If someone were to point out two minor flaws with the first half of this season of American Horror Story: Roanoke, it’s that, for one thing, the whole reality series conceit grew tedious at times, and two, the plot devoted entirely too much time searching for Flora in the woods — drawing unfavorable comparisons to season two of The Walking Dead. The twist midway through the season made it all worth it, but the finale unfortunately fell into the same traps and was ultimately too clever for its own good, making it a disappointing ending to what would have otherwise been a very solid season.
The episode didn’t even feel like an episode, so much as a bunch of disjointed scenes slapped together. The episode opened to a flashback of the “show within a show” cast at a Paleyfest panel following the initial success of “My Roanoke Nightmare,” a scene I don’t really understand the point of other than to maybe fake viewers out that the entire second part had been staged. (I don’t know about the rest of you, but I immediately began screaming at my TV.) Instead of wasting several minutes of the episode winking back at the now-deceased characters in a pointless flashback, it would have maybe been interesting to — oh, I dunno — visit them in the afterlife, as the cast are all now presumably trapped on the Roanoke property as ghosts?
From there the episode cuts to a Snapped-style documentary called “Crack’d,” which told the life story of Lee Harris, now a reviled public figure. Following the series of events in “Roanoke: Three Days in Hell,” Lee was tried for the murders of Monet and Jether Polk, and then again for the murder of her ex-husband Mason — all of which she was acquitted of, despite the fact that her daughter Flora turned out to be a witness to the latter. (It was also revealed that she smashed Mason’s head in with a rock, just in case you didn’t think we’d get any sweet head-smashing action in for the finale.)
Following Lee’s acquittal, the episode turned to the much-hyped appearance of Sarah Paulson reprising her role of Lana Winters, who decided to come out of retirement to interview Lee. The meeting of the two characters was notable in that they were both the survivors of their respective seasons, but the interview quickly goes south when Lana ambushes Lee with the news that Flora has once again gone missing, accusing the mother of once again kidnapping her daughter. But then! The remaining Polk sibling (who had been seen recording an ominous YouTube video just before the credits) busts in with an assault rifle, shooting up the place, but is taken down by an unknown gunman before he has the chance to kill Lee.
Holy cow! That all just happened on live TV! I wonder what the aftermath is- oh, never mind, we’re already onto our next show within a show, “Spirit Chasers,” a play on Spirit Hunters in which a team of ghost hunters investigate the Roanoke house during the blood moon. Hmm. Where have we seen this before? Why won’t people on this dang season learn to stop going to the house that kills everybody? Sigh. At any rate, the trio of ghost hunters (accompanied by the actor who played Cricket on “My Roanoke Nightmare”) show up at the house during the blood moon where they discover Lee, who has apparently been searching for Flora in the two weeks that have elapsed since the Lana Winters interview and thinks she may have returned to the house to find her ghost friend Priscilla.
Predictably, the ghost chasers (as well as Cricket and a few cops who show up) all meet their demise, however Lee does indeed find Flora there, who — in the most eye-rolling twist ever — wants to join Priscilla in the afterlife. Lee offers to trade herself for Flora so Priscilla can have a “mommy” and then lets Priscilla shoot her and the house blows up. Flora is driven away in a cop car while Priscilla and now ghost mom Lee look on. In a final shot, the camera pans up to the villagers who seem to be about to march down on the sprawl of authorities who have arrived on the scene.
Like, I get what they were going for, by telling the entire story through lenses (although it’s unclear who, if anyone, was filming those final scenes), but it would have been nice to tie up some loose ends. For instance, did eating the pig’s heart have any lasting effect on Lee (since last time we saw her she was going on a possessed killing spree); what is the Scathach anyway, and how does she tie to Coven other than Ryan Murphy just saying she does in an interview; and what happened to all the characters we saw die on the Roanoke property? Also, what ever happened to Matt Bomer, who was expected to turn up in the finale after confirming involvement in this season earlier this year?
The ending felt very much like the finale of Murder House, in which you expected a lot to be wrapped up in an hour, but instead got a lot of time filling nonsense with a pseudo happy conclusion. Only this time instead of the dead Harmon family decorating a Christmas tree, we saw Lee finally getting a daughter who would never leave her. (Because she’s already dead!) But this is Ryan Murphy after all, so if you’re expecting a logical ending that ends neatly in a tied bow, you may as well be Charlie Brown getting ready to kick the football from Lucy.
