American Horror Story Wiki
Register
Advertisement
American Horror Story Wiki

"Chapter 3" is the third episode of Roanoke. It premiered September 28, 2016.

Synopsis[]

The search for Flora leads to disturbing secrets in the woods. A strange paranormal expert may be the family’s last chance to find her. An alternate history of the Roanoke Colony emerges.

Plot[]

Lee, Matt, and Shelby search with the police and volunteers for Flora. Shelby is reluctant to search her grid area alone, and night begins to fall. Lee finds Flora's doll dismembered and covered in blood, with a pig's head and limbs swapped. A nearby farmhouse's yard has the counterparts. The dilapidated house has rotting animal parts throughout. The trio hears pig noises from the house's barn, where they find two dirt-encrusted boys nurse from a dead sow's teats while mimicking their calls of "Flora!".

Americanhorrorstoryep3-large trans Adw0VrjqLWSqJHfZ45Ae0Zhw iIPZqUNP2EjAIFcGyw

The two boys are kin to the Polks, who have abandoned the farm. They get cleaned up at the hospital. Mason arrives and wants to interrogate the boys but the police prevent it and he leaves. A social worker tries to communicate with the boys, but they only know one odd word: "Croatoan." In testimonials, the Millers say they came to know that word as a warning.

Two days later, Lee starts to accept the possibility that after all this time they may not find Flora alive. Back at the house, Mason blames Lee for Flora's disappearance, eventually accusing Lee of hiding her. As they fight, Mason shoves his ex-wife and storms out. Matt, Shelby, and Lee take some time to rest, for a fresh start on the search. Matt is awoken by a call from the police.  The three meet the police, who have found a charred corpse strapped to a raised wooden hoop. Forensics removed a ring, which Lee identifies as Mason's. 

The next day, Matt realizes that his security camera recorded two events during the night: Lee leaving the house after they went to bed and returning 15-minutes later. He and Shelby speculate as to whether Lee was responsible for Mason's death. Lee is understandably upset. Cricket Marlowe interrupts them, entering through the unlocked front door. He claims to have been called from New Orleans by a spirit. The medium regularly works with the FBI to find missing children, and he walks through the house. He identifies the cupboard under the stairs in which Flora and Priscilla hid earlier, and describes the ghost by name, having died in the 1500s. He finds a bonnet in the space and says that Flora was abducted by the dead. The family is skeptical, but they allow Cricket to perform a seance to contact Priscilla. But instead, The Butcher emerges and Cricket demands that she show herself. When she does, Cricket calls upon a saint to protect them and then surrounds the family with the "white light" of protection.

The Butcher describes herself as the protector of the Lost Colony, and says that the Miller family are trespassers. She further says that Priscilla has taken Flora outside their hallowed ground for the girl's protection. Cricket calls out "Croatoan" to banish the spirit, and the windows shatter inwards.

Cricket says that he can find Flora, but that he will require a $25,000 fee from the family. Matt immediately calls it extortion and a fraud, and a desperate Lee counters by holding Cricket at gunpoint. Matt defuses her, and Matt tells Cricket to leave. The medium whispers something to Lee on the way out: "Emily says hello and wonders why Lee stopped looking for her years ago."

The testimonial Lee is shaken when she asked by the producer about Emily, her first daughter. Testimonial Lee becomes distraught but continues after a break. The next day, she pays Cricket's fee, and he tells her what he knows from a walk in the woods.

The Butcher is Thomasin White, wife of John White, governor of Roanoke. White left his wife in charge of the Roanoke Colony while he returned to England to gather supplies. When food was scarce, Mr. Cage and White's son Ambrose asked after the scarce rations, but she would hear no more of rebellion. Later, the 116 settlers disappeared without a trace.

Lee is skeptical of the Roanoke connection, but Cricket says she only thinks she knows the story. Cage locks a spiked cage around Thomasin's head and chains her, with an intention to move inland. White's son swears fealty, under a cleaver's duress, with the new regime, and they leave her behind. Dying of hunger and thirst, she hears a wild pig screaming. She runs from the sound, and prays for deliverance. She is saved by the horned woman, who offers food and safety if she will surrender her soul and serve her. Thomasin eats the proffered heart in communion, and returns to cleave into the rebel leaders. Ambrose begs for mercy and receives it from his mother. The group moves inland, to North Carolina, contrary to the known history.

That is how The Colony's path crosses with the Millers', and The Butcher aims to kill them all to keep her dominion over the land which she claimed centuries ago.

Cricket and the Millers go into the woods at night, searching for Priscilla. Cricket attempts to negotiate with The Butcher for Flora's life in exchange for leaving the land and burning the house. Shelby balks, but Lee says that Matt agreed with Lee's plan earlier. Shelby looks for Matt for confirmation, but he is gone. When she does find Matt, he is in a trance, having sex with the horned woman.  The tryst is watched-over by the Polks. A pig was sacrificed nearby.

Matt has no memory of the incident when he returns to the house, and Shelby is furious with him. When Lee finds her way back to the house, she is arrested by the police.

Quotes[]

  • Lee Harris: "There is no fear like the fear of losing a child. It is primal, and it's wrenching."
  • Lee Harris
    How do you know about Emily?
    Sidney James
    All participants on the show are subjected to extensive background checks. Death certificates are a matter of public record.


Notes[]

Raised Questions[]

  • Who or what killed Mason?
  • What happened to Emily?
  • Where are the Polks?
  • Who's the Horned Woman?
  • What happened during Matt's memory blackout?

References[]

Advertisement