If you haven’t seen the season finale of AHS Roanoke, you probably shouldn’t read this.
American Horror Story just rounded its sixth horror story installment titled “American Horror Story: Roanoke” and some parts were great and some were not. But before we talk about what wasn’t so right with Roanoke, let’s talk about what was.

Firstly, it was somewhat creative of the show to tell a story through so many eyes – those who experienced it, those who played the part, the producers of the show and the fans. Also, the actors did a really great job of portraying whatever crazed role was thrown at them – Sarah Paulson played not one but three parts marvelously well and Kathy Bates who played The Butcher and Agnes did an amazing work. Plus there’s also the fact that the show succeeded in linking almost all the previous shows to Roanoke – something superfans seem really excited about.

Now for the parts that made little sense;

 THEY WENT BACK!!

It’s hard to understand why anyone in their right mind would experience such horrors as Matt, Shelby and Ryan did and still go back for seconds. It kind of made sense why Matt went back – he was head over heels in love with the Scathach (played by Lady Gaga) and had to see her again. But why didn’t he just go back on his own time? Why wait to be invited by Sidney to find the love of your life.

Then there’s Shelby who claims to be back at the house so she can win back her husband’s love but the minute she finds out he’s in love with someone else, she goes ballistic and paints the floor with his brain matter then kills herself. Then there’s Lee. Lee is so complicated she deserves a subtitle of her own.



Lee

At first, Lee’s story seemed relatable – an alcoholic who’s trying to get her life back on track for the sake of her daughter. Her story starts to get complicated from Chapter Two -  after experiencing a third of the house horrors, she still brings her child (Flora) to the house. Its no surprise her little girl decided to befriend a ghost.

In Chapter 3, Shelby suspects Lee for murdering her husband Mason but Lee claims she didn’t do it and she came back to the haunted house/land to film “Return to Roanoke; Three Days in Hell” so she could prove her innocence.

Except in Chapter 8, we find out that she did kill Mason when she confessed on tape at the Polk Farm. “I killed daddy” she says. Why then did she come back to film Three Days in Hell? Her confession was apparently supposed to give her daughter clarity and help her move on. I don’t know about you but I’d rather suspect my parent is a murderer than know for sure.

After losing one of her ears and a chunk of her skin to the Polks, Lee is able to escape the Polk farm bur instead of getting the hell out of dodge, she wants to go back to retrieve the tape of her confessing to murder. She eventually doesn’t get the tape but instead eats the heart of a pig offered to her by Scathach and somehow became The Butcher. She played the butcher so well that the real butcher had to stand back and let her handle the murder of two innocent kids. The woman who claimed to have come back to clear her name of murder ended up murdering a handful of people.

By the season finale, Roanoke is trying to convince us that Lee did it all for her daughter Flora but in court; she is willing to let her daughter’s sanity be questioned so she can save her own hide. At the last scene, Lee ends up living up to that selfless mother persona which the show had been trying to force down our throats when she sacrifices herself so Flora can live her life.

FX

Trying too hard to explain everything


The beauty of horror television is that you’re never going to get answers to all your questions. Horror characters like Jason and Freddy Krueger never seem to die no matter how many times you try to bash their skulls in or burn them alive and that’s okay. But on Roanoke, the writers try so hard to explain everything that somewhere along the line, it starts being more of a documentary than a horror show.

Right till the very end, the show couldn’t still explain why Lee went back but would occasionally throw the questions back at us.

To summarize -  asides the award worthy performance of the cast, the show didn’t really do much to impress. It was basically “Haunted House” with a twist.


If there’s anything you loved or disliked on Roanoke, share in the comment section.