Shudder’s Slasher
Flesh & Blood, Ep. 6: “Face Time”
Directed by Adam MacDonald
Written by Ian Carpenter

* For a recap & review of Ep. 5, click here.
* For a recap & review of Ep. 7, click here.
Florence is left out in the makeshift art stockade while everyone goes inside, some of them arguing and some of them agreeing with Vincent and Theo, who both don’t give a shit about what happens to their mother from here. Even Liv doesn’t want to do this to Florence. But Aphra has other ideas entirely. She goes to see Aunt Flo with a pair of scissors, as well as a pair of pliers to grab Flo’s tongue and start cutting. Then the girl eats the piece of tongue she cut off. Good lord.
Inside, Christy’s worried about Aphra. Nobody else wants to go looking for the girl at night. Another argument soon starts between Liv and Vincent, before Grace tells them to settle down and she tells Christy nobody’s going anywhere. They have to stay together, or they’ll probably get murdered.

Flashback to Aphra being brought to the Galloway mansion for the first time, dropped off by someone from the adoption agency, Amber (familiar Slasher face Joanne Vannicola). Seamus and Christy were thrilled to have Aphra there with them. They were once a happy family.
Now, not so much, considering Seamus is dead and mutilated. Plus, Aphra’s in the wind and, essentially, aligning herself with the Gentleman. Christy decides to go out in the middle of the night, forcibly taking the gun off Vincent before she leaves by threatening him with membership in the “pirate club” with Grace. Then she goes searching in the woods. At the same time Aphra’s stabbing Florence and Christy comes upon the bloody scene. Perfect moment for the Gentleman to arrive. Christy pulls Aphra away, though the girl wants to watch what the Gentleman does with his knife. What does he do? He cuts Florence free, before finishing her off. Then he chases Christy and Aphra, who go for the bunker, barely making it inside.
In the bunker, Christy asks what Aphra was doing to Florence. The girl says it was because Florence killed her father, but Christy says it was the Gentleman who killed Seamus. This sends Aphra into fits over being bad, having done horrible things to Flo for no reason. It forces Christy to give her adopted daughter a sedative to calm down. Probably necessary. Although not a great idea when there’s a killer on the loose, even if they’re in a bunker. The next morning, Liv wakes to find Christy gone. Vincent explains what happened and that Christy took the gun. Theo wants to go looking, so he and Liv are the only ones willing. We also see Christy get into Aphra’s phone, watching videos of Seamus with the girl, mourning the loss of her husband. Flashback to Aphra trying to make a little creepy decorative art using a dead, buried animal. Current day, Christy finds more pictures on the phone, including Aphra posing with all the dead bodies on the island. On top of it all we see Aphra’s just posing as a young girl to be adopted, she’s really a sick, psycho little criminal trying to get rich.

Liv and Theo go on searching the woods for the missing mother-daughter pair. They then see Florence, dead and hanging from her own art installation. A shocking image for her own son to see, regardless of how things went between them last. It’s devastating for Theo, especially because he was the one who pushed to leave her out there overnight. He tries to get his mother down and it proves difficult, requiring both him and Liv to use a little elbow grease. “Killed by her own art,” Theo laughs and cries.

Flashback to Christy bringing her concerns about Aphra to Seamus, who wasn’t prepared to believe there was something wrong with their new child. She knew then there was something deeply wrong with the girl, whereas Seamus only wanted to believe their adopted daughter was traumatised. Skip back to the bunker with Christy confronting Aphra about the truth, the latter playing the victim. Aphra tries to act innocent, but Christy’s already seen the truth. She further tells her adopted mom that Seamus was gay. She creepily gloats over it, too. A true “murder selfie freak” if there ever were. Then Aphra attacks Christy, biting into her like an apple.
When Grace and Liv go to move Spencer’s body in with the others they see the corpse is now missing. They go back downstairs and the rest of them talk, wondering if it’s Christy or Aphra who’s the murderer. Grace says it couldn’t be Christy, and Vincent agrees; nobody thinks Aphra could be the killer. But we also know, as the audience, Aphra isn’t the killer, because we just saw the Gentleman chase her and Christy recently. Hmm! Liv suggests starting a signal fire; a big one. She thinks setting the mansion on fire would be the best option. Grace doesn’t dig that idea. They need ideas soon.

That’s when Christy comes shambling in, her face half chewed off; a horrific sight. She tells them it was Aphra. And she asks for them to kill her, screaming for someone to do it. So Grace grabs the gun and puts a bullet in Christy’s head, ending the woman’s pain. Yet another death. Theo’s convinced they should burn the place to the ground.
Aphra is out wandering the woods, bloody and psychotic. She’s totally detached from reality now. It’s in this state she comes across the Gentleman in the forest. Will they become a murderous duo? They take each other’s hand and from there it’s anybody’s guess.

“Fuck this place”