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Birth

Season 1, Episode 11
Air date	December 14, 2011
Written by	Tim Minear
Directed by	Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Episode Guide
Previous "Smoldering Children"	Next "Afterbirth"

Birth is the eleventh episode of the first season of American Horror Story. It was first broadcast on December 14, 2011.

Synopsis Edit

Vivien gives birth. Tate and Violet attempt to rid the house of some of its ghosts for good.

Plot Edit

1984

The episode begins one year after Constance killed the father to her children. Constance is still living in the house. She seems to have become an alcoholic and depressed, as we see her drinking hard liquor midday and passed out drunk on the couch. Constance either is unemployed or does not earn enough, because we can see unpaid bills pilling up. Tate is about seven at the time and mostly left to his own devices. He plays with a little toy car, which is either retro or antique. In the hallway, where he is playing, the door to the basement opens "on its own". Tate is not scared, rather intrigued, and rolls his toycar down the staircase to the basement. When he goes down to retrieve it, Infantata attacks him. Nora stops the infantata and soothes Tate. She dries his tears and cuddles him. Tate says to Nora, he wishes she was his mommy. Nora teaches Tate what he will years later teach Violet: That in order to get ghosts to disappear for a while, you just need to say "Go Away!" forcefully.

2011

In the present, Nora and Tate are in the basement once more. Nora first does not remember who Tate is. She is crying and says that she is sad. When Tate mentions the baby, she remembers him. Tate tells Nora that everything has changed because he loves Violet and he can't take Violet's brother away. Nora says that she will.

Ben tries to get Violet into the car so they can pick up Vivien from the hospital and then fly all to Florida together to Vivien's sister Jo. Ben either does not mention or does not remember that Tate is the Rubber Man, who raped his wife and attacked and drugged him. He does say to Violet however, that he mistrusts both Violet and Tate. Violet lies to Ben and tells him that she hasn't seen Tate in weeks. Violet tells Ben she can't and that she is physically sick and will throw up, but after much protesting, Ben manages to get her into the car. Violet lies down in the backseat of the car. In the instance the car has left the property and reaches the road, Violet disappears from the back of the car and reappears upstairs in the house. Ben does not notice.

Tate and Violet discuss how they will be able to hide Violet 's death from her parents a while longer, since they are planning to go to Florida where Violet 's aunt lives, and they also discuss their future in the house. Tate says to Violet that she won't be able to hide her death from her parents for long. She replies that she is afraid that her parents will permanently go insane if they find out. Tate tries to cheer her up with something on YouTube on Violet's laptop, but can't find the website, because he spells it "utube". Violet is scared about the future together, saying that Chad and Patrick are a terrible example. Tate replies that they are different, since they love each other. Violet is depressed that Tate and her will not be able to have children.

Chad and Patrick are decorating a nursery for the twins that they plan on taking from Vivien. Chad uses a yam to stamp animals on the wall and Patrick paints a cupboard and a crib red. Tate and Violet enter the room. Violet offensively questions who asked them to decorate the nursery. Chad states that the house is his and Patrick's as well as that they are having twins. Violet sarcastically questions if one of the nurses in the basement is the surrogate mother. Chad says it's Violet's own mother. Violet says it doesn't matter because her parents are leaving when they get back but Chad says they won't since Violet's stuck in the house. Chad asks if Violet was born via a c-section, "...if there is an existing zipper we might use?" in regards to taking Vivienne's twins. Tate tells Chad to back off but Chad merely replies, "What are you gonna do? Murder me?"

Violet tells Constance about what the ghaysts are planning, so Constance goes to talk to Chad. Constance initially just rants homophobically at Chad ("You're perverted! You perverted men should not have children"). Chad remains calm, citing academic studies that show that the children of gay couples do not develop differently from those raised by single parents or straight couples. He also justifiedly questions Constance's own track record at being a mother. In the end Constance tells Chad that he can have Ben and Vivien's child, but not her grandson, but Chad still wants both of the babies. He even discusses killing them by smothering them with a pillow, so they can be "cute forever".

Violet talks to medium Billie Dean about getting rid of Chad and Patrick. Billie Dean says to Violet and Constance that she knows of one very succesful exorcism, in the year 1590: The Roanoke Colony in Constance's homestate Virginia. Billie Dean says that all settlers died and subsequently haunted the local Native Americans (the Croatan tribe). One of the elders used property that the English settlers left behind and burned it. He then said the name of their tribe "Croatoan" as a spell against them. This worked according to Billie Dean.

Billie Dean recognizes that Violet is dead and speaks to her through telepathy. She tells Violet that she is sorry that Violet died so young. In response, Violet pleads with Billie Dean telepathically to not tell Constance of her death.

Billie Dean talks about the great evils that feed the house. Immediately afterwards, Tate appears. Billie Dean is with her back to him, but instantly senses his presence. Tate says that he wants to help. Billie Dean is visibly shaken and states that "He cannot be here". When Violet asks what Billie Dean's reaction was all about, Constance replies that it was because it is emotionally difficult for a medium to encounter a dead person. Since Violet herself is dead and Billie Dean has no problem with her, Violet knows this to be untrue.

The doctor in Vivien's hospital recommends that Vivien has a lot of bed rest, instead of going to Florida. It is revealed that since one of the twins is growing at a rapid rate, it's better for Vivien to get an emergency C-Section, which she didn't plan on telling Ben about at the moment. The doctor reveals this to Ben. Vivien is only six months pregnant, but one of the two fetuses (Tate's baby) is taking all the nutrition from the other fetus (Ben's baby) and slowly killing it. Tate's fetus is also growing supernaturally fast.

After learning of the ritual Violet returns to her room where Tate is upset because the medium "said all those things about [him]". Violet needs a talisman from Chad and Patrick to do the ritual. Tate believes that Billie Dean's ritual is "bull-shit" and will not work. He nonetheless goes to see Patrick, who is still decorating the nursery and tries to seduce him. Patrick beats him up instead. Tate manages to steal Patrick's ring. Patrick screams at Tate for murdering him and trapping him with a man that he wanted to leave and did not love. Chad overhears this. Violet in turn steals an expensive Rolex watch from Chad.

Ben and Vivien arrive at the house. Vivien is so scared of the house that she says that she will remain in the car and wait for Ben and Violet. Ben believes just as Luke did with Hayden that Violet jumped out of the car at a red light. Violet tries to tell her father that she's dead and that the spirits of people who die in the house remained trapped there and cannot leave, but he doesn't believe her. Instead Ben believes that Violet has been taking drugs and is actually on drugs when she says all of those things.

Vivien goes into labour in the car. Constance takes her to the living room where Dr. Montgomery and the dead nurses Maria and Gladys are there to assist her. Ben tries to call an ambulance for Vivien. Miraculously, his cell phone suddenly has no reception anymore and the landline is dead. Troy and Bryan smash Ben's car outside with baseball bats, making it unusuable due to all the glass splinters on all seats. The electricity goes out in the house.

Dr Montgomery has to do the delivery as Vivien and Ben cannot leave and cannot get an ambulance to come either. The delivery is illuminated by masses of candles, since the electricity is gone. Dr Montgomery gives Vivien ether against the pain. The first baby, the one that Ben fathered, is stillborn. Dr Montgomery hands it over to Nora so that she can have her baby (it died in the house). The second one that Tate fathered is alive and healthy. We see a flashback to Violet's birth. Both Ben and Vivien ask about who the people assisting the birth are and notice their garish bloody wounds, but Constance evades their questions. During the birth Ben is slowly going insane. Dr Montgomery and the bleeding nurses terrify him. He also keeps thinking about Hayden.

Violet sees her mother go into labor and immediately goes to the basement, realizing that she needs to hurry with the exorcism of the ghaysts. She burns both Chad's rolex and Patrick's ring. Chad appears. Violet says "Croatan" over and over again, but nothing happens. Billie Dean was wrong. Chad is bemused by Violet's attempts to banish him and tells her that nothing that he knows of will banish anyone. He burns the red crib in the same fire that Violet burned Chad's watch and Patrick's ring in. When Violet asks why he is doing that, he tells her that he found out that Patrick does not love him and that he does not want to start a family with someone who doesn't love him. He says that while it may be terrible to spend eternity with someone who doesn't love you, it could be worse: "Tate actually loves you, but he is a monster and will remain a monster. He killed me and Patrick and raped your mother."

Vivien is dying after giving birth to Tate's baby. Ben pleads with her to stay with him. Violet is on the other side of the bed and pleads the opposite: For Vivien to let go and join her in the netherworld.

Constance takes the baby into the kitchen to wash it off. Here she meets old Moira who cries happy tears when seeing the baby. Hayden enters and says that the child is hers.

Violet confronts Tate who is lying on her bed, being nervous about the birth that neither are witnessing. Tate says that Violet changed him. Violet also confronts Tate about the Westfield Massacre that he committed. Tate does not seem to remember at all. He starts to cry and says "why would I do such a thing" over and over again. He does however remember that he was shot by the police. Violet asks why he raped her mother. Tate has no answer other than "I was different then. You changed me." Violet also knows that Tate impregnated her mother and that the ghost-human baby ultimately killed Vivien. Violet breaks up with Tate, telling him she loves him, but that she cannot forgive him. She tells him that she was wrong about him: Tate is not just like her, attracted to darkness, he actually IS the darkness. She says Tate has to pay for what he did. She then uses the method that Tate taught her to make ghosts disappear for a while, that Tate himself was taught by Nora, telling him to "Go Away". Tate disappears, crying and yelling that Violet was all he had, all he wanted and that he loves her. Vivien appears as a ghost to comfort Violet.

Featured Characters Edit

Jeffery Harmon Edit

For this character's page, please click the link below.

Main article: Jeffery Harmon

Guest Stars Edit

Tribal Elder in Roanoke: Saginaw M. Grant
Obstetrician: Shauna Bloom
Young Tate: Paul Christopher Butler
Dr. Marchesi: Steve Anderson
Sancho Martin: Native American
Julia Silverman: Ghost Colonist
Anthony Narvaez: Ghost Colonist

Quotes Edit

Violet (To Tate): "One of these days this computer will be obsolete. People will have microchips implanted in their brains or something. We won't be able to watch YouTube. We'll be like all the others here, prisoners in a windowless cell."
Tate (to Chad and Patrick): "You're going to steal the twins?! You pathetic homos couldn't steal the shit out of your own ass!"
Chad (to Tate): "I am quaking in my loafers. What are you going to do? Murder me?"
Hayden (to Moira and Constance): "Hey bitches. Got that slime off my baby yet?""
Tate (to Violet): "You are the only light I've ever known."
Constance: "God, you are vile. You are not suited to raise children."
Chad: "Raise them? Oh, honey, no no no. We’re going to wait until they reach that adorable age -- about a year or year and a half -- and then we are going to smother them with hypoallergenic pillows. That way they’ll be cute forever."
Constance (to Billie Dean): "That's all very interesting, but what do we do about the gays? I mean, how do we get rid of them?"

Notes Edit

The show that is playing in the living room in the first scene, in which Constance is passed out and drunk is "wikipedia:Newhart". In the scene that we are shown Newhart's character Bob says "You always give a guy a second chance. That's the golden rule."
"wikipedia:Newhart" ended its eight-year run with the revelation that whole series had been an epic nightmare dreamed by the character Bob Newhart played in his first sitcom, a psychiatrist named Robert Hartley.
The doctor says to Ben and Vivien that the phenomenon in which one fetus is killing the other through taking all the nutrients is called "intrauterine omophagia". This condition does not actually exist. Omophagia means eating of raw meat, an ironic definition given Vivien was fed offal during her pregnancy.
There is a condition called "twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS)" which affects identical twins, in which the dominant twin takes blood and nutrients from the recipient twin and can ultimately lead to the death of one or both twins. This would not be the case in this situation, as the twins are not only fraternal, they are from different fathers.
The top grossing film of 1984 was... "Ghostbusters".
The address of the Murder House is given as "939 Berro Drive, LA 90068".

Raised Questions Edit

Why can Violet be with her mom Vivien as ghosts, but Tate not with his ghost dad Hugo?

Why does Nora not remember things?

Why does Tate not remember the school shooting?

Is the "stillborn" baby really dead/a ghost? Or did Dr Montgomery just say that? Is it really now an undead tiny 6-month pre-emie baby that will remain in that form forever?