North Texas Daily

American Horror Story: Cult returned this week with its second episode, titled “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.”

However, we clearly should be.

The episode picked up right where it last left off — Sarah Paulson’s Ally waking in the night to find a clown laying next to her in bed. Ally screams and runs downstairs to the kitchen to find her wife Ivy. Ally tells her there is a clown in the bed, and Ivy grabs a weapon to head back to the bedroom.

As you might have guessed, the women find a clown-less bedroom and house upon their return, only adding to Ivy’s doubts of her wife’s sanity.  

Following the clown-in-the-bed encounter, Ally takes new measures to protect their home, including bars in front of doors and new window locks.

While Paulson continues to give her all this season as constantly frightened Ally, her character has quickly become annoying. While I have sympathy for her mental instability and insecurity, her constant screaming and running around has become reminiscent of her character in last season’s Roanoke (cue Shelby Miller screaming, “MAAAT!”).

Another scene that sends Ally into panic mode is when she finds one of the chefs at her and Ivy’s restaurant, The Butchery on Main, hanging from a meat hook in the back. Earlier in the episode, this same chef was seen yelling at a Hispanic cook named Pedro, telling him that he could only speak English in the kitchen, among other insults. Upon Ally finding the chef, he is still alive — though barely — and when she attempts to help him, she accidentally finishes the job.

The first suspect raised in the chef’s death is Pedro.

The entire episode seemed to be a bloated sequence of Paulson losing her mind, and my hope is that screaming and running away from clowns and holes are not the only things she does this season.

This week also introduced Ally and Ivy’s new neighbors Harrison and Meadow Wilton (played by Billy Eichner of Billy on the Street and What I Like About You alum Leslie Grossman). The old neighbors were murdered by clowns in the final act of the premiere, and the house still contains blood stains, by which Harrison and Meadow seem unfazed.

Harrison is a beekeeper (yes, Ally was upset by the holes in the hives), as well as the president of a Nicole Kidman fan club. Also, he’s openly gay, with his marriage to Meadow being the result of the classic “if we’re both not married by 35, we’ll marry each other” pact.

Meadow is a gossip-next-door kind of character, but she is also very open about herself, revealing a lot of personal information quickly.

Harrison and Meadow seem like decent enough people, but not yet trustworthy, and I don’t expect them to become more trustworthy. Their willingness to be kind neighbors to Ally and Ivy (going as far as giving Ally a gun to make her feel safer, much to the disapproval of her psychiatrist) is fishy.

This week, Paulson and Peters share just one scene, and while it is not nearly long enough, it is fire. I am hoping that Ally and Kai will begin to interact more as we get further into the season. If these two are going to carry the season on their shoulders, they might as well carry it together onscreen.

Later, at the house with Ozzy and his nanny Winter, Ally decides she needs to try to relax and take a bath. What follows is a strange scene in which Winter prepares Ally’s bath for her, even stirring the water without rolling up her sleeve (who does that?), and then later washes her back with a sponge. The intimate moment, in which Ally does somewhat relax, almost leads to her kissing Winter while Ivy is at the restaurant with Pedro cutting meat.

The scene is cut short by the power suddenly going out, but I feel like it will be revisited.

Once the power goes out, Ally is immediately back in panic mode, telling Winter to check on Ozzy while she ensures every door and window are locked and have a piece of furniture blocking them. However, this in ineffective as the clowns are already in the home.

In the panic that follows, there are also some comedic moments. One being when Ozzy wakes up to see a clown walking through his room, and then asking the clown whether or not it is a dream. When the clown says yes, gullible little Ozzy rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Another comedic moment in the madness arises when Harrison approaches Ally’s window and immediately exclaims, “Lesbians, we’re under attack!” and proceeds to tell Ally that eight states have gone dark, and it is an act of terrorism. However, I doubt this is true and am curious where Harrison got this information from.

Back at The Butchery, Ivy sends Pedro to the house to give Ally some candles and other necessities.

When Ally later finds that the wires in her house have been intentionally cut, she decides to leave the house with Ozzy.

As Ally and Ozzy are getting ready to leave, gun in hand, Ally opens the door to find Pedro approaching the house to give her the candles. However, before even blinking an eye, ever-paranoid Ally immediately shoots him.

Of course anyone could have guessed that something terrible would happen to Pedro from the moment Ivy sent him to the house. However, I would have expected a clown to take him out before Ally.

It will be very interesting to see what happens next, since Ally is not a licensed gun owner, and this is the second incident where she has been involved in the death of an employee. I am also curious as to how much truth Harrison’s conspiracy theory holds.

Overall, the episode developed some story, while adding more characters for us viewers to become mildly attached to before being killed off. R.I.P. Pedro.

Photo courtesy of FX Networks.