YMMV / American Horror Story: Cult

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• Alternate Character Interpretation: In the final episode did Kai believe that he would get away, or was he attempting a Taking You with Me?
• Angst? What Angst?: Despite having a closer relationship with her in the beginning, Oz doesn't seem that torn up about Ivy's death from what we've seen of him, and seems to like and get along pretty well with Ally's new girlfriend Erika.
• Base-Breaking Character: Lena Dunham's portrayal of Valerie Solanas, at least partially because of how controversial the actress is in real life. A significant number of viewers hated her, whether it simply be because she was portrayed by Lena Dunham or because they genuinely disliked the performance and writing. However, another chunk of fans felt Lena did a decent job and was amusing enough in the role. There are also those who hate Dunham, but tolerate her role here because she's portraying a particularly psychopathic Straw Feminist. Almost everyone agrees that far too much time was spent on her character that could've gone towards the main plot.
• Broken Base:
  • The decision to bring the 2016 Presidential Election into the mix — especially so soon after it happened — naturally caused a lot of division in the fandom on both sides of the political spectrum.
  • The abandonment of any supernatural elements for the entire season.
• Catharsis Factor: After an entire season of getting away with everything, it's immensely satisfying to see Kai get knocked down several pegs in the finale, a process which includes having the FBI break into his cult before he could lead his followers to kill a hundred pregnant women, learning that Ally is running to take the senate seat that he coveted so much, humiliating him with the knowledge that Oz isn't his son, having his nihilistic and misogynist perspective exposed for what it is and refuted on live television, being outsmarted by Ally's mole into using an unloaded gun on her, and being killed by Beverly (who suffered almost as much as Ally), an action which ensures that Ally is elected senator.
  • On another note, there's also Ally getting back at Ivy for all the torment she'd put her through. It's just as satisfying for her In-Universe as it is for the viewers.
• Cry for the Devil: Kai is one of the most genuinely reprehensible villains ever on American Horror Story, being not just a bigoted sociopath but also a manipulator and emotional abuser who probably hits much closer to home for most viewers than your average murdering ghost. That said, he's not without his share of tragedy, and is implied (alongside Winter) to have been heavily shaped by trauma. His home life became troubled after his father was paralyzed in an accident and became abusive, and his mother subsequently killed his father in a murder-suicide that Kai himself witnessed and failed to stop and that his older brother Vince convinced him to help cover up. Some time later, he ended up in the house of a deranged, murdering pastor with his sister under the belief that it was just a haunted house; Kai ended up freeing the tormented captives and executing the man, but according to Winter was never the same afterwards (it's also worth noting that Kai was once a student of religious studies). Add to this bowl of Sanity Slippage soup the negative influences of Bebe Babbitt, his supposed anger-management counselor who actually urged him to be more uncontrolled and free with his anger (and also to go into politics) in order to provoke women into taking over the world; his position as leader of the cult, which led to his delusions and paranoia being validated at every turn; and Ally, who manipulated him into killing Winter — his only remaining loved one — when he was in the middle of a psychotic break, actively hallucinating, and unable to keep any semblance of a grip on reality. Keeping all that in mind, it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for him, especially when he has a complete breakdown and starts sobbing his eyes out over Winter when it finally registers what he's done.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Harrison and Meadow Wilton, Ally and Ivy's deranged neighbors. Both for being incredibly creepy and crazed while simultaneously being two of the most hilarious characters on the entire show.
  • Winter is proving to be one as well, for her hilarious-yet-unsettling Soapbox Sadie personality. The fact that Billie Lourd was a fan favorite on her other Ryan Murphy show likely helps out.
  • Mr. Guinea Pig is also fairly well liked.
  • Of the "guest" characters that Evan Peters portrays, his take on Andy Warhol was the most praised.
• Epileptic Trees: There have been a bunch of theories about who is the cult leader; this include:
  • Twisty.
  • Mr. Guinea or the Puppy.
  • Frances Conroy's character or Denis O'Hare's one.
• Fan Disservice: Some viewers may find that Evan Peters' natural good looks are cancelled out by Kai's cult personality status, psychotic tendencies and stringy blue hair.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The sixth episode opens with a mass shooting... Something that hit harder considering this happened immediately after the Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest in American history. The showrunners released a statement that when the episode was shown on television, it would be edited down for this very reason, with the uncut episode being available on on-demand.
  • Oddly enough, the seventh episode has this too. In the episode, the female cult members are shunted out by Kai's "patriarchy" and, in flashbacks, Valerie Solanas loses her mind due to being subjected to sexual abuse and a lifetime of gender discrimination. In the week between this episode and the last, the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein exploded and the Me Too hashtag started trending.
    • There's also the matter of Valerie's actress, Lena Dunham, having been accused of molesting her sister after describing in great detail in her autobiography how she would initiate and continuously seek inappropriate contact with her, with psychological abuse also part of the equation. This is made especially uncomfortable by Dunham's character claiming that sexual abusers are only men.
  • In the first episode where Kai Anderson hallucinates Charles Manson, Manson says that he's not a Spirit Advisor because he's still alive, and is still persisting eleven months later. A few days after the finale aired, the real-life Manson was put on his deathbed with an unknown illness, dying ten days after the character insisted he was still alive. Perhaps less "harsh" in the sense that Manson was a monstrous human being whose death was met with widespread celebration, but still.
• Heartwarming Moments: Oz apologizing to Ally for saying "I wish I could say my goodbyes to you" after she made him get rid of his new guinea pig. And for bonus heartwarming, despite being against it, Ally was going to let Oz keep him after all.
  • It was pretty sweet seeing Winter stand up for Ivy after Gary sexually assaulted her, especially when no one else did despite clearly witnessing it.
  • Harrison's a bit of a jerk, but he actually tried to help Ivy get out of danger during the infamous shooting scene.
  • After having a somewhat strained relationship with Ally for the whole season, in "Drink The Kool-Aid" Oz sweetly tells Ally that he missed her.
  • Senator Herbert Jackson trying to defend and shield Ally from Kai in the finale: he knows Kai is clearly unstable, but it doesn't stop him from trying to protect her, even if she's the one he's running against for Senator.
  • In a very odd and tonally dissonant way, Gary's death in the tenth episode. When he worries that he's done something wrong, Kai comforts him in a manner gentler than he's been through the entire season, allowing Gary to die with some semblance of happiness and peace. Considering all the other deaths, wherein people often die confused and terrified, it's strangely touching.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the ending of the next season, it would be Billie Lourd's turn to kill the main male Big Bad, like how Ally did with Kai.
  • Seeing the shady news characters played by Emma Roberts and Dermot Mulroney having an affair is now more fitting considering both actors having played Ghostface in the Scream films, maybe Emma is seducing Dermot to Take Up My Sword as the next Ghostface after she has fallen and their screen time together can be seen as a Changing of the Guard for Emma to pass down the Ghostface mantle to Dermot.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Kai and Winter's very strong Incest Subtext has garnered them a small community of shippers, although the creepy and dark tone of the relationship also turned a lot of people off (see No Yay).
• Jerkass Woobie: "Jerk" is putting it monumentally lightly, but Winter is a surprisingly tragic character, when one really considers her story. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, her older brothers are varying levels of sociopathic, both of whom opt to hide her parents' death from her, with Kai revealing the truth to her by taking her to their already decomposed corpses, was traumatized by witnessing a sadistic serial killer's torture of several people (almost becoming a victim herself) and it's mentioned that she's self-harmed. In the present, her brother Kai is becoming increasingly psychotic and abusive, humiliating her and the other women with his misogynistic behavior, the woman she loved is missing and presumed dead (and she believes her brother murdered her in an especially brutal manner), she is framed to look like The Mole, and is slowly choked to death by her hysterical brother.
  • The show's depiction of Valerie Solanas. Yes, she's an unrepentant murderer with an especially deep hatred for men (even the gay men who were raped and victimized by other men like she was), but the way her life just kept getting worse over time and her increasingly unhinged state driving everyone she had been close to away (including her once loyal girlfriend) still stirs some feeling for her.
• Magnificent Bastard: Ally Mayfair-Richards was initially The Paranoiac, but would become much more fearless and conniving. After being released from a psychiatric ward, she would soon seek vengeance on Kai Anderson and his cult for tormenting her. She integrated herself into the cult where she manipulated Kai into killing his siblings and his most loyal followers on the pretense that they were turning against him; Ally also kills her own wife for joining Kai's cult, partaking in her torment and taking her son away from her. She would then have the FBI raid Kai's hideout completely dismantling his cult and arresting Kai. Decided to steal Kai's plan to run for a seat in the Senate, Ally would then arrange Kai's escape from prison, only to have him publicly humiliated on live-television before having him killed. Winning a seat in the Senate and later starting her own cult, Ally Mayfair-Richard undoubtedly proves that there is something more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man: a nasty woman.
• Memetic Mutation: A joke on Tumblr at the time about "Right in front of my salad?"^Explanation Originated from a gay pornography, now used to mock over-sensitive people or vegans ended up tying into a scene in Cult where Ally walks in on two clowns having sex in the produce aisle.
  • When episode 7 aired, there were various jokes made about politician Ted Cruz seeking revenge against the SCUM organization when former member Bebe Babbitt revealed that they were responsible for the Zodiac killings and taking 'credit' for his work.
  • "Lesbians! We're under attack!"
  • "I put arsenic in the wine. And the pasta." Variants include "I put X in the wine. And the pasta," and "I put arsenic in the X. And the Y." Examples can be found here.
• Mind Game Ship: Ally/Kai. Yes, there is fic for it. The fact that they have some serious tension in later episodes helps, and the relationship is placed firmly in this territory by him manipulating her in the first half of the season and her turning the tables on him and doing the exact same in the second half.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Valerie crossed it by starting her group and having them murder couples indiscriminately.
  • Ivy crossed it by joining the cult and gaslighting Ally.
  • Kai committed so many evil deeds, that it's hard to tell when he crossed it. Starting up his murderous cult is a good start.
  • Ally crosses it in the finale with the implication that she is starting her own group of murderous nuts.
• Narm:
  • The Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton masks in the opening can be this for some viewers. The bloodied American flag would've been fine enough without them.
  • Kai humping the television screen as soon as it's revealed Trump won the election (though this is likely intentional).
    • Immediately afterwards, Kai covers his face in Cheeto dust (a reference to a common insult about Trump's spray-tanned skin tone) and mocks his sister.
  • Ally's panic about Donald Trump can come off as this, especially if one doesn't agree with her politically. Suffice to say, the fate of Merrick Garland is not something that sends most people on either side of the political spectrum to hysterical sobbing.
    • The use of strawmen in general comes off like this. While it's a theme of the series that Kai's cult is little different from ones before him, and the show focuses on the cult's members over outsiders, it gets laughable that a) seemingly everyone's in the cult, b) Kai's open about his politics but recruits people radically opposed to them anyway, and c) not a single major character in the show is both post-pubescent and not a criminal lunatic of some stripe.
  • Gary cutting his own arm off in order to reach a poll so he could cast a vote for Donald Trump, dripping a trail of blood throughout the polling station.
• Nightmare Retardant: The theme tune with trumpets and drums might make the opening less scary for some; it's reminiscent of political dramas like The West Wing, Designated Survivor, or House of Cards (US).
• No Yay: Kai and Winter with their Incest Subtext. Not helped by the abusive undertones.
  • Kai and everyone he interacts with, really.
  • Ally and Ivy, all things considered.
  • Winter's interactions with Oz early in the season are disturbingly reminiscent of a sexual predator grooming a child.
  • Pastor Charles gave off a lot of rape-y vibes in "Winter of Our Discontent," particularly when he pins Winter against a wall and talks about how he is going to hold her captive.
• One-Scene Wonder: Evan Peters as the other cult figures, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and Jesus Christ. None of them are on the show for very long, but all of them end up being memorable performances for various reasons. His performance as Andy Warhol has also received a lot of praise.
• Periphery Demographic: This season is quite popular with a certain subset of Trump supporters, who consider it a comedy more than a horror.
• Questionable Casting: A few fans have taken issue with the fact that Chaz Bono, a trans man, is portraying a Trump supporter when trans people are among the marginalized groups that the show would typically focus on. However, the Irony of this may be intentional.
• She Really Can Act: Billie Lourd's previous role of Chanel #3 as well as her role here as Winter both primarily call for her to be non-expressive and largely emotionless, but her acting in Winter's final episode as she cries in pure terror and agony as she's interrogated and murdered by Kai really shows how far she's come as a performer.
• Squick:
  • The cult's clown sex.
  • Kai peeing into a condom that he then throws at a group of Mexican workers.
  • Kai nearly coercing Winter into having a quasi-incestuous threesome with Samuels, not helped by the heavy implication that if Winter hadn't protested to the incest, Kai would have probably tried to impregnate her himself. Yuck.
  • Kai humping his television in the first episode.
• Spoiled by the Format: It wasn't hard to guess that the Kool-Aid wasn't poisoned given that there were two and a half episodes left.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • Ally killing Ivy with poisoned food after Ally spends several minutes explaining how she began to plot revenge upon Ivy when she put her in the psych ward without a word, never visiting her, and never letting her see Oz.
    • To a lesser extent, Harrison calling Ivy out on her hypocrisy for trying to reprimand him about taking care of his wife.
• Tearjerker:
  • Any scene that demonstrates the increasingly strained relationship between Ally and her son, especially Oz declaring that he wishes Ally were gone.
  • Winter's death, despite being Laser-Guided Karma to an extent, is just awful. Even Ally, who had in fact set her up for it and even rubbed it in to Winter before it happened, seemed to find it harder to watch as it dragged on. The sheer horror on Winter's face when Kai reveals that he knows that she tried to help Beverly as well as her desperate pleading to Kai as he has his minions drag her away was also gut-wrenching. Kai's reaction later when Ally informs him that Winter was innocent and he killed her for nothing is also pretty heartbreaking if you have even the tiniest level of sympathy for his character.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Twisty plays into the first two episodes for Oz's scenes, but he never physically appears for the remainder of the season.
• The Woobie:
  • Oz. His moms are falling apart, his babysitter is making him watch gruesome videos on the internet, and he suffers night terrors. It gets worse when he witnesses his new pet being microwaved, and inadvertently causes his moms to fight worse when he sees a video of Ally apparently cheating and Ivy sees it. Poor kid...
  • Dr. Vincent's recovered patient in the opening of episode three. Her father locked her in a cupboard for hours on end as a child, this leaving her with a crippling fear of confined spaces even as an adult, and she finally starts to get better after her father's funeral, only to have the Clowns trap her and her husband in coffins, murdering her in the most personally horrific way one could imagine for her.
  • Poor Ally, who seems to have been targeted primarily for how easily she scares. Just about every episode is one long Trauma Conga Line for her.
    • To make matters worse, it turns out that nearly every one around her is involved in this Cult and are helping to terrorize and gaslight her. Her neighbors, the local news anchor, the policeman, the grocery store cashier, her babysitter, her own wife and the the man running for councilman are all in the Cult. Her son Oz is also growing more and more distant towards her, and she's only allowed to see him with Ivy's supervision.
  • Beverly's cameraman RJ also counts: sure, he was in the Cult, but he was the only member who knew what they were doing was wrong and wanted to free the couple they trapped in the coffins and this compassion is what makes the callous members of the cult deem him 'weak' and he dies in possibly the most gruesome death of the season by having all the cult members bound and gag him while they all use a nail gun on him all the while he's sobbing and begging them to stop. Poor guy.

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