Grotesquerie episode 1 recap: A detective and nun form an unlikely partnership

Spooky season has begun and if you're looking for a new horror series to check out, look no further than Grotesquerie. Created by Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz, and Joe Baken, the FX on Hulu show just debuted tonight, Sept. 25, with two new episodes. Though this isn't American Horror Story, you can still bet on the same thrills and kills with Grotesquerie. The show follows a detective and a nun who team up to try and solve a series of murders in their small town.

WARNING: Major spoilers for Grotesquerie episode 1 are below.

The episode opens up by introducing us to our protagonist, Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash-Betts) who is woken up from a nightmare. An empty liquor bottle and cigarette butts are nearby, suggesting to us viewers pretty early on what her vices are. She gets a phone call about murders that were just committed and she promptly heads to the scene. When she arrives, she learns that a mother, father, and their three kids are all dead inside the home. A police officer tells her that whatever happened inside is a hate crime. Lois asks what the hate crime is against, to which he answers: "Everything." Another police throws up in the flowers after seeing the murders. So how bad is it? Well...

Lois enters the house and looks around, seeing blood and body parts all around. The bodies of the mother and two kids are at the dinner table, while another body is headless on the kitchen floor. Lois looks in the kitchen and finds a pot boiling on the stove with some green-looking liquid inside.

At home that night, Lois makes food and talks with her daughter Merritt (Raven Goodwin). They watch TV together and Lois drinks, with the show purposefully showing us a pattern here. Merritt can tell something is wrong with her mom and asks what happened at work, but Lois doesn't want to talk about it.

Lois' husband

Lois pays a visit to the hospital where her husband Marshall (Courtney B. Vance) is in a coma. We learn he's been on the ventilator for 28 days and a worker named Nurse Redd wants to speak with Lois in private. She tells Lois they might need to reassess their situation if they want to keep Marshall on life support, suggesting the hospital might not be able to host him for the long term. Lois admits she doesn't feel Marshall's spirit anymore and Nurse Redd suggests she be more present when she's in the room with him. Lois takes offense to this and is shocked to hear the hospital keeps cameras in the rooms. Lois tells Nurse Redd that this is what a marriage looks like. She shows up, but there's no exciting conversation to be had. She leaves, telling Nurse Redd that her marriage is not her business.

At the police station, the detectives are at a loss. All of the DNA at the scene of the murders belongs to the family, there are no prints, and no evidence of a killer being there. They discuss what they know about the family, the Burnsides, saying they're good people with good jobs and good grades. Lois suspects the killer was no first-timer, though another detective says they're checking the databases and haven't found anything so far. Lois tells the group the murders feel somehow familiar like she's seen this before.

A reporter nun comes to the police station to see Lois, and she introduces herself as Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond). She works for The Catholic Guardian, and admits that reporting on crimes and cults has increased their website's viewership. Lois seems to take a quick liking to Sister Megan and is willing to help her. Sister Megan believes the Burnsides were killed ritually, mentioning the fact that they were devout. She says their priest is a friend of hers and Lois says she would like to speak with him.

The heinous crimes

Lois then tells Sister Megan about the case on background, sharing that the mom and two of the children were tied up at the table with wire, while the dad was seasoned and roasted in the oven for two hours. His cheeks were sliced and served alongside his liver, lungs, and kidneys, and there is evidence that the family ate some of him. Lois then brings up what was in the pot boiling, but can't bring herself to say it. She tells Sister Megan it's the worst thing you could ever see boiling in a pot, insinuating it might've been the baby. The mother and children died of heart failure, going into acute shock at the horror that they saw.

Lois continues, saying that a neighbor reported hearing loud music, specifically Mozart, from the Burnside home. She takes out her flask and offers Sister Megan vodka, which she, unsurprisingly, denies. Sister Megan then asks if the song was "The Requiem," and Lois is surprised. She questions if Sister Megan guessed that, but Sister Megan says she sensed it somehow. Lois then asks her for help, telling her that there was a strange liquid all over the house and they can't figure out what it was. She describes the smell and Sister Megan equates it with hair burning. Before she leaves, she questions why Lois told her all of that.

The next scene we see is two men at home watching TV, seemingly under the influence. Someone rings their doorbell and knocks repeatedly, and one of the men gets up and walks over. He looks through the peephole, and then we cut to Lois arriving at the house, which is now a scene of the crime. There have been more murders. She walks in and sees the place is filthy, before discovering the bodies. The two men have been cut up and are displayed on the wall and the ceiling. Their bodies were drained but the police haven't found any blood anywhere. Oh, and that same fluid is on the floor again. Sister Megan then shows up and Lois tells her she can't be there, walking her outside. After speaking with her, however, Lois changes her mind and allows Sister Megan to go look inside and take notes as long as she doesn't touch anything.

Someone's out to get Lois

Lois goes to visit Marshall at the hospital and follows Sister Redd's suggestion, lying in bed next to him and updating him on what's been going on. She tells him that something has happened and she needs him back. When she goes home, she suspects someone is in her home and she takes out her gun to look around. She discovers music playing on the radio in her kitchen. Could it be "The Requiem"? Most likely. She looks out the window to find someone in her yard, and she goes outside the chase after them. She shoots her gun repeatedly at them but they seemingly get away. Merritt then comes out and wants to know what's happened, but Lois orders her to go back inside.

Sister Megan reads a passage from the bible to Lois at the police station, trying to connect it with the recent murders. Lois believes whoever is committing the murders is messing with her personally, but Sister Megan isn't sure. Lois admits she doesn't want the case, but there's no one else she can trust with it. Despite this, she gets along with Sister Megan well, so maybe it won't be too bad.

Lois tells Sister Megan that they've received a report from the first crime scene and they've determined the liquid is sulfur dioxide. Immediately, Sister Megan says someone actually must be missing with her, flipping through pages of her bible. "Great, a religious psychopath," Lois responds. This certainly won't be an easy case to crack, but with the two of them working together, they've got better odds. They just have to be fast if they want to prevent more murders from being committed.

We'll be recapping and reviewing Grotesquerie all season long, to check back with us at Show Snob each week as we continue our coverage! New episodes will air weekly on Wednesday nights, streaming the next day on Hulu.