The latest season of American Horror Story premieres with an American Horror Story that is all too real. We watch as America watches Donald Trump defeats Hillary Clinton to be become President-Elect of the United States. That the reactions are on two ends of the spectrum is an understatement.
Ally and Ivy Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson and Allison Pill respectively) contemplate in horror what this might mean for their marriage and their son, Oz. Ally even screams out as the results are announced. Elsewhere in town, Kai Anderson also screams out, but with elation, going so far as to dry-hump his TV before going on to slick back his hair and smear freshly powdered and bright orange Cheetos across his face as a kind of bizzare homage to the man on the screen. A floor above him, Winter Anderson
wonders aloud over the phone whether she'll still be able to get an abortion if she gets pregnant in the future. And so American Horror Story Cult, the seventh chapter of Ryan Murphy's anthological creation, opens with portents of delight or doom, depending on your world perspective
"Fear is currency," declaims Kai at one point, flicking back his purple hair and that seems be the prevailing mood of a series that theoretically trades in the same currency. But ever since it splashed so spectacularly across the world's collective pop culture landscape, its gore and ghouls, its visceral horrors and all that blood, the series has always been underlined with satire and a sense of humor. Whether it was combining madness and its nascent psychiatric treatment with McCarthyism, a stock Nazi scientist character and the fears of UFOs to create the '50s pastiche that was AHS: Asylum or whether exploring female empowerment and mixing it with witchcraft as well as a commentary on the viral insidiousness of social media in AHS: Coven, the show has always been willing to poke fun at its own camp and frequently, purposely use it as a means of over the top characters, situations and set pieces.
Cult is a different manner of beast, with a grimness that doesn't bother confining itself to an undertone. And perhaps most disturbing is its clearly polarized nature. Previous seasons have always had a certain solidarity between the characters - they may, at times , plan to harm, deceive, maim, kill or even rape each other, but there's never been a sense of divide of them. They all may be crazy but they're crazy in the same boat. Not so with Cult, in which the splitting up into two camps -- the liberals and the Alt-Right -- is so palpable.
And so on one side you have Allison and Ivy, with their hipster-approved lifestlye as restaurant owners who are legally married and joint mothers to their son, and drink rose wine while discussing politics with their mixed-race couple friends. On the other, Kai, whose motives aren't exactly clear yet, but is definitely far right if his Trump fetishization, casual racism and extreme acts are anything to by. And traipsing between these two utterly contradictory viewpoints is Winter, who's, so far, unfathomable. From her speech and manner she seems liberal and open-minded but she's also involved in some plot with Kai; she loathes children but goes on to become Oz's babysitter. And while her exact relationship with Kai isn't explained so far (we're going with brother and sister), he clearly has a powerful hold over her.
Meanwhile, Ally seems to be going to pieces, constantly moaning about this new post-election world even as her old phobias come flooding to the surface again. Grotesquely made up clowns seem to be stalking her every move, exploiting all her fears, and driving her out of her mind. Alas, no one else can see them, including Ivy who's getting fed up of having to manage the restaurant entirely on her own.
Elsewhere, Kai is slowly putting his unknown scheme into action. Winter has been installed in the Mayfair-Richards household where she's bonding with Oz, and Kai himself seems to be poised to enter public life, attending city council meetings and the like. The last we see of him in the episode is being beaten up by a group of immigrant workers, having incited them by hurling both racial abuses and a piss-filled condom at them. We aren't the only ones watching however, as a phone camera is shown recording this apparent attack on a White American by a "gang" of immigrants. Feeling scared yet?
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