Each season usually features a female character that perseveres and survives, even with the odds stacked against them, usually, but not always, played by Sarah Paulson. They include:
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
American Horror Story
- Murder House: Averted. The only real options for the final girl, Vivien (Connie Britton) and Violet (Taissa Farmiga), are both dead by the final episode, with the latter more closely fitting the profile but spends half of the season as a ghost. Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) and Billie Dean Howard (Paulson) also both survive, but they're never directly in any danger throughout the season.
- Asylum: Lana Winters (Paulson), a lesbian journalist who spends the bulk of the season attempting to escape from an asylum after being wrongfully institutionalized, then surviving an encounter with Bloody Face, a ruthless serial killer, leaving her the only survivor of the season.
- Coven: Downplayed with Cordelia Goode (Paulson), who manages to usurp the title of Supreme witch from her abusive and irresponsible mother, Fiona. She is notably the only witch besides Fiona who is not killed and brought back using Vitalum Vitalis.
- Subverted with Zoe (Farmiga), who is initially introduced as The Heroine but turns out to be the Decoy Protagonist in favor of Cordelia. Unlike Cordelia, she does die, but is quickly brought back to life.
- Freak Show: Conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler (both Paulson) along with Desiree Dupree (Angela Bassett) are made the final girls of the season when Elsa Mars (Lange) allows Edward Mordrake to kill her.
- Hotel: Subverted with Liz Taylor (Denis O'Hare), a rare trans final girl. She is the only character to still be alive and not infected with the virus at the end of the season, eventually allowing the Countess to kill her mercifully so that she can reunite with her deceased lover and remain in the hotel with her friends.
- Roanoke: Subverted with Lee Harris (Adina Porter), an alcoholic and former police officer looking to clear her name in the murder of her ex-husband by participating in My Roanoke Nightmare. She is the last surviving character by the end of the series —actually doing some of the murders herself when she's possessed— and her death is a decision she makes for herself.
- Zig-zagged with Shelby (portrayed by Lily Rabe), one of the subjects of My Roanoke Nightmare. She obviously survives the initial horror so that she can narrate her experiences in My Roanoke Nightmare, but she later slits her own throat when they're back at the Roanoke house.
- Parodied with Audrey (portrayed by Paulson), the actress who portrays Shelby in My Roanoke Nightmare. She seems as though she is going to become the final girl until the very last second, when she's abruptly dispatched by police as she tries to avenge her fallen friends, who were all killed by a possessed Lee.
- Cult: Subverted with Ally Mayfair-Richards (portrayed by Paulson), a woman suffering from numerous phobias, who overcomes them to save herself and her son from a murderous clown cult. She ultimately manages to kill their leader, and then becomes the leader of a new cult.
- Apocalypse: Zig-zagged with Mallory (portrayed by Billie Lourd), a young witch and the next Supreme, who is tasked with vanquishing antichrist Michael Langdon after all of her coven is wiped out. Succeeding Cordelia, she reverses time and kills Michael before he's given a chance to bring upon the apocalypse, effectively undoing all of the deaths caused by him.
- 1984: Downplayed. While Donna Chambers (Angelica Ross) also survives to the end, girl next door Brooke (Emma Roberts) more closely fits the profile of a final girl. Donna may also be the second trans final girl in the series, as she is portrayed by a trans woman but never explicitly identified as trans in the season.
American Horror Stories
- Rubber (Wo)man: Deconstructed with Scarlett Winslow (Sierra McCormick), who is the killer to an extent, but mostly as a self-appointed vigilante type rather than a cold-blooded murderer.
