American Horror Story: Cult
“Charles (Manson) in Charge”
October 31, 2017
October 19, 2016
Winter and a pair of her friends watch the “NO PUPPET. NO PUPPET. YOU’RE THE PUPPET,” Presidential debate in the basement with Kai, gleefully awaiting the election when Hillary is going to take the largest electoral college win, and flip Arizona and Texas blue in the process.
Kai begins arguing with the girls, insisting that people hate Hillary, hate her voice, hate her husband, that she doesn’t inspire the passion that Trump does at his rallies. It quickly devolves into one of Winter’s friends mocking Kai’s white boy impotence, and in response, he slaps her hard across the face. Not cool, Kai. I mean, in retrospect, it’s pretty minor compared to the shenanigans you’ll get into, but pre-November 8, you still get in trouble for that.
November 2, 2017
And in fact, Friend pressed charges which is why Kai found himself in anger management therapy with one Frances Conroy. There, she shares the gospel of Valerie Solanas with Kai and instructs him that he needs to channel his particular energies and talents towards politics to change the world.
Frances Conroy explains that her favorite politician is Donald John Trump, not because she agrees with his policies, but because he is single-handedly chipping away at the dam that has been holding back millennia of pent-up female rage. With every dumb tweet, with every eye roll, with every pussy grab, Trump is slowly releasing the fury that Valerie Solanas wanted to harness all those years ago. And Kai is going to help him, he is going to help break down that dam and once it crumbles he is going to drown in female rage along with every other man on the planet.
And Kai is like, “OK, DROWNING, COOL. COUNT ME IN.”
Present Day (being April or May or whenever what does it really matter?)
Kai holds a rally to announce his intention to run for Senate, and protestors arrive PISSED OFF about the shutting down the internets and all the Nazi crap. It quickly devolves into violence with the protestors throwing piss and macing Kai in the face and Kai having to make a hasty retreat.
Thus marks Kai’s descent into paranoia.
Kai has Winter and Ally strip down the ice cream truck to get rid of murder clown evidence before painting it so that they can hide it in plain sight, which, you know, is not actually a terrible idea. After Kai pops his head in to announce that the Feds are watching them, Ally and Winter share a few awkward moments. Winter asks if Ivy was in pain in the end, and Ally is like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, she just up and left us to go to cooking school in Paris.” Winter is like, “Don’t kid a murder clown, I know she’s dead. And whatever you might believe, I actually really cared about her. Anyway, my brother is losing his damn mind and taking all the Adderall, I just hope he didn’t make her suffer in the end.” And Ally is all, “LOL, WAIT, YOU THINK HE KILLED HER?”
At the cult house, Kai tells the dudebros the story of Charles Manson’s Family and the Cielo Drive murders which took the lives of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, Steven Parent, and Sharon and Roman Polanski’s unborn son. Kai’s point is that Manson wanted the murders to start a race riot, but before his plan could come to fruition, he was betrayed by a woman in the cult. It was the right idea, but Manson didn’t think big enough: so they are going to use Manson’s playbook to take Kai to the Senate and then the Presidency via “A Night of a Thousand Tates.”
But first, a sacrifice must be made. To that end, the dudebros and Gary break into a Planned Parenthood where Gary is murdered to death by the murder clowns, his body left outside for the clinic workers to find, and for Kai to express outrage over to the news media — a now-freed, but broken Beverly Hope. Once the interview is over, Kai growls at her to pull her shit together, and she promises her “divine leader” that she will.
Later at the Butchery, Winter, feeling guilty that she framed Beverly for Detective Abercrombie’s murder, offers Beverly a train ticket to Montana. But Beverly is NOT FALLING FOR IT, knowing perfectly well that this is some sort of test.
Meanwhile, Kai’s paranoia is increasing with each day, and he is convinced that he hears a buzzing somewhere in the basement, to Ally’s “alarm.” Kai locks himself in the Dead Family Room, where he chats with Dr. Dead Brother and the Not-Ghost of Charlie Manson, who encourages Kai to find the mole and to “not trust the bitches.”
With that bit of universal advice shared, there’s a knock at the door: Ally has found something suspicious in the basement, a little black device of some sort. Kai orders her to stay there and storms down to the basement where Frances Conroy is waiting to berate him for being A FUCKING DISAPPOINTMENT. He was supposed to incite women to violence, he was supposed to carry the torch of Valerie Solanas. But instead, all he’s done is break the once-fierce Beverly Hope. Kai counters that he never had any intention of drowning for the cause of some dead chick, and after a little more back and forth, Frances Conroy pulls a gun on Kai. But before she can “blow his dick off,” per her threat, Ally shoots and kills her from the top of the stairs, confirming for Not-Ghost of Charlie Manson that she must not be the mole.
Which, in Kai’s demented mind, leaves one suspect: Baby Sister Winter. As he has Winter shave off his long blue hair, he reminisces about growing up as her big brother, before noting that he can feel her slipping away. She admits that she is before insisting that the only way she can be there for him in the end — when all the dudebros and the others leave him — is if she gets away from him now. Kai agrees and tells her he knows exactly where she should go — Montana. And in fact, he has a train ticket for her.
With that, he has the dudebros carry her off to the basement for questioning. Ally produces the “bug” and a recorder that she found in the ice cream truck. But Winter insists she is not a mole, offering to do pinky power to prove that she’s telling the truth. Kai is not persuaded, however, and after begging his baby sister to confess, he finally strangles her to death, crying the entire time.
Afterwards, one of the dudebros, that Speedwagon guy, runs outside to a car where he rips open his shirt and tears off the wire taped to his chest. And that’s when Ally joins him in the passenger seat.
Two things:
- Where’s Oz? You’re going to make this whole huge thing about a Messiah Baby and then not mention him AT ALL in the next episode? WHAT IS THIS WRITING.
- While I think that the motivation behind Kai’s decision to join politics strains credulity — seriously, this kid spends five minutes with Bebe and he’s instantly all “DEATH TO MEN!”? Come on. — as a woman who has HAD ENOUGH, I applaud Bebe’s speech in this scene. It doesn’t ring true as something that someone would actually ever say out loud, but it cuts at a certain truth that I feel in my own bones, and I think we are seeing bear out in the sexual harassment allegations that are raining down upon society like Noah’s flood. I’ve always been an outspoken opinionated woman, but pre-Trump, I was always careful sharing those opinions on social media, lest I offend some aunt or friend of a friend. NO LONGER. I NO LONGER GIVE A FUCK WHO I OFFEND. DID I HURT YOUR FEELINGS BY POINTING OUT THAT THE TREASONOUS RANCID CHEETO WHO CURRENTLY OCCUPIES THE OVAL OFFICE IS OUT OF HIS DEPTH AND THAT I HOPE I SEE HIM AND HIS ENTIRE FAMILY — INCLUDING BARRON — IN HANDCUFFS SOON BEFORE HE COMPLETELY ERODES WHATEVER INSTITUTIONS AND STANDARDS WE HAVE LEFT? TOO FUCKING BAD. SUCK ON MY ANGER LONG AND DEEP.
~deep cleansing breath~
So, yeah, like I was saying.
Timeline:
1967:
Valerie Solanas writes the SCUM Manifesto and creates the SCUM cult
1968:
June:
Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol; she is arrested and sent to a psychiatric hospital
July:
The first Zodiac murders are committed by SCUM
1969:
The Zodiac murders continue, someone takes credit for the killings in letters to the police and newspapers
1973:
Solanas, reunited with her cult, discovers it was a male member who sent the letters, kills him. She eventually becomes increasingly insane and loses her followers
1988:
Valerie Solanas dies
2014:
Kai, Winter and Dr. Vincent’s’ parents die in a murder-suicide; the children stash their parents’ bodies
2015:
October:
Kai and Winter visit the Judgment House, kill Pastor Charles; Kai changes.
2016:
Kai is blackmailed by Detective Samuels, begins a relationship with him
Winter works on the Clinton campaign in Florida
Ally and Ivy have financial and relationship issues
October 19:
Kai slaps winter’s friend during the Presidential debate
November 2:
Kai sees Bebe Babbitt for anger management, she plants the idea of becoming a politician in his head
November 7:
Ivy meets Winter at a pro-Clinton rally
Gary assaults Ivy
Ivy and Winter kidnap Gary
November 8:
Kai frees Gary
Everyone votes for President
Trump wins; Ally melts down
November 9:
Kai meets Harrison at the gym
Winter introduces Ivy to Kai
Sometime in November after the Election:
Beverly is harassed by on-camera assholes, goes to a 30-day inpatient facility
Sometime in December 2016:
Beverly is released from treatment
Harrison and Meadow lose their home in foreclosure
Kai and Harrison kill the trainer dude
Kai meets Meadow
Beverly reports on the discovery of the body of the trainer in a landfill
Kai introduces himself to Beverly
Kai, Harrison, and Meadow kill Serena; this is the first appearance of the clowns
Beverly joins Kai as an equal power
2017:
Ally tells Dr. Vincent about her increasing phobias
Ally is menaced by clowns in the grocery store
Ally and Ivy hire Winter
The Changs are murdered
Kai provokes the beating from the Hispanic workers
Kai announces he is running for City Council
Meadow and Harrison move into the Chang’s house
Robert is murdered at the restaurant
Winter makes a move on Ally
Pedro is murdered by Ally
The cult perform the coffin murders
April 3:
Sally Keffler announces her intention to run against Kai
Sometime After April 3, 2017:
The cult drives fogging trucks down Ally’s street
The smiley faces appear on both Ally and Ivy’s house and Meadow and Harrison’s
Meadow threatens to leave the cult
Oz discovers the tape of Ally and Winter, and Ivy leaves Ally
Meadow goes “missing”
Bob tries to fire Beverly
The cult murders Bob
Kai’s polling numbers improve
Ally finds Meadow in a shallow grave and tells Ivy that Harrison is trying to kill Meadow
Meadow briefly escapes and tells Ally about the cult, including that Ivy is a member
The cult murders R.J.
Kai reveals his story to Beverly
Ally rescues Meadow and learns the truth about the cult
The cult murders Sally Keffler
Meadow shoots Kai and several other people at a political rally before killing herself
Kai is taken to the hospital for his leg wound
Ally is arrested for the mass shooting
Kai wins a seat on city council and amasses a following of young men
Beverly meets Bebe Babbitt and has her share her story about Valerie Solanas with the other women
Beverly, Winter, and Ivy kill Harrison
Three Weeks After the Election:
Dr. Vincent tells Ally he is going to get Kai committed
Ally reveals this to Kai
Plan Messiah Baby fails
Winter kills Detective Samuels
Kai kills Dr. Vincent
Kia has Beverly put into isolation
Ally joins the cult
Kai announces his intention to run for the Senate
Ally kills Ivy
Kai grows more paranoid
The cult kills Gary
Ally kills Bebe Babbitt
Kai kills Winter
American Horror Story: Cult airs Tuesdays at 9/10 p.m. on FX.