The American Horror Story Universe, Explained

Summary

• AHS Delicate
  is heating up with an explosive second half, setting up a jaw-dropping climax after the mid-season finale.
• Fans await connections to past seasons as only four episodes remain. Will the familiar characters tie into a larger narrative?
• Beware of potential overlapping characters like Billie Dean Howard, Michael Langdon, Lana Winters, and the Montgomery and Mott families.

It’s a new year, and it’s time for new scares, or at least to finish the old ones. American Horror Story is returning to finish Delicate with an explosive second half. The key players are on the board, and we’re headed towards what will no doubt be a jaw-dropping climax following the stunning mid-season finale. The chaos won’t stop there either because FX has ordered a 13th season just days before the return.

It’s been a unique season of the long-running anthology, but fans have noticed something is missing. At this point, more than halfway finished, there have yet to be any connections to past seasons. There is always some indicator of larger connectivity, and this season has only four episodes left to present one. After all, how else does AHS continue to weave towards a larger convergence like AHS: Apocalypse?

There must be one. Why go through the trouble of spending years connecting these seasons? Fans have seen the threads come together before, so it’s only a matter of time before it happens again. If there’s any doubt about this, the vision may become clearer with this explanation of the American Horror Story shared universe.

Familiar Faces in American Horror Story

The idea that there’s a long-running, overarching plot may be speculation, but when looking at all the connections, some things may click a bit more than intended, especially when looking at the familiar characters that have come up over the years, and we’re not talking about the regular cast members. A handful of characters have appeared across the series’ run, some significant, some less so.

One of the more notable is Billie Dean Howard, played by Sarah Paulson, the first official character in the series to appear across multiple seasons. Introduced in the Murder House episode “Piggy Piggy” (1.06), she’s the first character to hint at the coming of the Anti-Christ when discussing the possibility of a Human conceiving a child with a ghost and prophesizing that such a figure would bring about the end times, setting up the events of Apocalypse eight years before it takes place.

Her next appearance comes in the Hotel episode “Be Our Guest” (5.12), when she visits Hotel Cortez to film an episode of her Lifetime series. However, she quickly wears out her welcome to the spirits of the hotel and is forced to leave. Her latest appearance came in the Apocalypse episode “Return to Murder House” (8.06), where Madison Montgomery of Coven fame seeks information on Michael to defeat him. By this point in the continuity timeline, the Murder House has been shuttered, with the original spirits from Season 1 still inside and the Harmons, who seemingly succeeded in driving off all potential buyers from purchasing the haunted home.

It makes sense that Billie would make an appearance in this season as it paid off the tease of Michael from Season 1. However, she was not helpful as the memories of Michael proved too painful for them to discuss. Billie has yet to make another appearance in the series since this episode. Given how Apocalypse ended, she may have made her last appearance, assuming the anti-Christ plot has ended.

Aside from Billie, the most notable connective character has been the anti-Christ himself, Michael Langdon. Conceived through the sexual assault of Vivien Harmon at the hands of the ghost of Tate Langdon in Murder House (Pilot), Michaels was the only surviving offspring of a set of twins, and his birth would ultimately kill Vivien, leaving her spirit to wander the house forever.

By the next episode, “Afterbirth” (1.12), we already knew that the anti-Christ prophesy had come true when Constance found he had gleefully murdered his nanny. We wouldn’t see Michael again for another seven years when he returned after the destruction of the world in a nuclear holocaust as a fully realized anti-Christ and the ultimate villain of the season before he died in the episode “Apocalypse Then” (8.10). However, the season ended with the birth of another anti-Christ sired by Timothy and Emily (8.01). With that, there may yet be more chaos brought to the AHS universe from the Devil’s long-awaited son.

Finally, with just as many appearances as Billie with three, there’s the reporter Lana Winters, played by Sarah Paulson. Lana was first introduced in Asylum. Lana survived the madhouse and all of its horrors, and Dr. Thredson, the serial killer known as Bloodyface. But her role in the series did not end there. She would go on to appear again in Roanoke (Chapter 10) and Cult “Great Again” (7.11), interviewing Lee Harris as a fellow survival and then attempting to interview Ally Mayfair-Richards on ordeal at the hands of the sadistic clown cult FIT, only to be rebuffed. Lana seems to be a common character who appears on behalf of victimized women under these points, but it remains to be seen if the character will come back in a more significant role or if she is simply a connecting piece.

Family Ties in American Horror Story

Michael Langdon is the most important connective character, and Billie Dean Howard has been the most recurring and has been connected to the biggest seasonal crossover so far, but there may be more significance to past characters that have yet to be revealed. In particular, we look at the names Montgomery and Mott.

Fans met the petulant and spoiled Dandy Mott in Freak Show episode “Monsters Among Us” (4.01) and were sick of him from the moment he entered the scene. At first glance, no one could have imagined the psychopath he would become. Captivated by the crimes of Twisty the Clown, Dandy found a new calling and began a murderous wave all his own, which would claim the lives of his mother, Twisty himself, and many of the freaks of Fraulein Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities before being drowned by the surviving members. With his death, the Mott bloodline was effectively ended, although it was revealed in the season Roanoke to have extended far.

It was the Mott family that originally owned the farmhouse that Shelby and Matt Miller would eventually purchase, with the original owner being the aristocrat Edward Philippe Mott. While possessing some of the traits of Dandy, Edward was not evil, just socially awkward. His ghost would later help the Millers escape the property in Chapter 5 of the season. This connection between Freak Show and Roanoke could simply be a subtle way to connect the two within a shared universe, but as they say in the film industry, nothing is ever by accident.

Then, there’s the Montgomery family, introduced in Murder House as the home’s original owners (1.01). The patriarch Charles was a doctor who was slowly going insane when he was still alive in the ’20s and performed illegal abortions in his basement at his wife’s behest to make ends meet, one of which was for Elizabeth Johnson (Hotel), played by Lady Gaga. Madison Montgomery (Coven), played by Emma Roberts, is theorized to be a descendant of the mad doctor, and given her violent nature, there could be some credence to this, but it’s not yet known. But again, nothing is done by accident.

Other Notable Connections in American Horror Story

Pepper from Asylum was one of the more misunderstood characters, interned at Briarcliff after allegedly killing her sister’s baby. It was later revealed in Freak Show that she had once been employed for Fraulein Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities before Elsa took her to live with her sister Rita. Unfortunately, Rita shows Pepper no kindness, nor does her son, whom Rita allowed her boyfriend to murder, thus framing Pepper for the crime. And then there’s an interesting connection to Coven that can be found in Roanoke. Scáthach, an ancient witch who would lead to the downfall of the Roanoke colonists, is revealed in Season 6 to have been the first supreme, starting the entire pantheon of witches leading up to Coven, thus making Roanoke a linchpin season for the series.

Sacred Grounds in American Horror Story

There are a lot of notable names that come up again and again across each season of American Horror Story, and this will likely continue to happen as the series continues. Ryan Murphy is very careful about these connections, and you never know when they will play more significance down the line, if they ever do. The haunted locations are just as important as the disturbed characters in this show because, when done right, a haunted setting is just as much a character as anyone played by Evan Peters or Jessica Lange.

The first of these characters is the infamous Murder House of Season 1. Home of the Anti-Christ and a wide array of spirits, it’s a place that seems to never die. Another is the Hotel Cortez of Season 5, which connects multiple seasons. Michael Langdon revealed this place’s importance in Apocalypse as more than a haunted hot spot. Just like the Murder House, it’s a haunted purgatory for trapped spirits, housing all manner of twisted individuals and deities. One of these happens to be Queenie from Coven after an unfortunate run-in with the proprietor. Fortunately, she may have been spared this fate after the timeline is reset at the end of Apocalypse. Camp Redwood from 1984 is yet another place where the dead don’t stay dead, but of the three locations, it’s yet to be revisited.

Most of these locations were connected in Apocalypse, but they are united now by one person, 1984 serial killer Margaret Booth. Margaret has a keen eye for locations with bloody histories and has purchased a few key spots. One of these locations is the site of her killing spree, Camp Redwood. Another is Briarcliff and Charles Manson’s ranch. Margaret recognized the tourism potential in true crime early on and made them into hotspots before she died in the episode “Final Girl (9.09).

Real estate agent Marcy has also had her own experience with the settings of AHS seasons, being forced to sell the Murder House more than once, as well as the Hotel Cortez before it claimed her life. Marcy may have been a minor character in the series, but we have to admit, it’s convenient that she oversees two hellmouths. Both Marcy and Margaret have their names attached to places where many have died and have had connections to the demonic, whether it be the Devil, who was a force in the Asylum who possessed Sister Mary Eunice, or the anti-Christ. All of these locations are lumped together, so the pay-off for this, assuming there is one, is already perfectly set up.

The End Times & Aliens in American Horror Story

Here, we circle back to our overarching plot for the series now that all the connecting threads are identified. The apocalypse may have already come to pass, but there is so much to suggest that the end of the world was only a chapter in what could become the series endgame.

Murder House ended with the arrival of the Anti-Christ, and so did the eighth season, almost as if to start a new cycle. Not every connection paid off in this season. The fact that places like Murder House, Briarcliff, and the Hotel Cortez are still being noted suggests that they can still come into play again.

Michael was killed off after one season despite being teased from the beginning, and the series went on after their Avengers-esqe season as if nothing happened. What’s more, Ryan Murphy himself has said that we will see the witches of Coven again. The witches, the anti-Christ, and these dark places are still loose threads in this series. If the latest teasers for part 2 of Delicate are any indicators, the actress Anna Victoria Alcott and her baby will be in serious trouble with a satanic cult eager to get their hands on her child. There is no way the story that started in Murder House is over.

There are still loose threads that can tie it all back too, like the return of the Angel of Death in AHS: NYC, or Richard Ramirez, who appeared in both Hotel and was a prominent part of 1984, who historically worshiped the devil and wore a pentagram on his hand. There is every possibility that these can be meaningless connections from Ryan Murphy to further connect his anthologies, but the series seems to be everlasting. Season 13 has been announced, and the showrunner has shown no intention of ending any time soon. The possibilities are endless. American Horror Story: Delicate is releasing new episodes every Wednesday on FX and Hulu.