SPOILERS! American Horror Story: Cult

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise considering the blog title, but this post contains spoilers or potential spoilers so if that bothers you, please stop reading now.

Season seven of American Horror Story really crept up on me – my wife spotted it on SKY and it was already two episodes in.  We never usually get caught off guard with our shows but, like a creepy clown in the night, it snuck up and surprised us!

I’m not sure what to think of this season.  Like last season, it has me intrigued but I don’t feel like I care for any of the characters and I have a feeling this season will leave me as unimpressed as the last few offerings.  ‘Asylum‘ was the last really good season.  And that was season two.  ‘Coven‘ was okay but I wasn’t overly impressed and then they all seemed to go downhill from there.

‘Cult’, the latest offering at the altar has me questioning a lot of things.  It’s the first season to be truly contemporary in that it incorporates a lot of current affairs.  Episode one focused on the aftermath of Trump being elected as President and the chaos that would likely ensue.  The episodes hone in on the phobias and fears characters have – clowns (coulrophobia), bees (apiphobia), clusters of holes (trypophobia) and so on.

Episode three, ‘Neighbours From Hell’ gave me an idea which others seem to believe as well – I posted it on Twitter as soon as the thought entered my mind to set my theory in stone and see if I am right as the story unfolds:

I’m saying this theory now: the psychiatrist is in on it #AmericanHorrorStory #AHS #Cult

— Craig Stewart (@TryingScotsman) September 20, 2017

I thought this as the episode started with a couple talking to Dr Rudy Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson) as they discuss the wife’s condition and improvement.  I blurted out, as my wife and I lay in bed watching it, “He’s fucking in on it!  He’s lining up the patients and arranging the clowns to torment/kill them!”

Moments later, the woman’s fear of coffins becomes a reality as her and her husband get stuffed into coffins by the wonky looking clowns.  Boom!  Nailed it.  Pardon the pun.

Later in the episode, ‘Ally’ (Sarah Paulson) calls Rudy to discuss her going to address the crowds after she shot a Mexican and practically started a race war…

We see him sitting at his desk at one point, with some badges (buttons) which appeared to be smiley faces, and moving them into some sort of order – do the badges represent his patients and what order they will be tackled?  There was also a shot of him sat in an armchair (below) and the shot looks like a smiley face as well…

On top of that, Kai (Evan Peters) always says “Have a nice day.”  Something I associate with smiley badges from supermarkets and such.  Initially, we saw Kai challenge for a political angle in the city but that seems to have fallen by the wayside now – what’s his angle?

So, I have two burning questions – what is Kai’s (Evan Peters) deal?  And, why is the shrink doing this?  Is it like some sort of Hugo Strange thing where he is trying to manipulate people and see how they react/cope when applying certain scenarios or is he just doing it for the pure Hell of it?  Or is he merely another cog in the machine and someone else is operating it?

One thing I am struggling with is Sarah Paulson’s character ‘Ally’.  I get that she’s written this way but I find it such a detractor that she is this needy, goody two-shoes, whiny brat when I am so used to her being this strong, independent woman.  What’s interesting about her this season though, is the fact that her character is almost her just being her in that the phobias are real.  In real life she is a lesbian and this is the first time in AHS she has played a lesbian character (correct me if I am wrong).

As with all the seasons after ‘Asylum‘, I shall stick with the show but the motivations and purpose of the characters mean a lot less to me than they did back in ‘Murder House‘ and ‘Asylum‘.  The only sense of enjoyment seems to be from getting answers to my two questions above – if they even get answered.  Maybe the chaos and actions are left unexplained in a manner that is befitting of the Joker – anarchy for the sake of anarchy.

What are your thoughts/theories?

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Craig Stewart

Craig is a father to three daughters and works full time in the telecomms industry. He has a passion for comics, movies, TV shows, tech and games. Craig is a HUGE Batman fan and is a Playstation fanboy. He is also somewhat of a Kevin Smith fanboy too. Latest hyper-focus: Slogging through 2000AD and publishing a daily post as he makes his way through almost 50 years worth of comic books.

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