. Ben, of course, doesn’t buy it, but Ben is too naive to everything that’s happening until it is  too late. When Violet comes downstairs, she denies seeing the home invaders, saying that she was upset by how scared her mom was. It’s really disappointing to see this, because we as the audience know Vivian is probably the only sane person involved in this entire show.

Hayden continues to travel around, attempting to goad everyone into exacting violent acts on the living who share the house with her and the other ghosts. She is trying Tate and he tells her he doesn’t want to hurt anyone anymore to which she responds “You know what you have to do.” She asks him if he wants to fool around and he says for her to quit because he’s in love.

Together Forever

Vivian sneakily invites Marcy over for a false reason, only to steal her gun while she isn’t looking. After Marcy leaves, Vivian gets ready for bed and is too scared to turn off the lights when she lies down and attempts to go to sleep. She sees a silhouette of “The Rubber Man” in the room, which really was Tate trying to scare her. Vivian gets the gun after pushing the security alarm button and shoots at the rubber man, but you can’t shoot ghosts. Instead she shoots Ben who had just ran up the stairs. Hayden breaks the security button and is screaming at Vivian. Vivian says Hayden can have Ben, but that’s not good enough for Hayden. She wants Vivian’s babies, since she never got to have hers. Of course, she conveniently disappears when Luke and Ben show up in the room. Ben ends up having Vivian committed because she did shoot him after all.

Tate tells Violet that everything’s okay when she blames herself for her mom being committed. He says “I’m here”. We then flash back to Tate carrying Chad and Patrick down to the basement, still alive. Nora is with him. He shoots Patrick and kills him, and then grabs Chad’s hand while holding the gun and shoots Chad in the heart. Afterwards he says, “It’s kind of romantic, they get to be together forever”.

I’ve always been conflicted about Tate as a character, because on one hand, he is a mass murderer, and in his mind seems to think he has reason for each crime he committed.

Abandonment Issues

On the other hand, he was “raised” by Constance, who is not winning any mother of the year awards, and was “abandoned” by his father when he was six. Not to mention that Tate obviously cares for certain people, like his siblings and Violet and Nora. It’s impressive that the writers could make someone who on paper is just pure evil seem sympathetic.

Up next we’ll have a recap of Spooky Little Girl where the chaos continues and spirals ever downward into total insanity. Until then, let us know what you think of the episode in the comments below.