American Housewife - The Maze - Review: "Undead Woman of Faith"

It's Halloween in Westport!

Taylor and Oliver are being typical teenagers who are embarrassed by Katie and Greg. "I miss the old days, when just Oliver sucked," Katie says. The only one of the kids who isn't acting like she hates them is Anna-Kat, so when she asks Katie to go through the zombie maze with her at the Halloween carnival, Katie happily agrees. Greg however, thinks she's way too young for it, and that it's too scary. Of course, Katie just takes this as even more reason to do it, and after talking to Doris and Angela, who encourage her to take Anna-Kat, Katie decides she and Anna-Kat are going to sneak in when Greg's not around!

The day of the Halloween carnival roles around. Taylor and Oliver are busy avoiding Katie and Greg. Greg's psyched to use his new carving tools and enter the pumpkin carving constant, so when Katie innocently suggests taking Anna-Kat for "face-painting," Greg doesn't pay her much mind. Katie and Anna-Kat excitedly enter the maze, and it's terrifying. Anna-Kat may have been watching The Shining since she was four, but it's clear neither she nor Katie are ready for this level of terror!

Meanwhile, the rest of the Ottos are dealing with their own Halloween issues. At the pumpkin carving competition, Greg's shocked to find Principle Ablin and Chloe Brown-Mueller's generally meek assistant Maria. Apparently, there's been a long-standing rivalry between the two of them in the contest and they're absolute maniacs about winning! (Ablin even deflated the tires on Maria's car to try to prevent her from getting there!) A terrified Oliver has to talk his way out of going through the zombie maze with Bri, saying that he really should be supporting his dad at the pumpkin carving contest (She buys it!) And Taylor and Trip end up deciding to just skip the carnival and go home, after Trip eats too many gummy bears and gets sick.

Back in Hell, aka the zombie maze, Katie and Anna-Kat unsuccessfully try to get various performers to let them out. Anna-Kat finally finds out an opening and can crawl through to the outside, but Katie's dropped her phone and is determined to go back to get it. Despite Katie's pleas that she leave him out of the loop, Anna-Kat goes to find Greg for help.

At the carving tent, Greg is stuck between Ablin and Maria, both of whom are focused on nothing but beating the other. Oliver arrives and admits to Greg that he chickened outgoing in the maze. Greg assures him that that's okay, it just means he has survival instincts. "We Ottos wear our cowardice with pride," he says. After all, Great-Grandpa Otto dodged the draft and ended up being the only man in his town not to die at the Battle of Normandy! Unfortunately, cowardice is definitely not what they need at the moment, as Anna-Kat arrives and begs them to go save Katie from the maze. With Bri now standing there as well, Oliver has no choice but to accompany his equally terrified father on the rescue mission.

On her way to get ginger-ale for Trip, Taylor cuts off a car and they start following her. Terrified, she calls Trip, who tells her to drive to someone's house she knows nearby. Fortunately, she's close to Doris' house. Trip tells her he'll stay on the phone with her until she's safe, but her phone goes dead. Taylor gets to Doris' place and runs to the door, but no-one answers and a masked monster has gotten out of the car following her and is coming toward her. It looks like Taylor's just about to meet her end when the masked monster starts chiding her to use her blinker - in a very familiar voice! Who could pull off acting like such a terrifying psycho - Doris of course! After Taylor cut her off, Doris decided she needed to be taught a lesson. I think it's safe to say that Taylor got the message!

At the zombie maze, the cowardly Otto men wander through looking for Katie. After more than a few scares and a lot of screams, they finally find her. She's got the zombies helping her look for her phone! As much as she hates to say it, Katie admits to Greg that she was wrong to take Anna-Kat to the maze. She just wanted to be able to do something fun with Anna-Kat before she grows up and decides she wants nothing to do with her like Taylor and Oliver.

The gang arrives back at the pumpkin carving tent just in time to see Ablin and Maria strike a truce, and seemingly start making heart eyes at each other! At home later, Taylor, still reeling from her almost run-in with a psychopath, does something unusual. She goes and curls up next to Katie! They say Christmas is the season of miracles, but maybe it really is Halloween!

Random Thoughts:
-The best line goes to Greg - "Oliver used to hold my hand, until the 1st day of 4th grade when he slipped me a buck and told me my services were no longer needed."

-I loved the various snaps of everyone's reactions to the maze at the end of the episode!

Were you surprised by how the Ottos handled the Halloween maze? Let me know below!