Is Cheyenne Jackson really the bad guy on AHS: Cult? Each new season of American Horror Story brings a fresh batch of wild fan theories. Ryan Murphy has been known to throw us all for a loop, doubling back on information and twisting a plot mid-season. Basically, he can't be trusted, so we're left to speculate.
This season, fan theories are swirling about who the killer is on American Horror Story. Many fans speculate that Kai Anderson (Even Peters) is the cult's head honcho, but it's just too easy. Since when has Ryan Murphy and co. ever made the obvious plot choice? No. It's way more probable that Cheyenne Jackson is the AHS villain. Warning: There are plenty of spoilers below!
Here's a quick refresher: Jackson plays psychologist Dr. Rudy Vincent, who (thus far) appears to have a minor role on the show. But his theory of who the killer is on American Horror Story tosses that notion aside real fast. Dr. Vincent treats Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson), a lesbian mom who has a fear of clowns, blood, confinement, and holes (trypophobia). Ally hires Winter Anderson (Billie Lourde) to babysit her son Oz. Winter turns out to be ultra-freaky and makes Oz watch murders on the dark web. She's also related to Even Peters' character, Kai Anderson, the cult leader-like Trump enthusiast.
But anyone who's watched the show knows never to take the season at first episode face value. Things are likely not what they seem and there plenty of evidence to suggest that Ally's therapist is the villain on American Horror Story.
The Smiley Face Murder Symbol Seems To Allude To Psychiatry
There's no telling exactly what the smiley face murder symbol that the killer clowns (or whomever is doing the killing) paint on their victims door means for sure. Some speculate that it represents a person's mental state or phobias. And who treats phobias? Psychiatrists.
Think about it: A blood splotch beneath a smiling facade. Could be the rubber nose of a clown or it could be referring to where the brain (and mental illness) lives, in the middle of the head. It mysteriously shows up after the terrifying clowns commit murder, and clowns are Ally Mayfair-Richards's defining phobia. Clearly a calculated move. Is Dr. Rudy Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson) bringing patients' phobias to life and stamping his psychologically twisted mark at the scene of the crime?
Dr. Rudy Vincent had a piece of coral – something widely known to trigger trypophobia (a fear of clusters of holes) – in his office. He tells Ally she should have told him her trypophobia had returned and he'd have moved the item, but he knew her history with the phobia. A strange decorative choice for sure.
Later, Ally describes one of the clowns that antagonized her in the supermarket as having holes in its mask as if the person who created it knew all of her fears. Since the clowns turned out to be real (or were they?), that leaves anyone who knows Ally's phobias as a major suspect. Who knows better than Dr. Vincent?
Kai is the cult leader we're all vying for, but one Reddit user thinks he's simply a troubled opportunist. Right now, Kai's disturbing prejudices are masking the real villain – Dr. Vincent. The user goes on to say that Cheyenne is running a cult based on people's fears and enlisting old patients to join him. Kai is caught up in the election, sure, but there's a common thread between the two: Winter Anderson (Billie Lourde).
"Winter was a patient of Cheyenne's character (Dr. Vincent) when she was self-abusing. She's wrapped up in the cult, as well as Kai's agenda. When Trump won, she lost the bet and had to go back to the cult. Kai saw an opening—send Winter back to the cult, let it cause some chaos and incite some fear, and he'll run for office."
One Of His Phobic Patients Dies With A Direct Nod To Her Fear
Another of Dr. Vincent's patients, Rosie, discusses how she finally feels she's gotten over her longtime fear of caskets (feretrophobia), a phobia she developed as a result of her abusive funeral home director father. The doctor congratulates her and encourages her to go out and live her life. She and her husband Mark go home for some hanky panky, now that she doesn't imagine being trapped in a coffin every time she has sex.
The two are about to get it on, when the clown cult attacks. Locking both Rosie and Mark in matching coffins inside their home, presumably to die by the very fear Rosie thought she had just conquered. Who better to instruct the clowns on how to kill Rosie than the man who kn
There is speculation that Winter was a patient of Dr. Vincent's when she used to self-harm. Her relationship to Kai (brother and sister, maybe) and their strange pinky-swearing interrogation would imply that her babysitting position was the result of no accidental job search. Kai, who has already established himself as an eccentric would-be cult leader, may be linked to Dr. Vincent through Winter. And if Dr. Vincent is leading the whole evil plot, he could be using both of them.
If Kai's Cult Is Focused On Facing Fears, There May Be A Psychiatrist Behind That Dogma
Winter tells Kai in their conversation that what "fills her heart with dread" is children. She doesn't say it explicitly in the episode, but it's implied by the editing and shown directly in the show's trailer. As one Reddit user points out, this makes Winter's babysitting position a strange job choice. Kai clearly wants to exploit people's fears in his chaos-focused power hunger, so could his cult be focused on the opposite? A place for people wanting to face their fears, albeit in disturbing cult-y ways?
Who better to be the true leader behind such a doctrine than a psychiatrist gone mad who would want to bring people to some higher calling through this form of severe "therapy." The doctor is in.
