‘American Horror Story: Roanoke’ Season 6 Episode 10: Finale Recap
The finale of American Horror Story: Roanoke opens at the Paley Center in March of 2016 somewhere in the middle of the two Roanoke seasons, with the cast of My Roanoke Nightmare sitting on stage amongst a crowd of obsessed fans, cloaked in bloody butcher knives and pig masks, being interviewed by RuPaul's Drag Race’s Trixie Mattel; her face, as they say in drag speak, beat to the gods.
The cast sits on stage soaking in all the fan pandemonium, encapsulating just how big a phenomenon the show became, but also as an eerie reminder of how they all will eventually die, one by one, at the very house that brought them to the cusp of celebrity.
After the events of My Roanoke Nightmare: Three Days in Hell, Lee (Adina Porter) is the subject of intense media scrutiny; a victim of a 60 Minutes-type media assault from a show entitled Crack’d, which chronicles her life before and after the events at Roanoke , calling into question her innocence throughout the whole ordeal.
It comes to light that the cops had video proof of not only Lee’s confession to killing her trifling husband Mason in the woods, but also evidence of her murdering the other cast-mates in the house.
While the evidence is damning, Lee’s defense goes after the idea that she was hallucinating and under extreme distress because of drugs being grown on the inbred, cannibalistic Polk property. The jury sides with Lee, as if this was the sequel to American Crime Story. And while she's cleared of the murders within the house, the prosecution still seeks justice for the murder of Mason.
The prosecution brings up Flora (Saniyya Sidney) to present a damning eyewitness account of how Lee did in fact kill Mason, but Lee wiggles out of these charges as well, with the jury citing that they cannot condemn a woman to life in prison hinged on the testimony of a young girl who sought refuge in the woods with a prepubescent colonial ghost. After everything, Lee becomes an infamous icon, simultaneously beloved and hated.
In a Diane Sawyer-esque interview with Lana Winters (played by Sarah Paulson, the same character she played in American Horror Story: Asylum), Lee aims to clear her name and tell her side of the story, hoping to (literally) wash some blood from her hands. It’s revealed that Lee still has no real relationship with Flora, as she is fighting for custody of her own child from her dead husband’s family.
Lee is in the process of making another plea for Flora’s love as we find out that Flora is currently missing, with all eyes on Lee as the kidnapper.
As Lee starts to go to search for her daughter, a crazed descendent of the Polks open fire within the studio, getting ready to gun down both Lana and Lee. The Polk member pistol-whips the high holy hell out of Lana, and she drops to the ground like a hot potato. Just as he is about to bust Lee, the cops kill him instead, truly proving that Lee has more lives than a cat as she escapes death once more.
Meanwhile on another (fake) reality show, entitled Spirit Chasers, a Myth Busters rip-off, the crew goes to the Roanoke house to view ghost behavior during the blood moon, which only means one thing: they all going to die.
It seems as if nothing has been changed in the house, with all the blood stains still intact. As they go through the house, Lee magically shows up — because she REALLY has a death wish — in search of Flora, two weeks after the Lana Winters interview.
The house slowly becomes more and more possessed, with ghosts climbing the walls and children’s voices haunting the halls. Lee believes Priscilla (Estelle Hermansen) has taken Flora so that she can have a friend to play post-mortem Double Dutch. And, without missing a beat, guess who comes back to play one last game of serial killer Russian Roulette? Piggyman! And the crazy-spider Chin family! And the psychotic nurses! And The Butcher!
One by one, the ghosts of Roanoke past kill the crew of Spirit Chasers like a supernatural jamboree, ultimately leaving Lee alone in the house — that is, until Flora comes out of hiding, once and for all, to confront her mother.
Now the show goes straight to live news coverage of a 14-hour stand-off with law officials, with Lee and her daughter inside, and possibly with Priscilla lingering in the shadows. The news outlets interview Lana, who sits at home resting from her pistol-whipping in a luxurious bed.
Lee pleads with Flora to come home, but Flora wants to stay with Priscilla and eat berries in the woods. Flora, refusing to leave the Roanoke house, leaves Lee with no choice other than to offer herself as sacrifice to stay with Priscilla instead.
Out of nowhere, the house suddenly combusts. Flora survives the fire, walking away seemingly unscathed, while inside, Priscilla kills Lee in order to bind her to the land for all of eternity.
Flora, taking home the award for worst daughter of the year, drives off in the back of the police car to live her normal life, while Lee is now damned to stay for all eternity.
Finally, as we zoom out on the demonic Roanoke house in all its macabre and bloodshed, the Roanoke settlers light their torches ablaze one last time underneath the blood moon, signifying that while Lee and the Roanoke Nightmare cast’s stories might have ended, the Roanoke land will always be plagued by the horrors of the past.