AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON 1, EP. 7: FANTASY LOVERS

We're back at it! Simon Abrams brings his "A" game to our continuing discussion of American Horror Story's season one doozy, "Rubber Man." Read it and be amazed it don't cost nothin'!

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Halloa!

I'm glad the second time was the charm for you and "Rubber Man," Dennis, so much so that it inspired a more-rambly-than-usual post from you. I often feel intimidated given how consistently well put-together your responses to this show are. That structure, man...the horror! SO it's nice to see you go long and get a lil messier than usual. Made me feel less like a yutz, I guess. If it's okay with you, I kind of want to jump around a bit in my response to your response. Lots to chew on here and I'm not really interested in chewing on everything....

Anyway, like you, I like "Rubber Man" a good deal. I'm finally starting to see the show's writers getting their shit together and making an effort to prove that there is some structure to season one's events, even if it's the kind of structure that tries to reposition what was previously just loose-for-it's-own-sake serialized storytelling and give it a fresh coat of thematic paint. But wet paint, I mean what paint, huh?!

My thinking is that "Rubber Man" is the first down in a last-ditch attempt to make everything we've heretofore seen in American Horror Story look cohesive and semi-tidy. That tactic only works if you're willing to ignore all of the in-the-moment sloppiness that has bogged down much of the last seven episodes. But I also like that, as you noted, Chad and Patrick's story was not played for yuks. I wasn't as touched as you were by the final scene where Chad and Patrick's fingers almost touch each other ala David and God. That I thought was a bit much. Still, I did appreciate that, while the dialogue during the sex shop talk was florid, it was also believably significant.

As cheesy as this notion sounds when tossed off during casual conversation, the sex toy shop-owner is not wrong when he says that, "Every relationship is a power play, with or without the props." The "with or without props" line at the end is typically smug dialogue from show-runner/episode writer Ryan Murphy, but even it can't dilute such a potent sentiment: every relationship is about dominance and submission. I'm not exactly Dr. Ruth, but I do think people typically want their romantic/sexual partners to conform to their fantasies. We project these wild fantasies about what our loves ones can be onto them and that can lead to some tricky shit. Pornography, for example, enables the desire to either be dominated or to dominate others, but that original impulse already existed before anyone thought to fetishize it. So having Patrick spurn Chad is pretty essential. There shouldn't be an easy reconciliation between these two characters. More importantly, there shouldn't be a wish fulfillment subplot where all of the nastiness that has thus far defined Chad and Patrick's relationship can even momentarily be resolved by a gimp suit. Either option is contrived and dissatisfying.

 

Which isn't to say that using the Rubber Man outfit to thematically pull the events of this week's episode's together isn't contrived. But here, I feel like we're finally getting at some truth behind the bullshit catty behavior that necessitated Chad's tantrums in "Halloween, Part 1" and "Halloween, Part 2." Patrick's casual narcissism, as is shown when he triumphantly stands naked before his practically de-balled partner, is completely over-the-top outside of the context of this already manic-ly cracked relationship. But within the context of the show, it makes sense. I can't say that this scene emotionally resonated with me, but I did appreciate the thought that was put into it. That's what I really want from this show, I guess, signs of a guiding intelligence that can organically establish, rather than just declare without qualifications, what it's trying to do.

And when I say "organically establish," I don't mean "justify the horrendously spastic characterizations and proudly campy dialogue of the last couple of episodes." Instead, I want Murphy to make smoother thematic connections between his show's seemingly disparate subplots--and in a single episode, too! It's one thing to see Chad try to remake himself for his lover. But it's another thing entirely to see how Chad's abject failure syncs up with Moira's talk with Vivien. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Moira's monologue about hysteria came off as the character-driven moment it should have been. But I did appreciate the way that speech effectively connects Chad and Patrick's problems with Ben and Vivien's. Ben finally expresses concern for Vivien's mental and emotional stability, a talk that probably should have happened a while ago. Basically, he accuses Vivien of losing her mind. Strange visions of a Rubber Man? Intruders that only she can see, including Hayden? Sounds a little nutty, no?

More to the point, you'd think that a guy like Ben, someone whose profession requires an analytical mind and an ability to rationally anticipate behavior, might conclude that something's wrong with his estranged wife. Granted, Violet blows up at her dad (was it this week or last week? I want to say this week) and tells her how disgusted she is that he's throwing himself at Moira, a shriveled-up old biddy. You'd think that would set off some alarms for Ben, but, uh, no, guess not! So yes, we're still holding our breaths waiting for more of an explanation as to why all men see a sexpot when they look at Moira, and all women see a harmless old crone (Is that a ghost rule? Why don't the men ghosts make similar changes? Or better still, how come Hayden always looks the same? Is her horniness a product of these weird misogynistic ghost-rules? Wuh?). But at the same time, I appreciate when Moira tells Vivien, "Men find excuses to lock women away," and then Vivien loses her shit because she can't prove that she's NOT just seeing things. Lines like that suggest that there's finally some relatively sinewy connective tissue holding the show's narrative together.

That having been said, there's some things that are going to need a lot more 'splaining in the next four episodes. Like the aforementioned ghost-rules. Presumably, there's more than meets the eye to the scene where Tate finally has sex with Violet (isn't it kinda screwy that that's an inevitability in this show, that we're anticipating the loss of Violet's virginity?). And I'm pretty sure I can guess what that something is. But while I appreciate that there is now a semblance of guiding logic to Tate's actions, I don't like how everything now needs to connect with everything else. Tate's character arc this week is downright all-over-the-map. So he's been haunt-fucking Vivien out of some warped sense of duty but won't have sex with Hayden because he's...loyal to Violet. Okay, makes sense in a sociopathic white-knight-gone-wrong kinda way. But what in the fuck, why do we need Tate to be the guy in the Rubber Man suit that kills Chad and Patrick in a flashback? Call me crazy, but while I get and kinda appreciate this repositioning of Tate as the Man of the Murder House, I don't like that so many characters overlap with each others' stories for what right now seems like very flimsy reasons.

Case in point: Hayden's fucking another ghost and then killing him--except he can't die because he's a ghost, too. The ghost in question is Hugo, Constance's ex-husband and a fourth-string character that I don't think we've seen or heard tell of since...was it "Murder House?" I want to say "Murder House," man. But still: why did that need to happen beyond shock tactics? I finally believe in this show in the sense that I finally feel like answers are forthcoming. But at the same time, jeebus, some of this stuff is over-ripe even by soap opera standards.

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Catch up on the American Horror Story conversation between Simon and me by clicking on the following links:

"RUBBER MAN" POST #1

"OPEN HOUSE" POST #2
"OPEN HOUSE" POST #1

"PIGGY, PIGGY" POST #4 
"PIGGY, PIGGY" POST #3
"PIGGY, PIGGY" POST #2
"PIGGY, PIGGY" POST #1

"HALLOWEEN, PT. 2" POST #1
"HALLOWEEN, PT. 2" POST #2
"HALLOWEEN, PT. 2" POST #3
"HALLOWEEN, PT. 2 POST #4

"HALLOWEEN, PT. 1" POST #1
"HALLOWEEN, PT. 1" POST #2
"HALLOWEEN, PT. 1" POST #3
"HALLOWEEN, PT. 1" POST #4

"MURDER HOUSE" POST #1
"MURDER HOUSE" POST #2

"HOME INVASION" POST #1
"HOME INVASION" POST #2
"HOME INVASION" POST #3
"HOME INVASION" POST #4

PILOT EPISODE POST #1
PILOT EPISODE POST #2
PILOT EPISODE POST #3
PILOT EPISODE POST #4
PILOT EPISODE POST #5
PILOT EPISODE POST #6

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