AHS 1984 - Episode Two - MR JINGLES
Ah, and now we get the screw with our heads plot twist that AHS is known for. But we’ll get to that in a bit. This one is going to be a bit out of order, but that makes it more interesting for you when you watch the show.
We see Brooke (Emma Roberts) and how she escaped from Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa) when he showed up at the camp to attack her. This also confirms that it is him at the camp, and not just a hallucination.
And speaking of Zach Villa as Richard Ramirez, he continues to impress me, in his Ramirez meets Kylo Ren performance, and he gets more screen time this episode as we delve into his backstory a little. Now, I’m not too well versed in the actual serial killer’s history so I can’t vouch for how accurate it is but it’s compelling to watch.
We see him growing up and his older brother returning from Vietnam with war stories about how freeing it is to kill, something that young Richard takes to heart.
This whole origin sequence is framed by his encountering the camp owner Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) who isn’t afraid of him at all, having survived the terror of Mr. Jingles’ previous camp slaughter back in 1970, she positions Richard to kill Mr. Jingles (whom as we saw last week, escaped Michael Myers style from his confinement at the mental hospital and is now at the camp ready to kill again). Send a maniac to catch a maniac, to quote Demolition Man. I can dig it.
Elsewhere in the camp and the plot twist I mentioned before, the mysterious drifter the counselors picked up last week, whom I thought was killed, comes back during Ramirez’ assault on Brooke, only to get killed by him...twice.
At first I thought this was to set up a Matrix like plot twist that this was all some weird simulation, but it turns out as of this episode at least that he’s a ghost somehow, that can keep dying and coming back with no memory of anything past his initial death in 1970.
Elsewhere in the camp, and earlier, we see Brooke’s backstory as well, she was all set to be married, and at the alter her fiance accuses her of cheating on him with his best friend before shooting said friend, her father, and some others before ending his own life all to the tune of Billy Idol’s White Wedding. Thought it was hilariously twisted in a Tarantino kind of way.
Soon after, Margaret breaks up the counselor’s party and sends the male counselors off to the showers. Rich kid, Xavier (Cody Fern), leaves to go get a towel after finding out that towels and little soaps aren’t provided as he’s used to in the spas he goes to, and runs into an old acquaintance, Blake (Todd Stashwick) who is blackmailing him for starring in a gay porn video. He wants him to do another one or he will make this information public.
Xavier counter offers giving him someone else to work for him instead, and leads him over to the showers where he looks through a peephole and spies Trevor (Matthew Morrison - Glee) showering. He finds exactly what he’s looking for in his next star. Fortunately for Xavier, who’s run off by this point, and for Trevor, but unfortunately for Blake, Mr. Jingles (John Carroll Lynch-AHS Freakshow) has made it to camp and stabs him through the back of the skull, going right through his eye.
Also during this time Margaret cuts the power to the camp, and when the guys get out to investigate they see the dead body of Blake, which freaks everyone out as it should. The girls soon show up, along with nurse Rita (Angelica Ross - Pose) who had survived an encounter with Mr. Jingles earlier in the episode, make plans to escape. This being a horror story, the first thought is to split up to get the keys needed to leave, this is shot down quickly as they’re in a modern horror story, but they compromise to split into two groups. Neither group can find their keys as easily as they thought though and are soon threatened with someone who is pounding on the doors of the individual cabins they are in.
This was a crazy episode, some twists thrown our way already, one of the things I love about this show is it always keeps fans on their toes. To paraphrase the slogan for MTV’s Diary, you think you know what’s going on, but you have no idea. Can’t wait to see where this goes next week.
Will our camp counselors make it out alive? Who is the source of the knocking on the cabin doors? Is Richard Ramirez the Freddy to Mr Jingles’ Jason? Find out next time! Same Horror time same Horror channel!.
