First, though, we go back in time to 40 years before this 1989 festival to 1948, when Camp Redwood is still known as Camp Golden Star. The cook of this camp, played by AHS alum Lily Rabe, is making meals for the kids when one of her children dies in a motorboat accident while her other boy Benjamin looks on. She blames everyone and commits the camp’s first ever massacre.
Back in ‘89, Brooke (Emma Roberts) is back in the land of the living after Donna (Angelica Ross) reversed her lethal injection, and she wants revenge on Margaret (Leslie Grossman), not only for framing her for murder but also for forcing her to miss most of the 1980s. She gets a taste of the decade, however, when she and Donna go to the roller disco, where they meet the mustachioed lothario Bruce, portrayed by former AHS star Dylan McDermott.
Of course, this being American Horror Story, he’s actually a hitchhiking serial killer, who knocks them out and then gives Brooke a choice—either she kills Donna or dies herself. However, she crashes the car and uses the confusion to get the jump on Bruce, cutting his thumbs off and shooting him in his genitals. Because Hell hath no fury like an AHS character scorned.
Back at Camp Redwood, most of the ghosts are gearing up for a massacre as the festival guests start to arrive. The 1984 writers cannot resist an anachronistic Fyre Festival gag here as Margaret worries that they do not have any food to give their $100,000-a-ticket guests. While she worries about the lack of food, the ghosts worry about a particularly spooky phantom of the eponymous “Lady in White.”
This lady turns out to be Benjamin’s mother, the original Redwood ghost. As for her son, he has grown up to be Mr. Jingles after he stabbed his mother to death following the original massacre. This whole time, she has been filled with resentment that Benjamin survived when her other son did not. This gives Jingles worries about his own son, that he knows will never be safe while his rival serial killer Ramirez is still on the prowl.
To remedy this, his mother gives him a choice, either fight Ramirez while alive and get sent to hell, or kill himself and come back as an unkillable ghost. He chooses the latter, setting up a confrontation between them in the penultimate episode next week.
American Horror Story: 1984 airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. CT on FX.