History Series / AmericanHorrorStoryCult

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Creator/EvanPeters plays not only BigBad Kai Anderson but also the (real and fictional) historical characters Creator/AndyWarhol, Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, UsefulNotes/JimJones, [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Jesus Christ]] and UsefulNotes/CharlesManson. It helps that most of those historical characters appear in flashbacks related by Kai.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:While Kai ends up dead and gone, with all his power broken and his cults destroyed, the murders are implied to keep going. In beating him, Ally's lost much of what made her a good person (aside from her love of her son) and basically became the powerful villain Kai aimed to be when he started the whole affair, and is part of a new cult herself.]]

* CastFullOfGay: Winter is probably bisexual, but we only see her willingly sleep with women. Ally and Ivy are a lesbian couple. Harrison is closeted; Samuels is gay; Kai is probably bisexual, having sex with both Samuels and Meadow, but it's unknown if he is attracted to either at all or just using them for his own agenda.

* EasilyForgiven: After joining the cult, Ally appears to reconcile with Ivy somewhat and to at least be willing to consider repairing their marriage. [[DomesticAbuse This is after Ivy intentionally terrorized and gaslit Ally, had her committed, and kept her away from their son.]] [[spoiler:Subverted at the end of the same episode, however, when Ally reveals that the forgiveness was an act and poisons Ivy out of revenge.]]
* CringeComedy: During the sequence where it becomes apparent that Trump will win the election, the people watching naturally have concerns that they're at risk of being persecuted against... While Ally is concerned that Merrick Garland won't be appointed to the Supreme Court.

* AssholeVictim: The friend of Winter's that Kai hits.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Zig-zagged. Kai's ideology is very amorphous and [[StrawHypocrite changes depending on whom he's speaking to and what his specific goal is]], and he frequently says or does bigoted things only to seemingly contradict them later. (This is at least somewhat TruthInTelevision, as real-life cult leaders often have teachings that change to suit their convenience and often do not maintain a consistent set of beliefs for long.)

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Zig-zagged. Kai's ideology is very amorphous and [[StrawHypocrite changes depending on whom he's speaking to and what his specific goal is]], and he frequently says or does bigoted things only to seemingly contradict them later. (This is at least somewhat TruthInTelevision, as real-life cult leaders often have teachings that change to suit their convenience and often do not seem to maintain a consistent set of beliefs for long.)

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Zig-zagged. Kai's ideology is very amorphous and [[StrawHypocrite changes depending on whom he's speaking to and what his specific goal is]], and he frequently says or does bigoted things only to seemingly contradict them later. This is at least somewhat TruthInTelevision, as real-life cult leaders often have teachings that change to suit their convenience and often do not seem to maintain a consistent set of beliefs for long.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Zig-zagged. Kai's ideology is very amorphous and changes depending on whom he's speaking to and what his specific goal is, and he frequently says or does bigoted things only to seemingly contradict them later. Gary might be a more straightforward example, except that he's more a pawn than an actual villain.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: As if being an insane cult leader wasn't bad enough, Kai also proves himself to be a racist, a misogynist, and a homophobe. Gary is also one.

* IncestSubtext: Kai's [[VillainousIncest attraction]] to his sister Winter becomes more and more blatant the more unhinged he gets, up to the point where he's [[spoiler:trying to get her to have a baby with him via a threeway with Samuels and confessing to having listened to her masturbate every night when she was 15]]. Whether Winter has ever felt the same way is left more ambiguous, as she seems to have mixed feelings about Kai in general.

* IncestSubtext: Kai's [[VillainousIncest attraction]] to his sister Winter becomes more and more blatant the more unhinged he gets, up to the point where he's [[spoiler:trying to get her to have a baby with him via a threeway with Samuels and confessing to having listened to her masturbate every night when she was 15.]]

* IncestSubtext: Between Kai and Winter. As of "Winter of Our Discontent," [[spoiler:it's officially not just subtext.]]
** [[UpToEleven Ramps up even more]] in "Charles (Manson) in Charge," where Kai tells Winter that he's been watching her since their parents brought her home. Apparently this includes ''listening to her masturbate before bed every night when she was fifteen.''

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: Everyone Ally encounters is part of the cult. ''Everyone.'' [[spoiler:Except Rudy.]]

* BeeAfraid: One of the teasers Ryan Murphy posted to Instagram depict a person being swarmed by bees.

* LipstickLesbian: Ally and Ivy Mayfair-Richards are a lesbian couple, but they don't look any less feminine because of it.

Other returning members of the ''American Horror Story'' repertory cast include Creator/AdinaPorter, Mare Winningham, Creator/FrancesConroy, Chaz Bono, and Creator/EmmaRoberts, while new additions Leslie Grossman, Creator/LenaDunham, Creator/ColtonHaynes, and Creator/BillyEichner also appear in supporting roles.

* CharacterMotif: Mirrors for Kai. Shots of his reflection duplicated or distorted in mirrors are used to visually represent his fractured sense of identity, myopic point of view, and disintegrating relationship with Winter at various points.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: How Kai's StartOfDarkness happened. [[spoiler:He and Winter wound up in a sadistic torturer's lair and were so disgusted at the man and horrified by his treatment of his victims that they made the joint decision to murder him in an act of retributive vigilante justice rather than turn him into the police. After this, however, Kai became deeply disillusioned with the society that continued to allow such injustices to happen, and his concept of right and wrong began to grow more and more twisted until he became the manipulative and brutal cult leader of the present day.]]

* {{Foil}}: Valerie Solanas to Kai. Like Kai, she was a highly charismatic and brutal cult leader, deeply affected by an extreme personal trauma, who craved power and public recognition. And like Valerie, Kai [[spoiler:ultimately suffers a mental breakdown and psychosis that leads to the dissolution of his power and his followers abandoning him]].

* FreakOut: Ally suffers from these almost constantly.

[[caption-width-right:350:Join the Cult.]]

* FiveManBand: The Cult.
** BigBad: Kai.
** TheDragon: Winter, reluctantly. Later on, Gary fills this role more willingly.
** TheBrute: Harrison, [[spoiler:before he gets murdered by some of the cult's women.]]
** TheEvilGenius: [[spoiler:Beverly serves as the Cult's personal broadcaster.]]
** TheDarkChick: Meadow, who designed the masks, [[spoiler:before she offs herself after shooting up Kai's pep rally, under his request.]]

* StrawHypocrite: It's hinted that neither [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Kai]] nor [[StrawFeminist Winter]] actually places a lot of personal importance in their political beliefs, rather that they are simply using them as a convenient and ready-made worldview [[spoiler:[[DespairEventHorizon to replace the one that was shattered after they experienced extreme trauma]]]]. It's particularly telling that they tend to actively [[{{Doublethink}} ignore the cognitive dissonance]] that would realistically arise from the two of them holding to incompatible political positions.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: As if being an insane cult leader wasn't bad enough, Kai also proves himself to be a racist, a misogynist, and a homophobe.

** Kai's is explored in "Holes". [[spoiler:He was a jobless college graduate with a religious studies degree living in his parents' basement when his mother killed his abusive father and then herself in a murder-suicide, the second half of which Kai witnessed and tried to stop. His brother Vince convinced him to help cover it up and hide and preserve the bodies (despite [[DirtyWork Kai's protests]]) so that they could keep collecting their parents' pensions and social security and Winter could finish college, as well as protecting Vince's new psychiatric practice. This caused something in Kai's psyche to snap, but also motivated him to grow up and make something of himself]]. Another layer of this is added in "Winter of Our Discontent", in which Winter reveals that [[spoiler:she and Kai went to the house of a crazy priest they found on the dark web with the intention of trolling him, only to find that the man was in fact a psychopath who kidnapped and murdered "sinners" as part of his preaching. Kai freed the victims and [[KickTheSonOfABitch murdered the priest]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with one of his own traps]], but Winter reveals that this changed Kai even further.]]

** Kai's is explored in "Holes". [[spoiler:He was a burnout whose mother killed his abusive father and herself in a murder-suicide. He and his brother Rudy covered it up, hiding the bodies so that they could keep collecting their parents' pensions and social security. All this changed Kai, inspiring him to make something of himself, no matter what]]. Another layer of this is added in "Winter of Our Discontent", in which Winter reveals that [[spoiler:she and Kai went to the house of a crazy priest they found on the dark web with the intention of trolling him, only to find that the man was in fact a psychopath who kidnapped and murdered "sinners" as part of his preaching. Kai freed the victims and [[KickTheSonOfABitch murdered the priest]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with one of his own traps]], but Winter reveals that this definitely changed Kai.]]