In the ‘American Horror Story: 1984’ recap, Nurse Rita reveals a massive secret, a pair of serial killers give chase and one of the camp counselors isn’t who they seem…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Three episodes into ‘American Horror Story: 1984’ and the show keeps finding new ways to up the body count without eliminating too many of the major cast members.
This week saw a pair of serial killers chase the counselors around the camp grounds but neither were not attacking with blind, unyielding hatred in their eyes. Instead it seems both Mr. Jingles and the Nightstalker have been directed at this campground after a pair of backstories begin to reveal how this murderous rampage got started.
Ever since this season began it felt like there was a big twist coming and the third episode revealed two of them that alters the direction for the series going forward.
That said, this long night spent running from death incarnate can’t go on forever and with seven episodes remaining, it’s hard to believe ‘American Horror Story: 1984’ doesn’t still have a few more tricks up its sleeves before getting to the finale.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘American Horror Story: 1984’ titled ‘Slashdance’…
Running Scared
Following up from the events last week, the counselors got split into two groups — one running to find Trevor’s motorcycle keys with the other racing to track down Nurse Rita’s car keys so everybody could make their escape. Unfortunately before they could get away, both of the groups are hunted down by the two serial killers stalking the campground.
The group with Nurse Rita finds out that it’s the Nightstalker trying to get to them, which puts Brooke in a panic because she knows he has come to kill her. While they are able to block his entrance at first, the group knows it’s only a matter of time before he gets through. Ray suggests the group split into two while making a run for it — at the very least the killer can only follow one of them and the rest will survive.
When Brooke shoots down that idea, Ray decides to abandon everybody and leave them all in the dust — and then he runs directly into the Nightstalker.
As Ray fends for his life, the rest of the group leaves him behind just like he was going to do to them but Chet has an attack of conscience and he goes back to save his friend. Chet’s able to knock over the Nightstalker and pull Ray away.
Meanwhile, Brooke and Nurse Rita run for the car where they will rendezvous with everyone else.
As Chet and Ray run away from the infirmary, they fall directly into a trap pit that has been set up with spikes all over the ground. Chet gets impaled through his shoulder and Ray isn’t able to break him free. When Chet passes out from the pain and blood loss, Ray figures he’s dead and decides to unburden himself with a story from the past.
It seems a year ago, Ray was a prominent fraternity member in the middle of hell week where the pledges are put through the ringer before they can join the club. One of the pledges gets a little too drunk and a little too sick but Ray wants to give him a hand so he allows him to take a breather in the hallway. Sadly, the pledge loses his balance, falls down a flight of stairs and apparently breaks his neck.
Ray decides he has to cover up this accident so he puts the pledge into his car and prepares to push him over a ravine. Just as he gets the car moving, the pledge wakes up! The not dead pledge is very much alive but Ray can’t pull him out of the car in time and he goes over the cliff, falling to his real death below.
Ray left school as he was effectively exiled from his friends and fraternity and now he’s at a campground about to get murdered. Chet ends up waking up, which once again spooks Ray and he decides no one should live to tell this story so he abandons this friend while he runs to freedom after climbing out of the hole.
Mindhunter
After escaping the infirmary, Nurse Rita and Brooke make it back to the car where the await the rest of the camp counselors to arrive. Brooke believes it makes more sense to drive away now and go get help so the police can get there to save everybody.
Rita agrees and hands Brooke her car keys but just as she turns her back, the nurse attacks, injecting her with a horse tranquilizer and knocking here down to the ground. Brooke can’t figure out why Nurse Rita would attack her and that’s when we get more backstory.
Flashback to one week ago — Nurse Rita’s real name is Donna Chambers and she’s working on her psychology doctorate by studying serial killers. She managed to get Ted Bundy to reveal two unsolved murders to her and she’s spoken to several more as she seeks to find answers about what makes them tick.
Dr. Hopple agrees to let Ms. Chambers speak to Benjamin Rictor aka Mr. Jingles despite him barely saying a word for the past 14 years.
Once she sits down with him, Donna tells Mr. Jingles that he wasn’t born evil but rather she believes a group of outside factors including pornography and his journey through Vietnam as a soldier made him into a cold-blooded killer. She’s convinced that there is a method to stop the madness with all serial killers and Mr. Jingles is her latest subject.
Mr. Jingles finally speaks before telling her that he doesn’t even remember killing those kids 14 years earlier but the doctors at the asylum explained to him that he had a psychotic break, which explains the memory loss. Then again it seems entirely possible that Mr. Jingles may not have been the only person responsible for those murders back in 1970.
Either way, for Donna to complete her study and hopefully find a way to ‘cure’ Benjamin, she needs to observe him in his natural habitat. That means orchestrating an escape plan so he can return to Camp Redwood to wreak havoc and she can observe his every move.
She’s the one who set loose Mr. Jingles to go after the camp counselors for a second time.
As for her own entry into Camp Redwood, Donna ends up kidnapping the real Nurse Rita and stashing her away for safe keeping until she can complete her study to find out what makes Benjamin Richter tick.
Now back in the present moment, Donna aka Nurse Rita drags Brooke away from the car as she seeks out Mr. Jingles as he continues his work wiping out the camp counselors.
Why the Hell Haven’t You Killed Her Yet?
The second group of camp counselors — Trevor, Xavier and Montana — believe they are being hounded by the real Mr. Jingles only to find out via a flaming bag of poop that the guys banging down the door are actually playing a prank. It seems around these parts on the anniversary of Mr. Jingles’ bloodbath, people will don masks and go out seeking to scare the crap out of somebody.
This year, these two dorks dressed as Mr. Jingles decided to terrorize the counselors who returned to Camp Redwood.
Just when Trevor, Xavier and Montana find out what’s really happening, the real Mr. Jingle’s shows up and butchers the imposters. That gives the counselors just enough time to escape as the run to the nearby dock and hide to hopefully keep Mr. Jingles from finding them.
That’s where they end up finding the real Nurse Rita, who has been bound and gagged for days ever since the fake one showed up at camp. Trevor, Xavier and Montana barely have time to free her before Rita attempts to run away in terror — only for Mr. Jingles to show up and brutally kill her by shoving an oar down her throat.
That murder satisfies Mr. Jingles and he turns and walks away.
The counselors escape again but this time Trevor has a crisis of conscience much like Chet because he can’t leave without going back to save Margaret and Birdy, the chef.
On the way, the group runs into Ray, who explains that he got separated from Chet and he’s been fleeing the Nightstalker. Trevor and Xavier tell Ray and Montana to get back to the parking lot, take his motorcycle and find help.
They go off to save the rest of the people in camp but along the way, Trevor and Xavier happen upon the pit filled with spikes where they find Chet very much alive. They are able to pull him free from the spike and lift him out of the pit just before Mr. Jingles arrives. Trevor is able to get the drop on him and send him falling into the spike pit — only to discover it was another Mr. Jingles imposter, who is now also dead.
As for Ray and Montana, they make it back to the parking lot only to find the Nightstalker has found them.
Ray once again turns coward, grabs the keys and rides off on the motorcycle, effectively leaving Montana to die. He doesn’t get very far, however, as Ray is soon decapitated rather savagely when Mr. Jingles pops out of the woods with an axe that takes his head clean off.
As for Montana, she gets cornered by the Nightstalker but just when it looks like he’s going to kill her, she kisses him instead.
It turns out this isn’t some kind of distraction to save her life — Montana knows the Nightstalker because that is apparently her boyfriend! To make matters even more disturbing, she then berates the serial killer while asking him candidly why hasn’t he killed ‘her’ yet?
The ‘her’ would appear to be Brooke and it seems that Montana and her psycho-boyfriend the Nightstalker were on a mission to kill her. Why? We don’t know just yet but something tells me this will link back to Brooke’s failed marriage that was recounted last week that ended with her friend, her father and her fiancé all dead. Perhaps Montana is related to Brooke’s dearly departed ex but she certainly appears to have an axe to grind with the virgin who got away.
‘American Horror Story: 1984’ will return next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
