Smoldering Children (7 Dec. 2011)

In 1994, Larry gets burned. In the present, Ben begins to understand what happened to cause Vivien's institutionalization. Constance is questioned by the police in Travis' death. Violet learns something about herself that she doesn't know.

Director:

Michael Lehmann

Writers:

Ryan Murphy (creator), Brad Falchuk (creator),

Stars:

Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, Evan Peters

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Dylan McDermott	...	Ben Harmon
Connie Britton	...	Vivien Harmon
Evan Peters	...	Tate Langdon
Taissa Farmiga	...	Violet Harmon
Jessica Lange	...	Constance Langdon
Denis O'Hare	...	Larry Harvey
Charles S. Dutton	...	Detective Granger
Michael Graziadei	...	Travis Wanderley
Jamie Brewer	...	Adelaide 'Addie' Langdon
Rebecca Wisocky	...	Lorraine Harvey
W. Earl Brown	...	Phil Critter
Malaya Rivera Drew	...	Detective Barrios
Derek Richardson	...	Constance's Lawyer
Gregory Sporleder	...	Peter McCormick
Sam Kinsey	...	Beau

Storyline

In a flashback, the origins of Louis' burn are revealed. Ben visits Vivien in the psych ward and admits to her that he now believes she was raped. The police interview Constance over Travis' death. She has little to tell them - other than she didn't do it - but her history of accidental deaths leave the police highly suspicious. She's off the hook when someone unexpected confesses to the crime. Ben is still upset with Violet for missing so much school and they agree that a new school has to be found. Tate has something to show her however.

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Plot Keywords:

flashback | dead but doesn't know it | burn victim | interrogation | crawlspace | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 December 2011 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

41 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Goofs

(at around 8 mins) As Constance reviews the crime scene pictures of Travis, his eyes are open in one picture and closed in the other. Even though it is not unheard of for someone at the crime scene to close the eyes of a deceased individual it would not be done in the midst of the crime scene photos being taken.

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Quotes

Tate Langdon: Close your eyes and remember everything is gonna be okay. I love you.
Tate Langdon: [leads Violet closer to her body] Open your eyes.
Violet Harmon: [cries as she sees her body] What? No!
Tate Langdon: [flashback] Don't you die on me! Violet!
[end flashback]
Violet Harmon: I died when I took all those pills.
Tate Langdon: [nods] I tried to save you... I did. I tried to make you throw them up.You threw up some, not enough.
[cries]
Tate Langdon: You took so many, Violet. You died crying. I held you. You were safe. You died... loved.
Violet Harmon: I hardly feel anything.
[...]

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Soundtracks

"MIA2 Battalion of Hate"
by Wehrwolfe
[Plays on Tate's alarm before her gets up]

User Reviews

Award Winning Episode

This weeks episode of American Horror Story was by far the best in the series and we can only hope that the rest of the series that follows are close to this.

***MAJORSPOILERS*** ***MAJORSPOILERS*** ***MAJORSPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

This episode had a lot of great revealings such as us finding out that Denis O'Hare's character Larry was actually burnt by Tate right before his school shooting with no remorse on his face, this gives us another dark portrayal of Tate making us believe more and more that he is actually evil. Another one of my favourite parts of this episode was Tates dressed in the rubber suits fight with Ben which eventually ended with Ben getting knocked out but not before him finding out Tate's identity as the rubber man. But then came the best part of the episode which was the biggest shock of the series which revealed that Violet had actually died of an overdose 16 days earlier and for the most part of the series it has been Violets ghost running around the house. It also revealed that Tate has actually been looking out for Violet and making sure she didn't leave the house so she didn't realise she was dead, this shows us that Tate is not actually all bad as it paints him in a better light for the audience. This episode has personally been my favourite and i can only think that it has been everyone else.