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AMERICAN HORROR STORY HOTEL Recap: Chutes and Ladders

Note: This article contains spoilers for FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel. Proceed with caution.

I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay at the Cortez so far, because another disturbing episode of American Horror Story: Hotel premiered this week and we can’t wait to talk about it. In “Chutes and Ladders,” we learned a bit more about the Hotel’s original owner, saw siblings reunited, and witnessed The Countess kick Donovan to the curb and find a new partner. If you’re ready, we’ll proceed.

AHS Hotel Image

There were a bunch of things that happened during the show’s hour and forty minutes (seriously?!) run time, but none were as interesting as the tale of the hotel’s original owner, Mr. March (Yay! Evan Peters is back). The beautiful black-and-white flashback depicted March, who is clearly inspired by infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes, as a wealthy man with a penchant for murder. As Iris explained to Detective Lowe, March’s plan was to build the ultimate torture hotel. He wanted hallways with no exits, a ton of laundry chutes (for body disposal, duh), and clean linens.

Room 64–where the detective is staying–served as his office back in the 1920s until his sloppy murders got the attention of the authorities and he slit his own throat. It was also revealed that the hotel’s maid, Ms. Evers, was a maid back in March’s day as well. In fact, she was essentially his right hand gal, and had him off her before the police showed up. It was a nice change of pace seeing Peters in such a dominant role. He’s clearly the most interesting resident ghoul at the hotel, I only wish we got to see more of him this week.

AHS Hotel

Anyways, after learning a bit more about the hotel’s past horrors, Detective Lowe managed to connect March’s story with the string of serial murders he’s been investigating. Despite his belief that ghouls aren’t responsible for what’s been going on, it’s clear that Peters’ character is involved somehow. Lowe’s explanation of the case was reminiscent of David Fincher’s Se7en, but with the ten commandments as the focal point instead of the  7 deadly sins.

Lowe’s daughter Scarlett also paid a rather eventful visit to the hotel. During a fashion show, she ran off with Will Drake’s son Lachlan, who ended up taking her to a room where the vampire kids’ coffins were being held. Because she noticed her brother Holden, whom she believed to be dead, she decided to take the bus back to the hotel the following day to confront him. Although he remembered who she was, he told her that he was home, and that they could visit him at the hotel as much as they want. Though this news is somewhat exciting, when she told her parents, they didn’t believe her. Even her own father, who’s seen Holden in the hotel on multiple occasions, acted like she was crazy.

American Horror Story Hotel Chutes and Ladders

As for the Countess, well, she referred to her immortality as a virus, and revealed to her new lover Tristan that she’s been around since the early 1900’s. Speaking of her new lover, she turned the male model after witnessing and admiring his drug-fueled rampage down the cat-walk. Used to being her numero uno, Donovan was understandably jealous, and threatened the model when he found him rummaging through their penthouse for cocaine.

Before Donovan could hurt him however, The Countess put a stop to it, and sent him away. That was not the last we saw of him however, because she turned him as soon as they bumped into each other again. They had a ton of sex, but were interrupted by an angry Donovan. After he questioned his lover about what was going on, she kicked him to the curb and gave a spiel about heartbreak being the thing that makes people who they are.

What did you think about this week’s episode? Are you excited to learn more about Mr. March? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Credit: FX

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