AHS: Cult :: The Wizard and Oz

FX

I’m surprised by all the vitriol for this season’s American Horror Story. I don’t know if it’s just the whole political storyline that has divided the viewers — with most of them being in the negative column — or just the fact that it isn’t a supernatural tale, but I can say that the majority of my friends and comments on my Facebook wall are decidedly against this season. Am I the only person who is enjoying this one? Perhaps for many it’s just too close to reality. It certainly is for me, which is why it scares me more than a season that does have a supernatural twist to it. We can see people in society today, right this minute, who are willing to do anything for Donald Trump, including going to war with those who don’t support him, and that’s what really scares me about this season.

Politics does make people uncomfortable, and Ryan Murphy has really used “Cult” to get under people’s skin with his lead character Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) who is obviously using Trump’s campaign rhetoric to fuel the character’s motivation (sometimes using Trump’s own words). Perhaps making Kai a political cult leader is just too out there for people, but there are many now who see Trump and his followers in the same light. Trump campaigned that he alone could save the country. Kai Anderson has brought that same attitude to his campaign for City Council, and now he plans to run for higher office with his success as president of the Council (of course, fear, intimidation and actual violence are what has made Kai successful). Kai wants complete control of his town, from hiring his own private security force to creating an internet hub that will filter out any web content he deems offensive or subversive to his cause (sounds almost like someone wanting to revoke network broadcast licenses). Kai is a scary dude and show how someone can easily convince people to join a cause simply by seducing them with words.

But Kai may have finally met his match, however unlikely that may seem, especially considering who that match is. No, it’s not Beverly who has almost been reduced to a raving lunatic by being placed in whatever form of solitary confinement she’s been (did he lock her in the room with his dead family members?). Not Winter, who is devoted to her brother even though she knows he’s bad news, and not certainly not Ivy. Nope, somehow Ally has become Kai’s biggest foe. And for many, this change in her personality seems to have happened just a bit too quickly.

But, and this is a bit of a storytelling issue, we have no idea just how long Ally was away after Meadow shot Kai. She’s been angry with both Dr. Vincent and Ivy for not coming to see her while she was hospitalized and she’s talked about how being locked away in a mental health facility gave her time to deal with her issues. But how long was she locked away? Weeks, months? We don’t know so her newfound resolve seems to have happened just too quickly. But she’s putting that resolve to good use.

While Kai is regaling his Anderson Youth (and it’s just all a bit homoerotic) with tales of infamous cult leaders (with Peters getting a chance to play David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite and Jim “Drink the Kool-Aid” Jones), Ally is being reunited with Ivy and Oz, thanks to Winter … even though Ally is less than happy with Winter’s part in everything that happened to her prior to her incarceration. But the family reunion is short-lived as Kai’s men interrupt the three women, who are plotting to get out of Dodge quickly, to have a meeting with Kai, now in full Jim Jones mode, offering his men, and the women, some of his own Kool-Aid. Most of the men are happily willing to die for him, or rather to ascend to a higher plane, but the women take a little more convincing. Kai having one of his men shot to death for not drinking the Kool-Aid was enough to convince them to do it and … surprise, it was just juice, because dead people can’t vote (except for in Chicago). He was just testing loyalty, but Beverly seems to go even a little more mad when she isn’t granted the release she obviously hoped for.

But Kai had another ace up his sleeve: he posed to Ally and Ivy that he was, in fact, Ozzy’s father due to his numerous donations to the local sperm bank. Insisting that the boy needs a father figure, he has Winter bring the boy to him against his mothers’ wishes. Winter insists that this will keep Ozzy safe, and Ivy also convinces Ally to just let him stay with Kai for the moment and they can regroup. And they do, preparing to leave undercover of darkness with Oz. Before leaving, Ally wants to show Ivy that she’s prepared to forgive her for joining Kai’s cult (and Ally only joined to get Ivy and Oz back) by preparing dinner using Ivy’s pasta sauce. Ivy has basically confessed her sins to Ally and has accepted the error of her ways and hopes this is a new beginning for them. But Ally’s not eating. Ally has already set her plans in motion and they don’t include Ivy who has now ingested quite a bit of arsenic, giving Ally just the slightest bit of pleasure watching her turncoat of a wife writhe on the floor in agony before expiring. This is a whole new Ally, no longer afraid of clowns (she gives Ozzy a new Twisty comic book), holes (her top is covered with them), and blood (relishing Ivy coughing up blood as she dies).

She then invites Kai over for Manwiches, the way to his heart apparently, but while she has the opportunity to poison him as well, she doesn’t because he still has Ozzy. When he asks where Ivy is, Ally frankly tells him she’s in the trunk. Surprised at her newfound strength, Kai helps Ally bring Ivy to his family mausoleum where he sprinkles a little lye on her (it seemed like quite a light dusting though). She seems to have him convinced that she’s on his side now, but she still needs to get Ozzy back, and the boy is proving to be a problem for Kai, using Wikipedia to dispute the tales he’s telling his men about Jim Jones and his followers’ resurrection. At one point he’s offering Ozzy some juice but is this another loyalty test or is this one poisoned? Ally arrives in time to slap the cup out of his hand. Ally’s plan is to have Ozzy all to herself and she’s halfway there, but how will pretending to be a family with Kai accomplish that goal? She’s certainly mastered the mind games, paying off a woman at the sperm bank to give her their donor records (the donor is not Kai) and the doctoring them to make him think he truly is Ozzy’s father. She has an end game in sight (and with only two episodes left, she’d better get moving) and she’s no longer afraid to do what needs to be done.

American Horror Story: Cult airs Tuesdays at 10 PM on FX.

What did you think of this episode? Will Ally be able to vanquish Kai? Sound off in the comments below!