Carrying straight on from the hysteria of Episode 1, this week's episode of American Horror Story: Cult opened with Sarah Paulson's Ally waking up in bed with a clown. And the terror didn't stop there. Here's everything we learned from Episode 2:
1) Someone is gaslighting Ally.
Whether or not Ally's wife Ivy is doing the manipulating or not, someone is definitely toying with Ally's phobias and deliberately trying to destroy her life.
When Ally tells Ivy about their intruder, Ivy grabs a knife and runs upstairs to defend her son. She finds nothing. Ally, exasperated, cries, "This can't be in my imagination." Instead of consoling her, Ivy replies, "I don't know how much more of this I can take." Ivy suggests she doesn't believe Ally and even implies she's had enough of supporting her. Ally's feeling more and more vulnerable.
Later in the episode, the sight of honeycomb, full of holes, triggers Ally's trypophobia, almost as if the Wiltons were holding it on purpose. Will each episode of AHS: Cult explore a new Ally fear?
2) There was a Halloween call-out.
AHS: Cult is filmed on the same street as the Halloween movies, so it makes sense for the show to highlight its horror movie history. Brandishing a knife, Ivy approaches the closet, much like Michael Myers does in the first Halloween, expecting to find a clown in there. It's empty, but perhaps this moment foreshadows Ivy's character arc? Is she the true AHS: Cult villain?
3) Twisty makes another appearance.
Apparently, this only took place in one of Ozzy's night terrors, but it really seemed like Twisty was very much alive and working with the other clowns in the neighborhood. We'll likely see him in real life at some point this season.
4) Meadow and Harrison Wilton move in next door.
Harrison (the inimitable Billy Eichner) and Meadow (Leslie Grossman) quickly move into the house across the street from Ally and Ivy, the one vacated following Councillor Chang's murder in Episode 1. Harrison is gay and Meadow is his best friend; they made a pact to marry if they were both still single at 35. Also, they keep bees as a hobby—bad news for Ally's trypophobia.
The pair are embroiled in Kai's drama: they were the ones who filmed that group of migrant workers beating up Kai, and the couple are featured on the news for capturing the video. As we saw in Episode 1, Kai actually provoked the men to beat him up by throwing a urine-filled balloon at them, but conveniently, this part wasn't caught on camera. Clearly, the Meadows are somehow part of Kai's destructive plan.
Also worth noting: They're co-vice presidents of the Michigan chapter of Nicole Kidman's fan club. Suspicious or cute?
5) Kai decides to run for the empty council seat.
Like a well-oiled machine, Kai uses his experience being beaten by a gang of migrant workers to launch his campaign for city council. And, of course, it was murdered Councillor Chang's seat he decided to run for. Motive much?
6) Tensions are high at Ivy's restaurant.
An altercation between chefs led to calls for Pedro to be fired. Ally replies, "I'm not about to fire an immigrant in this climate."
The alarm at the couple's restaurant trips later that night and Ally offers to go disarm it. Upon arriving, she makes a horrifying discovery in the freezer: hanging amidst the meat is Roger, the chef who'd threatened Pedro earlier in the day.
The police question Pedro's immigration status and suggest he's responsible for the murder. Pedro tells Ivy, "It's scary to be brown these days." AHS: Cult's horrors continue to be far too real: the show is replicating the racial tensions in America with a scary accuracy.
7) Winter's manipulation of Ozzy continues.
Winter gives Ozzy a Twisty doll, telling him, "Don't tell your moms."
Later in the episode, he asks her how to know if the clowns he's been seeing are real, since last week Winter told everyone he's imagining them. She replied, "Just ask," so when Ozzy sees a clown later, he asks, "Am I asleep, or are you real?" The clown replies, "You're asleep," and Ozzy goes back to sleep. He's effectively being taught to accept the horrors in his life as normality—a perfect analogy for life in Trump's America.
8) The beehive is an analogy for Kai's cult.
Explaining his bees, Eichner's Harrison says, "A hive is the perfect natural community, because every single member of the hive is completely committed, one hundred percent, to a singular task. There's no arguments, there's no complaints, there's no me. I admire them." Harrison sounds a lot like Kai, espousing about his own cult, in this moment.
9) Ally's hot but creepy therapist turns up.
Dr. Vincent goes to Ally's home after she misses some appointments. Ally tells him, "My phobias were a perfect reaction to what I instinctively knew was true... The world is fucked up. And the election made it worse." Ally's been trying to seal herself off from her terrors, even going so far as to have bars fitted on all of the doors and windows. After the meeting, Dr. Vincent tells Ivy, "I do worry that she's exhibiting early signs of agoraphobia."
10) Kai campaigns at Ally's door and employs horror movie clichés.
His opening statement was key Kai: "You need to give a humiliated man some way to redeem himself in his own eyes, or he's at risk to be drawn into darkness, like Germany after World War I."
Once Kai realizes he's not getting anywhere with Ally, he uses excuses to gain entry to her house, much like the standard requests used in horror movies: "It's so hot out here, can I come in for a glass of water, please?" "Can I use your phone? My car broke down, pretty please?" "Can I use your rest room? Can't you see I'm an injured man?" She doesn't buy any of them, but this scene is a reminder that Kai understands horror tactics all too well.
10) Winter seduces Ally.
Trying to help her relax, Winter runs Ally a bath, and then begins to... massage her, reassuring Ally, "Don't worry, I won't tell your wife." Before the pair can kiss, the house alarm goes off and the lights go out. But things got pretty steamy:
11) The Wiltons stoke Ally's fear.
From giving her a gun to announcing the street blackout was due to terrorism, Harrison and Meadow act like their key purpose in life is to cause Ally distress and increase her sense of fear. It's working.
12) The clowns terrorize Ally's house again.
The ice cream truck driven by the clowns who killed the Changs last week returns. Ally assumes they're coming to kill her, but the wires on the alarm system in Ally and Ivy's house have been cut. A clown appears, amping up Ally's terror, so when a figure appears at the door as Ally is trying to escape with Ozzy, she fires the gun Harrison and Meadow gave her. Sadly, it wasn't an intruder or a clown at all, but Pedro.
Does Pedro make it? What are Ally's other fears? What are Ivy's true intentions? Next week's ep will likely answer some of these questions—and create just as many new ones.
