American Horror Stories series premiere recap: Rubber (Wo)man: Part One and Part Two

The American Horror Story spinoff, American Horror Stories, officially premiered this week and took us right back to where it all started–Murder House. It was a great way to kick off this series by picking a story we all know and love. Well, love might be a strange word to use for a show like this but you know what I mean.

I was a bit skeptical about how this series would play out but I actually feel like it’s the best thing that could have happened to this franchise. Sometimes American Horror Story gives us mediocre seasons that tend to drag on for too long. But I think creator Ryan Murphy is onto something here with an anthology format.

In the two-part series premiere, we return to Murder House with a fresh perspective on the haunted house. It stars Matt Bomer, Paris Jackson, Kaia Gerber, and Gavin Creel and is every bit frightening as its predecessor.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane as we revisit a familiar story with new characters (we’ve got Rubber Woman now!). Check out our recap of the American Horror Stories series premiere below and be wary of spoilers.

American Horror Stories series premiere recap: Murder House

And it’s off to Murder House we go! The episode kicks off with Michael (Matt Bomer) and Troy (Gavin Creel) moving themselves and their 16-year old daughter Scarlett (Sierra McCormick) into the iconic house. Their plan is to make it the ideal vacation spot for horror lovers who can book a stay in the creepy house.

Scarlett isn’t all too eager to move into the house, that is until she finds the rubber bodysuit in her closer. She isn’t scared at all to put it on (she clearly didn’t watch the first season of American Horror Story), and immediately begins acting strangely in the days to follow.

The episode doesn’t take too long to reveal that Scarlett is into some violent and kinky stuff. In fact, her dads found intense torture porn on her computer for the second time. Her falling into the wiles of Murder House, therefore, makes complete sense, Scarlett was made for this horrific stuff.

She ends up throwing away the rubber bodysuit, but it makes its way back into her closet. Assuming it was her dads pranking her, she puts the suit on to scare the crap out of them. They are not amused by it, and when they ask her to take it off and throw it away, she refuses.

Instead, she ends up cutting Troy by “accident”, and from there on, you begin to see how just much Murder House has begun impacting her. Troy and Michael call in a therapist, Dr. Grant (Merrin Dungey) to help Scarlett through whatever she is going through and the session reveals a lot about her.

She was kidnapped when she was three and went missing for 10 days. This is why both of the fathers are so overprotective of her. That makes sense and all, but that doesn’t explain her interest in all that disturbing stuff. Needless to say, the session is quite productive but ends in Dr. Grant crossing paths with the Rubber Man on her way out.

R.I.P. Dr. Grant.

Michael and Troy discover the bloody rubber suit later but chalk it up to Scarlett having had her time of the month in it. Not sure I feel crazy about the dialogue in this scene, especially when Michael proceeds to say that it’s probably why she has been acting the way she has. Sure, okay, cool.

As we inch to the end of the episode, Scarlett ends up sneaking out of the house to join Maya (Paris Jackson) and her friends for a sleepover. There has been some flirting back and forth between Scarlett and Maya, but unfortunately, it’s not what it seems.

Maya and the girls tricked Scarlett into coming over just so they can record her saying and doing weird things. While she’s in the room talking to Maya about her fetishes, she learns that the whole conversation is being live-streamed. She runs out of there devastated but exacts her revenge later.

Scarlett calls Maya and demands that she and the girls come to her house, otherwise she will name them in her suicide note. We all know what the real reason for her doing this was, and it doesn’t take long for her to kill all four of them whilst wearing that creepy suit.

The next morning we see her fixing up the brick wall which presumably has the dead bodies behind it. I’m sorry, but that secret is not going to last for very long. Just imagine that stench…

American Horror Stories series premiere recap: All Hallows Eve

In the second part of the series premiere, we’re introduced to two new characters–Ruby (Kaia Gerber) and Adam (Aaron Tveit). Ruby winds up becoming Scarlett’s ghost girlfriend (she was previously murdered in the house and now haunts it alongside the hundreds of other ghosts). Adam is just a fake contractor that shows up to the house lying about his credibility and demands payment in exchange for oral sex.

At this point, Michael is starting to freak out about being in Murder House while Troy is hemorrhaging any and all the money they have into the place. So when the contractor shows up, Michael is pissed off to learn what’s going on. To make matters worse, Troy actually does end up hooking up with Adam, so there’s that.

Adam is the one to discover all the dead bodies behind the brick wall and uses that as a way to blackmail the guys. He wants to be let in on their project (and their marriage), and he’s so serious about it that he murders the only witness in the room who was there to help with the renovations.

The plot twist of the episode follows soon after when Michael and Troy learn that they are already dead. They were murdered earlier on, and now they’re just one of the many ghosts haunting this house, alongside Adam who is killed by Rubber Woman.

On All Hallows Ever, everyone inside of Murder House is allowed to leave the house and so Ruby and Scarlett rendezvous together for a crazy night. Things seem to be going okay until Maya and her posse of dead friends show up to try and kill Scarlett. If they kill her outside of the house, then Ruby won’t be able to be with her and they won’t have to deal with her either. Ruby is a badass so she puts an end to those shenanigans immediately because she’s actually fallen in love with Scarlett–although it is not reciprocated.

As the series premiere of American Horror Stories comes to a close, Scarlett reveals that she doesn’t want to be stuck in the house and asks that she not be murdered. She wants to live a life outside of it and surprisingly, Ruby lets her go.

Strangely enough, this story has a happy ending. All the ghosts of Murder House live amongst each other in peace and happiness and Scarlett returns every Halloween to spend time with Ruby.

I definitely did not see that happy ending coming–did you?

Raise your hand if you’re enjoying the anthology version of American Horror Story!

What did you think of the premiere of American Horror Stories? Tell us in the comments below!