: Originally announced as a 90-minute special, the episode was eventually cut down to 70 minutes due to an aggressive production schedule.
: They are seen decorating a Christmas tree together, finally reconciled and freed from the toxic infidelities and secrets that plagued their living years.
The episode concludes with the —Ben, Vivien, and Violet—fully reunited as ghosts. In a subversion of typical horror tropes, they find more peace in death than they ever did in life.
While the Harmons find peace, the episode sets up the show's grander mythology by introducing .
An interesting feature of the American Horror Story: Murder House finale, ," is its pivot from a tragic disintegration of a family to a strangely "happy" domestic afterlife. The "Hallmark" Afterlife
: The family takes on a heroic role by working together to scare away new potential residents, like the Ramos family , to protect them from the house's cycle of violence. The Rise of the Antichrist
![[S1E12] Afterbirth](http://pubimage.360doc.com/index7/dingtu.gif)