Main cast: Gabourey Sidibe (Jaslyn Taylor), Max Greenfield (Bryce Taylor), Joel Swetow (Dayle Hendricks), Lily Rohren (Mary Jeane Burkett), Vince Yap (Hwan), and Nancy Linehan Charles (Dayle’s Sister)
Director: Max Winkler

Two episodes in, and already the second season of American Horror Stories is shaping up to be far better than the previous one. Of course, like any show ran by Ryan Murphy and friends, there is only one inevitable conclusion: it is run right into the ground, and it’s only a matter of when. Let’s enjoy the calm while it lasts.

In Aura, we meet married couple Jaslyn and Bryce Taylor, and it’s evidently clear something is off as Bryce is patronizing and jumpy. He says it’s his OCD, but any veteran viewer of “a psycho is after me” shows on the Lifetime channel will know, this is a very strong sign that the guy is going to go psycho eventually.

When she was a child, Jaslyn was awakened by a stranger in a bunny mask, who told the terrified girl to stay quiet. The girl could only cower in fear as she heard the intruder shot her mother dead.

Understandably, the adult Jaslyn is paranoid about home safety. She and her husband agree to keep to a budget, as it’s not cheap to move into a gated community that boasts of top notch security and all. Still, when she spots a doorbell system, called Aura, on sale for $199, and she hears how well it works from another customer in the shop, she decides to buy it.

Aura works by alerting Jaslyn, through her phone, whenever there is motion in front of the door, and the camera will give her a clear view of whoever it is outside the door. She can also communicate with that fellow from the safety of her home using the Aura app on the phone. See, it’s a nice security system!

Well, that is, until it starts alerting her of a creepy-looking man that bangs on her door, asking to speak to her. Strangely enough, her opposite neighbor’s security camera fails to detect the man. What is going on here? Is that fellow a… ghost?

This episode relies tad too heavily on jump scares and other contrived efforts to mislead the audience into thinking that it is far more frightening than it actually is, but the biggest issue here is Max Greenfield. Early on, it’s telegraphed a little too obviously that he is a nutcase waiting to explode—his lines are tad too patronizing, he is too quick to dismiss everything and anything unusual happening, and he also shows a micro-managerial streak when it comes to how everything should be in their home.

So, I doubt most people will be shocked to learn that he is the final villain in this episode. It’s too obvious. Perhaps appropriately, Mr Greenfield is far more convincing as a psycho than a nice guy.

Jaslyn is actually one of the better heroines in a Lifetime-ish thriller. The fact alone that she checks online for facts instead of waiting until the last minute makes her three times as smart as the usual heroine of those thrillers. She doesn’t buy wholesale everything Max tells her, and she does her own research, awesome.

Also, Gabourey Sidibe shows in her role that she can vulnerable as well as she plays the sassy yas kween type, and it’s easy to root for Jaslyn here.

So while I won’t say Aura is a great episode, it is a solid episode for this show because it is coherent, doesn’t overlook story for fanservice, and the leading lady is capable of dragging the episode to the finish line in spite of the plot holes and ridiculous moments in the script.

So yes, so far this season is shaping up to be better than the previous season. Let’s just hope that, as the wise people of the past would say, the people behind this show won’t eff up a good thing like they always did in the past.