Genre: Sci-Fi | Horror | Thriller

Air Date/Time: December 7 at 10/9c

Network: FX Network

Creators: Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk

Director:Michael Lehmann

Writer: James Wong

American Horror Story revolves around The Harmons, a family of three who moved from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish. The all-star cast features Dylan McDermott (Dark Blue, The Practice) as Ben Harmon, a psychiatrist;Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) as Vivien Harmon, Ben’s wife; newcomer Taissa Farmiga as Violet, the Harmons’ teenage daughter;Jessica Lange (Grey Gardens, Big Fish) in her first-ever regular series TV role as Constance, the Harmons’ neighbor; Evan Peters (Kick-Ass, Invasion) plays Tate Langdon, one of Ben’s patients; and Denis O’Hare (J. Edgar,True Blood) as Larry Harvey. Guest stars for the series include Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under, Happy Town) as the Harmons’ housekeeper; Alexandra Breckenridge (True Blood,Ticket Out) as the Harmons’ housekeeper; and newcomer Jamie Brewer as Constance’s daughter.

Warning: Spoilers ahead, for the current episode only. Not TOTAL spoilers, but still…

Not fun, not a roller coaster except that it’s hurtling. Hurtling towards the end of season 1. We only get two more episodes before it goes away for months. That is just depressing. Like this episode. As it was meant to be. Like so many excellent shows and movies, there have been a lot of fun times in this show, but now it’s down to business.

You know that when the opening segment leads directly into another that we’ve already seen, they’re starting to tie things together. Which is also a little depressing. “No!” I want to shout. “Please don’t start tying things together, it makes the end feel closer!” This episode was written by the same person who wrote Halloween Part 1, but it felt very different. That was outrageous, and fun. I can’t think of anything that’s really outrageous this time out, just … inevitable. Big, but inevitable.

That thing that we were afraid might be true? True. And it’s dealt with beautifully, really. For those who really never guessed, they do a nice job of hinting in this episode before breaking it to us, and to you-know-who, relatively gently. Still, it’s very sad, and it’s going to get sadder as word gets out. If word gets out. Larry has a breakthrough, but it’s a rather sad one. Constance doesn’t really shine in this episode, and that is sad. And the law looks to be closing in on the occupants of The House and the house next door, and while that is a type of scary, it is also, yes, a little sad.

I would not be surprised to see a return of the Scary next week, and the fact that we didn’t get it this week is… well, you can guess. On the other hand, it was another great episode. I just don’t feel the way I like to feel at the end of an episode of this show that I love. Did it need to be so very sad and so not outrageous or scary? I found myself saying “oh no” a lot, but never “OH NO!!!” The bittersweet was wonderful, truly, but I didn’t get quite enough out of the other storylines to give this one full marks.

I give American Horror Story: Episode 10 “Smoldering Children” Four Out of Five Stars.