Production The episode was written by co-executive producer James Wong, while being directed by Michael Lehmann. Taissa Farmiga had guessed that Violet was dead early on from hints dropped in earlier scripts, though the staff were not allowed to confirm her suspicions. Though series co-creator Ryan Murphy had planned for Violet to be dead for a long time, he kept this information from the staff, and intentionally wrote the suicide scene in Episode 6, "Piggy Piggy" to be vague. Murphy only revealed Violet's death to the other writers while they were writing Episode 8, "Rubber Man". Both Murphy and Farmiga described the scene revealing Violet's death as "emotional." Violet's decaying corpse was a prosthetic made from a mold of Farmiga's body. Farmiga had not seen the prosthetic until shooting; Murphy claims that Violet's reaction during the close up of the reveal is Farmiga's response to seeing herself dead for the first time. Murphy sensed audience concerns that the previous two episodes, "Rubber Man" and "Spooky Little Girl", were straying from the main characters of the show, moving Vivien away from the house and introducing the character of The Black Dahlia. Thus, Murphy intended this and the remaining episodes to focus more on the Harmon family and the outcome of their experiences in the house. Reception "Smoldering Children" received critical acclaim; Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating, based on 8 reviews. The Star-Ledger James Queally commented on the episode, saying, "Every week, I think I have American Horror Story figured out... the show sits down, shuts up, straps in and delivers an effective, character-driven story like "Smoldering Children"." The A.V. Club Emily VanDerWerff said this about the episode, "I could make a number of complaints if pressed, since there were the usual dumb moments, character beats, and lines of dialogue, but... this was awesomely pulpy genre fun." She gave the episode an A grade. Matt Fowler from IGN gave the episode a rating of 8.5/10, citing it as "great." In its original American broadcast, "Smoldering Children" was seen by an estimated 2.54 million household viewers and gained a 1.6 rating share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. The episode was down one tenth from the previous episode. References External links "Smoldering Children" at TV Guide.com American Horror Story: Murder House episodes Fiction set in 1994 Television episodes set in psychiatric hospitals