BY: ORANGECHAIR
Spoiler Alert: Amber Alert- yes, I ruin secrets in this post that are as devastating as losing a child. Sorry if that was in bad taste.
Just recently, Ryan Murphy released a statement concerning the future of his FX hit, American Horror Story. Murphy has not revealed anything specific about the next season. He only told the world that everything is going to be different and I literally mean everything. Next season of AHS will feature a different cast, plot, location, haunting and a whole new bunch of insane characters and monsters. I have conflicting feelings about this announcement. On the one hand, it changes my opinion of the season 1 finale which I originally found to be quite unsatisfying. On the other hand, it also means I am going to have to say goodbye to a handful of characters that I’m not quite ready to part with.
Amber Alert Goes into Effect Here Folks. If You Have Not Seen the Season Finale of AHS then the Rest of This Post Will RUIN THE SHOW. While watching the season finale, I couldn’t help but think that there was entirely too much closure. One by one, throughout the season, past owners and visitors of the house appear as ghosts. While in most stories, ghosts leave as quickly as they appear, the Murder house is much different. The ghosts not only refuse to leave, they all have their own agendas that somehow culminate in taking the Harmon’s unborn child. As the ghosts and the Harmon’s interact and tensions rise, the Harmon’s are picked off one by one. One dies of suicide, another of pregnancy complications and the final episode, the final Harmon is hung from the rafters.
Despite the entire family dying, doomed to live undead forever in the Murderhouse, I found the finale to be too happy. Once they all realize they are dead, something odd happens; they suddenly become a happy family. All the cheating, yelling and fighting melted away in the afterlife, giving the Harmon’s time to be a happy family. They decide to spend all of eternity scaring happy couples away from the house, hoping to save them from the pain the Harmons went through. All in all, the ending was generally happy. The house even allows Vivien Harmon to spend the afterlife with her new baby. I wasn’t just that the ending was happy. I was upset because the finale was so final. How was the story going to continue? Murphy’s latest announcement answers my question and changes my opinion of the finale. Knowing the Harmons are not returning, I really feel that the finale was a perfect wrap-up to the first chapter of the american horror story.
Though my feelings about the finale have been amended, I find myself quite sad to lose so many great characters. Murphy has been very clear that no characters will be returning. That means we lose the twisted Tate and his relationship with Violet. Ben and Vivien Harmon remain stuck in the house along with the insane Hayden, the mad scientist Charles and desperate mother Nora. Moira remains behind and even the two main characters that manage to live will not be returning. Larry is spending life in jail to repent for his horrific sins. The other living character, who I will miss the most, that survives is the brilliantly twisted Constance and her newly acquired demonic child. She was, in my opinion, the best character in the show and will be a tough character to replace.
I may be sad to lose this season’s characters, it leaves endless possibilities for next season. Removing an entire cast means an entire cast need to be replaced which means a new crew of insane people, creatures, monsters and ghosts. I can only hope that as each season brings a new haunting, the story lines will eventually collide and my favorite characters will return.