We’ve gotten bits and pieces of the Countess’ story over the course of this season of American Horror Story: Hotel, but in “Room 33” we finally got a better understanding of why she’s so obsessed with saving children — the inhabitant of room 33 was revealed.
After a spectacular showing last week, Kathy Bates’ Iris unfortunately sat in the background while Denis O’Hare gave another great performance as Liz. There was a bit too much vampire love-triangle drama for my taste, and way too little Mr. March. Seriously, if this show only featured Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, and O’Hare while Mare Winningham ran around and fussed over their dirty sheets, I’d be all over it. But, I digress.
The Countess is known for tossing aside her lovers, once she finds a new one. But, what happens to them when they get booted? Well, they plot revenge. After coming up with a plan to use Iris to get to the countess, Ramona and Donovan show up at the Cortez while the Countess is out of town with Will Drake. When their plan to crush her by offing her vampire children went awry (because of a reason I’ll get to in a minute), Ramona decided to go after the next best thing: the inhabitant in room 33.
Ah, we knew we’d be finding out what the Countess was hiding in there sooner or later. Apparently at some point in her life, she became pregnant, and reached out to Dr. Charles Montgomery (who was in season 1 of AHS) for a secret abortion, because she didn’t want her husband to know. Though she had only been pregnant for a few weeks, the virus in her system caused the baby to grow to term. So, when the doctor extracted him, he was still alive. But, since the baby, who she named Bartholomew, was infected, he never aged past infancy, and was sadly deformed. The Countess had been keeping him in room 33 all this time, that is until Ramona came and let him out as an act of revenge. Granted, Alex did bring him back home, after finding him outside.
Meanwhile, John was in the middle of a mental breakdown. He hasn’t been looking too hot lately, especially after what he witnessed at Mr. March’ Devil’s Night. But, waking up next to his undead son, and then finding him again, but this time in a coffin with his wife, it wasn’t surprising that he cracked. Since Alex didn’t want him to learn the truth, she drugged him and made up a story that he told her he was having visions coinciding with the story that his daughter Scarlett told him.
Speaking of Scarlett, apparently she hasn’t talked to her mom in a couple of days. For the past few weeks, I’ve been wondering what was going to happen with her. The poor girl must have been worried when her mother didn’t come home and couldn’t even bother to answer her calls. I understand that Alex made the decision because she had a chance to be with her son forever, but seeing Scarlett completely forgotten was heartbreaking.
Denis O’Hare’s Liz Taylor, however, had another great week. As someone who’s loved her since the beginning, it was great to see her fall in love for the first time ever. It is just unfortunate however, that the secret romance was with The Countess’ new beau, Tristan. If you remember, Tristan was turned a couple of episodes back, and was the reason that the lead vamp kicked Donovan to the curb. Afraid of what the Countess was going to do when she found out, Liz told Tristan to keep their relationship a secret for now.
But, that didn’t last long, because Liz spilled the beans anyways. At first the Countess didn’t seem overly pissed…until The Countess slit Tristan’s throat in front of Liz to teach her a lesson, telling her that now that he’s hers, she can bury him. The look on Liz’s face was devastating. I almost thought that the Countess was going to slay Liz immediately too, but instead, she was left to weep over her love.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Are you missing Mr. March as much as I am? Let me know in the comments below.
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Image Credits: Fox
