The American Horror Stories Episode 1 Scene Fans Agree Went Too Far
Contains spoilers for the "American Horror Stories" episodes "Rubber (Wo)man: Parts One & Two"
"American Horror Stories" may be a new experiment in Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's television universe — one-off tales of terror as opposed to season-long narratives — but many of the hallmarks of their style are still there. Not only does the two-part season premiere take place in the titular manor from "American Horror Story: Murder House," it also had all the extreme violence and boundary-pushing subject matter that fans of the franchise have come to expect. There was even one scene that had commenters on Reddit up in arms, but it's likely not the one you think.
"Rubber (Wo)man: Parts One & Two" tells the story of Scarlett (Sierra McCormick), a teenager who has just moved into the Murder House, which her dads Michael (Matt Bomer) and Troy (Gavin Creel) plan to turn into a spooky bed and breakfast. Living in the house and falling under the influence of a certain rubber suit sends Scarlett down a path of profound darkness. But before she becomes the latest killer associated with the Murder House, she spends some time trying to adjust to her new school. Although she's stylish and smart, Scarlett doesn't exactly fit in with the cool crowd, which makes it all the more strange when popular girl Maya (Paris Jackson) begins to flirt with her.
Scarlett's budding romance with Maya ends in abject horror. But the scene where Scarlett brutally hunts down and murders the mean girl crew after an embarrassing slumber party betrayal is not the one that some fans took issue with. It was, in fact, the show's attempt at replicating teen text lingo that had Reddit users covering their faces in shock.
Fans had a hard time with the texting on "Rubber (Wo)man"
A pivotal moment in "Rubber (Wo)man: Part One" comes when Maya lures Scarlett to a slumber party under false pretenses and then embarrasses her by secretly live-streaming their intimate conversation. To convince Scarlett to come, Maya lays the groundwork by implying that she's attracted to women and wants to explore that side of her with Scarlett. Maya illustrates this point in one of her texts with an emoji of a cat next to an emoji of a tongue, a double entendre we'll let you piece together.
On the episode discussion thread on Reddit, fans were aghast at the corniness of the moment. User u/phattrav wrote of the emoji flirting, "i cannot handle the cringe [factor] ..." while u/Coreyharich said, "Actually so embarrassing they'd think it be okay."
For user u/Jammon152, the texting was so bad that it made them question the intentions of the scene. They explained, "Couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a hint that it was a prank or just out of touch writing."
Ultimately, most people who chimed in agreed with u/HardcoreKaraoke, who wrote, "I enjoyed the episode but the texting seemed to be purely out of touch writing. It was bad."
The corny text exchanges weren't the only dialogue in "Rubber (Wo)man: Parts One & Two" that had fans wincing with secondhand embarrassment.
Not all of the dialogue in "Rubber (Wo)man" hit right
Some fans had a tough time digesting the texting scenes on the "American Horror Stories" premiere, while others found different bits of dialogue that just did not sit well with them.
On the Reddit discussion thread for "Rubber (Wo)man: Part Two," user u/santasangre254 brought up a quip from the very end of the episode. While Ruby (Kaia Gerber) is describing what life is like as a ghost trapped for all eternity in the Murder House, she passes another specter on the stairs. This is Gladys (Celia Finkelstein), the ghost of a nurse killed in the 1960s who we saw Ruby and Scarlett brutally hunting down and stabbing for fun at the beginning of the episode. This time, though, the two appear to have a friendly camaraderie. When Gladys passes by she says, as quoted by u/santasangre254, "'Hey sis, thanks for not stabbing me lately.' high five."
While u/santasangre254 themselves didn't provide any commentary on this line, other users quickly jumped in to offer their own. "I physically cringed at that part. Woof," wrote u/ddcrowley22, while u/jacquoutang took a sarcastic approach by merely saying, "Art!"
Speaking of sarcasm, u/sawinnz started a fresh thread titled "And the award for best writer goes to ..." to highlight their own pick for the premiere's cringiest dialogue. For them, the big winner was a line where Ruby describes her sadism by saying, "Your suffering is my Viagra."
While the premiere episodes of "American Horror Stories" had more than their fair share of cheesy lines, poking fun of them on Reddit is all part of the fun of tuning in. You can experience the cringe yourself by checking out "American Horror Stories" on FX on Hulu.