FX has had great success with their American horror anthology series, American Horror Story. And now, American Horror Stories, its spin-off series, has returned with a new season, and Dollhouse, the first episode of Season 2, connects the episode’s events to the Coven plot.
Without context, the plot twist would seem to be a complete surprise. However, if you have watched American Horror Story’s third season, this episode is sure to frighten you, especially due to the final plot surprise.
In this episode, a significant character, the mute butler Spalding, shines. We are given a glimpse of his life before joining Miss Robichaux’s Academy, and as you may have expected, it was pretty twisted.
In this video, we will discuss the Dollhouse episode and demonstrate how it connects to American Horror Story: Coven, particularly since Spalding learns the details of his past.
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What Happens In Dollhouse?
The story is set in 1961 in Natchez, Mississippi. Van Wirt is a prolific dollmaker and has a successful toy company. He is also a single father to one son, who is the heir to his estate.
One day, a girl named Coby applies to get hired as his secretary. She has an excellent academic record and is more than eligible enough for the position. However, despite acknowledging that, Van Wirt turns her down, saying that she is not fit enough for the job. Coby is taken aback for a second, but suddenly, we see someone grab her from behind as the camera pans out.
When Coby wakes up, she finds herself in a house surrounded by life size dolls. Van Kirt appears to tell her that her qualifications were too good for her to be reduced to a secretary, which is why she has been entered for a pageant, and that she cannot leave this place. Coby gets desperate because of the terrifying situation and tries her best to run away, only to realize that the place is built like a safe. Also, there does seem to be only one way to get out, which we learn about later.
Coby soon learns that the life-like dolls in the dollhouse are all real human beings dressed like dolls, wearing their masks and maintaining a statuesque position whenever someone comes. And the reason they are doing this is quite disturbing. Van Kirt’s much younger wife was caught cheating on him with a man closer to her age. She was then gagged with her lover, stunned with a cattle prod, and thrown down a well that had been there since the time of the Civil War.
Van Kirt had a son whose name was Otis. Coby notices him from the dollhouse and learns about the scandal with Van Kirt, his wife, and her lover. With Otis’ mother now dead, Van Kirt had dedicated himself to finding the ideal mother for his son. And this is why he created his dollhouse. The doll who was the best at performing old-school, homely, wife-like duties, would be the one who would become Otis’ new mother. Meanwhile, the others would be eliminated and killed. And winning this weird pageant was the only way to get out of this mess.
Soon after, Otis paid a visit to the dollhouse. Coby now had to dress up as a doll and she picked the outfit of a clown. When Otis appeared, he interacted with her distastefully, since he hated clowns. However, she won him over by pulling off a magic trick. Coby (now Coby the Clown) was able to move a toy car with her mind alone, and no secret magic tricks were involved. This took Otis by surprise and he began to show an interest towards her.
Later that day, Aurelia (one of the dolls who used to dress as a French maid) called Coby out for her voodoo trick. She did not like how Coby joined the pageant midway without having to go through the tests some of the others did. And she had grown jealous of Otis taking a liking towards Coby. She does not necessarily want to be Van Wirt’s wife because honestly, who would? But Aurelia is very, very desperate to survive.
An alarm rings, which signifies that it is time for a test. Van Wirt gets the doll-women seated across the table and lists out a menu. The dolls must now set up the crockery correctly in a minute to depict themselves as the perfect wife. Aurelia pulls off the perfect setting, unlike Coby who knocks over a water glass as she tries to copy what the others are doing. Meanwhile, another woman named Faye makes the biggest mistakes. She is stunned by a cattle prod and subsequently thrown down the well, which only shows how high the stakes are and how perfect each doll needs to be for their continued survival.
Otis visits the dollhouse the next morning. He talks to Coby the Clown in private. Coby knows that she probably cannot win the pageant with her skillsets. So, she tries to take the other route by winning Otis’ favor. And so she does, as she tries to empathize with him by talking about the hardships of his life for being too different compared to the other kids, especially because he was a boy who played with dolls. And she lets him in on her little secret – which is her ability to use slight telekinesis to move things around. In the end, Otis tells her that he wants her to be his mother. She takes advantage of the situation and asks Otis to tell his father not to dispose of the other dolls. In return, she will be the perfect mother for him.
Otis tries to bring this up to Van Wirt at night but Van Wirt is in a horrible mood due to Barbie ruling over the doll market. So, Otis backs down.
On the next day, Van Wirt goes back to the dollhouse with a new test – one where the dolls have to blend a laundry tincture, iron it into the shirt, and fold it. Once again, Aurelia does a better job than the others while the other three dolls make mistakes. Coby scorches the shirt she ironed, causing Van Wirt to take her hand and press it with the hot iron as punishment. Meanwhile, another doll named Bonnie is eliminated, stabbed, and carried away to be dropped into the well.
Harlene, a woman who dresses like a nurse-doll, tends to Coby’s burn and mentions how Van Wirt likes her, because if he did not, he would have gotten her eliminated for the scorching. Aurelia overhears this and decides to murder Coby. She finds a pointy weapon-like pole-cap acorn and stabs Coby in the back with it. But turns out, Coby had expected for the events to transpire this way and had placed a mannequin in her clown costume to fool Aurelia.
Aurelia is confronted and she explains how she does not want to die. So, Coby tells her about the plan she has for them to escape. When Van Wirt comes to the house again, the women dress up mannequins like their dolls during their test and use Coby’s telekinetic ability to escape via the door secretly. Aurelia and Harlene rush across the swamp while Coby goes to rescue Otis. Meanwhile, Van Wirt discovers the truth and sends his men to search for the women.
Harlene falls down and instead of helping her, Aurelia heads to kill her for being too slow and loud. However, she is soon shot by one of Van Wirt’s men. He then kills Harlene as well. Meanwhile, Coby tries to get Otis to leave with her as she is concerned for his safety. However, he apologizes to her and stuns her with a cattle prod. His apology also shows how he does care for her, even though he is constantly made to do his deranged father’s bidding.
When Coby awakens, she finds herself strapped to a table. Van Wirt stands beside her and tells her how the plastic dolls in the dollhouse had microphones planted in them, which is how he knew of their plan. As a result, he had created the last test, the test of faith, to see who would risk their lives for Otis, since that is something a mother would do. And Coby was the only one to visit Van Wirt’s manor to save Otis. So, she was the only one who passed.
Soon, a large doll mold is pressed onto Coby’s body, encasing her in porcelain. Her distress causes her telekinetic abilities to flicker the lights, but it is not strong enough to help her escape. Coby is turned into a living doll, not like the people from House of Wax though, since she is flexible enough to carry out her duties as Van Wirt’s wife and Otis’ mother.
The Major Plot Twist
Coby turns mute as a result of her shock. One day, while serving her new family in the dollhouse, two robed women appear in front of them. These women freeze Van Wirt in his place and with a flick of their hand, break the doll mold around Coby, turning her into who she used to be. These women are witches, who reveal that Coby is also a witch. They had detected her magic because it had caused a telekinetic earthquake while she was distressed from being turned into a doll. And so, they were here to save her and take her to a safe haven for witches.
Coby leaves with them and she also takes Otis with her. She promises to be his mother, provided they never return to Van Wirt. Meanwhile, the two witches burn down Van Wirt and the dollhouse with a flick of their hands.
This is where the story connects to the events of American Horror Story: Coven – a season dedicated to a coven of witches who are the descendants of Salem from the Salem Witch Trials. The place known as Miss Robichaux’s Academy For Exceptional Young Ladies becomes the new home for Coby and Otis. This is a safe haven for witches, and Coby urges Otis to take up his middle name to save himself from being targeted, following his father’s death. And so, it is revealed that Otis’s middle name is Spalding, and his story is that he has been in this Academy for generations.
This brings us to the mute butler at the Academy whose name is Spalding. As you may have already guessed, it is the same guy and the Dollhouse episode is very much like an origin story for Otis. Towards the end of the episode, he also meets a young Myrtle Snow, who was excited to have someone close to her age.
But obviously, life did not turn out to be great for Spalding, thanks to the situation with the woman he loved, Fiona Goode, murdering another witch to surpass her and become the Supreme Witch. Spalding tried to cover for her crime and Myrtle, who had the affinity to detect lies, enchanted his tongue so that he can never lie again.
Later, he confessed his true feelings to Fiona and cut out his own tongue so that he does not accidentally put Fiona in jeopardy while being questioned.
Poor guy started off with a horrible life with a horrible father… and it did not go on to be the best either, thanks to him cutting off his own tongue for his love. But it really makes you think how a boy who was okay with his new mother being turned into a doll via literal torture turned out to be someone who would go above and beyond for his lover. Maybe Coby was the perfect mother, after all.
And with that, today’s video comes to an end. What did you think of Dollhouse? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, then don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye. And have a nice one!