American Horror Story: Delicate Episode 3 Delivers On The Creep Factor

The third episode of American Horror Story: Delicate delivered this week, so let’s get into it.

The episode opens with Anna (Emma Roberts) beaming a smile while finally holding her baby boy. That is, until she playfully tosses him into the air and he vanishes. The joyful smile quickly disappears as she realizes her baby boy is never coming back. She looks down and the white flowy dress she is wearing turned blood red, creeping up, up, up until the blood gets to her neck and the scene cuts. Then we see Anna and Dex (Matt Czuchry) in a car, right after they find out about the miscarriage. Anna asks if they should try again for another baby and Dex is visibly reluctant — and rightfully so — but Anna doesn’t take it that way and demands the driver to stop the car. She gets out and goes for a walk… in the woods. I know what you’re thinking. It certainly wouldn’t be my first choice for a solo walk either and I would hope my husband would stop me. We can thank Dex for being a crummy husband though because this is where the episode gets interesting.

Anna walks through the woods and it abruptly turns to night. The sudden passing of time has been a recurring theme for Anna — and we’re still not sure why. She comes across a fire pit that is active in the middle of the woods, only to see Ms. Preecher (Julie White) perched in a tree staring at her. She tells Anna she’s been watching her. Clearly freaked out by this whole scenario, Anna runs back to the house and tells Dex that she saw her stalker. They go back to the woods to investigate and there’s nothing. Throughout this episode Dex is noticeably distrusting of everything Anna tells him about the stalker and strange occurrences in her life. This whole episode felt like a big fat metaphor regarding the treatment of women throughout the duration of their pregnancies and postpartum… and I loved it. Miscarriages can be isolating and I think this episode portrayed that in the best way AHS can — in a creepy, mysterious way. I felt for Anna’s character as she became secluded in her own delusions. At least what we think they are up until this very episode.

Dex tries to be a caring husband and invites Anna’s friend and agent Siobhan (Kim Kardashian) over. Siobhan tells Anna she needs a real meal after seeing that Anna has only eaten chocolate and wine from a mysterious gift basket. We cut to Siobhan cutting a cucumber for a salad. I had a good laugh knowing damn well the writers intentionally were playing with the fact that Kim’s real life sister Kendall Jenner was ridiculed for cutting a cucumber the wrong way. Ah, little details can go a long way, but I digress. Anna and Siobhan decide to go on a walk for some fresh air. When Siobhan leaves early, Anna decides to continue her walk, only to find a doll version of herself with pins in its stomach. Now, this is where it gets good, as if this episode wasn’t already tantalizing. The camera pans out and we see two women dressed as… crows? I’m not quite sure, but all I know is that it was the perfect amount of creepy.

We see a turn in Anna after this. She’s been alienated from sharing the details of her recent life with friends and family, so she decides to drink and go into the basement. Maybe not the best decision for her, but, of course, as a viewer I couldn’t help but get excited that the episode was really picking up. She drinks straight out of the wine bottle while perusing through Dex’s business partner Talia’s baby pictures. She falls asleep soon after. Yes, in the basement. I wish I was lying. Anna wakes up to chanting behind a small, wooden door in the basement and she goes right in. This part eerily reminded me of walking through haunted houses as a kid. She walks through the candle lit tunnel and finds herself in a hallway filled with fetus corpses. It’s disturbing and especially sad for Anna after what she has just been through. The two crow women we saw at the beach forcibly grab Anna and stab her with a syringe. We’re left in the dark as to what was in the syringe, just like Anna, but when she wakes up back in the basement she feels a kick from her baby.

Anna is excited and thinks she didn’t actually experience a miscarriage and goes off to a baby store. While driving home she sees Dex with another woman, so Anna has her bodyguard stop the car, only to have Ms. Preecher appear at the car window. The only difference here is that the bodyguard actually sees Preecher! This made me so happy for Anna. We’re finally given some clarification inside Anna’s personal hell. She’s not hallucinating this specific woman. After some clarity, Anna goes onto her phone, changes the password and writes a message in her calendar in the hopes of a response from her hacker. I’m happy to share Anna gets a response. The hacker replies that someone did cause her “miscarriage” at the hospital, but that the baby is actually still alive. Is this another confirmation that Anna isn’t hallucinating these things? If so, it shows that her hacker is sadly Anna’s only real ally in all of this.

We also meet a new character this episode and, in classic AHS fashion, she lurks in the background and we have no idea what her role really is. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez appears as Nicolette who tells Anna she’s the house manager, but when Anna inquires about what a house manager does she replies with “manages the house.” Uhh, that doesn’t sit well with me. wWile she doesn’t particularly play a major role in this episode, she’s shown staring at Anna after she receives the notifications from her “ally.” I can’t tell if Nicolette will help Anna, if she’s the hacker, or an antagonist in Anna’s story. With this very cliffhanger and more, this episode made me ecstatic for what’s to come next Wednesday.

This is the season’s shortest episode so far, but it’s the best yet, with the perfect balance of mystery, anticipation, and creepiness. We also have established some truths we’ve been yearning for in the previous episodes. This episode made the last two all worth it as it weaved all of the information we were given together in a nice, explosive bombshell of a third episode.

You can catch new episdoes on Wednesdays on FX, or streaming the next day on Hulu.