*Major Spoilers*
“So what you’re saying is, maybe it’s not all my fault?”
Last week’s AHS: 1984 was centered around the big twist that hitchhiker Jonas Shevoore may in fact be a revenant, or at the very least a ghost, and that his connection to camp owner Margaret Booth may run much deeper than we first thought. Episode 3, “Slashdance,” did not advance that plotline any, but we did get multiple reveals from several other characters that once again changed the season’s trajectory.
Related Article: AHS: 1984 Recap- ‘Mr. Jingles’ (Ep 2) Pulls Us Closer to ‘Friday the 13th’
After a pre-credits sequence that picks up where last week’s cliffhanger left off featuring Mr. Jingles slaughtering a pair of Mr. Jingles impersonator/prankster, we soon learn that Nurse Rita (Angelica Ross) is not who she claims to be (a recurring trope in the American Horror Story franchise). While attempting to flee the camp after the attacks by Jingles and Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa), “Nurse Rita” reveals her true self when she gives Brooke (Emma Roberts) an injection in her neck, temporarily paralyzing her legs. We discover that “Rita” is in fact a psychology grad student named Donna Chambers and she is studying what makes serial killers do what they do and why they become ruthless murderers. Her latest case study: Mr. Jingles, Benjamin Richter (John Carroll Lynch). In a flashback, we see that she had visited Richter at the asylum where he was being held and, after explaining her motivations of wanting to study and observe him in action so that she might be able to prevent further serial killings, she lays out a plan to spring him from the asylum and get him back to Camp Redwood. In addition to being behind the escape seen in the first episode, we also learn that Chambers ambushed the real Nurse Rita en route to the camp and assumed her identity. Her motivations may be well-intentioned, but her methods of achieving those goals are dark, dangerous, and twisted.
Elsewhere in Camp Redwood, while trapped in a pit with Chet (Gus Kenworthy), who has been immobilized after being impaled by a wooden spike through the shoulder, Ray (DeRon Horton) confesses that a year earlier he tried to cover up an accidental death by disposing of the body. Problem was that the person, a frat pledge, was not dead and Ray may now, or will soon be, wanted for murder. When he doesn’t get the kind of absolution that he was looking for, Ray abandons Chet in the pit and leaves him behind to die. Later in the episode, Ray abandons Montana (Billie Lourd) after being confronted by the Night Stalker, only to fall victim to Mr. Jingles in a death that harkens back to a memorable kill from Friday the 13th Part V.
Related Article: AHS: 1984 Recap- ‘Mr. Jingles’ (Ep 2) Pulls Us Closer to ‘Friday the 13th’
The episode concludes with Montana being cornered by the Night Stalker. Just when it looks like Ramirez is about to claim his latest victim, Montana and Ramirez instead embrace and begin kissing. Montana then asks Ramirez “Why haven’t you killed her yet?” We don’t know who “she” is, but we do now know that Montana and the Night Stalker are in cahoots. And so, the plot thickens!
Overall, this was the weakest episode of the season so far. There were some great kills (poor Nurse Rita, who got a mouthful) and more plot twists, but the action veered too far from the main plotline for most of the episode. Nevertheless, I’m interested to see how the rest of the season plays out, as we now have multiple storylines in motion now with no obvious conclusion in sight.
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