Season 5 will be about stage magicians.
It has been hinted that a "top hat" icon shown on a coffee mug in season 4 is the hint to the theme of season 5. Season 5 will be about a conspiracy about Alien Invaders.
- Freak Show takes place in Jupiter, Florida.
- Jessica Lange plays Elsa Mars and sings David Bowie's Life On Mars song.
- In the finale, Massimo builds wooden towns to be destroyed by nuclear weapon testing.
- The season that makes a direct connection to Freak Show is Asylum, which introduced the aliens that abducted Kit Walker's wife.
- It's the fifth season. So, the next new episode would be Season Five, Episode 1...like Area 51? That one's a stretch, humor me.
- This season focused on human "freaks". What better follow up than "normal" people going insane about odd looking aliens who appear on screen less than they do?
Season 5 will be about nuclear testing in Nevada.
- The only confirmed clue we have is a picture of a top hat; "Operation Top Hat" was a nuclear/chemical warfare testing exercise in the 50s.
- Massimo mentions nuclear testing and building fake cities, which greatly deteriorated his health, in the Freak Show finale.
- People have pointed out name parallels to The Hills Have Eyes and Freak Show, with there being characters named Papa Jupiter (Jupiter, Florida), Mars (Elsa Mars), and Ethel (Ethel Darling). Might be a bit of a stretch, but it almost seems too close to not have some kind of meaning.
- Ryan Murphy previously mentioned that they were debating between filming in New Orleans (again) or in New Mexico for the next season.
- Around the tupperware party house, framed pictures of mushroom clouds can be seen.
- Jimmy apparently wanted to dress up as a soldier for Halloween, possibly foreshadowing a military (testing) theme.
- Jossed. Season five will be AHS: Hotel.
- To be fair, until we know more details besides the name, the hotel could be anywhere, or fit into any theme. Time will tell what kind of horror specifically the new season will be going for but it's a bit early to jump to conclusions based on name alone.
- Permanently Jossed. It was a hotel all along.
- To be fair, until we know more details besides the name, the hotel could be anywhere, or fit into any theme. Time will tell what kind of horror specifically the new season will be going for but it's a bit early to jump to conclusions based on name alone.
The "Hotel" in question in season 5 will be the infamous Garden Of Allah.
- Jossed.
There will be multiple references to the Eagles' song "Hotel California."
Considering the fact that it has been confirmed to take place in California, it wouldn't be too far of a fetch to see multiple references or shout-outs to it. Specifically to the lines: "In the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast. They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast." Additionally there could be references to the lines: "You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!"- Confirmed: the song plays in the first episode, we shouldn't expect anyone to leave.
- Addiction is one of the main themes of the first episode, as well as the song.
The Countess has a supernatural power of seduction.
All those people aren't actually in love with her, and the kids don't just go happily with her because she's cool. They're under something akin to a spell, and that's probably why she says all these years she's only had the illusion of control. It might run out, making the people under her control to wake up and turn against her for real. Liz Taylor will kill Bartholomew in front of the Countess
Preferably with an Ironic Echo of "He's yours. Bury him."- Now that they didn't get me the Darren butt shot I wanted, this is the thing I want most from this show now. Since this is a Ryan Murphy show, my WMG addition is that the countess will be involved in something designed to get the audience's sympathy... and that it will fail.
- Jossed.
Jessica Lange will be Back for the Finale.
It's pretty well-known that she said she wants to move on, but the show-runners REALLY don't want her to go. It's not hard to see her being The Cavalry. The penultimate episode ends with things having REALLY hit the fan, just as one of Ms. Lange's characters walks in and says something to the effect of "...I'm gone for five minutes..."- Jossed.
Lady Gaga's character is a vampire/thinks she's a vampire.
One of the showrunners said that at one point she would crave blood. She's also referred to as "the Countess" and her name is Elizabeth. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that there will be some references to Elizabeth Bathory. It's actually pretty obvious.- Or perhaps she is Elizabeth Bathory and her practices actually worked and she's lived well into the modern day.
- Confirmed though Ryan Murphy prefers the term "ancient blood virus".
- The Countess even uses the V word in the 2nd episode
Jessica Lange's cameo will be a Continuity Nod either as Constance or Fiona
Either Gaga's Toe headed children are related to The Antichrist, who is Constance's grandson or Fiona visits Elizabeth trying to learn the secret to her immortality.- Jossed. She doesn't appear at all.
The Vampires are just very eccentric ghosts.
They've all been Dead All Along and made up the vampire story as a way to delude themselves.- Partially Jossed. Donovan and Elizabeth have been seen hunting outside the Hotel, meaning they're at least corporeal. No word on Sally or Liz, though.
- Jossed in regards to Liz, as she's stated she was never turned. The jury is still out on Sally.
Sarah Paulson's character will not survive till the end of the season.
In just about every season Sarah Paulson's character(usually) unscathed. Well Falchuck and Murphy must be aware of how they've basically given Sarah Paulson some sort of meta Plot Armor thus meaning the show's selling point that no one is safe isn't really true. Considering they like to subvert our expectations (and their probable awareness of this) they will finally kill off her character.- Confirmed, possibly? If Iris throwing her out a window from several stories up during a flashback and all the blood from her landing on her head is any indication, she might be Dead All Along.
- She was heavily implied to be a vampire in the beginning, but was only seen teaming up with the addiction demon to kill Gabriel, not necessarily to drink his blood. Also, she's only been seen outside the Hotel before Iris pushed her out the window, indicating that she's now haunting it.
- Not to mention she still has the exact same outfit and hairstyle that she did when she was thrown out the window in 1994. She's even wearing the same outfit in almost all of the promos, which is odd compared most of the other characters' Unlimited Wardrobes.
- As of the finale... half-confirmed, half-averted? Sally was killed off by Iris at the start of the season even if she came back as a ghost, but Billy Dean from Murder House returns and escapes without dying at all. I guess they couldn't go the whole season without one of Sarah's characters making it out alive.
Lady Gaga will be a Dead Star Walking.
And an Advertised Extra. Despite being the face of the new season, she'll be gone fairly quickly.- Likely Jossed: It's been confirmed in an interview with Brad Falchuk she will be appearing in eight episodes.
- Definitely jossed as Gaga stated she would appear in all 13 episodes on the Red Carpet.
The Countess has an immortal mother.
Who, of course, ends up being Jessica Lange. Both are blondes, Lange's Fiona was obsessed with immortality, and the Countess is immortal. Who's to say her mother didn't also find the secret to immortality? Her mother will either be better or worse than she is, and will either be The Cavalry (as guessed above) or the REAL Big Bad.- It's entirely possible The Countess is Fiona Goode's mother; it would be one hell of a Freudian Excuse for Fiona
- The Countess has been revealed to have been born in 1905. I would have put Fiona's age at about 18 when she killed Anna Leigh... making her born in 1953. This would make the Countess about 48. She doesn't look anywhere near that old and I doubt she had a child after becoming a vampire. Why would the Countess steal them if she could have them herself?
- It's been confirmed she was, at the very least, pregnant post-vampirism.
- Some HIV-positive mothers are also known to give birth to HIV-negative babies. Assmuing her child didn't end up in one of Dr. Montgomery's jars, there's a slim chance The Countess could have had an un-infected baby.
- It's entirely possible The Countess is Fiona Goode's mother; it would be one hell of a Freudian Excuse for Fiona
The order that the Ten commandments appears in the opening credits will be important to the season.
Perhaps it'll be the order in which The Ten Commandments Killer goes about his victims. Or maybe it'll be more meta and ties into the major events of the season. I'm not sure really but the order of the Ten Commandments seems odd in the opening credits. Any ideas? Every attractive man on the show will have a bare ass shot
If the premiere is anything to go by, I'll be crossing my fingers when Darren comes on.- If this WMG turns out to be true, please let's have Zachary Quinto guest star.
- confirmed.
- Jossed when it comes to Darren Criss. :(
Marcy was turned by The Countess some time after the events of Murder House
As indicated by the platinum dye job.- Jossed! Marcy was never a vampire. Vampire food, on the other hand...
Alex and/or John is the Ten Commandments Killer
The disappearance of their son having pushed them over the edge. He has the cover of being a cop, and she has a doctor's knowledge of the human body. Also, Alex's disgust for people who don't vaccinate their kids might indicate a moral indignation with society in general.- Having a 'hero' be the killer would be a nice call back to Asylum, where the guy we thought was a good guy, Dr. Thredson, turns out to be serial killer and Big Bad Bloodyface.
- Confirmed. John is the killer.
Iris and Donovan's relationship was strained well before he became involved with Sally or The Countess.
Donovan comes across as sort of a jerk to his mother and seems to be glad at the prospect of never having to see her again. Sally also a snide remark about seeing "how things turn out in Iris' care." Iris was probably distant and realized how it had affected Donovan when it was too late.- Confirmed! Donovan directly states that he did drugs and ran away simply to get away from her, long before he met Sally or the Countess.
Frances Conroy will make a cameo as Moira O'Hare.
The Murder House is supposed to appear, and her ghost just happens to live there. If Conroy really wasn't returning this season, like Jessica Lange, we probably would have heard something, but nobody said a word.- Or Myrtle Snow could pay a visit to Will Drake, given her appreciation for fashion.
- Hotel takes place after Coven, so Myrtle Snow is currently a pile of ashes.
- Any previous character could show up in a flashback, but given that Lady Gaga has been seen taping at the Murder House location, Moira is the most likely to show up again.
- Jossed in regards to the Murder House, as shown by a flashback. The Countess visited long before Moira inhabited the house.
- Hotel takes place after Coven, so Myrtle Snow is currently a pile of ashes.
- Jossed. She doesn't appear at all.
Sally survived that fall.
She's not dead and constantly torments Iris because she survived the fall. Iris sees it as another failure (like how she raised Donovan).- Jossed. Episode 8 officially confirms that she's dead.
Elizabeth and Donovan performed some version of Transmutation and/or Concillium in the premiere.
- Although not entirely invulnerable, blood drinkers do have some witch and/or ghost like abilities. Donovan is seen glamouring the young couple, while Elizabeth is able to catch up to a fleeing victim.
The Ten Commandments Killer's final victim will be himself/herself.
- "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is one of the Ten Commandments, which the killer has repeatedly broken. The rest speaks for itself, especially if they're doing an homage to Se7en.
- Jossed. The final victim is the Countess.
The season will function as a big Take That! at anti-vaxxers.
- The vampire children are a metaphor for children whose parents don't get them vaccinated.
- The Countess drinking their blood in turn makes it a metaphor for un-vaccinated people exploiting the heard immunity of vaccinated people.
The Countess was Mr. March's wife.
- During one The Roaring '20s flashback in episode two, Mr. March builds a brick wall around a bound woman, and Iris' voiceover mentions that he had a wife who was "forced" to watch March kill his victims. However, we see March's wife (who has blonde hair) take a gag out of his victim's mouth and claim that she likes the screaming. If that isn't the Countess, I don't know what is.
- In addition to the blonde hair, her voice sounds similar to the Countess', and it would explain why we haven't been given her last name yet.
- It would also explain how she came to own the Hotel Cortez: she inherited it from her husband upon his death.
- Judging from recent previews, this has been confirmed.
- Confirmed in "Flicker."
Results of Donovan's decision at the end of the third episode:
The newly turned Iris will resent and ultimately end up hating Donovan for not letting her die, flipping their roles from earlier in the episode so that it is Donovan desperately trying to reconnect with his mother in an ironic twist. Furthermore, the Countess will target Iris and attempt to kill her once she finds out about her; as Ramona pointed out, Elizabeth doesn't like her creations making their own creations.- Iris might already be dead and Donovan was too late. Instead, Iris could come back as a ghost instead of a vampire.
- Iris explicitly said there was no unfinished business to motivate coming back as a ghost. It may have been a lie, but it would be a huge fake out on the part of the show.
- Previews have confirmed that Iris is still around, so it looks like Donovan was successful in turning her.
- Iris explicitly said there was no unfinished business to motivate coming back as a ghost. It may have been a lie, but it would be a huge fake out on the part of the show.
The Ten Commandments killer is:
- From Hotel:
- Sally, who is already suspected as being involved by John. She is also interested in the detective investigating the murders, like the killer seems to be. It depends on if she can leave the hotel to commit the murders, and so far, it's implied the answer is no. It's also possible that she is an aider and abetter to...
- The Addiction Demon, who obviously has a taste for brutalities. Like Sally, if it can leave the motel, it'd be a prime suspect.
- Iris, who seems the type to be religiously motivated. Perhaps after all this time in the hotel, having her son die and then return as a vampire, being shunned by that son, and having to work for bloodthirsty vampires in preparing people for them to eat and then disposing of the remains, she fell into total corruption and began murdering people she found immoral. Possibly with the influence of...
- March. He would make the most sense of the characters we know to be the serial killer, given his blasphemous attitude towards religion and his love of murder. Only problem is that he's kinda dead. It may be that his spirit is somehow, possibly without him even realizing it, influencing people who spend time in the hotel, or that someone (his wife, a descendant, or simply a "fan") has researched his murders like Tristan did and is carrying out the murders for him, though.
- Liz Taylor, by virtue of being the only main cast member not yet majorly involved in any of the ongoing plot threads. There's also the fact that Liz was the one who encouraged Donovan to reconcile with his mother ("Honor thy Father and thy Mother," being one of the Ten Commandments).
- Aileen Wuornos or another one of the real-life serial killers to be featured in the next episode.
- John's detective partner or Alex, either of whom would be a twist and have a personal connection to John that would make his pursuing the case and figuring out who they are more dramatic.
- Will Drake who's suspiciously discreet (absent in "Devil's Night" and "Room Service") and hasno backstory so far. In the promotional poster he and Lachlan appears in symetry with March and Mrs Evers which could indicate they have something in common.
- The episode "Flicker", Wren hints that the killer is an adult male resident of the Cortez which narrows the suspects to Will, John and Donovan for the living, March and Tristan assuming their ghosts can leave the hotel.
- And since we've been told past seasons will show up in this one, there's several other suspects American Horror Story suspects:
- Michael from Murder House. He was already gruesomely, happily butchering babysitters as a tot and is implied to be The Antichrist, which would make him basing his murders on the Ten Commandments ironic.
- Constance from Murder House. Perhaps she's become warped by her grandson (or possessed); honestly, she wasn't very far from a full-fledged villain already and last we saw her, she was happy to indulge Michael's murderous behavior (not unlike Ms. Evers), so her slipping off the slippery slope into sadistic killings herself wouldn't be out of the question.
- To add to a Jessica Lange character doing the killings...maybe it's SISTER JUDE who came back as a ghost or vampire and somehow ended up at the Hotel. It would definitely fit a former nun to use the Ten Commandments as justification to kill people. Perhaps Sister Jude's "redemption" wasn't as clear as we thought, or the Angel of Death wasn't as thorough when she took her soul, and somehow warped her.
- A demon similar to the one from Asylum. That one possessed a pure-hearted nun to do its dirty-work, this one bases its murders on the Ten Commandments to make a mockery of scripture.
Elizabeth was either infertile or lost a child while she was still human
She turns children who look like her to some extent, and if Holden calling her his "other mommy" is any indication, she does treat them well. She also saved them from abuse and seems to provide them with a steady supply of food and entertainment while they're awake.- Jossed. She has a Humanoid Abomination son named Bartholomew.
Tristan Duffy is a descendant of Rudolph Valentino
Both are men that attracted and enchanted The Countess, causing her to be infatuated with each of them. Perhaps the family resemblance is why Tristan was turned into a vampire, and why March tried to get a hold of him prior to said transformation. The double take that Iris did as Valentino was leaving the hotel further proves this since Valentino left after Tristan was killed.- Perhaps Valentino impregnated Dandy Mott's mom during the train tour promoting his final film before faking his own death also.
Tristan is a descendant of Dandy Mott
We never did find out the details of "that debacle with the Cushing girl." Dandy's assertion that "[he] did not touch her" could indicate that she had accused him of raping her. Dandy very well could have raped her, and produced Tristan's mother (or less likely, father). Having it be his mother could easily explain the different last names; she married a man with the last name of "Duffy." Being related to Dandy would certainly explain Tristan's erratic personality traits and murderous tendencies. Romana Royale will die of the measles
The vampires do seem to worry about the quality of the blood they consume.- Jossed.
The Vampires will go to war with the Witches
The Witches' Council will be quite upset with the undead for killing Queenie. Hell, with Cordelia there she could possibly bring Queenie back, who'll definitely want revenge.