‘American Horror Story’: The Connections And Implications

Please be aware that the following article contains American Horror Story spoilers.

American Horror Story: Freak Show is in full swing, and fans are waiting with bated breath to see what becomes of the freaks, Dandy, and the impostors. Last week, viewers got to see the main bad guy, Twisty the clown, die at the hands of a vengeful ghost, leaving room for the super-creepy Dandy to rise to his insane potential.

That’s not what everyone’s talking about at the moment, though.

Theories and discussion have gone to American Horror Story characters Pepper and Sister Eunice from Season 2, Asylum.

The existence of the two old characters in Season 5 of American Horror Story led viewers to contemplate the connection between the seemingly unrelated seasons.

It’s no longer just a theory.

Ryan Murphy told Entertainment Weekly, on Halloween, that all seasons of American Horror Story are actually connected.

“They’re all connected. We’re just beginning to tell you how they’re connected. They’re all very separate but there’s clues every season that we’re now telling you how the different worlds are intertwined… Part of the fun of the show is the Rubik’s cube design of it, but, yes, there are purposeful connections, character connections, and similarities and things that connect that we’ll continue to connect moving forward.”

Murphy even indicated that several of the theories he’s read by American Horror Story fans have been right on the money.

Searching for those theories comes up with two very different possibilities.

On one hand, there’s the linear theory.

The linear theory about American Horror Story is that all the characters are connected.

Some people believe that Lana Winters in Asylum is actually Dot from Freakshow post separation surgery. Random characters are also thought to have familial ties, such as Constance Langdon’s lawyer Harry Goodman, from Murder House, and holocaust survivor Sam Goodman in Asylum. Those are just a small taste of the huge amount of character-to-character connections fans believe to have located.

Other American Horror Story fans have gone a more surreal route. They believe in the hell theory.

The hell theory indicates that all the members of the various seasons are actually the same people going through different levels of hell together.

Some believers in the linear theory would argue that Pepper and Sister Mary Eunice’s return to American Horror Story in Season 4 would discount the hell theory, but would it really?

In Asylum, Sister Eunice is possessed by a demon. Could it be that she was able to transverse the layers of hell during her possession because she was a creature of hell? Perhaps Pepper is a demon herself or another soul lost in hell.

What are your theories on the connection between the American Horror Story seasons?

[Image courtesy of FX]