Ryan Murphy currently has six shows on the air, but only one of them features Kansas City Chiefs tight end and Mr. Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce. grotesquewhich is basically the second one American horror story Replacement for the year (American horror stories is still a thing!), is about Lois (Niecy Nash), a troubled detective who solves a series of particularly grotesque and biblically colored murders, who works with Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), a nun who is also an investigative journalist and deals with true crime lovers.
What influence does Travis Kelce have on this? Great question! I’m still trying to figure this out myself.
[Ed. note: This post contains light spoilers for Grotesquerie through the sixth episode.]
Kelce appears in the third episode as Eddie, an orderly at the small town hospital. Dressed all in white, he sits next to Lois in a beautiful garden lit by warm sunlight. It is a far cry from the dark and gloomy murder scenes and also from the eerie liminal space of the hospital. They have a flirtatious conversation and Eddie urges her to do so not drinking and driving.
However, she doesn’t listen to him and has a car accident. When she wakes up in the hospital, Eddie is there, and after a brief scolding from Lois’ superiors, the two resume their flirtatious back and forth.
It’s funny because no one else seems to notice that Eddie is in the hospital or even in their room. I had a theory that he could be some sort of alcohol-induced hallucination, or maybe even a saint or guardian angel, considering all the religious motifs in this series and the fact that he repeatedly tries to get her to stop drinking. No one else interacted with him directly! I thought I was onto something.
However, my theory was somewhat undermined when Lois introduced Eddie to her daughter and asked him to stay with her while she drove to the middle of the desert with Megan.
…and that’s the last we see of him!
Since then, there have been two more episodes in which Lois clearly returns home at least once. But her daughter and Eddie are completely missing. Where did he go? We just don’t know. And it seems like Lois doesn’t really care, which is a little understandable considering how much is on her plate. (Although it’s a little strange that we don’t get any confirmation that her daughter is okay when there’s a serial killer specifically targeting Lois, but okay!) Since there’s hardly any establishing shot that reveals that her daughter and Eddie are still are alive, I still wonder… Did Eddie even exist?
Is his mysterious absence a hint that he is some kind of benevolent spirit who guides Lois but is ultimately called to a higher power? Or is it simply because Kelce had limited time away due to his training schedule, so they had to shoot basically all of Eddie’s scenes at once and fit them in somewhere? Additionally, Eddie displays a very stilted, perhaps otherworldly demeanor. Which could indicate that he is not of this world. Or more likely, it’s probably because Kelce is a good football player, but he is relatively new to the world of acting.
But wait, it gets even weirder! There Is a small nod to Eddie at the end of the sixth episode. A mysterious figure appears behind Lois with a knife at her throat and she begins to think about what all the important people in her life are doing: there’s a shot of her comatose husband and the creepy nurse who’s in love with him; A true criminal, a nun recovering from her gunshot wound; and then Eddie and Lois’ daughter are watching videos on their laptop, apparently still at Lois’s house, even though it’s been about two days since Lois left him there.
Is the answer to my burning question simply that Lois never told him he could leave? Is he still sitting on her couch watching funny YouTube videos?
At the end, Lois shoots the dark masked figure behind her and a huge spectacle ensues as she unmasks the stranger, where it cuts to the credits before we can see who it is – could it be Eddie under that mask?! I should note that the figure was pale skinned and had significantly less Kelce’s stubble, so it could be another guy we met (like the hot priest?), or someone else entirely!
I guess we’ll see if Eddie comes back next week or if that’s the extent of the Kelce footage Murphy got for the show!
New episodes of grotesque Premieres on FX Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EDT and the next day on Hulu.
