[1] The episode picks up immediately where the previous one left off, as serial killer Richard Ramirez corners Brooke, Chet, Rita, and Ray in the nurse's cabin.
In a flashback, Donna was able to persuade Dr. Hopple to let her study Richter, and is revealed to have assisted him in his escape from Red Meadows.
Donna then abducted the real Rita, a nurse employed by Margaret, stealing her identity in order to observe Richter's potential murder spree at the camp.
The critical consensus reads: "1984 delivers its best episode yet in a mind-blowing installment stuffed to the brim with endless reveals -- a fine return to AHS form.
1984 plays with the tropes and traditions of slasher movies and doesn't skimp on the staples of the genre, like flying decapitated heads and people being impaled on things.
Slasher movies, for the right audience, are a lot of fun, and American Horror Story: 1984 is not short on the depraved sense of humor necessary to make a dumb 80's pastiche work.
She enjoyed the characters' backstories as revealed in the episode, as well as the plot twists, and particularly liked the revelation about Rita, qualifying it as "a shades-of-Valerie-Solanas theory about serial killers being on the rise because of porn, misogyny, and the Vietnam war."
"[5] Variety's Andrea Reiher gave the episode a positive review, and concluded it with, "Can't wait to see what American Horror Story throws at us next week!