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This week’s episode of American Horror Story: Cult goes back in time a bit to the days during and after the election, giving us some insight into the inner workings of Kai’s mind and showing how he reeled in his cult members (so that pretty much blows up my thought last week that Dr. Vincent may have actually been the grand poobah in all of this (curiously, though, he does not figure in to this episode save for casting his vote for Hillary at the top of the episode). But before we get into the Kai story, we were also shown a bit of the dialog between Ivy and Ally when it came time to vote — particularly the “don’t do anything silly like a protest vote” which of course Ally did when she cast her vote for Jill Stein because she was never really on board with Hillary and didn’t think “that clown” Trump stood a chance of winning. Lessons learned. There was also some commotion at the polling place when Kai brought in grocery store owner Gary Longstreet who was bleeding all over the place but demanded to vote. The cause of the blood: he was newly minus his left hand. So how did that happen? We’ll find out.
The day the election, Kai began gathering his cult members. First target was Harrison, then working as an instructor at a gym. Kai seemed to be flirting with Harrison, able to pull his story of feeling like less than a person out of him. Harrison’s douche of a boss always gave Harrison the job of “clean up in aisle 4” — cleaning and disinfecting the sauna after some of the male members decided to use the room to pleasure themselves (which seemed to happen with great frequency) — because he’s gay, but claiming he had to let the cleaning crew go (“no more undocumenteds”). Kai easily tapped in to Harrison’s lack of self worth (his home with Meadow had just been foreclosed upon so the two are living in a cheap motel at the moment), giving him the encouragement that he is just a reflection of Kai and if Kai says Harrison is great, then he’s great. And then Harrison finds the strength deep within to … kill his boss. In a gruesomely hilarious moment, Meadow enters the hotel room to find Harrison sawing off his boss’ head while Kai watched. Her deadpan reaction — “I didn’t think my day could get any worse” — was priceless but it introduced her to Kai and gave him another soul to corrupt.
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We also got some backstory on reporter Beverly Hope. Beverly has been gunning for the anchor chair but keeps getting stuck reporting on the “real news” while newcomer Serena Belinda (guest Emma Roberts) gets all the fluff pieces and flirts with the boss in order to get ahead (but Beverly asserts she can’t be fired because she’s the only black reporter at the station). After the election, poor Beverly is accosted time and again while doing live remotes by members of the public running into her shot screaming, “Grab ’em by the pussy!” Kai had noticed on night during a broadcast that after filing a report, that the anchor welcomed her back. Back? From where? That’s when Kai found the montage of those live feeds which ended with Beverly pummeling one unlucky fool on camera, resulting in her checking into a psychological health facility for thirty days. Another easy target for him, Kai found Beverly slashing the tires of her boss when it became clear Serena was going to move up in the ranks, offering to buy her a coffee and have a talk. But Beverly didn’t seem as easily swayed as the others until … during a pre-taped remote at an animal adoption event, three masked clowns appeared and brutally murdered Serena and her cameraman. That convinced Beverly that Kai was the real deal and she quickly joined his group. It also gave us a clue as to who are under those clown masks, which supported some online theories. Kai is obviously the one wearing the three-faces mask, Meadow is one female clown with the ball gag in her mouth and Harrison is the tallest one. Meadow, by the way, designed the masks.
So how does Winter fit into this group? At a rally the day before the election, Ivy tried to convince Ally they should go, but Ally — who appeared on a rather even keel at this point — didn’t think it would accomplish anything one day before voting. But Ivy went and was immediately accosted by Gary Longstreet who assumed she needed to be grabbed by the pussy. Ivy just froze and Winter came to her rescue, talking her into leaving the rally to grab a bite to eat. It just so happened Ivy knew a place, her restaurant (which was also where Kai had coffee with Beverly). Winter, who we know lives with Kai, seemed pretty good at emotional manipulation as well and convinced Ivy that they needed to teach Gary Longstreet a lesson. At closing of his store, the two distracted and assaulted him, tying him up with duct tape and handcuffing him to a railing in a basement (presumably at the store) so he could not vote the next day. At home, Kai saw the blood on Winter’s face, asked what she did and if she liked it (she did!) and then went to talk to Gary himself, giving him the option of freedom to vote … saw off his hand to get free. While he watched. Gary was unsure at first but he wanted to cast that vote for Trump so he started sawing and now we know how he lost that hand. Proudly casting his vote an hour before the polls closed, Gary waved his bloody stump in the air, yelling “Welcome to Trump’s America, motherfuckers!”
It was interesting that we got to see who all of the characters voted for, particularly Meadow’s write-in vote for Oprah, but we’re left with a YOOGE question by the end of the episode: is Ivy a secret member of Kai’s cult? It seems now that it’s not such a coincidence that Winter showed up at the house to apply for the nanny position, and it may also explain why in the hell she hasn’t been fired yet considering her penchant for leaving Ozzy with strangers and allowing strange men into the house. Perhaps she did go a little too far by getting “friendly” with Ally in the bathtub, but Ivy immediately made that Ally’s fault, likely driving her even deeper into Kai’s cult. Considering that Ivy has never been around when Ally has seen the clowns, both at home and at the restaurant, it seems more and more likely that Ivy is the other female clown. What do you think?
What did you think of this episode? Is Ivy “clowning around” with Kai? Sound off in the comments below!
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