So where will season 2 plant its sinister stakes? My mind immediately went to the Lemon Grove Prep Academy for Girls – the place where Ben was thinking of sending Violet to get her refocused on academics. (See: the episode “Smoldering Children.”) Many fans suspect Florida, home to “Aunt Jo,” Vivien’s sister. Twin sister, possibly? That would allow Connie Britton to come back next year – and Murphy did say we might see some season 1 cast members again, playing different parts. Trusting Murphy wasn’t pulling our leg when he said that “Birth” contained a clue, here are some possibilities:
CLUE? In the opening sequence, we saw Newhart on Constance’s television. THEORY! Bob Newhart’s second sitcom was set at a small New England inn. Might be too small for American Horror Story – but I am tickled by the idea of a Psycho-esque story at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts. (Another Mass. theory in a second.)
CLUE? The little girl dolls in the Murder House basement, also seen during the prologue. THEORY! American Horror Story 2.0 will reside in Wisconsin, home to the American Girl doll company. The nation’s cheesehead capitol allegedly has “more ghosts per square mile than any other state in America.” As for exact locations, there’s Summerwind, the state’s most haunted house, or – on a bleaker tip — the terrifying farmhouse of one of America’s most infamous homicidal maniacs, Ed Gein, whose grisly atrocities have inspired fictional monsters like Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Jame Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs). Or so Wikipedia tells me.
CLUE? Billie Dean Howard’s story – told visually — about the lost colony of Roanoke. THEORY! Ergo, next season will take place somewhere in Dare County, on the North Carolina coast, perhaps inside a beach house-turned-mental asylum for women lined with Yellow Wallpaper. Too on the nose, if you ask me. (BTW: Would love to see kooky Billie Dean — and her Lifetime show — in the future. Maybe next season will transpire within a haunted Hollywood studio?)
CLUE? The Massachusetts license plate on Ben’s vehicle with an October expiration date. The digits: “14Z Q83.” THEORY! Perhaps next season –which is likely to begin in October — will be set in Salem, Mass., site of a true American horror story, The Salem Witch Trials. Then again, there was a lot of talk about Harvard University in the last couple episodes of the season. Perhaps season 2 will be set at some haunted dormitory… or inside some mysterious building on the fringes of the campus, just down the hallway from Walter Bishop’s lab.
As always, I look forward to being proven wrong. But what about you, AHS fans? Where do you think season 2 will be set or should be set? How do you feel about leaving Murder House behind? Has your opinion of season 1 changed for the better or the worse? I look forward to reading your thoughts in the message boards.
). I do think there were several explanations held back because they want something for future seasons.
