‘American Horror Story: Roanoke’ episode 4 preview: Searching for answers

We considered the first two episodes of “American Horror Story: Roanoke” to be something special, a throwback in ways to the earlier days of the series where things were a little more scary than silly. Then, things went a little weird in episode 3 and we had all of that crazy stuff go down with Matt and Lady Gaga’s freakish character in the woods. We expanded the world considerably, and we’re not sure that all of it worked.

So what are we getting an episode four? That is a very good question, and one that the promo below offers some further information on. Matt and Shelby are going to be looking together for some sort of answers as to what happened to him; he professes to not knowing anything about what happened to him in the woods, and unfortunately, they’re not going to have a whole lot of time to think about. After all, Documentary Shelby (as we like to call) claims that something happens that makes her more scared than she’s ever been in her life.

One thing to keep in mind here potentially is a popular theory we’ve seen bandied about online the past few days: That each episode so far bears thematic similarities to the first five seasons of the show. Episode 1 had elements of “Murder House,” while episode 2 had more of an “Asylum” feel with the nurses. Meanwhile, the rituals and the forest in episode 3 felt like “Coven,” which means in theory that we could be seeing “Freak Show” next.

Maybe this theory is just all of us wanting to read something into the story, but it’s at least interesting. We could also make a joke here about why the first two episodes were much better than the third now … oh wait. We just did.

If you missed it, head over here to see more about the show’s season 7 renewal! Also, sign up over here to score some other TV news on everything we cover via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: FX.)