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‘American Horror Story: Cult’ Trailer Hints at ‘Freak Show’ Connection

Is Season 7 just part two of Season 4?
American Horror Story Cult
By  · Published on August 23rd, 2017

Is Season 7 just part two of Season 4?

Prepare to face your fears, as American Horror Story: Cult is ready to exploit them all. The show has been treating its audience nicely this week, first with a look at the main titles to the next season, which features a heavy amount of clowns. (Coulrophobiacs, beware!) Then a trailer debuted on the show’s promotional website, with an introduction from Billie Lourd‘s character asking the viewer to “not be frightened.”

The new trailer reveals Ally, played by Sarah Paulson, upset over the results of the 2016 presidential election. Kai, played by Evan Peters, has the opposite reaction. Due to the results, Ally is stricken with a fear of clowns, or coulrophobia, as stated by her therapist. Kai recruits Winter, played by Lourd, to become Ally’s nanny with the intention of messing with her mind. Watch it here:

Based on everything seen so far, clowns and fears are going to play a big role in this season. It’s unknown if they’re directly related to the cult that Kai is a part of, but it wouldn’t be wrong to assume so. The introduction to the trailer has Winter saying that she’ll “take your fear” and keep it because “it will make us both stronger.” We know Kai has recruited Winter into his cult, so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what this cult is about.

However, one major point of the trailer is the appearance of Twisty the Clown. Twisty is a character from AHS: Freak Show, the fourth season of the show. In this trailer, we see two instances of his involvement. The first is in a comic book titled “Twisty: The Clown Chronicles,” something that was teased by Murphy on his Instagram last month (see below). The second is a Twisty figurine given to Ally’s son by Winter.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWYeEHTA-0u/

The biggest piece of evidence is that Twisty died in Freak Show, which means he could be a ghost haunting Ally this season. The comic could be about Twisty the urban legend, and the way he appears could be specifically related to something Ally does. This is further planted by the fact that Winter brings Ally’s son a Twisty figurine, so he definitely has some significance. So if he exists, the freak show must also exist.

This also takes us back to a key point from the season finale of Freak Show, where someone brings up that there’s only two freak shows running in the US. The first was in Florida, which is the freak show featured in Freak Show. The second one was in Coney Island, which is closer to Michigan than Florida. Plus, in a leaked description of the show from an international FX station, Ally is a native New Yorker. There’s a chance she went to the other freak show and has a back story involving that experience.

The last big connection is Bette and Dot, the conjoined twins who shared a body. They eventually give birth during the season, but we never learn of their future. Bette and Dot were played by Paulson, so for Ally to be their daughter wouldn’t be so strange. Plus, this could be the explanation for all of Sarah’s fears, as the conjoined twins giving birth could have caused mental disabilities in their child.

On top of all of these plot details, the introduction to the show features a lot of carnival and circus imagery, like clowns, a carousel, juggling knives, and magic. Though none of these are a direct reference to Freak Show, it is odd that so many of the items in the opening are relevant to a circus. Could it be a play on the idea that politics is a circus, or is it another hint at the Freak Show connection? At the end of the day, any of these connections could just be just that; connections.

Regardless of the theory, this new season looks thrilling and terrifying and is timed perfectly considering another clown themed horror event is being released the same week as the premiere (Stephen King’s It). Within the next two weeks leading up to the premiere, more information will be released about the new season, giving viewers an even closer look at the new world of the Cult. The question is, will you be ready to join on September 5th?

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