'AHS: 1984': Ryan Murphy'd Again

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 10, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | October 10, 2019 |

Often after I watch an episode of TV I plan to write about, I check Google Trends to see what people are searching for in regard to that particular show, and often I will see this search term pop up less than halfway through a season of a Ryan Murphy series: “How many episodes are left?” The reason it is a heavily searched phrase this week is because it is the fourth episode of the season, and viewers are already wondering, “How much longer can this possibly go on?” At this point, there’s a trail of dead bodies, the real Mr. Jingle has been revealed, and Ryan Murphy has already resurrected his first dead character.

Welcome to AHS: 1984! (For the record, there are ten episodes, so there are still six left. Somehow.)

OK, let’s back up briefly: AHS: 1984 is a slasher series about five friends who decide to work at Camp Redwood for the summer in order to escape Los Angeles and the real-life serial killer, Richard Ramirez (aka the Night Stalker). Richard Ramirez, however, follows them out to Camp Redwood, because he has an unknown bone to pick with Brooke, whom he tried to kill in Los Angeles before Brooke took up residence in Redwood.

This week, we learn why Ramirez is targetting Brooke: It’s because Ramirez and Montana are lovers. Before summer began, Ramirez walked into Montana’s aerobics class and one of the class members was giving Montana a hard time about her choice of music, Billy Idol (“Billy Idol is the truth, man,” Ramirez says). The member wanted to jam out to Cyndi Lauper, so after the class, Ramirez killed and gutted that class member. “This is the most fucked up thing anyone has ever done for me,” Montana tells him before Ramirez licks the blood off her feet and they aerobicize their stankies.

“Would you kill for me?” Montana asks after she does the thigh master on Ramirez in the locker room “Do you have to ask,” he says, pointing to the dead body hanging above them with its intestines spilled out. Montana tells him to kill Brooke. It turns out that the best man that Brooke’s fiancé killed during their wedding was Montana’s brother. Dum dum dummmmmm “I know Brooke fucked my brother and lied and now he’s dead. Why does she get to live?” Why does anyone, Montana?

In the present, back at Camp Redwood, Rita — the behavioral psychologist who killed the real nurse so that she could observe Mr. Jingle kill everyone — booby traps Brooke in a net. At some point, both Mr. Jingle and Ramirez converge around the net to kill Brooke, but end up in a fight against each other (during which Brooke escapes). Mr. Jingle gets the better of Ramirez and gores him through the back of the head with a tree branch. RIP, Night Stalker.

After, Mr. Jingle pays a visit to Margaret Booth, who reveals to Mr. Jingle — whose real name is Benji — that she killed all those kids back in 1970 and framed Mr. Jingle for the murders. Margaret had been bullied by some mean girls at camp, so she exacted her revenge by murdering everyone. She cut off her own ear to make it look like Benji had committed the murders. He was subsequently institutionalized, forced into electroshock therapy and brainwashed into believing that he actually did commit them. “Fuck you, Margaret,” Benji tells her. “I am the monster you made me,” he says, before lunging at Margaret with his knife. She shoots him three times, killing him (RIP, Mr. Jingle).

A minute later, Trevor walks in. “You killed him!” he says, relieved. Margaret turns and kills Trevor, because why not? “That feels so good. I haven’t done that in 14 years,” Margaret says. (RIP, Trevor). After, Margaret turns around and finds that Benji is no longer dead and has walked away (un-RIP, Mr. Jingle). Mr. Jingle runs out, finds Xavier — whom he had tried to kill earlier in the episode by putting him in an oven — and tells him, “It wasn’t me,” before disappearing. Elsewhere, Margaret torches the porn producer’s car — their one escape — and blames it on Benji. “We have to kill him,” she says.

Finally, Rita — who had been knocked unconscious earlier in the episode during a fight with Montana — wakes up in time to see Ramirez resurrected by Satan (un-RIP, Richard Ramirez).

If you are wondering how there can be six more episodes left, despite all the dead people, that should answer your question: The resurrection powers of Satan are now in play, which means that anyone who is dead — or subsequently killed — is eligible for resurrection. Doh! Ryan Murphy’d again.