Last night’s episode of American Horror Story: Hotel definitely took a step back from its fast pace and shock inducing nature. Don’t worry, we still see some gore and sex; however, the episode mostly focuses on character development and background. We learn a great deal about John and Alex (and their complicated marriage), Iris, and we finally get our first look at Angela Bassett’s character, Ramona. Even though episode 3 was a little uneventful, it does a decent job at setting us up for next week.

Let’s begin with Alex. She seemed like an insignificant character, but the fact that they dedicated time to explain why Holden’s kidnapping is such a big trauma to her makes me believe that she is going to have a bigger part in the show. We also find out the reason Alex became a pediatrician in the first place; and that is because she had a broken childhood and needs to save children to feel whole again. Nothing helped her out until she had her first born, Holden. Nothing too noteworthy there except how much she loved him. In fact, she may have loved him more than her own husband and daughter. And that’s a tough spot to be in… I assume.

For me, the horrific homicide crimes that John tries to solve often steal the show. They feel a lot like an episode of Dexter, and well, I’m not going to complain about that. He also begins to experience the creepiness of the Hotel Cortez at its full potential. He begins to “hallucinate”, lose sleep, and get mysterious handjobs at night. Yes, really. Remember Gabriel the druggie in the first episode? The one who got raped by a mummy with a metal strap on? Well he briefly shows up again. As suspected from episode one, his role is mostly unnecessary and exists mainly for shock factor. Moving on – We learn a bit more about Iris and her horrible parenting skills. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go into much detail, but something big happens, and it should make for an extremely interesting 4th episode.

Last but not least, we finally see Angela Bassett’s character, Ramona Royale. Ramona was an actress who fell in the hands of the Countess. Due to a little falling out, Ramona and the Countess become enemies, Coven much? Ramona plans her plot of revenge on the Countess – since the countess is responsible for the loss of something important to her. Oh, the drama.

To wrap this up, I’m glad that the length of the show is slowly returning to an hour time slot rather than a full movie length. While this episode was not nearly as controversial as the previous two, it was very informative and a great set up for future episodes. Kudos to Murphy for taking a step back and focusing on the story rather than the shock factor.