Checking In (American Horror Story)
episode of American Horror Story (S5 E1)
"Checking In" is the premiere episode of the fifth season of the anthology television series American Horror Story. It aired on October 7, 2015, on the cable network FX. The episode was co-written by creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk and directed by Murphy.
Plot
Two female Swedish tourists check into the Hotel Cortez in downtown Los Angeles. They find a disfigured creature sewn into their room's mattress.
Detective John Lowe, investigating a ritualist murder of an adulturous couple, is called by the murderer to go to the Cortez for clues. He sees a vision there of his missing son, Holden, who was abducted five years earlier. Heroin addict Gabriel checks in and is violently raped by the Addiction Demon.
The resident couple, Countess Elizabeth and Donovan, have a foursome with a couple they met, murdering them after and savoring their blood. In a 1994 flashback, it is revealed that the hotel manager Iris defenestrated a woman to her death after that woman had drugged Donovan to death. Detective Lowe receives a text from his wife saying that she is in trouble.
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