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Mayfair-Richards Family
Ally Mayfair-Richards
Allyson "Ally" Mayfair-Richards
"I think there might be something wrong with me. I don't know what's real anymore."
Played by: Sarah Paulson
A staunch Democrat who is highly disturbed by Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election. With her wife Ivy, she runs a restaurant called The Butchery on Main.
- Action Girl: A straighter example than Ivy. She delivers one hell of a punch to Harrison's nose under the assumption he and Meadow microwaved Oz's pet guinea pig, and in Episode 6, maces him in her successful effort to save Meadow before hijacking his car.
- Anti-Hero: She's more a Type 2. She's a bit self-oriented but is, for the most part, a decent person who means well to try and stop all the evil cult business going on in her neighborhood to protect her family. However, she becomes more of a Type 3 and Type 4 mid-season after having to be forced to confront her fears and she takes on more ruthless and cunning measures that eventually destroy Kai and his cult for good.
- Cassandra Truth: No matter how much truth there might be in all the clown sightings and similar occurrences that happen to her, because she's the only one who ever sees these things happen and her previous list of phobias, no one believes her. However, it's eventually revealed that nearly everyone she comes in contact with, including her own wife has something to do with the cult and they're all aware that she's very right about everything she's seen, but they all use this and her many phobias to an advantage to gaslight her and make her look even more insane.
- Catchphrase: "I am NOT crazy."
- Clothing Reflects Personality: If one notices closely, Ally had a tendency to wear white during the first couple of episodes in the season to reflect her honest and constantly terrified state, but by the last couple of episodes she starts adorning a black sweater which reflects her stronger will and newfound fearlessness and cunning, and she even gains the guts to kill her wife Ivy, Bebe Babbitt and Speedwagon consecutively while at the same time managing to frame Winter and have Kai kill her and ratting Kai and his goons out to the FBI.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being put through the wringer by the cult, she makes sure those that wronged her paid dearly for what they did.
- The Dragon: To Kai after she joins the cult. She slowly picks apart his other associates and becomes his right-hand woman.
- Dragon with an Agenda: To Kai. She is secretly a Double Agent and is manipulating him the whole time.
- Fire-Forged Friends: She becomes this with Beverly as the two of them are able to escape the cult and have Kai imprisoned. They still stay in touch months later and Ally hires Beverly as her campaign manager.
- Happily Married: To Ivy, at least initially. Early episodes establish them as having an honest and supportive relationship, but cracks start manifesting under the tensions and terror engineered by the cult, as well as Ivy's festering resentments against Ally reaching their boiling point after the election.
- Here We Go Again!: The final scene of the season has Ally preparing herself for an upcoming meeting as she stares blankly into a mirror while putting on her makeup and a green SCUM hood, heavily implying that she is involved in and running her own cult.
- Hysterical Woman: With very good reason, as the cult is deliberately exploiting her phobias and terrorizing her For the Evulz.
- It's All About Me: "Everyone thinks I'm a racist! Do you understand the specific pain of someone like me being accused of that?!" Ally wails after shooting a man dead.
- Lady in Red: During her final confrontation with Kai, she adorns a strong red blazer and pants which likely reflects her new powerful image as a survivor.
- Lipstick Lesbian: She's fairly feminine and a lesbian.
- Mama Bear: She loves her son Oz dearly, and doesn't take kindly to someone trying to take him away from her. Ivy found this out the hard way.
- Meaningful Name: Her entire name can be interpreted as "rich, fair-weather ally," which seems to fit her character after it's revealed that she didn't vote for Hillary Clinton, yet is still horrified when Trump wins the election.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Ally experiences one when she realizes that her (and several thousand others') decision to vote for Jill Stein because they disliked Hillary Clinton potentially helped Trump win the election.
- Ally has an even larger one after accidentally shooting Pedro in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," on account of accidentally killing an innocent and unarmed man.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: In episode 8, she tells Kai that all the hell and trauma he and his cult had put her through did the one thing that years of therapy couldn't and she no longer fears anything anymore.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Begs it of both Ivy and Winter, but still ends up on her own against the unknown more often than not.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: She does this to Kai after his attempt to assassinate her fails followed by Beverly shooting him in the head right afterwards.Ally: "You were wrong Kai, there is something much worse than a humiliated man: a nasty woman".
- Properly Paranoid / The Paranoiac: Ally's something of a cross between these tropes. On the one hand, she is right that there's a crazy clown cult that's out to terrorize her. On the other hand, she's easily terrified by a large number of other things too, many of which are extremely irrational and debilitating. Additionally, the cult is taking advantage of her Properly Paranoid status in order to gaslight her, using her extreme reactions to cast further doubt on what she's saying and create more conflicts with her.
- Revenge: After being put through hell and briefly crossing the Despair Event Horizon, Ally got herself together and focused herself on making sure everyone who had wronged her personally would pay dearly.
- Took a Level in Badass: Following the whole incident with Meadow, Ally is shown to no longer be afraid of anything as everything she's gone through has basically numbed her from her phobias.
- Through His Stomach: Non-romantic example. She cooks up quite a few sloppy joes, or as she calls them 'Manwiches', for Kai in order to appeal to him and to feed his ego all for the sake of earning his trust. It works.
- Tranquil Fury: Initially, she acted on her emotions and acted irrationally and unstable, particularly with all the incidents occurring in her neighborhood and to her family. However, after the incident with Meadow and being forced into a psychiatric ward for 3 weeks, she is much more calm and collected but still very angry about everything she had been through, especially after finding out about the truth behind the cult, Ivy's infidelity and the fact that she also destroyed their family for her own selfish reasons. Ally's rage is eerily calm, and she's as cool as a cucumber when she poisons and kills Ivy, shoots Bebe, sics the SWAT team on Kai's cult, and during her final confrontation with Kai.
- Trauma Conga Line: The first half of the season has been one for her.
- Villain Protagonist: She ultimately becomes this by the end of the season, joining the Cult and later forming her own, as well committing multiple murders.
- Woman Scorned: The first thing she does after joining the cult? Killing her wife Ivy, whom she discovered was having an affair with their babysitter Winter and had been part of a cult that was deliberately screwing with her. She enjoys every second of Ivy's slow and painful death.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ally suffers from an incredibly high number of phobias, including coulrophobia and trypophobia. She's also deathly afraid of Trump and anyone who voted for him.
Ivy Mayfair-Richards
Ivy Mayfair-Richards
"Are you insane?"
Played by: Alison Pill
Ally's wife, and the head chef of The Butchery on Main.
- Action Girl: Downplayed Example. Ivy has not yet had to use it, but she immediately picks up a weapon and prepares to defend herself and her family whenever she is told of a potential threat nearby.
- Asshole Victim: Given all the horrible things she'd done, especially to her wife Ally (for the most selfishly petty of reasons at that), it's pretty hard to shed a tear for her when Ally kills her.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: She states that she wanted a strong woman who could take charge, which is why she resented her wife so much because at the time, Ally was a weak, shrill woman tormented by her phobias, which made Ivy have to be the strong one in the relationship, which became a burden for her. Her resentment of Ally was so great that she was willing to put her through hell just to drive her crazy. Ironically, through this, Ally becomes the hardened and strong woman that Ivy prefers. However, Ivy underestimates Ally's anger towards her, and it's this that finally gets her killed.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Portrays herself as Ally's loving and devoted wife, but in almost every episode thus far, we see signs that she isn't beneath the surface. Early on, it's only a couple of very small moments (for example, she's extremely nasty and aggressive towards Ally because she voted for Jill Stein instead of Hillary Clinton), but she's showing more and more unlikable traits as the season goes on, such as being completely dismissive and unsupportive of Ally during her breakdown or actually hitting her. It gets worse in "Holes" when it's revealed that Ivy has been involved in the cult all along and is well aware that her own neurotic and anxious wife is being gaslighted and is telling the truth, but she not only feigns innocence and treats Ally like she's crazy, she also reveals to Winter that she hates Ally and could not care less about her well-being.
- Blood from the Mouth: After ingesting the arsenic-laced wine and pasta Ally feeds her.
- Boyish Short Hair: Sports short-cut blond hair.
- Character Death: Poisoned with arsenic by Ally.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Ivy already harbored plenty of resentment for her wife, but what really drives her into joining a cult that she has terrorized and pushed Ally over sanity's edge was simply because she voted for Jill Stein instead of Hillary Clinton. It's even lampshaded by Ally when she says that is "not a reason" to join a cult.
- Domestic Abuse: Slaps Ally after witnessing the video of Ally and Winter in the bathtub. It was potentially justifiable at first given that Ally did cheat (though, admittedly, it was a pretty severe slap), until it was revealed Winter and Ivy orchestrated the scene, thus giving Ivy a very convenient window to take out her rage on Ally. Aside from that, Ivy is also extremely emotionally abusive to her wife on a regular basis.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Say what you will about Ivy, but her remorse and panic attack over watching a man who tried to save her during the shooting in 'Mid-Western Assassin' was extremely genuine and it becomes clear that Ivy at least dislikes senseless violence and having innocent people being murdered without a rhyme or reason as she seemed pretty guilty when Ally reminded her that people died because of her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She became jealous of Ally for being the only one in the couple that was capable of carrying a child, which was something that she desperately wanted to do. Ivy's jealousy turned into resentment of Ally. Ultimately, Ivy tries to set Ally up so that she can gain custody of Oz.
- Happily Married: Despite room for interpretation as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing to Ally, the couple is shown to be loving and genuinely happy together and Ivy tries to be supportive and considerate with Ally. Unfortunately, the ending of "Neighbors from Hell" deals some heavy blows to their relationship. Definitely subverted as of "Holes", when it's revealed she's been holding negative feelings toward her wife since they had Oz, and it only reached a boiling point after the election.
- Hate Sink: She's not a very likable or sympathetic person. Almost every other cult member has sympathetic qualities of some kind, is far too hilarious to actually hate, or is simply too awesome at being evil to dislike. Ivy, on the other hand, is none of these things and even her more sympathetic moments tend to lean towards a self-centered bent. Her villainy comes off as far more spiteful and mean-spirited, particularly given her immense hypocrisy and domestic abuse. She's easily one of the least likable characters of the season.
- Hypocrite: When she, Beverly, Winter and Bebe Babbitt team up to kill Harrison, she has the nerve to chastise him for letting his wife Meadow (whom he started resenting in a way similar to how Ivy had begun to resent Ally) die for the sake of furthering Kai's progress, despite the fact that she has been gaslighting her own wife from the start, and when Harrison calls her out on it, she tries to take the moral high ground by saying she only drove her crazy and didn't kill her.
- She also seemed to be genuinely furious over Ally supposedly cheating on her with Winter, despite the fact that Ivy actually has been doing that, and for months.
- Ironic Name: Ivy means 'faithful', but it's later revealed that she had been cheating on her wife Ally with Winter and harbored a secret hatred towards her wife.
- Kick the Dog: Ivy's anger at Ally's infidelity and taking Oz and leaving the house would be an understandable reaction in a normal situation. Deciding to up and leave the terrified Ally alone in a house marked by a killer, knowing and coldly acknowledging the dangerous possibilities it could cause to Ally, crosses the line to outright cruel even if she didn't really want Ally dead, especially as she could've still gone off to get her own space and simply told Ally to go to a motel or another place outside the killer's cross-hairs. And this turns out to be just the tip of the Dog-Kicking iceberg.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: She wanted to be the one to deliver Oz into the world, but she couldn't due to her endometriosis.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She isn't a good person but she does feel genuine remorse over some of the deaths her cult members cost, especially during the gruesome murder of cult-member RJ and during the shooting Kai had secretly plotted behind their backs. In "Drink The Kool-aid" she even admits that trusting Kai was a mistake because of how insane he is.
- Rage Breaking Point: Her marriage was already falling apart over the course of time, but she didn't hit rock bottom until once she discovered that Ally voted for Jill Stein rather than Hillary Clinton.
- Supernatural-Proof Father: Or rather, Supernatural-Proof Mother. Her wife and their son both start having creepy, abnormal experiences with clowns and other horrors early on, while Ivy is mostly away for the action and coming in later to react to their reactions. True to the trope, she exhibits some skepticism that there is even a real threat, though in this case it's justified by the circumstances surrounding their encounters making it look possible that they're hallucinating or imagining it. In "Holes", it is revealed that she is a member of the cult, and is only pretending not to know.
- Tempting Fate: Are you sure that Ally won't fulfill her revenge fantasies on you, Ivy? Are you really sure?
Oz Mayfair-Richards
Ozymandias "Oz" Mayfair-Richards
Played by: Cooper Dodson
Ally and Ivy's young son, who enjoys comics books based on Twisty The Clown.
- Brutal Honesty: In Episode 9, after being invited to one of Kai's 'sleepovers' he's the only one in the room who outright states that Kai's stories make no sense and states the actual facts from the internet, even if it was from Wikipedia. Even Kai states that he has 'no filter'
- Creepy Child: He doesn't come across as one, but Oz has an unhealthy obsession with comic books and toys based around Twisty the Clown.
- Children Are Innocent: Aside from his strange obsession with killer clowns and lack of filter, Oz is a polite boy and possibly the most innocent character of the season.
- Momma's Boy: He'd almost have to be one considering he has two moms, but he sometimes demonstrates a particular attachment to Ivy, who is suggested by their physical resemblance to be his biological mother (even though she actually isn't). Oz's preference for Ivy and occasional outright rejection of Ally hurt the latter. After he tells Ally he wishes she were gone, he realizes he went way too far and apologizes to her, sharing a sweet bonding scene with both his moms during a family dinner.
- It is actually possible that Ivy could be Oz's biological mother, even though Ally was the one who gave birth to him. New IVF technologies make it possible for a woman to be impregnated with another woman's egg. Ivy's endometriosis made it impossible for her to carry a child, but her ovaries may have still been viable. Therefore, Ivy's egg and the donor sperm may have been used to impregnate Ally, which would explain Oz's blonde hair and resemblance to Ivy.
- Nerd Glasses: Well, he at least seems to be a comic book fan, and wears large, dark-rimmed specs.
- Nice Guy: So far, he's shown to be a pretty sweet kid and is quite polite to strangers, even forgiving his mother for making him get rid of his new pet guinea pig, and quickly apologizes to her for telling her he wishes he could say his goodbyes to her instead.
- Odd Name Out: Ally, Ivy, and... Ozymandias?
- Aside from being a potential Meaningful Name, it follows a pattern if the intended nickname was Ozy.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He's a very innocent boy who keeps stumbling upon things that cause troubles in his household, such as a video posted online of Ally cheating on Ivy.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: He's an innocent boy, but he's far from stupid and is fairly mature for his age, especially when compared to Kai's followers; when he's in one of their 'sleepovers' he's the only one with actual common sense and remarks that Kai's 'stories' are wrong. Sure, he looks it up on the Wikipedia, but the fact that a child among grown men is the only one who was able to state that Kai couldn't be more wrong says a lot.
Erika
Erika
Played by: Annie Ilonzeh
Ally's new girlfriend after the cult ordeal, who becomes supportive of her campaign for the senate office.
- Nice Girl: Is more loving and supportive to Ally and Oz than Ivy ever was.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Implied not to know about the new "cult" Ally has made.
- Last Episode, New Character: Introduced in the finale of the season.
- Parental Substitute: Is becoming one for Oz after Ivy's death.
Anderson Family
Kai Anderson
Kai Anderson
"The revolution has begun."
Played by: Evan Peters
A blue-haired terrorist who, galvanized by Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election, forms a clown-based cult.
- A God Am I: While it's unclear whether he bought into his own hype previously, by the end of "Drink the Kool-Aid", Kai is convinced he has supernatural powers due to Ally tricking him into believing Oz is his son; Kai had just been screwing with Ally and Ivy in claiming such, but upon seeing Ally's doctored evidence, believes his speaking it made it true.
- Ambiguously Bi: Claims to be straight, but tells Harrison that if someone he cares about has "a hard-on that just won't quit," he'll do anything he needs to show them that he'll take care of them. After this, he masturbates in the gym shower in front of Harrison. It's debatable whether Kai actually does have latent homosexual tendencies, or if he was just trying to manipulate Harrison (who is gay himself). He is later revealed to have given Samuels anal sex as a way to indoctrinate him into the cult, and wishes to penetrate him as he penetrates Winter to create a "Messiah."
- Ax-Crazy: This psychopath has this in spades.
- Bad Boss: Has arranged for the deaths of five members of the cult so far, and kills Winter personally.
- Big Bad: Leader of the titular cult and the head behind the Mayfair-Richards' terrorizing.
- Boom, Headshot!: How he meets his end, courtesy of Beverly.
- Brother–Sister Incest: His and Winter's relationship, while it never goes into explicit territory, is definitely not a normal relationship between siblings. He comes up with his most twisted idea yet by attempting to have her carry his child for the sake of having a 'messiah baby'. Even she was horrified by this idea.
- Although Lampshaded by Winter, and slightly Subverted as Kai planned on having Samuels be in between them so it's not technically incest. As Kai said, "he'll enter you, then I'll enter him."
- He also listened to her while she was masturbating.
- Character Death: Shot in the head by Beverly.
- Connected All Along: It's revealed in "Holes" that Rudy is his and Winter's older brother.
- The Corrupter: Has convinced the frustrated (Harrison, Beverly, and Ivy) and the already insane (Gary) to follow him and become serial killers.
- Depraved Bisexual: Possibly; he sleeps with both men (Samuels) and women (Meadow), but it's unknown if he's actually attracted to both of them or simply using sex to further his agenda.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Maybe. In "Holes", he tells Beverly about how his mother killed her abusive husband and then took her own life. He keeps their rotting corpses locked in their bedroom to continue receiving their financial benefits. Occasionally, he goes into the room to talk to his mother's corpse. He then breaks down crying. This story is confirmed to be true in a later episode.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Creepy incestuous vibes aside, Kai does appear to genuinely love his little sister Winter, had a soft spot for his late mother and also respected and looked up to his big brother Vincent. At least he did until finding out about his plan to have him committed into a loony bin, after which he rather easily killed him without any trace of visible guilt.
- Also, while he still killed his own sister, he was clearly heartbroken that she lied to him, sobbed uncontrollably while strangling her to death, and was devastated when he realized that he ended up killing her over nothing.
- Expy: Evan Peters described the character as Heath Ledger's Joker if he were also a white nationalist in addition to being an anarchist.
- False Friend: He attempts to position himself this way with Ally after she accidentally kills Pedro, praising her "bravery" and offering to "protect" her from those angered by her getting to walk free. She's more confused than anything.
- Faux Affably Evil: He tries to present himself as someone who is sophisticated and wise regarding the things he talks about, but it only barely works. If someone gives him any pushback regarding his claims, his unhinged and threatening nature shows itself quickly.
- Humiliation Conga: Ally pretends to join his cult so that they can be taken down by the FBI. She also orchestrates his escape from prison only to have him publicly humiliated on national television by tampering with his assassination attempt and exposing his unstable, misogynistic attitude to the viewing public. Additionally, Beverly shoots him in the head, ultimately ending his destructive influence.
- Hypocrite: As a consummate manipulator and gaslighter, this is practically essential to his personality.
- Lady Macbeth: To Harrison in "11/9", encouraging him to kill his homophobic boss, urging him on while does it, and later helping him cover it up through hacking the man's phone and deleting security footage off the computer.
- Loony Fan: Of Donald Trump, or at least how he validates his view on the world.
- Manipulative Bastard: Kai really knows how to read people and play to their fears and worries.
- Mood-Swinger: Calm and affable one minute, violently unhinged and screaming the next.
- Multiple-Choice Past: A much more subtle example than most. Kai tells lies about himself with glaring inaccuracies that a layman would not be likely to catch. It's part of his manipulation, as the information he gives about himself is based on what he believes the person he's talking to wants to hear.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Bears some striking resemblances to the mass murderer Charles Manson, not only in appearance (his long hair and facial hair), but also in his cult of personality and numerous female followers. The scenario he describes to Bebe in the tenth episode wherein, after the women kill all the men, he rises and rules over them, is identical to Manson's "Helter Skelter" scenario, only with gender as the key factor rather than race. note
- Pet the Dog: After applying Cheeto-dust to his face to celebrate Trump's victory, he agrees not to rub Clinton's loss in Winter's face.
- Phony Veteran: Possibly. He claims to have served in Iraq when talking to Beverly, but this could be untrue. See "Multiple Choice Past" above.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Where do we start? He's racist, sexist, homophobic and relishes in torturing those who disapprove of Donald Trump.
- Pragmatic Pansexuality: Indiscriminately uses sex to manipulate and control people, but it's never clear if he feels any genuine attraction or not.
- Properly Paranoid: By season's end he is convinced one or more of the people in his group is being The Mole, just like what happened to Charles Manson. He kills Winter for it, but it turns out to be Ally and Speedwagon.
- The Puppet Cuts His Strings: Was intended to be a puppet to Bebe Babbitt. This didn't exactly work out for her.
- Sanity Slippage: He started off the series not all there, but by season's end he has damn near lost it.
- Start of Darkness: Killing Pastor Charles was this for him.
- Straw Misogynist: By mid-season, Kai seems to have it out for women as he hires a group of macho douchebags to be his new followers while treating the women of his cult-like garbage and would then continue to hatefully rave about how women should just Stay in the Kitchen and even yells to Ally that 'women can't lead', but this ultimately bites him in the ass when he gets defeated by the remaining women of his cult, Ally, Gloria Whitmore and lastly, Beverly.
- Stupid Evil: Kai has a tendency to treat his followers as expendable cannon fodder, orchestrating the deaths of several of them to provide some sort of immediate benefit to him. However, as his more loyal followers ( Meadow, Harrison, Gary, etc.) bite the dust, it ultimately hurts him in the long run, and by the finale he has nobody left to protect or assist him when he confronts Ally on the stage and gets betrayed by his last remaining follower.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Seems pretty fond of Ally's sloppy joe sandwiches, or as she calls them 'Manwiches'.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: From what we see of him when he was younger, he had the potential to be a lazy dick and was a massive Troll, but he was more or less a moral guy who initially wanted to save people. It was interacting with and eventually killing Pastor Charles that made him go crazy.
- The Vamp: A Rare Male Example, as he frequently uses sex to get what he wants (e.g., Meadow opening fire at his rally and then killing herself, gaining a new follower in Samuels).
- Villainous Breakdown: Has an extended one over the course of the last couple episodes as his paranoia builds due to his increased drug abuse and suspicions of a mole in the cult. By the finale, the calm, cool manipulator is gone, replaced by a raving madman screaming through a prison phone.
- Would Hit a Girl: Slaps Meadow in the face when it becomes evident that she isn't taking his "pinky" ritual seriously.
- Would Hurt a Child: Plans a "Night of 1,000 Tates," inspired by the Manson Family's murder of Sharon Tate. That is, he intends for his followers to murder 1,000 pregnant women. He quickly realizes that this is an unrealistic number and instead settles on 100. This plan never comes to fruition due to the FBI raiding his house before it can.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Taunts a group of migrant workers with racial slurs and throws a condom filled with piss at them. He naturally gets his ass beaten senseless... and manages to turn it into a story about an innocent being assaulted by illegals.
- Done again at one of Kai's public rallies, where he has Meadow shoot him in the leg to paint him as a martyr who survived an assassination attempt.
Winter Anderson
Winter Anderson
"Have you ever seen a real dead body?"
Played by: Billie Lourd
Kai's sister and a former Hillary Clinton supporter who reluctantly joins her brother's cause after Donald Trump is elected President. She soon becomes the babysitter of Oz Mayfair-Richards.
- Ambiguously Bi: In the season premiere, she tells Kai that she was bullied in school for having a crush on a girl, but later in the same scene says that she once let a guy try anal. She also attempts to seduce Ally in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," though it has yet to be revealed whether this was genuine attraction or part of something more sinister. In episode 3, a video of Winter and Ally having a bit of "fun" in the tub is revealed to have been put online when Oz stumbles upon it on his computer, so it's genuinely possible that it was done to drive the family apart. This is confirmed in "Holes", with Ivy fully aware of the plan.
- By later in the season, it's less ambiguous. She and Ivy are in some kind of relationship by episode 8, it seems.
- Ambiguously Evil: While she's no saint for certain, it's not clear if she's in on Kai's plans or if she has comparatively nobler intentions.
- Anti-Villain: She's a mix of Type 1 and Type 3. She's actually nowhere near as evil or malicious as Kai, nor is she as sociopathic as him and her other brother Vincent, but she's willing to go to the extremes for the things she believes in, especially feminism, and she was a member of Kai's cult and she killed and slaughtered people at her brother's word. Despite that, she has a deep, genuine love for her family, even though they (namely Kai) don't go to the lengths she does out of love for them.
- She actually becomes less villainous throughout the season, as she slowly starts backing out of Kai's twisted plans, and tries to help Beverly escape from the cult, but this ultimately gets her killed, and by Kai no less.
- Character Death: Kai chokes her.
- Connected All Along: It's revealed in "Holes" that Rudy is her and Kai's older brother.
- The Dragon: Seems to be this for her brother Kai, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
- Dye Hard: Winter is shown in flashbacks with dark brown hair, meaning that she bleaches and dyes it (and the timeline suggests she started doing so around the same time as Kai).
- Entitled Bitch: Vincent calls her this word for word, and judging by her behavior with others, his claim isn't that far-off.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She's a little distant towards them but she loves her family very much, especially Kai despite the abuse he puts her through; she also loved Vincent, as she was heartbroken by his death at the hands of Kai, remarking that despite Vincent being an 'asshole', he was still one of them. She was absolutely devastated when she finally found out that their parents had been long dead and her brothers didn't bother telling her about it until Thanksgiving. She also truly loved Ivy, saying that what they had was 'real' and that she really cared about her, and was sad about her death that she believed was because of Kai.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She's not the most moral character in this series and doesn't seem to have a problem with spilling blood, but even she starts to become put off by Kai's nefarious schemes and increasing instability.
- Evil Feels Good: Claims that she enjoyed it when she put Gary Longstreet in a position where he suffered.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She may have an attractive face, but her behavior is more than a bit off-putting.
- Femme Fatalons: Has long, sharp blue nails that the camera sometimes focuses on while she taps them in a sinister way.
- Goth: Her style of dress and general demeanor place her in this category.
- Harmful to Minors: Deliberately shows Oz videos of people being stabbed to death on the Dark Net.
- Never My Fault: Conversed by Ally, as Winter doesn't seem to take much responsibility for her actions and mainly focused on how the state of the world affected her and how some people deserved what they got.Ally: Is anything ever your fault, Winter?
- Obviously Evil: Well, not evil, but she dresses in Gothic clothes, often talks in a condescending tone with the people whose child she's supposed to be babysitting, and seems to care very little for said child, to list a few examples of her... unusual behavior.
- Pet the Dog: Despite her fear of children and the fact that she showed him a lot of violent videos, she develops a genuine care for Oz.
- Soapbox Sadie: Her reaction to Trump's victory prompts her to ask why she wasn't given a trigger warning before being given the news.
- Straw Feminist: Very much a feminist, and she mentioned taking a couple of Women's studies classes at Vassar, and gets very offended at any misogynistic comments, to the point of being violent. This is what led her to stand up for Ivy after Gary Longstreet touched her inappropriately, and then later to chain him up in a basement with no one to hear him or help him until Kai finds him.
- Thicker Than Water: Despite she is an ideological opponent to Kai, she remains a part of his cult and even betrays Beverly, all on account of being his sister.
- Ultimate Job Security: While Winter manages to keep the worst of her actions secret from Ally and Ivy through lying and being a Manipulative Bitch, she still does only a half-assed job babysitting and will walk in and reveal she has done something reckless to endanger the Mayfair-Richards household Once an Episode. She has yet to be fired. This is ultimately revealed to be because she and Ivy are fellow members of the cult.
Scott Anderson
Scott Anderson
Played by: J. Grant Albrecht
Kai's father who accuses his wife of cheating on him and verbally berates both of them.- Abusive Parents: The verbal type, to both his wife and son. We don’t find out how he treated Winter.
- Character Death: Julie shoots him twice in the stomach.
Julie Anderson
Julie Anderson
Played by: Wylie Small
Kai's mother.- Character Death: She has enough of Scott's verbal abuse and shoots him in the stomach and herself in the mouth.
Wilton Family
Harrison Wilton
Harrison Wilton
"It's the way of the world now. Lay it all out there, ya know?"
Played by: Billy Eichner
A new arrival in the neighborhood who, with his wife Meadow, moves in across the street from Ally and Ivy after the Changs are killed.
- And Starring: Among the other guest stars of Cult, Eichner is billed as a special guest star.
- Character Death: Decapitated with a saw by Ivy.
- Crazy Survivalist: He owns a lot of guns because he thought Barack Obama was going to prohibit weapon sales, keeping him from getting any. Obama clearly didn't.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's strapped to a table, and then has all his limbs chainsawed off by the women of the cult, while alive.
- Fallback Marriage Pact: He's gay, but made one with Meadow when they were younger, hence their marriage.
- Deconstructed, given that both he and Meadow are utterly miserable in their marriage and that, while they don't hate each other, the marriage is stirring up incredibly strong feelings of anger and resentment between them. She also harbors feelings for him.
- Gay Conservative: Libertarian, actually, shown voting for Gary Johnson. His views on guns and gender roles put him at odds with other members of the cult.
- Hypocrite: Harrison has strong libertarian leanings and preaches equality, even harassing Ally because she shot Pedro by accident when being attacked and using a flimsy accusation of racism as justification, yet he makes some extremely misogynistic comments towards her on the phone in Episode 3, more or less outright stating that two women can't raise a son and that Oz needs a prominent male figure in his life.
- Incompatible Orientation: His platonic marriage arrangement with Meadow doesn't seem entirely understood on her part.
- Kill Him Already!: Harrison's initial attack on his boss doesn't actually kill him, so Kai orders him to finish the deed himself. He does.
- Make an Example of Them: The women of the cult do this to him under the belief that he made misogynistic comments, to send a message that they want equal power. They cut his arm off before decapitating him.
- Pet the Dog: During the shooting in "Mid-Western Assassin", Harrison doesn't hesitate to try and protect a horrified Ivy from getting shot; he runs away after, but he had assumed that she was following him, and didn't think she had been in too much shock to react.
- Straight Gay: Ally and Ivy only learn he's gay after Meadow alludes to it in conversation.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Kai convinces Harrison to kill his mean, homophobic boss through exploiting the general frustration and unhappiness he feels towards life.
Meadow Wilton
Meadow Wilton
"I'm afraid the man I love is turning against me."
Played by: Leslie Grossman
A new arrival in the neighborhood who, with her husband Harrison, moves in across the street from Ally and Ivy after the Changs are killed.
- Ambiguous Situation: Episode three ends with Meadow missing and Harrison covered in blood, but we don't know what actually happened.
- Ate His Gun: Ends her mass shooting by doing this.
- Character Death: Shoots herself in the mouth.
- Fag Hag: Described as such by her husband.
- False Friend: To Ally, who thought Meadow was seeking help after escaping the cult. As it turns out, Meadow was still involved with Kai, and her only job was to make Ally look crazier leading up to Meadow "assassinating" Kai.
- Fallback Marriage Pact: Made one with Harrison when they were younger. Deconstructed, given that both he and Meadow are utterly miserable in their marriage and that, while they don't hate each other, the marriage is stirring up incredibly strong feelings of anger and resentment between them. She also harbors feelings for him.
- Incompatible Orientation: She has been in love with Harrison since she was 10, but he is gay and completely uninterested in her in that way.
- Love Martyr: To Kai, willing to allow herself to be painted as a political assassin and even die due to her love for him.
- Sad Clown: She's totally weird, flighty and has an offbeat sense of humor that she uses to hide her insecurity behind.
- Unreliable Narrator: She relays a tale of being terrorized by Harrison and Kai to Ally. In truth, it's all a setup for the cult to stage a mass shooting to martyr Kai.
Residents of Michigan
Detective Samuels
Detective Jack Samuels
"It's much more complex than that."
Played by: Colton Haynes
A detective.- Ambiguously Gay: Is oddly close to Harrison, something that has Meadow more than a little suspicious. We see them kissing in "Holes". It is later revealed that Kai gave him anal sex, which he enjoyed, and Kai's support is implied to be the catalyst that convinced Samuels to follow him into the cult.
- However, he has been shown to be able to perform with women...only if he puts his hands around their necks.
- Asshole Victim: Gets shot by Winter in episode 8. After all he's done, culminating in attempting to sexually assault her, it hardly comes off as undeserved.
- Attempted Rape: Tries this on Winter after she dismisses his assertions that he isn't gay despite having sex with men. He gets a bullet through his head for his troubles.
- He does it to Kai as well, when he uses his authority as a police officer to blackmail Kai into blowing him.
- Boom, Headshot!: Meets his end this way after he tries to rape Winter.
- Character Death: Shot in the head by Winter.
- A Death in the Limelight: He dies in the only episode that really gives him any focus.
- Dirty Cop: He's a member of the cult, which murders and gaslights innocent people.
- Fair Cop: Comes with the territory of being played by a former model. Even Kai openly refers to him as being beautiful.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Is only able to perform with women when he has his hands around their throats. He doesn't have this problem with men.
- Profiling: Played With. He's quick to assume that Pedro, an employee at the Butchery on Main, is both an illegal immigrant and the killer of one of his co-workers, despite Ally and Ivy vouching for him. While Samuels has a justification of suspecting Pedro having a motive due to having a fight with the murder victim earlier in the day, Ally and Ivy's vouch can only account for so much. He still had no reason to assume Pedro was an illegal immigrant though (Pedro himself affirms that he was born in the States). Turns out to have been intentionally invoked given that he was a cult member trying to keep the activities under wraps.
- After Pedro is killed by Ally by mistake, he all but declares Pedro guilty, and suggests that he was going to hurt Oz. This highly suggests that he already passed judgement on the man.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Possibly. His house is full of Nazi memorabilia, but it isn't made clear if he actually is one, or if he's just a collector.
Dr. Rudy Vincent
Dr. Rudy Vincent Anderson
"I don't need to know every crazy thing that's happening in the world, especially if there's nothing I can do about it."
Played by: Cheyenne Jackson
Ally's psychiatrist.- Ambiguously Evil: He is connected to both Ally and the victim killed in the opening of "Neighbors from Hell" as their psychiatrist, meaning he knows all their fears in detail and could play some role in the clown cult using these fears against his patients. His portrayal in "Neighbors from Hell" also seems to unveil some unsettling new sides to him, as he appears almost annoyed or irritated by his other patient's recovery (shortly before she is murdered) and Ally contacting him. Not so ambiguous as of "Holes", as he is seen informing Kai of his patient's status prior to her death and is shown to be his older brother, though he isn't actually part of the cult as far as we can tell.
- "Winter of Our Discontent" reveals that he was Good All Along...mostly. He had no idea what Kai was doing; Kai was able to mess with his patients by breaking into his office and going through his files. He apologizes profusely to Ally and vows to help her take Kai down. His motivations are selfish, as he notes that Kai's crimes will reflect poorly on him and hurt his practice unless he can prove that he tried to stop Kai, but he definitely isn't working for his psychotic brother at least.
- Character Death: Stabbed in the throat by Kai after having his pinkie sliced off.
- Connected All Along: It's revealed in "Holes" that he's Kai and Winter's older brother.
- The Confidant: To Ally, in a mixture between "psychiatrist" and "friend." She turns to him for advice and he can get her to admit things to him she won't admit to Ivy.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Calling him 'evil' is a bit of a stretch, while he didn't seem to care about his parents' deaths (especially their father), Vincent did genuinely love his siblings and was even the one who started the entire 'pinkie power' ritual as a means of reassurance to Kai. He also appeared to love Winter, as they both exchanged worried glances for each other right before he is killed.
- Fingore: Loses his pinky finger before getting killed by the cult.
- Good All Along: He actually was not part of the Cult. Kai stole documents from his office and, upon realizing how dangerous his brother is, tries to have him either arrested or committed.
- It's All About Me: The real reason he helped Kai cover up their parents' deaths, as he was worried about the effect it would have on his practice. Even when he realizes that Kai has been harassing his patients, his primary reason for wanting to get him committed or arrested is because his brother's actions will hurt his practice unless it can be proven that he made an attempt to stop him.
- Lack of Empathy: Downplayed, and of the non-villainous variety. He's nowhere near as bad as Kai, but as stated above, he is very self-centered and concerned with keeping his job as a counselor; for example, Vincent was less affected by his parents' death and far more worried about how the details of their death (his mother killing their father and committing suicide) would affect his practice, and did not seem overly concerned with how their sister would take the news.
- Only Sane Man: The only level-headed member of the main cast.
- The Shrink: He's Ally's psychiatrist and appears to be a good one at that.
- Slashed Throat: Courtesy of his own brother Kai.
Gary Longstreet
Gary K. Longstreet
"Welcome to Trump's America, Motherfuckers!"
Played by: Chaz Bono
A cashier at a grocery store and a Trump supporter.
- Ambiguously Evil: This comes into play when two clowns just happened to ambush Ally in the supermarket and have sex in front of her while another hid in her car, which causes her to crash her car. Was it real and he was apart of it or was it all imaginary and in Ally's head? Turns out Gary is in on the cult.
- An Arm and a Leg: Gary is missing his left hand, cut off at the wrist on election night — not that it stopped him from voting for Trump.
- Ax-Crazy: Gary takes to killing in the Cult like a duck to water. His Slasher Smile when killing R.J. says it all.
- Character Death: Stabbed a bunch of times by the cult members.
- Evil Cripple: As a member of the cult, he is one of the more sadistic members.
- Fat Bastard: Is rather rotund and is an absolute jerk.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He sexually battered Ivy at a demonstration with his left hand. Later, he's forced to cut it off when Winter and Kai put him in a position where it's the only way he can get out of his handcuffs and vote.
- Number Two: Gary seems to be the second in command to Kai, more so than Winter or Beverly.
- Sacrificial Lion: A villainous example. He's killed by Kai and the rest of the cult so that they can pin his death on Kai's Antifa detractors and his political opponent.
- Undying Loyalty: To Kai. Kills very gleefully whenever Kai says to and was even willing to chug what he thought was poisoned punch without question. This trait gets him killed, though.
Sally Keffler
Sally Keffler
Played by: Mare Winningham
"People like Mr. Anderson, and Trump, are not the garbage. They are the flies the garbage has drawn. It's time that we stop worrying about the flies, and we start hauling away the garbage."
A spunky politician who proved bold enough to run up against Kai in the Michigan campaign.
- Character Death: Kai shoots her in the chest.
- Cool Old Lady: While not too old, she has shown herself to be a very experienced, educated woman who not only asserts herself against Kai (of all people) in front of everyone at the council meeting, she also calmly reassures Ally and believes her story about the cult and that her opponent is the one in charge. "Nothing shocks me. I went to Berkeley," says Sally, all the while smoking a joint.
- Dead Star Walking: This is Mare Winningham's fourth American Horror Story role, but as a guest star she was doomed to die on the first episode she debuts in.
- Only Sane Man: The only character in the show who isn't a child, a cultist, or seemingly dealing with crippling neuroses.
- Too Cool to Live: She's a no-nonsense, unflappable gun-toting lady who stood up to Kai and called him out on his tactics as a fear-monger. Of course, that meant Kai targeted her immediately, and had the cult overwhelm and kill her.
Pastor Charles
Pastor Charles
Played by: Rick Springfield
A creepy, sinister priest who met Kai and Winter on the deep web two years ago. The experience helped shape Kai into who he is in the present.
- Asshole Victim: All the frankly horrific tortures he puts his victims through makes it hard, if not impossible, to feel sympathy for him when he gets rather gruesomely killed by one of his own contraptions. In front of his victims, no less.
- Character Death: Stabbed through his back with his own device by Kai.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Assuming he built all the contraptions in the farmhouse himself.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he is killed by Kai, and by his own contraption no less.
- Posthumous Character: He's already dead by the time the series starts. We're introduced to him in an extended flashback.
- Serial Killer: It's implied that he's been at it for quite a while.
- Sinister Minister: Very much so.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's only seen in one episode for a small portion of Episode 8, but according to Winter, it was the experience with him that changed everything, leading to Kai realizing that he couldn't save everyone, and thus developing his current twisted, anarchist mentality.
- Torture Technician: His farmhouse is filled with torture devices and death traps that wouldn't be out of place in a Saw movie.
Gloria Whitmore
Gloria Whitmore
Played by: Liz Jenkins
A security guard at the prison Kai was sent to.- The Dragon: Was this for Ally in secret.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: Was the only female member of Kai's prison cult but she turns her back on him thanks to Ally.
- Last Episode, New Character: Introduced in the finale of the season.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Kai really shouldn't have made fun of her weight and intelligence if he wanted her on his side.
- Sex for Services: Her entire relationship with Kai is based on this. He manipulated her by making her feel wanted and having sex with her.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Is given a heartfelt speech like this from Ally so she can turn against Kai.
Pedro Morales
Pedro Morales
Played by: Jorge-Luis Pallo
One of Ally and Ivy's employees.- Character Death: Ally accidentally shoots him in the head.
Roger
Roger
Played by: Zack Ward
A racist employee at Ally and Ivy's restaurant.- Character Death: Put on a meat hook. Ally tries to get him off and he bleeds out because of this.
Vinny Ravoli
Vincenzo "Vinny" Ravoli
Played by: TJ Hoban
The homophobic former boss of Harrison.- Character Death: Harrison bludgeons him with a dumbbell after crushing his throat.
Riley
Riley
Played by: Sarah Yarkin
One of Winter's friends. Dorothy
Dorothy
Played by: Cathy Marks
One of Winter's friends. Senator Jackson
Thom Chang
Thom Chang
Played by: Tim Kong
Ally and Ivy's neighbor and friend. Husband of Marylin.- Character Death: Murdered by the clowns, who are later revealed to be cult members.
Marylin Chang
Marylin Chang
Played by: Nanrisa Lee
Ally and Ivy's neighbor and friend. Wife of Thom.- Character Death: Throat slit and stabbed by the clowns, who are later revealed to be cult members.
Perry Donner-Scott
Perry Donner-Scott
Played by: Joseph Will
A city councilman. Rosie
Rosie
Played by: Laura Allen
Mark's wife who had claustrophobia due to her abusive father locking her in a cabinet when she was a child.- Character Death: The clowns lock her in a coffin and she dehydrates to death.
Mark
Mark
Played by: Ron Melendez
Rosie's husband.- Character Death: He is locked in a coffin by the clowns and he dehydrates to death.
Speedwagon
Speedwagon
Played by: Cameron Cowpethwaite
A cult member.- Alas, Poor Villain: He was just a guy who was caught up doing drugs, forced to become an informant and rat inside the cult, and is ultimately killed by Ally, who knows his innocence, to further her own agenda.
- Character Death: Ally stabs him in the chest.
Gutterball
Trevor Geary
Trevor Geary
Played by: Ian Bamberg
A prison inmate and a member of Kai's prison cult.- Character Death: Stabbed to death by Kai.
Chris Madison
Chris Madison
Oz's biological father.WBNR Channel 7
Beverly Hope
Beverly Hope
"It feels like wanting to be the last person on Earth because, that way, you got to watch every other son of a bitch die before you."
Played by: Adina Porter
A broadcast news journalist, giving a voice to potentially inconvenient thoughts to those trying to cover up certain events.
- Badass Decay: Goes from very vocal and willing to take charge to a scared woman after Winter frames her for Samuels's death, causing her to get tortured.
- Subverted after witnessing firsthand the downfall of Kai's cult as the FBI raid his house and gun down all of his followers, courtesy of Ally.
- Cluster F-Bomb: She drops lots of f-bombs through the series.
- The Dragon: To Kai. She is his most useful and loyal cult member. She slowly loses the position to the men of the cult but regains the position when she serves as Ally's campaign manager in the finale.
- Fire-Forged Friends: She becomes this with Ally, as the two of them are able to escape the cult and have Kai imprisoned. They still stay in touch later; Beverly even becomes Ally's campaign manager and is the one who kills Kai.
- Fall Guy: Is made into one by Winter, who tells Kai that Beverly murdered Samuels instead of her.
- Gone Horribly Right: Tries to convince Winter that Kai would turn on her, family or no, if given reason. When Winter kills Samuels in self-defense, she throws Beverly under the bus to save herself.
- Intrepid Reporter: Oh, hell yes. Beverly connected the dots of the Changs' murders and the recent murder of a young couple to the work of a serial killer, pointing out similarities of the crime scenes. She is in on it, after all.
- Ironic Name: Given her surname is Hope; on television, all she does is speak blunt truths and spread fear, instead of instilling hope to the masses.
- Lady Macbeth: To Kai. She encourages the cult to lash out at its weaker members like R.J..
- The Mole: As the Cult's mole inside WBNR, he uses her position as a reporter to spread fear during her broadcasts.
- Old Maid: She's very threatened by Serena, who's much younger than she and rising in the ranks at WBNR.
- The Starscream: Contemptuous of Bob Thompson's favoritism and weak stance on real news, and clearly attempts to outmaneuver him whenever possible despite being on the same news team. The very moment she's convinced Kai's no longer interested in sharing power with her, Bebe appears and the two form their own counter-cult, just as Kai intended.
- Two First Names: Beverly and Hope can both be used as first names.
Serena Belinda
Serena Belinda
Played by: Emma Roberts
An ambitious young journalist who tries to take advantage of Beverly's sabbatical and replace her.
- Alpha Bitch: She may not be in high school, but she has some traces of this.
- Character Death: Stabbed numerous times by the clowns.
- Dead Star Walking: Cult is her first appearance on AHS since leaving for Scream Queens after Freak Show, and she's dead by the end of her first episode.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Her ambition to replace Beverly is rewarded by murder.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She's stabbed to death by the cult while filming a puff piece for the station.
- Intrepid Reporter: She's defined by her ambition for a career in journalism.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: She's lowkey an expy of Tomi Lahren.
- Sleeping Their Way to the Top: She doesn't seem opposed to doing this.
- Two First Names: Serena and Belinda can both be used as first names.
Bob Thompson
Bob Thompson
Played by: Dermot Mulroney
A network news anchor with a questionable job integrity.
- Character Death: Stabbed multiple times by the clowns and axed in the head by Beverly.
- Deadline News: Technically speaking, he was killed beforehand. But no one knew of his death until Beverly purposely shown a video of his death as revenge for not only of him basically turning her down but also not revealing the video of Serena Belinda's death by the cult.
- Dirty Old Man: Bob is willing to sleep with younger women of the staff and even has a gimp at his house for his own sexual pleasure.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's immoral and perverted, but he's absolutely right when he calls Kai a 'nutjob'.
R.J.
R.J.
Played by: James Morosini
R.J. is the cameraman for Beverly and a trusty colleague of hers.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Essentially why Kai and the other members of the cult kill him because R.J. didn't have the balls to kill someone.
- Character Death: Shot in the head with a staple gun by every cult member.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The entire cult gangs up on him when they decide he's too soft for them, and they tie him up while each of the members slowly tortures and kills him by shooting nails into his head with a nail gun.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Donwplayed. R.J appears to be the least evil member of the cult. He was the clown who told Oz he was dreaming when they invaded his house in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", thus sparing him trauma. He also was openly horrified when they trapped that couple in "Neighbors From Hell" in coffins, calling it 'next-level twisted' and even suggested letting them out but unfortunately, this is what provokes the cult into killing him.
SCUM
Valerie Solanas
Valerie Solanas
Played by: Lena Dunham
The infamous would-be assassin of Andy Warhol, and author of the SCUM Manifesto.
- Ax-Crazy: She was far more enthusiastic about killing men than any sane person should be.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: According to Bebe, she orchestrated the Zodiac Killer killings.
- Cassandra Truth: Tries to confess to masterminding the Zodiac killings, but is shrugged off by the cops.
- Character Death: Dies the same way she did in real life.
- Does Not Like Men: Absolutely hated men, thinking that they needed to be completely killed off.
- Female Misogynist: She had her group kill any woman who was caught with a man, even if there was no indication that they were anything other than a loving couple, with the man treating the woman just fine. She hated any woman that supported men, and wanted to send a message that if any of them supported or were caught with men on her group's watch they would be killed.
- Glory Seeker: Wanted "recognition" for orchestrating the Zodiac killings.
- Hate Sink: There's not one shred of likability to her. She hated men to genocidal degrees and was determined to send the message that any woman who was with a man also deserved to die in her eyes. She would kill innocent couples even if they seemed to be perfectly happy together. She was a huge Jerkass, a remorseless serial killer, a Straw Feminist, did not care about the feelings of any other women, and wanted to be recognized for orchestrating the Zodiac killings.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: She did shoot Andy Warhol in real life, but in the show she is behind the infamous Zodiac killings. Possibly.
- Hypocrite: This murderous Straw Feminist still had the gall to insist she was helping women when she was killing any of them who supported men.
- It's All About Me: She did not care about any of the millions of women out there who liked men, believed they deserved to die, and wanted "recognition" for orchestrating the Zodiac killings.
- Jerkass: She was a Straw Feminist, a remorseless serial killer by proxy, a Glory Seeker, and was constantly angry.
- The Man Behind the Man: She was the true Zodiac Killer, getting SCUM to do all of the killings for her from her cell in a mental ward. Or perhaps not, as it's more or less stated that Bebe was making much of her backstory up, and the real Zodiac Killer appeared as a completely different person in Hotel.
- Psycho Lesbian: Was in a relationship with Bebe and it is clear that she is completely insane.
- Sanity Slippage: Her grip on reality wasn't strong to begin with, but it only got worse as time went on.
- Straw Feminist: The Real Life version of her was practically the Trope Codifier.
Bebe Babbitt
Bebe Babbitt
Played by: Frances Conroy, Lyla Porter Follows (young)
Valerie's lover, and one of the leading members of SCUM.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Ally ultimately leads a new SCUM cult in a form very much like Bebe had intended Kai to inspire, although Ally seemingly retains her love for her son, in defiance of the manifesto.
- Boom, Headshot!: Ally delivers one to her after she tries to shoot Kai for turning on her.
- Character Death: Shot in the head by Ally.
- The Corrupter: She is the one who put all the ideas of cults and political aspirations into Kai's head.
- Death by Irony: Bebe wanted Kai to unleash a wave of unstoppable feminine rage; she's shot in the head by Ally, the woman Kai has pissed off the most.
- Does Not Like Men: Same as Valerie.
- The Dragon: To Valerie, as her lover and most loyal member. She tried to make Kai one for herself.
- Dragon Ascendant: Comes to Winter, Beverly, and Ivy trying to continue Valerie's work and spouting the same rhetoric.
- Evil Wears Black: Always appears dressed head-to-toe in black, both young and old, and is the The Dragon.
- The Man Behind the Man: She is the real mastermind behind Kai's actions, at least at first. He very quickly goes off the rails.
- Unreliable Narrator: Her story about Valerie being behind the Zodiac killings is brought up to question at the end of "Valerie Solanas Died for Your Sins: Scumbag" when Bebe is shown being with Kai, possibly as partners.
- You Have Failed Me: Tries to kill Kai when he goes against her orders, and would've succeeded if not for Ally killing her with a shot to the head.
Hedda
Hedda
Played by: Jamie Brewer
A SCUM member. Butchy May
Butchy May
Played by: Dot Marie Jones
A SCUM member. Maurice
Maurice
Played by: Ryan Alvarez
A SCUM member. Bruce
Bruce
Played by: Miguel Sagaz
A SCUM member.- Character Death: Stabbed a bunch of times by the SCUM members.
Other
Andy Warhol
Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Played by: Evan Peters
- Character Death: Presumably dies the same way he does in real life.
Tex Watson
Tex Watson
Played by: Billy Eichner
Susan Atkins
Patricia Krenwinkle
Patricia Krenwinkle
Played by: Leslie Grossman
Linda Kasabian
Linda Kasabian
Played by: Billie Lourd
Sharon Tate
Marshall Applewhite
Marshall Applewhite
Played by: Evan Peters
- Character Death: He dies the same way he died in real life.
David Koresh
Jim Jones
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Played by: Evan Peters
- Stylistic Suck: He's characterized in an obviously theatrical manner, with the stereotypical fake beard, white robes and coming down from the Heavens suspended from cables.
Mr. Guinea
