Piggy Piggy
Season 1, Episode 6
Air date	November 9, 2011
Written by	Jessica Sharzer
Directed by	Michael Uppendahl
Subpages: Spoilers, Commentary
Episode guide
Previous Halloween: Part 2	Next Open House

Piggy Piggy is the sixth episode of the first season of American Horror Story. It was first broadcast on November 9, 2011 on FX in the United States.

• A subpage for Spoilers is available here.
• A subpage for Commentary is available here.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Featured Characters 3.1 Derrick 3.2 Mary 3.3 Mr Carmichael 4 Guest Stars 5 Notes 5.1 Theorized References 6 Videos 7 References 8 Comments

Synopsis Edit

Constance enlists Violet's assistance with Tate. Ben helps a new patient confront his fears.

Plot Edit

1994 The doorbell rings at the house. Constance answers, and it is the Los Angeles SWAT team. A shooter has opened fire at Westfield High. We see the Dead Breakfast Club in the library, and despite barricading the door, Tate manages to get inside. He executes them one by one. Tate is sitting on his bed, waiting. The SWAT team trains their scopes on him, and he mimes putting a gun to his head.

2011 Violet searches for Westfield High School's massacre online and finds the victims... and Tate's picture as the shooter. Violet frantically searches for her mother, but finds Constance waiting in the kitchen. Constance has deduced that Violet has found the truth about Tate and the ghosts. Constance introduces medium Billie Dean Howard. Violet is skeptical. Bille Dean is there to help Tate move on, explaining that there are two types of ghosts: 1) Those who want to avenge their violent deaths and 2) those like Tate who don't know that they are dead. Constance explains that that is why she wanted Tate to see Ben therapeutically. Constance and Bilie Dean want Violet to help them get Tate to move on to the beyond. In order to convince Violet, who is still skeptical both of ghosts in general and Billie Dean's abilities, Billie Dean passes on a recollection from Mary, Violet's dead grandmother.^[1] On her deathbed Mary had said to Violet "They don't understand you", refering to Ben and Vivien.

Vivien rubs her very pregnant demonic baby belly while a cello plays. It's a dream. Violet presses the panic button. Luke has checked out the house, and it's safe. He is understanding of Vivien's insecurity from Ben's infidelity, as his wife left him for another woman. Ben has moved out, but is back now for a therapy session in his office. Luke mentions Hayden "must've hopped out at a stop sign" and leaves. Ben has to work at the house, although Vivien wants him gone. She's angry and disgusted by him. They come to a working arrangement.

Violet is cutting her wrists again with Ben's razorblades. She imagines herself cutting her throat in order to kill herself. In that instant she sees a vision of Tate, who asks her whether she is scared now and then disappears.

Ben's new patient Derrick is terrified of urban legends, and it is paralyzing him. Particularly "Piggy Man": A pig butcher from Chicago in 1893, who wore a pig mask while slaughtering them. The pigs tore him apart after an accident; his former customers were dismembered. He can be conjured by anyone saying "Here Piggy Pig Pig" into a mirror.

Violet enters to talk to Ben, and she's beside herself. She says that "the darkness is eating her up". Ben believes she is talking about the break up of her parents, Ben and Vivien. In reality she is struggling to cope with her newfound knowledge about Tate's actions, his death and the realities of ghosts. As he comforts her, Ben unknowingly calls Violet by Vivien's name.

Vivien is looking for Nurse Angie (who quit) while Moira cleans. Constance enters with a gift of sweetbreads (raw organs) for Viven to eat for her pregnancy. Moira, as she prepares the food, tells Vivien that Ben will cheat again.

Ben works with Derrick again, using successive approximation in the Harmon's bathroom. Derrick tries the "pig call", and a bloody Gladys appears in the tub, believing she is meant, since she is overweight.

Vivien is getting an Amniocentesis.

Violet sees Leah at the deserted swimming pool which is now used as an unofficial skate park. Leah warns Violet that the devil is real, and talks to her about the book of Revelation and the Red Dragon. Neither of them is sleeping. Leah offers Violet some of her sleeping pills.

Violet is in the library and sees the plaque of the massacre victims. A teacher (seen previously) in a powered wheelchair calls her a sicko, but after Violet explains her connection, the teacher discusses the incident with her. She wants to know why Tate did it. He thinks Tate just wasn't a good person.

Vivien has bad news for Moira. Moira thinks the news is about the baby; instead Vivien is firing her, because there's no money to pay her. Moira agrees to work for free. Constance dropped by earlier with more gifts: raw brain. Vivien cautiously digs in, and enjoys it.

Violet comes home and sees a shadow move of Tate. Following him to the basement, she encounters the ghosts of Troy and Bryan, Gladys, Fiona, Dallas, and Charles Montgomery. She runs upstairs to her room. There, Tate had put her iPod on for her and wrote "I love you". Terrified and confused about her feelings, Violet attempts to commit suicide by overdosing on the sleeping pills Leah gave her. Tate finds her and drags her to the bath tub, trying to revive her, crying. He makes her throw up by putting his fingers down her throat.

Ben is in session with Derrick. Derrick has met a woman. Ben challenges him to confront his issues in order to be able to start a relationship.

Vivien finds Angie in a church. Angie has turned to Catholicism after claiming she saw the Antichrist in her womb. Vivien believes the woman is insane.

Derrick calls the Piggy Man in his own bathroom, and gets shot by a robber hiding in his shower. The robber was obese and felt insulted by the term "Piggy Man".

Constance parlays with Billie Dean, who thinks Addy is mad at Constance. Constance says she has one last thing to say to Addy. Addy says through Billie that Constance should have treated her better. Constance apologizes to a (potentially not there) Addy, and tells her how proud she was of her and her beauty. Addy says she knows and is grateful that Constance "didn't get her to the lawn at the old house". Addy is afraid of Tate now that she knows the truth. Back in 1994, Constance wants to talk to Tate, but Tate goes for a hidden gun under his pillow and is riddled with bullets by the SWAT team in response. An officer asks the dying Tate why he did it. Tate tries to say something, but dies before he can.

Violet had borrowed a book on birds from the school library that Tate took out previously in order to understand him. The school teacher who got shot had told her that Tate used to read books on birds. She finds Tate's name on the register. Tate appears and asks her if she's going to tell her parents about the overdose. He confronts her on how distant she is to him now, and wants to know if she wants him to leave her alone. He admits he is in love with her and will stand by her decision. Violet calls him to her and they lie down in her bed, in the same room in which Tate died, both exhausted.

Featured Characters Edit

Derrick Edit

Derrick
Appearances
Portrayed by	Eric Stonestreet
Information
Species	Human (deceased)
Gender	Male
Hair Color	Brown/gray
Eye Color	Gray
Died	2011 (not in Murder House)
Cause of Death	Shot during a home burglary

Derrick^[2] is a guest character. He is a patient of Ben's who posses an irrational fear of the Candyman, the Driverless Car and the Lady in White. And the children’s ghost story that has him crippled is one called Piggyman. He’s meek, timid, scared, defeated.^[3]The character was described as unkempt. Dark circles under his eyes. Part of the story point is that he doesn’t have the confidence and courage to look in mirrors at all, because of the Piggyman ghost story. Derrick definitely shops at Sears. He’s kind of an every guy. Derrick is just contained within himself and unsure. To help Derrick conquer his fears of Piggyman, Ben urges him to go home and try it on his own. Derrick agrees to do so at his own home, and successfully manages to utter the final Piggy, but ends up shot and killed by a burglar who was hiding in the shower. The burglar had gotten offended by the pig remarks, not knowing that Derrick was reciting an urban legend. His partner chastises him for murdering Derrick, and the two flee.

• Derrick, while trying 'Piggy Piggy' in the bathroom at the house, unknowingly summons Gladys.
• Derrick died in exactly the way he was afraid of, but it was due to a home burglary, not the pigman.

Mary Edit

Mary
Appearances
Portrayed by	Linda Porter
First Appearance	Piggy Piggy
Last Appearance	Piggy Piggy
Information
Species	Human (deceased)
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Gray
Relatives	Violet (granddaughter)

• Revealed by Ryan Murphy post-show interview to be Violet's grandmother
• Portrayed by Linda Porter who was on "Phil of the Future" with Evan Peters

Mr Carmichael Edit

Mr Carmichael
Appearances
Portrayed by	Tom Gallop
Information
Occupation	Westfield high Librarian

• Was disabled in the high school shooting (shot through the library door by Tate)

Guest Stars Edit

• Eric Stonestreet as Derrick
• Frances Conroy as Moira O'Hara
• Matt Ross as Charles Montgomery
• Sarah Paulson as Billie Dean
• Brando Eaton as Kyle Greenwell
• Ashley Rickards as Chloe Stapleton
• Alessandra Torresani as Stephanie Boggs
• Jordan David as Kevin Gedman
• Tom Gallop as the teacher
• Azura Skye as Fiona
• Kyle Davis as Dallas
• Eve Gordon as Dr. Hall
• Missy Doty as Nurse Angie
• Shelby Young as Leah
• Morris Chestnut as Luke
• Celia Finkelstein as Gladys
• Preston James Hillier as SWAT Officer
• Alexander Nimetz as Amir Stanley
• Heather Olt as Nurse Regina
• Linda Porter as Mary
• Bodhi Schulz as Troy
• Kai Schulz as Bryan
• David Ury as Robber
• Peter Allen Vogt as Fat Robber

Notes Edit

• The SWAT team was provided by Sigloch, a company of mostly US Marine Corps and US Army vets that reenact fighting for movies.
• After Vivien eats a brain, Derrick gets shot in the head, an ironic twist on the Piggyman legend.
• Vivien’s consumption of raw meat is reminiscent of scenes in the film Rosemary’s Baby , (directed by Roman Polanski, husband of Sharon Tate at the time of her murder) which actress Connie Britton says was “a big inspiration” for Ryan Murphy.^{[citation needed]}
• Violet almost died twice already in the exact same bath tub, saved by Tate (the previous time at the hands of Fiona).
• Taissa Farmiga mentioned filming the bathtub scene in the November issue of Nylon magazine, saying that it was hard to film, but that it felt like an accomplishment afterwards.^[4]
• In the episode Halloween II, goth girl Steph said that Tate asked her whether she believed in God. This is revealed in "Piggy Piggy" not to actually have occurred. Tate did not speak to Stephanie at all before killing her.
• In Tate's fantasies about the school shooting he wears a black hoodie, a Prussian blue American Civil War Union soldier coat and grim reaper make up. His hair is slicked back. In reality, while he did wear the Civil War coat, he also wore a Black T-shirt and had his hair like he normally does, without any make up.
• For legal reasons films do not use "Google" unless they have received payment for it. In AHS, the Google dummy is called "RoundSearch".
• Similarly the LA Times is called "LA Tribune" on the show.
• The bird book that Tate took out and that Violet takes out to retrace his steps is a reprint of John James Audubon's "Birds of America" (1827), in the edition by Roger Tory Peterson (called the "Baby Elephant Folio"). This book currently costs $ 185.
• In the scene in which Tate is shot by the SWAT team, two books are visible: A copy of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1879), the play on the horrors of marriage. In Violet's room there is an actual doll house in its stead. The other book is "Water's Edge: Domestic Politics and the Making of American Foreign Policy" (1979) by Paula Stern. This book is a history and critique of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, further pushing Tate's intellectual/deep thinker credentials.
• In another ironic reference, similar to the "Don't get stuck in high school" monologue, Tate says to Violet "I don't know what I've done".

Theorized References Edit

Theorized references are references that fans strongly suggest there is a connection there, but there is no proof/information/confirmation from an AHS cast member at this time it is a reference.

• The bird book is a reference to the 1988 film Beetlejuice in which the character Charles is obsessed with bird books as well.
• Jeff Jensen, a writer for Entertainment Weekly, suggests the title of the episode as well as the Pigman legend itself is a reference to the song "Piggy" by Nine Inch Nails, recorded in the home of Charles Manson victim Sharon Tate. ("Hey pig piggy pig pig pig/All of my fears came true.") Tate's name is a reference to Sharon Tate, as was his "Helter Skelter" and Bianca's murder. The title score was recorded by a member of the Nine Inch Nails.^[5]

Videos Edit

References Edit

1. ↑ Stack, Tim, "'American Horror Story': Ryan Murphy on Vivien's blood-craving baby and next week's 'most sexual episode' yet -- EXCLUSIVE" | EW | 9 Nov. 2011. <http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/11/09/american-horror-story-ryan-murphy-piggy-piggy/>.
2. ↑ Spelling confirmed in FX's behind the scenes video
3. ↑ http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/11/09/eric-stonestreet-american-horror-story/
4. ↑ Smith, Caitlin | "Something Wicked" | Nylon | Nov. 2011. | p. 119/120 <http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issue=416196386&o=ext>.
5. ↑ Jensen, Jeff, "'American Horror Story': Sympathy For The Devil. Or Not." | EW | 10 Nov. 2011. <http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/american-horror-story-piggy-piggy-episode-6/>.