"Piggy Piggy" is the sixth episode of the of the television series American Horror Story, which premiered on the network FX on November 9, 2011. The episode was written by supervising producer Jessica Sharzer and directed by Michael Uppendahl. This episode is rated TV-MA. Piggy Piggy was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special, and for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie. In this episode, Ben sees a patient who fears an urban legend about a man who slaughters those who say a special mantra into a mirror. Eric Stonestreetguest stars as Derek, Ben's patient.
Plot
Flashing back to 1994, Tate shoots and kills several students in a school shooting, including the five teenagers seen in the previous episode. A SWAT team later storms the Langdon household, looking to arrest Tate. Tate pulls a gun and is shot dead by the SWAT team. All this occurs in the Murder House. After Violet finds out that Tate killed the teenagers, Constance introduces her to a medium, Billie Dean Howard. Billie and Constance explain that Tate is unaware that he is dead; Constance has been sending him to Ben, hoping it will help him pass on and they need Violet’s help. Ben sees a new patient, named Derek, who is terrified by urban legends, including "Piggy Man", who will slaughter anyone who repeats a specific mantra in the mirror. Ben also begins noticing that Vivien has developed an attraction to the security officer Luke. Constance and Moira convince Vivien to eat sweetbreads to help with the pregnancy. Vivien contacts the ultrasound technician who fainted during the ultrasound, who claims that she saw that the baby is the Devil. Taking Ben's advice to face his fear, Derek repeats the mantra in his bathroom mirror, but is shot and killed by an armed burglar hiding in his shower. Violet tries to confront Tate in the basement, but is mobbed by the other ghosts. Overwhelmed, she attempts suicide by taking several sleeping pills, but Tate attempts to save her by forcing her to vomit the pills. Later, Tate tearfully confesses that he loves her and cannot understand why she has turned cold towards him. He plans to leave her alone if that's what she wants, but she comforts him. Constance speaks to Addie through Billie Dean and learns that Addie is glad she was not revived as a ghost because she now fears to be near Tate, after learning what he did.
Cultural references
The scene in which Tate puts a finger gun to his head when the SWAT team storms his bedroom is a reference to the 1976 filmTaxi Driver, in which the film's protagonist Travis Bickle does the same when found by police following his shooting spree.
Production
The episode was written by supervising producer Jessica Sharzer, and directed by Michael Uppendahl. On creating the character of Billie Dean and her "gift", series co-creator Ryan Murphy relates his own experience with a medium, "When we created her, all of us in the writer's room have had some experience with psychics or not. I'm somebody that was very skeptical until I went to a woman who me out of nowhere, 'Is your father ill?' and I said, 'No. He just had a physical and he's fine.' She said, 'You need to tell him to go back.' So he did go back and they found prostate cancer and he died two years later. So Billie Dean was inspired a large part by that experience. We are saying that, yes, she is legitimate."
Reception
reports an 89% approval rating, based on 9 reviews. Carissa Pavlica of TV Fanatic gave the episode 4.7 out of 5 stars, saying, "I have absolutely no idea what is happening on American Horror Story and I love every moment of it." The Star-Ledger James Queally said, ""Piggy Piggy" contains more good than bad, but it also has a lot of scenes that require me to take a wait-and-see approach." In its original American broadcast, "Piggy Piggy" was seen by an estimated 2.83 million household viewers and gained a 1.6 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
