“13”

“1:13 AM”

“Rauhnacht”

I was shocked to see that the latest season of American Horror Story debuted this week. I was also surprised to see that they dropped three episodes on the opening night. I thought to myself that I did not have the time to fit three episodes into my schedule for the night, so I started the first one to see how much I could see.

Episode one ended suddenly after only about 33 minutes. The second episode was around 31 minutes and then episode three was the shortest of the three at 22 minutes. I was able to see all three in a short space of time.

Wild.

The show was weird as could be. There were characters that were from previous seasons that I recognized, such as Constance from season one, the Coven from season three and Rubber Man, also from season one.

Since I have not watched all of the seasons of AHS, I was not sure how many were returning characters and which were new. I discovered that the entry point to the season was Ben (Joey Pollari), a hospice and palliative care worker who suffers from triskaidekaphobia. Trying to overcome his fear, Ben went on an ill-fated plane trip with his girlfriend for her birthday. The plane crash killed her in the cold open. We then see Ben taking a hospice job at a residential building called The Apollyon in New York City. This is where the characters from previous season can be found.

Ben was hired by Constance to take care of the mysterious Mr. Nas. There are a ton of weird things going on with this man, including his vomiting black substances, what looked like a tail, and possible horns. Devil, anyone?

Tate Langston is alive and living in the building along with Kai Anderson, the cult leader from season seven (Cult). Both are played by Evan Peters. Twisty the Clown showed up about midway through episode 2 and brutally killed 13 people.

The number 13 is significant this season.

Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short also returned from Murder House and Apocalypse (season 8). Sarah Paulson is all over the place too, back as both Apocalypse’s Wilhemina Venable and Coven’s Cordelia Goode.

There is a portal to Hell beneath the Apollyon. This is where Wilhemina is hanging out.

This has been wild so far, and I do like how things are coming together, though I wonder if my lack of knowledge over the AHS seasons will hurt the experience of the show.