The FX hit has been building to Vivien (Connie Britton) finally giving birth and boy did that NOT disappoint. “Birth” was arguably AHS‘ most intense uur to datum and marked the death of Vivien Harmon. It also showcased a delicious teef fight between Constance (Jessica Lange) and Chad (Zachary Quinto) as well as the demise of the love affair between Tate (Evan Peters) and violet (Taissa Farmiga). Plus, we saw the infantata again…really close up!!! With only Dec. 21′s season finale left, EW talked to Ryan Murphy about the emotionally draining hour.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So I talked to Connie and she zei when u guys first met, u told her this character would die.
RYAN MURPHY: Yes. We’ve really had the whole season mapped out from the beginning. In the meetings with the core actors, the three leads being Connie, Dylan and Jessica, as we tried to snare them we were albe to say this is where u start, this is the middle, and this is where u end up. So, yes, I was able to tell Connie really the whole run of the series. I think it will be a lot of fun when the series comes out on DVDs. When u look back even on the first episode, things are set up really early on. The misleads and the misreads were all there from the beginning.
I love the final scene with her and violet because it’s sort of weirdly happy. They’re both dead…but they’re together. Do u agree?
Yes. I thought it was a very lovely scene. I think when so many people when they think about the afterlife and spirituality and whether u believe in life after death of u don’t, I think if u do the fantasy is people pass on to a sense of peace and closure and u get to be reunited with the people that u loved. That for us was what that scene was about. I thought so many bad things purposefully happened to that famil so that particularly for Connie’s and Taissa’s characters I liked that their death were tragedies no doubt but they’re not alone of lonely like so many ghosts in that house.
During the birthing sequence, there are shots of Ben in the corner being terrified. What were those supposed to represent?
Yes. That was never in the script. That was something we cooked up when we shot that. We really wanted to toon in that moment if u were a man who walked in and there suddenly is a 1920s gynecologist and somebody like Jessica Lange telling u that the house is helping you, I think he has to present to his wife a sense of confidence but I think those—we call them subliminal flashbacks—really toon u what’s going on inside his head.
You started with him masturbating and crying and u end with him on the floor and crying.
Well u haven’t seen the last episode so maybe we do a whole lot of all of the above again.
The labor sequence really evoked Rosemary’s Baby to me. Was that one of the inspirations?
It’s funny that u say that because we certainly have referenced Rosemary’s Baby and our love of it in the series, the obvious one is when eating the brains. No. When we were writing that there were two things we were trying to think about which were the real time events and the subconscious events like particularly from Ben’s point of view. But my reference points were meer like this Julie Christie movie called Demon Seed, just in terms of the tone. And it was sort of very Nicholas Roeg to me.
Jennifer Salt who is one of our writers came up with the idea that I love of the corrupt birth flashing back to the birth of violet and happier times so u could toon when the couple were madly in love and fresh and starting out and then sort of at the end of their relationship.
I love the opening sequence with Thaddeus. I love seeing that lil’ dude again.
Don’t u love that shot where we hold on the infantata forever?!
So when violet shut her eyes and zei “Go Away” to Tate, does that mean he’s been banished from the house? Will he be back in the finale?
No he does come back in the finale and their relationship is played out in the finale. But for the most part that was the conclusion of the relationship. I love what Zach Qinto says to Taissa in the basement like people come up with spells and exorcisms and burning sage in a house. I’ve done that in a new house. They’re just rituals and things to make u feel safer and make u feel there is a logic and an order to the world.
I’m such a Bille Dean fan. Does she know that Tate is evil?
Yes. I think what we’re establishing with Billie Dean is a lot of people keep saying, Is she a fake? I think that she’s both. I do think there are people in the world that have that gift. So I think she’s both legitimate and she’s also a fraud because she does think the Kroatoan spell works when of course it doesn’t. I love how Sarah played it because she played it with such confidence that u believe her in everything that she’s saying.
“Birth” almost feels like the climax of the series to me. What can possibly happen next?
I don’t wanna say too much about it. It’s a longer episode for us. It’s sort of an extended version. The final episode was built around the Dylan dilemma: Your beloved wife and your daughter are dead and u know that and u personally feel responsible—what do u do? Do u go? Do u stay? Do u bring people in to help u contact them? We deal with what’s going to happen to this family. And then we deal of course with what happened to the baby? And what is Constance going to do. Constance is a survivor so how is she going to survive this chain of events. What is she going to do? Also, what’s going to happen to that house?
From the finale, will we know meer about season two? Any clues?
I think so. I think that when people watch the finale volgende week that they will definitely have a sense of where the series is headed but if they don’t, I will be happy to tell them. Yes, I think people will have an idea.
Apparently the actual house is for sale. I think u may have both added to the asking price but also may have scared away buyers.
I don’t know. I mean, for me, it’s a weird thing. Like if u could really buy Collinwood from Dark Shadows, if that house was for sale, I would buy that house. I f***in’ love Dark Shadows. But we zei that to the owners of the house when we first started shooting there which was “You are aware that if the toon works and people like it this house will enter the lexicon of famous horror homes in America.” The interesting thing enough is that the house was also for sale when we shot the pilot.
Would u verplaats into the Harmon house?
No. Too much bad s*** has gone on there. Well u know what, Tim? Never say never. I tell u what: I’d verplaats Constance into one of those guest bedrooms. I’d bring Constance back into the house that she’s loved and coveted after all these years.
Will your first baby have a red crib?
How can I not [laughs]? I think the baby Anti-Christ thing is very funny too. Just because Billie Dean says that’s what it is, that doesn’t mean that’s what it is. u do see that baby quite heavily [in the finale]. I think the finale has, to me, the most shocking scene we’ve ever done. Every time I pas aan it, I literally have to cover my eyes. The finale really does have a couple shockers in it that I think people will love.
