The titular cult is a group of people who worship a political movement and/or group as a god
Which manifests as a monster themed after said movement or group, hence the GOP-themed creature. There may even be multiple cults that reference others, such as the Democratic party or a Green party. Perhaps there are creatures that correspond with each one, along with ones representing broader beliefs regarding government such as Anarchism, Socialism, Capitalism, Communism and more. Maybe there's even a Confederacy themed monster worshipped by Neo-Confederates, a Klansman themed monster worshipped by white nationalists, and so on. The cult worships Twisty and wants to revive him so they can have him become the President of the United States
They want him to be their personal evil president.- Jossed. Twisty is only referenced to trigger Ally's coulrophobia, and the cult base their clown looks on Meadow's designs.
Following the above theory, the cult wants to put a President Evil in the White House...
And the candidate will be Michael, The Antichrist of the American Horror Story universe. Considering that this season aims to play with the current political situation in the United States and considering how Kai is a strawman-ish portrayal of right-wingers (Being a Straw Nihilist with anarchistic tendencies who thinks that Trump's election as a president gives him a free pass to torment a family For the Evulz), it is likely that Michael will be used as yet another Trump supporter (And maybe even an "example" of every Republican/Trump supporter) meant to represent every bad stereotype based on the country's president, with the cult relegated to just a part of Kai's character and the season's focus being Ally, a left-wing Lipstick Lesbian who is clearly meant to appeal both to a general public (Because of her opposition to Trump) and to left-leaning groups opposed to the current administration. Even with the fact that this season will portray America's political situation as it is and not use stand-ins for Trump and Clinton, it is pretty obvious that it will play it for all it is worth, and what better way of doing it than portraying the Antichrist, who is surely a Complete Monster, as a right-leaning tool for Kai to further his and the cult's plans?- Partially Jossed. Michael does not appear on Cult, but the Cult does eventually plan to put a President Evil in the White House - Kai himself.
This is going to be a dark satire that makes fun of both sides of the political spectrum.
Pretty self-explanatory.- Alternatively, it'll play the cult tormenting of the Mayfair-Richards family completely straight, but instead satirize those who think opposing hate groups is unconstitutional, but still slander and attack groups that stand against prejudice as somehow being worse. It's then that it turns into a satire, but of hypocrisies in American society.
- Pretty much confirmed, judging by the first episode. Ally exemplifies the stereotypical whiny liberal "snowflake," but hateful, bigoted Kai is clearly portrayed as being much worse and in the wrong. At least compared to Ally, considering that Meadow, Harrison, and Winter seem just as deranged and destructive as Kai is.
Kai believes that Trump is a Dark Messiah
Just like his opposition, Kai thinks that Trump will help bring about the end of America, and possibly the End of the World. However, unlike the opposition, he will revel in it, seeing Trump as the call to unleash evil upon the world and create for him an army worthy of destroying civilization.- Or perhaps Kai literally worships Trump as a God of Evil and views himself as his Dark Messiah, serving his will. Which means he was humping the image of the one he views as his father.
The cult is tormenting the Mayfair-Richards family for a very simple reason
It's because Ally and Ivy are a lesbian couple and are same-sex parents, and the cult is anti-LGBT. Kai's real idol isn't Donald Trump but Mike Pence. The cult wants try to "cure" the couple of their "choice" to be homosexual to impress the current administration. Which is crazy yes, but I never said it would work.- Jossed, the cult is targeting Ally because Ivy hates her but doesn't want to leave her because she fears Ally would get Oz. Kai suggested making her look insane so she wouldn't be granted custody of their child. Also, the cult is based in fear instead of political ideology and several LGBT characters have joined it themselves.
In order to deal with the anarchist monster clowns Ally will become a fascist bat-theme vigilante
Because guys like Kai just want to watch the world burn.- Jossed
The Twisty comics were written by Corey Bachman.
The little boy Twisty kidnapped in Freak Show. Coincidentally enough (or not), the actor who played Corey and the actor who plays Oz are brothers in real life. Kai and Winter are, or are going to become, incestuous.
This tropes is already picking up on a weird vibe - mostly from Kai to Winter. We've also been told that Kai is going to be Evan's most disturbing character, and after him having played mass murderers and rapists, I think having him be a willing (and even against the will of his sister) participant in incest would be a very easy way to make Kai even more skin crawlingly disturbing than the other characters Evan has played.- They could be the bloody couple in the Main Titles.
- Narrowly Jossed. Kai did want to conceive a baby using Winter, though by penetrating Samuels and Samuels penetrating Winter instead of him penetrating Winter directly. However, one gets the implication that he only suggested the former instead of the latter because he knew Winter would not accept it.
Winter and the Cult are working under the- possibly mistaken- belief that Oz is actually Michael Langdon, AKA The Antichrist.
Related to an above theory about the Cult trying to get The Antichrist to rise to power. The Cult is grooming his (supposed) already innate demonic instincts while at the same time tearing apart his mothers' marriage, in order to make him easier to mold.- Jossed, Michael Langdon is never referenced and Oz is not the focus of the Cult.
Ivy is working with the Cult.
She's the reason the Cult knows exactly where Ally is going, and how they know exactly which fears to exploit.- Confirmed in "Holes" and "Mid-Western Assassin."
Winter is a witch.
It would be a nice way to reference Coven! Some clues might be:- 1. Her style of dress being very similar to the coven witches.2. Winter and her brother apparently possess the ability to read minds.
- Jossed by Word of God saying Cult will be the first season without anything supernatural.
Winter and Kai will end up killing each other.
Winter will either kill Kai, or Kai will kill Winter, or they'll kill each other.- Confirmed. Kai strangles Winter to death under the delusional belief that she is The Mole.
Winter and Kai will be arrested at the end.
The last image in the Main Titles is pinkies in handcuffs.- Partially confirmed. Kai is arrested in the finale, but Winter is not, having died in the penultimate episode.
Dennis O'Hare will play Bernie Sanders.
Dennis is suspiciously missing, despite appearing in every other Season. Mocking someone who is worshipped by the Internet would complete the political satire & get everyone talking about AHS, for better or worse.- Jossed. Denis O'Hare does not appear in this season (and was also absent from Asylum), and Bernie Sanders does not appear or even get mentioned.
Kai is the biological father of Oz.
He anonymously donated his sperm and after (somehow) finding out he had a son, he's set out to take him from the Fairchilds by ruining their lives.- Partially Jossed in "Drink the Kool-Aid." Kai did donate his sperm on a regular basis and believes he is Oz's father, but he's actually not.
Dr. Vincent is going to be a Foil for Asylum's Oliver Thredson.
The parallels are already there;- he's Sarah Paulson's character's therapist,Sarah's character is a lesbian,he starts off the series appearing as the only sane person in the cast,and seemingly well intentioned.
The differences so far are that;
- Ally is in genuine need of psychiatric help, and Lana was simply forced into the asylum to keep its secrets.
Perhaps Dr.Vincent will turn out to genuinely be the Big Good Thredson was falsely presented as in the beginning.
Or maybe he will be a villain - possibly even the Big Bad, but instead of having ....intense.... mother issues, he'll be be obsessed with a child he lost and is trying to steal Oz from Ally and Ivy.
- Jossed on both counts. Dr. Vincent is not a villain, nor does he turn out to be the Big Good, ending up as an Anti-Hero who had a hand in Kai's Start of Darkness and gets killed in the same episode that he finally becomes a player, but who did seem to genuinely be trying to help take Kai down (albeit for his own selfish reasons).
Kai murdered his and Winter's parents
The house they share was theirs.- Jossed on the first count. Their mother killed their father and then herself in a murder-suicide, seemingly triggering Kai's Start of Darkness. Confirmed that they are still living in the same house.
Detective Samuels is part of the cult
He's helping Kai gaslight Ally.- Confirmed in "Holes".
- Confirmed. Bebe Babbitt is a redhead, though only in the sense that she's the one who set Kai on his path.
Gary doesn't have anything to do with the Cult
The fact Ally saw the clowns in his shop will turn out to be a Red Herring, and fitting with the seasons satire, Gary's going to be a representation of more moderate Republicans, who dismiss Trumps more extreme and out their side as just showboating to keep the attention off his the more serious ideas. He'll end up doing the same thing to the Cult (assuming he finds out), right up till Kai has him killed for not fitting with his ideas of what a Republican should be.- Maybe Gary is a veteran, and he lost his hand in a roadside bombing overseas, making him support Trump's stronger stance on terrorism. That way there would be one character who actually has a sympathetic and legitimate reason for voting for Trump, other than bigotry and fearmongering.
- We later find out why Gary lost his hand, but he lost it stateside and Kai is responsible for it. He also kind of deserved losing it due to what he used said hand to do.
- Jossed. Gary is a member of the Cult, and possibly one of the most Axe-Crazy ones, at that.
The cult will start murdering professional athletes
And Kai will claim that they deserved it due to the peaceful protests they approved of. Then he'll lose a significant part of his base because most of the people attacking such protesting athletes don't want them murdered, even if they want their opinions to be silenced.- Jossed, they never target athletes.
This Season doesn't take place in the same setting as the other AHS settings. In fact, the earlier Seasons are fictional in-universe.
Twisty the Clown being a character in a comic-book suggests that Twisty is a fictional character in the Cult setting. This implies that all of the previous AHS storylines up to this point might also be fictional, in the context of AHS: Cult. The events of this season (so far) make narrative sense with or without supernatural elements.- Unless it's an in-universe case of an historical figure being used for fictional purposes, like happens all the time in reality.
- Jossed. The finale mentions Lana Winters, confirming a shared universe with Asylum and Freak Show.
Ally is the daughter of Bette, Dot, and Jimmy from AHS: Freak Show
In their last appearance in that season, we saw that Bette and Dot were pregnant with a child. Granted, that was in 1960, and Ally seems to be younger than that, but they could have had a second child later. Ally did say she was born somewhere in Florida, after all. Gary is going to end up killing Winter and/or Ivy.
Since they were responsible for handcuffing him on Election Day, something he may not yet know. Plus, both were Clinton supporters and he was a Trump supporter - there could well still be bad blood between them. Once he finds out that they were the ones who kidnapped him, tried to keep him from voting, and caused the circumstances that led to him having to cut off his own hand, he'll try to kill one or both of them. It may also be that he does already know but is refraining from doing anything because they're in the cult together and have Kai's protection; Kai might now rescind that protection and they'll probably try to kill him for sexually assaulting Ivy, so all bets are off.- Jossed. Winter and Ivy are killed by different people. Winter herself does participate in Gary's death, but only at Kai's command and no reference is made to any lingering grudge she might have against him
The group of “empowered women” who are implied to be Ally’s new cult in the finale are the witches from AHS: Coven
.Because isn’t it worth wondering just what they thought of the political drama going on during this season? Ivy is Oz's biological mother after all.
Ally was the one who gave birth to Oz because, even though Ivy wanted to, she had endometriosis and couldn't carry a child. However, thanks to IVF technology, it is actually possible for a woman to be impregnated with the egg of another woman. Therefore, it is possible that Ally was impregnated with Ivy's egg and the donor sperm. This would explain Oz and Ivy's resemblance, and why he has blonde hair when both Ally and the sperm donor have brown hair. The hair colour does not rule out Ally being his biological mother, though - it could have skipped a generation or perhaps Ally's hair was blonde as a child and it turned brown as she aged, both of which are very common in real life.