This week’s episode of American Horror Story opened up with a flashback to June 1968 and the crime of Valerie Solanas (Lena Dunham), a writer who is treated poorly by Andy Warhol (Evan Peters).
And then everything picked up where last week’s episode left off with the shooting at Kai (Evan Peters)’s rally. Information in regards to the event was broadcasted on the news, claiming Meadow (Leslie Grossman) was the suspect. The national coverage of the event was successful for Kai, as he won a seat on city council. He even claimed Eric Trump retweeted him.
Later, Beverly (Adina Porter) arrived at Kai’s house to see multiple white men guarding the place who were suspicious of her presence. Kai allowed Beverly in and explained that the men are all new members of the cult who have come from all over. Kai finally got the following he has been wishing for all along.
Beverly wanted to talk about how they both agreed they would have equal power within the cult and how she felt like she was being betrayed. Now that Kai has won the city’s vote, he doesn’t need Beverly to broadcast about him anymore to make him look good. He wants to focus on himself and the new male members of his group.
Beverly was approached by a woman out in the parking lot of her work who claimed to be Bebe Abbott (Frances Conroy). Beverly brought her to meet Ivy (Alison Pill) and Winter (Billie Lourd) at a restaurant, and she revealed she was Valerie’s lover.
She criticized the women for allowing Kai to gain so much power and talked about a piece Valerie wrote called the SCUM (The Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto, which accused men of being society’s problem. Valerie was not just a creation of director Ryan Murphy, but the character was based off the real Solanas who attempted to kill Warhol and was sent to a mental hospital.
In this episode, director Ryan Murphy used Solanas’ real-life beliefs to create a fictional theory that the group carried out the infamous Zodiac killings. Valerie went to the police to try and explain that she was the one behind the Zodiac murders but no one believed her.
After Bebe explained the history behind Valerie and her cult, the women of Kai’s cult were inspired to lash out themselves. It didn’t help that Kai started using the slogan “Men Lead, Women Bleed,” which only angered the group more. They decide their first victim would be Harrison (Billy Eichner).
They tricked Harrison into thinking they were throwing a celebration for Kai, but instead they knocked out him out. They showed no mercy and sawed off his limbs and threw him into a pond.
Beverly reported on this incident and Kai ended up watching it with Bebe by his side, which was super confusing. There is now a doubt that instead of Bebe trying to help the women of the cult, she is instead a part of Kai’s cult herself. Now viewers have to decide whether Bebe was telling the truth, or making it all up to help push Kai’s agenda.
American Horror Story: Cult airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
