American Horror Story: Roanoke episode 6, review: The BIG twist is here and it's brought death by the bucketload

Ryan Murphy has figured out exactly what he needs to do to keep us hooked until the bitter end

American Horror Story: Roanoke's big twist just burst into the room. There's a whole bunch of yelling and something's probably on fire, but the overriding point here is that Ryan Murphy now has your rapt attention and he has zero plans of letting go anytime soon. So get comfortable.

Episode 6 isn't even exactly the rug-pulling surprise we were told to expect; but more a very calculated, sort of fiendishly brilliant re-jig of narrative structure working on the logic of – why have one new season of American Horror Story when you can get more bang for your buck with two?

The faux-documentary style of My Roanoke Nightmare, complete with its talking heads and dramatic re-enactments, has ended. One chapter closes, and another begins: with the episode opening on a series of title cards which explain that My Roanoke Nightmare “was the television success story of 2015”, beating the likes of Empire and The Walking Dead in what's a brief little moment of self-indulgent fantasy for Ryan Murphy.

We then open on ruthless TV producer Sydney (Cheyenne Jackson), who we'd previously heard as the behind-camera interviewer on My Roanoke Nightmare. He's a sort of walking parody of all of television's current obsessions: not only fixated on recreating the success of My Roanoke Nightmare with rehashing sequel Return to Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell, but with entrapping Lee and getting her to confess to the murder of Flora's father Mason in some sort of burp-free, ghost-heavy take on The Jinx.

Sydney's premise relies not only on bringing back the real Lee, Shelby, and Matt to the Roanoke house, but the actors who played them in the re-enactments; spending three days in the house during the infamous Blood Moon. We know this is a dumb decision on everyone's part and it's only going to end in bloodshed and more of Shelby screaming, “MAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!”; but it's made clear the cast and crew never experienced anything during their filming of My Roanoke Nightmare and they're incredulous of Matt and Shelby's story.

And so, we're introduced to the best part of the twist: with Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kathy Bates, and Evan Peters all returning to play the actors who brought the My Roanoke Nightmare re-enactments to life. It's basically a gift to fans - and maybe a sort of apology for all the pre-season trolling that happened.

Sarah Paulson's Audrey Tindall reveals a British accent that's kind of hokey, like she's doing an Emily Blunt impression on Saturday Night Live; but, hey, she's having fun. Kathy Bates' Agnes Mary Winstead was driven to murderous impulses in her playing of the Butcher character, arrested and institutionalised after being caught in costume and wielding a knife in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard.

This is a good set-up for future rampages already hinted at by her turning up to the Roanoke house uninvited and in full Butcher guise, because you can never have enough murderous Kathy Bates and I was far from ready to say goodbye to that accent.

While Sydney is busy rigging the Roanoke house so that drawers can jump out and windows can smash on command, in an attempt to replicate enough spooks to scare Lee into confessing, we briefly see a clip of Elias Cunningham's confessional video; but, of course, it isn't Denis O'Hare but an entirely new actor.

We've blown the speculation doors wide open here: are we getting new actors to play each of the characters we've already seen on screen? Is this the last of Lady Gaga and Wes Bentley for this season, whose actor equivalents never entered the house for Return to Roanoke and likely never will? Will there be a new Butcher? Played by who? Could it be, dare I say it... JESSICA LANGE?

Ryan Murphy's playing a pretty smart game with the actor switch-up, and is showing some clear self-awareness in relation to American Horror Story's issues with audiences dropping off in large numbers around the halfway point in past seasons; knowing that fans are almost always most invested in figuring out who everyone is playing in each season, the continuing promise of new actors forms a strong hook to keep people watching until the very end.

Furthermore, the twist has provided something of a genre change-up; with the chills of what we've seen before now having the added dimension of the slasher genre. With the cameras all set up and the actors moved in, a new title card pops up to reveal another major hook for the season: everything's gone very Blair Witch Project.

It announces that everything we're about to see is merely found footage; the show was never aired because everyone involved died in "mysterious circumstances". Except for one. Now audiences are left with that B-movie thrill of guessing who - by the logistics of horror conventions - is next on the chopping block and who will prevail.

It was pretty easy to guess Evan Peters was dead meat straight away - though I'm pretty shocked they actually went ahead and killed him off AGAIN - but he was the biggest asshole and the biggest asshole always goes first. Which presumably won't be very well handled by fans and marks just another layer to Murphy's expert trolling; bringing in one of the show's most beloved stars twice in one series only to die within the episode each time.

By that logic, it's either Mary Poppins Paulson - who's revealed to be married to Peters' murdered, red-headed bro - or the money-grubbing Sydney that's next on the chopping block. Though Murphy has been teasing a secondary twist that may just entirely change the game once more, so we'll have to see.

It seems clear that Roanoke has essentially been constructed around the concept of how to keep audiences watching until the bitter end. Yes, there's part of me that feels the deep cynicism of that - of Murphy sitting on his mountains of TV cash laughing as the viewing figures pour in, endlessly hinting and hyping knowing that fans will be powerless to resist their curiosity.

There is a vague sense of artlessness to this season, when the show has poured so much into building its strange worlds and characters in the past; but at the same time, I can't deny that it doesn't work. I will return - each week with new feverish anticipation for every twist and turn that Murphy's got coming. Bring on the Return to Roanoke, I'm too helpless to resist.