(Note: This post contains spoilers for the season finale of “American Horror Story: Cult.” Watch it before you read!)
Turns out, Donald Trump is president in the entire of the “American Horror Story” universe, not just in “American Horror Story: Cult.”
The final episode of “American Horror Story: Cult” tosses in a tiny Easter egg that dedicated fans will recognize, and which helps it link back to at least two of the other “American Horror Story” seasons. With the help of other links, we can safely say that the 2016 election is reality for the rest of the characters in every “American Horror Story” season, not just that of Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) and his cultists.
Late in the finale episode, we see what happened in the aftermath of Kai’s cult — Ally (Sarah Paulson) managed to survive along with Beverly Hope (Adina Porter). We hear Beverly on the phone say to an unknown person that Ally has turned down talk show offers and interviews — including one with Lana Winters.
Fans will remember that Lana Winters was the investigative journalist from “American Horror Story: Asylum,” the second season in the series. She was also played by Sarah Paulson, and managed to escape imprisonment in the Briarcliff Asylum as well as the serial killer known as Bloody Face. Years later, she became an influential journalist and interviewer.
Lana connects “American Horror Story: Cult” to “Asylum,” but she’s also a connection to another season: “Roanoke.” During that season, Lana came out of retirement (in the current day she’s in her mid-80s) to interview “Roanoke” survivor Lee Harris (also played by Adina Porter).
Most of the “American Horror Story” seasons are actually connected through a number of characters and Easter eggs. “Asylum” links to “Freak Show” by way of recurring characters Dr. Arden (James Cromwell), Pepper (Naomi Grossman) and Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe), and to “Murder House” through Dt. Jack Colquitt (Geoffrey Rivas). And Paulson’s character Billie Dean Howard from “Murder House,” the first season, showed up in “Hotel,” as did Gabourey Sidibe’s character Queenie from “Coven.” And we can’t forget Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch), a real character in “Freakshow” who has become a comic book monster by “Cult.”
It’s a tangled web, but the returning characters suggest that all of “American Horror Story” is one big country, with an awful lot of serial killers and supernatural occurrences. And it’s by 2017, it’s all being governed by Donald Trump.