In our American Horror Story: Hotel recap, John is invited to a very special dinner party thrown by Mr. March and Alex takes a drastic step to be with her son….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Much like season one of American Horror Story when the dead were able to rejoin the land of the living for a single night around Halloween, the same rules apply for serial killers who decide to come back for a visit to the Hotel Cortez on Devil’s Night.
The Halloween episodes are always an extra special affair for Ryan Murphy’s kill crazy series and the latest edition of American Horror Story: Hotel was no different.
This year welcomed the arrival of some of the most diabolical and evil murderers in American history led by the greatest mass killer of them all — James Patrick March.
Unbeknownst to him at the time but when John Lowe gets an invite to take part in this wicked dinner celebration, he has no idea what he’s in for but it certainly doesn’t take him long to find out.
Elsewhere this week, Alex tries to save her son from the Hotel Cortez, but ends up striking a deal with the devil instead so she can be with him again.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of American Horror Story: Hotel titled ‘Devil’s Night’….
Miss Evers’ Boy
John wakes up this week to a phone call from his daughter Scarlet, but quickly gets distracted when he sees blood dripping down his wall and all over the photos he’s displayed in his hunt for the Ten Commandments killer.
He goes upstairs to find out where the leak is coming from and inside the room is Miss Evers — who is cleaning a blood soaked sheet except every time she washes it clean, the stain just reappears. When she answers the door, Miss Evers opens up to John about the tragedy that struck her life before working at the Hotel Cortez.
Back in 1925, Miss Evers was better known as just Hazel and she had a little boy who wanted to go trick-or-treating one Halloween night. Because she was so busy at the time, Miss Evers didn’t have time to make him a proper costume so instead she just cut two holes in a sheet and dressed him up as a ghost.
As the night out hunting for candy began, Miss Evers turned her back for a moment to talk to another parent, but when she turned again to look for her son, he was gone — kidnapped and locked away in the back of a car.
For weeks she didn’t know what happened to her son and then finally police discovered a serial killer had been kidnapping children and taking them to his farm miles outside of Los Angeles. While a few children were left alive, Miss Evers’ boy along with dozens of others were murdered, buried in lye and put into the ground where they were just bones by the time the cops arrived. All that was left of Miss Evers’ son was a sheet — the same sheet she made him wear for Halloween — the same sheet that was now soaked in blood.
John commiserated over the loss because Miss Evers still feels guilty about turning her attention away for that split second it took for her son to get taken and then eventually killed. John knows that pain because it happened to him as well when he took a phone call instead of watching his son Holden and when he turned back around, the boy was gone.
As much as Miss Evers would like to reminisce about the past, she’s got to get prepared because The Master’s dinner party is starting soon and his guests are very demanding!
Later that day, John decides to look into Miss Ever’s case once he’s back at the police station but he comes up empty. Finally another officer explains that the town where it happened changed its name due to the bad connotation they had while attached to a child murderer. This time when John searches he finds the murder of Albert Evers in the database — from 1925!
He knows this can’t be correct but this only leaves him with more questions and no answers.
The Monsters Arrive
The first person to show up to Mr. March’s special Devil’s Night invite only extravaganza is a man known as Richard Ramirez — aka ‘The Night Stalker’. He was responsible for 14 murders before being captured and put in prison where he died in 2013, but because it’s Devil’s Night, this sociopathic legend is brought back for March’s annual celebration of murder. He even leaves Ramirez a treat in his room — a sleeping couple from out of town that will remind him of the good old days when he used to slash a person’s throat so badly, he’d leave them nearly decapitated.
The next arrival comes in the return of Lilly Rabe to the show as she portrays Aileen Wuornos (who most people probably remember from the film Monster as played by Charlize Theron). Aileen goes to the bar for a drink when she meets John Lowe, who was already there pounding down a double martini. He’s not an alcoholic after all — his wife Alex just says he’s a control freak and that’s why he stopped drinking.
Well he’s off the wagon now and following a long conversation with Aileen over drinks, he decides to invite her back to his room. Never mind the fact that Aileen looks like a sun bleached piece of dried fruit, John wants to get him some and he doesn’t really care much for aesthetics right now.
Liz: “Darling John, you’re too drunk to see how ugly that woman is.”
John: “I’m too drunk to care.”
Before he can even get to his room, Aileen knocks John out cold and ties him to a chair where she plans to execute him. John ultimately smashes the chair to release himself before getting the upper hand on Aileen and hand cuffing her to a pipe in the bathroom.
He runs downstairs to alert the front desk about what just happened, but it’s not like Liz isn’t hearing something that wasn’t already expected. Liz explains that this is just what happens on Devil’s Night and chances are when he goes back upstairs, the person he chained to the plumbing won’t be there anyways.
Liz does have some good news for John, however, when he finds a letter waiting in his mailbox with an invitation to Mr. March’s dinner party. This is a rare treat indeed and now John will get to sit amongst and break bread with the most feared serial killers in American history.
The Mount Rushmore of Murder
Dressed in the tuxedo left in his room, John arrives at the dinner party where he’s greeted by who’s who of sociopaths — John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Zodiac killer, Richard Ramirez, Aileen Wuornos and of course the master himself, James Patrick March.
It seems these prolific murderers all stayed in the Hotel Cortez at one time or another and March mentored them in the ways of killing without getting caught. John is in disbelief that any of this is real and instead thinks this is all some elaborate Halloween prank.
“You’ve lived in my hotel long enough, John. Seen enough evidence to know that what is impossible becomes very possible here.”
~ Mr. March
John still isn’t buying what March is selling, but the man behind the Hotel Cortez chose him specifically because of the traits he possesses and the potential hidden inside. From that single exchange, something tells me that John is actually the Ten Commandments killer and he’s acting out the murders himself as part of a split personality that happened following the loss of his son. Maybe that’s why March chose him so specifically to join this party because he’s well on his way to joining them as a ghost one day.
Richard Ramirez even taunts John to listen to the master because he will lead him down the right path towards murderous salvation.
“He is the master. He taught us all. He’s a genius like Galileo or Peter Frampton.”
~ Richard Ramirez
John begins to drift in and out of consciousness thanks to a large gulp of Absinthe that was shared at the table, but he witnesses another victim brought in for Jeffrey Dahmer’s pleasure while Mr. March gets ready for the final sacrifice of the evening.
Thanks to Sally, who lured in a businessman from out of town before feeding him an 8-ball of cocaine to get him all warm and toasty, he’s served up to the murderous bunch like supper. Knives are handed out to everyone and Mr. March explains that this ritual is a way they will be connected forever just before plunging the blade deep inside the man’s stomach. All of the other killers do the same in a moment of psychotic glee as John screams out in terror.
A moment later, the room goes dark and then Sally appears before him and everybody else has disappeared. Sally says she heard John screaming from the hallway and she came in to check on him. He was handcuffed to a chair while yelling incoherently and when he explains that he just saw a ritualistic murder committed by the greatest murderer’s of all time, she can’t help but wonder what he took to see all this.
When John explains that he took a hit of Absinthe, Sally says it all makes sense and he must have been hallucinating this entire time. She promises to take him back to his room, but unlike the tense moments they shared in the elevator together, Sally promises not to leave him this time.
As they exit, the room flashes back to life as Mr. March and his invited guests finish off the doped up businessman. The flashes between two different realities only strengthen the idea that maybe John Lowe has more than one personality in control of his actions?
It will be interesting to see how that plays out for the remainder of the season!
Eternal Love
Following her encounter with Holden in the hotel last week, Alex has brought her son home again to be with his family. He’s definitely not acting like himself but when the little boy complains that he’s thirsty, Alex is quick to rush off to get him a drink.
While she tries to decide whether to give him apple or orange juice, Holden has instead attacked the dog to drink it’s blood because that’s the only thing he was thirsty for. Alex freaks when she sees what her son is doing and he then asks for her to take him home to his mommy. She tries to explain that she’s his mother, but Holden is in need of his ‘other’ mommy.
Alex returns him to the Hotel Cortez where Holden crawls back into his underground casket to go to sleep. Alex looks on, but a moment later she turns and out of nowhere the Countess appears.
Upstairs, the Countess explains how she saved Holden when he was being neglected by his father that day at the carnival and she’s taken care of him ever since. Now it’s time for his real mother to return to his life, but to do so she must accept the Countess’ gift and pledge loyalty to her forever.
When Alex refuses and attempts to run while screaming that she’ll call the cops, Tristan steps in and slaps her to the floor before holding her on the ground with his boot. The Countess instructs him to let her go and Alex flees as fast as she can.
Tristan: “She says she’s going to go to the cops”
The Countess: “She won’t. She would never risk losing her one true love.”
Tristan: “What? Are you banging her, too?”
The feeling of loss and regret are too much for Alex to take and she finally returns to the hotel ready to surrender to the Countess for the sake of spending eternity with her son.
The Countess explains that this transformation will allow her to live forever while caring for her little boy and giving him the love and attention he’s always deserved. She will also give The Countess another loyal subject, who will be indebted to her from now until the end of time.
She warns the sympathetic mother than this transition won’t be easy. It might be quite painful actually, but the reward is greater than any suffering she might experience.
“You must surrender completely and allow yourself to be ripped apart.”
~ The Countess
Finally, the Countess cuts open her breast and allows Alex to drink from her. She passes out in the Countess’ lap as the queen gathers yet another sheep to her flock.
SOUNDTRACK
“Sweet Jane” by Cowboy Junkies
Don’t miss next week’s episode of American Horror Story: Hotel when the show returns on Wednesday night at 10pm on FX.
