Father Son Holy Gore

FX’s American Horror Story
Season 1, Episode 8: “Rubber Man”
Directed by Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt, Chuck & Buck)
Written by Ryan Murphy

* For a review of the next episode, “Spooky Little Girl” – click here
* For a review of the previous episode, “Open House” – click here
In the opening of this scene, Nora Montgomery (Lily Rabe) bemoans the state of her modern house. Trapped in ghostland, she does not realize yet she is dead either, like Tate (Evan Peters). In the darkness behind Nora, as she weeps for her baby and wants another, Tate comforts her; he’ll help get her a child.
Then he goes out to the trash, he finds the Rubber Man suit. This is a flashback to the Pilot, when Rubber Man had sex with Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton); she, of course, thought that was husband Ben (Dylan McDermott) at the time. Now we’ve confirmed for sure that Tate is the one who did the deed. Chilling and highly unsettling, I love and hate it all at once.
Vivien is still disturbed by the events at the end of last episode, “Open House”, when Violet (Taissa Farmiga) showed her an old picture of the house in the 1920s, one featuring Nora Montgomery. Naturally, Marcy (Christine Estabrook) thinks Vivien is nuts, but Moira (Frances Conroy) offers comfort; no surprise there.
One aspect I loved in “Rubber Man” is how Chad (Zachary Quinto) and Patrick (Teddy Sears) come back into the picture. Crosscut with Vivien complaining she feels as if she’s going crazy, we head back to Chad who is upset, worried about him and his better half. It appears Patrick is stepping out on the internet; he’s secretly into S&M subculture. Chad does all he can to try and please his man, but Patrick seems to not care at all. Sadly, the Rubber Man suit Chad buys for the two of them to enjoy later ends up as part of their death. In this episode, the full view of what happened to Chad and Patrick – only partly shown previously in “Halloween: Part I” – is given a nasty, brutish treatment here.
Even more interesting is how their deaths play into the overall story of the house. Turns out, the fact Patrick seemed to have lost interest in having a child/children with his partner Chad became the reason for their savage murders. The house/Nora needs a baby, so Rubber Man – a.k.a Tate Langdon – will go to any lengths required in order to secure one. Even if that means murdering, raping, torturing, terrifying until the seed is planted.
More of Hayden (Kate Mara) now, as all the ghosts are in cohabitation. She comes across Nora weeping, shedding some light on the newly discovered situation of Mrs. Montgomery for her. Sadly, Nora still does not get it yet. Slowly she is beginning to understand what’s going on. I feel really bad for Hayden; while she was banging a married man, she never deserved anything which happened to her, and definitely not being trapped for eternity in Murder House. She and Poe bond in a brief scene, rolling the ball back and forth – neither of them asked to be stuck there on that property, each murdered brutally under false pretence.
What I loved is how Hayden has afterlife sex with Constance’s (Jessica Lange) dead husband Hugo (Eric Close) – she takes out the anger inside on him, banging then stabbing him to death, only for him to keep on after-lifting. It’s a naughty cycle, I just thought that was an excellently twisted scene.
Furthermore, Nora is being led to the river by Hayden who believes they ought to take Vivien’s twins for themselves. Also, Hayden drops the hint for us in the audience that poor Vivien might soon be locked up in an asylum. Thus begins the true terrorising of Mrs. Harmon.

There’s so much great haunted house stuff in American Horror Story. With the ghosts actively doing poltergeist-like stuff, we get to see both sides: the family living in horror versus the ghosts trying to clue up their unfinished business/vendettas. That’s something we’re not usually treated to, even in film. More often than not, almost always, we’re seeing a family being tortured by the demons/ghosts/presences in a haunted house. Here, we get to see the motivations of the ghosts themselves and what is driving them, as well as the fact we’re watching everything happening in reality to the families and people drawn to the house. I think that’s one of the greatest things about this first season. Moreover, I think it was the best and most natural place for the series to start, as the haunted house sub-genre of horror is one almost everyone knows – even non-horror fans probably enjoy a good haunted house movie now and then. Each season has a great anthology premise, but this is most definitely the greatest starting point Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk could’ve decided on.
More concerning Violet falls out of the plot into our laps. It turns out Violet has not been to school in two weeks. Strange. Even while the family is in shambles, you’d think someone would have realized something was wrong before now. Yet everything else happening around Ben and Vivien, all the weird and unexplained and eerie events, it detracts from Violet and her issues. More every episode, we come to see there’s something else happening to Violet that her parents cannot yet see or understand.
My favourite part of “Rubber Man”, though there is a ton, is the scene between Moira (Frances Conry) and Vivien. Moira recounts the basic plot of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which goes along fittingly well with the events happening to Vivien. Especially going forward through the remainder of the episode, the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” comes as an allegory for the story of Vivien – however, in Murder House, Ben Harmon is not doing anything purposefully trying to damage his wife, but instead the house itself is making Ben and everyone else around Vivien believe she has gone completely mad.
Moira pushes her towards this, warning Vivien she must leave or else something bad might happen. This is when we start to see the house really working on Vivien, as it only works against her.
In the car with her daughter, ready to leave, Vivien sees the ghosts of the serial killer fans who broke into the house in “Home Invasion“. She runs back in, believing them to be real, and of course this further breaks down things between Vivien and Ben. Plus it makes her look absolutely nuts, even worse when Violet can’t confirm there was anything actually there.

The end of the episode is highly suspenseful, full of tension, as Vivien – believing an intruder, perhaps the sneaky undead Hayden – uses a gun she stole from real estate agent Marcy to shoot Ben. Of course, she did think it was someone else, but still. Now that gives him more ammunition to put her in a hospital, fearing her mental state is deteriorating. Which it is, yes, just not in the way anyone thinks. It’s exactly what the house has wanted. All in order to get those babies growing inside Vivien. Believing herself to be attacked by Rubber Man Tate Langdon again, with Hayden onlooking and taunting, Ben and Luke (Morris Chestnut) rush in to find Vivien rolling on the floor by herself. Even to Luke now, it’s clear something is not right.
The house is driving everyone, in their own way, off the deep end and into utter madness. It’s tragic and heartbreaking all at once and you feel for characters while also hating some of them; a big mix of hate, fear, love, and sexuality, this Season 1.
Next episode is titled “Spooky Little Girl” and is directed by John Scott (Nip/Tuck). Can’t wait to review that one, as well.
Stay tuned yet again!