American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare episode 3, review: Finally, everything's gone Gaga

The Roanoke mystery is finally starting to unravel, as Lady Gaga's mysterious role steps into the spotlight

*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON 6*

By American Horror Story standards, My Roanoke Nightmare's third episode is still holding back. Certainly, we've at least got a while to wait until the "huge turn" Ryan Murphy's promised in episode 6; yet, for a season with such an uncharacteristically subdued opener, this latest edition finally proved the first tonal swerve towards the show's usual penchant for madness.

Not initially, however; with the opening half of the episode instead providing an opportunity to lock down the character drama at hand before things start to spiral. Roanoke here finally offers Angela Bassett a dramatic spotlight worthy of her talents, in a way we've never really seen in the series so far; as we witness the crippling agony of losing her daughter Flora to the woodland's mysteries.

In fact, Flora has now usefully become something a dramatic centrepoint for the season; where before the chills had felt a little more disaparately tied together in the preceding episodes, by this episode's close we can truly start to get our footing with the stakes at play here.

Said chills are for now - as before - largely pig-related. It's interesting to see them become so centrally thematic to Roanoke, considering the "Piggy Man" urban legend cropped up in Murder House to terrorise one of Ben's patients; it could very well be a coincidence, but with Murphy's repeated hints that season 6 will integrate previous elements even further than usual, all this pig imagery definitely starts to feel like a clue.

Really, so much of what we've seen so far has felt like set-up; between strange glimpses of murderous nurses, ominous phrases such as, "we'd later come to understand that this was a warning", and even the very framework of its talking heads. Episode 3 at least offered what may be our first taste of what the latter may deliver down the line, as the camera - for the first time - breaks away from the tight close-ups of Matt, Shelby, and Lee recounting their experiences.

We briefly see a studio with gathered crew and, tellingly, an interviewer's voice which very much sounds like it could belong to Cheyenne Jackson; whose prominent role in Hotel, and his placement on Roanoke's credits, indicate he'll be making a much greater appearance later down the line. But in what context?

Frustratingly, for now, there's a sense the talking heads continue to inerrupt and intrude on the story's creepier elements; somewhat spoiling, for example, this episode's discovery of a strange pair of children suckling from a sow, both feral and repeatedly screaming the word, "Croatoan".

Hopefully, it's just a matter of keeping faith in the talking heads until the format pays off, though the introduction of the word "Croatoan" seems to usher in the season's first real turn; finally revealing the connection to the titular Roanoke - AKA the Lost Colony - in which 117 people mysteriously vanished in 1590 off the Roanoke Island, leaving only dismantled buildings and a carving of the word 'CROATOAN'.

This discovery soon ushered in a pretty typically-rendered American Horror Story character: Leslie Jordan (who played male witch Quentin Fleming in Coven) as medium Cricket Marlowe, possessing all that eccentric flair that we're so accustomed to from our characters by this point. And it's through Cricket's powers that we start to get some understanding of this season's supernatural element, ushering in a seance which introduced in full Kathy Bates' marvelously accented antagonist The Butcher AKA Thomasin White, wife to Roanoke's absent governor.

It's in the following flashbacks to the Lost Colony that the season really starts to feel like its kicking off; tracing Thomasin's backstory from her betrayal at the hands of fellow colonists, including her own son Ambrose (Wes Bentley), and her encounter with Lady Gaga's own devilish Horned Woman.

It's with both Thomasin and the Horned Woman that we find a particular new level of intrigue; Bates' presence is utterly commanding and Gaga's slithering, sweet voice provides a menacing twist on her previously seductive Countess. Indeed, the episode closes with something of a classic moment for the show; as Shelby discovers a possessed Matt fornicating with the Horned Woman in the depths of the woods, all while the hillbillies watch.

Shelby's reaction here is strange; choosing to primarily feel angry that her husband has cheated on her - while screaming, "Who is she?" - when most people would likely be too distracted by the crazed woman covered in blood and deer horns to be busying themselves with accusations of adultery. If we were in the midst of Freakshow or Hotel's hysterical theatrics, sure, this bonkers reaction would make sense; but in the more grounded horror of Roanoke, her motivations seem oddly misplaced.

Yet, ending the episode with Lee's arrest, thanks to Shelby's vengeful machinations, provides a perfect dramatic cliffhanger to leave us on; like we've reached the peak of a rollercoaster, waiting now for the inevitable descent.

American Horror Story airs Wednesdays at 10PM in the US on FX, and airs on FOX UK the following Friday at 10PM.