History Series / AmericanHorrorStoryHotel

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Tristan has this little quip when The Countess tells him she was born in 1904, "wow so that means you've lived through wars, [[TheGreatDepression The Depression]], [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton The Clinton Administration]], and everything!"

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: For most characters, anyway. Liz decides to die in the hotel after learning she has cancer, with the Countess performing a MercyKill on her and implied to make amends after the events of the series. She even reunites with Tristan, who had been a ghost at the hotel the whole time]].
** [[spoiler:It's also revealed in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2022]], John returns to the hotel as a ghost having died years prior after being on the run for his crimes as the Ten Commandments Killer. And even before that, he and Alex and Holden returned there to be safe, all while allowing Scarlet to live a normal life with other relatives. Unfortunately since John didn't die on the hotel property, he can only return to the hotel every Devil's Night, meaning he can't see Alex, Holden, or Scarlet (now an adult) for an entire year]].

* CarouselKidnapping: How the Countess acquired Holden.
* CassandraTruth: Scarlett's parents don't believe that [[spoiler: her brother Holden was being kept in a coffin in the empty pool]]

* ContinuityCameo: Marcy the Realtor from [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse the first season]] sells the hotel to Will Drake. She even kept the Harmons' pet dog, though it had to be put down.

** In the last episode, [[spoiler: [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Billie Dean Howard]] appears]]

* CreepyChild: The Countess's brood of kidnapped, bloodsucking children. [[spoiler: Later, the vicious pack of vampire tweens Alex inadvertently creates when she gives her blood to a patient dying of measles]]
* CrossReferencedTitles: "She Wants Revenge" and "She Gets Revenge".

* DepravedBisexual: The Countess, and everyone who associates with her.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: "She Wants Revenge" refers to several female characters: Ramona who seeks revenge on Elizabeth for the murder of her lover, [[spoiler: Elizabeth who seeks revenge on Ramona for trying to kill her children and Liz who resents Elizabeth for the death of Tristan]].
** This has another meaning as well. When we meet The Countess in the first episode, the soundtrack uses the song "Tear You Apart" by the band She Wants Revenge.

* DrugsAreBad: The villainous Countess is introduced snorting cocaine, Hypodermic Sally's drug habit makes her even more selfish and mean, Tristan's makes him dangerously unstable, and [[spoiler: Donovan almost dies from an overdose, making him vulnerable to the Countess]]. In-universe, this is also Iris's opinion; she hates drugs and drug users, especially Sally, for [[spoiler: what happened to her son]].

* EasilyForgiven: By the end of the season, every major character with the exception of Scarlett and possibly Holden has either killed, been killed, killed the loved one of another major character, or screwed over another character in a major way, but by the end they have mostly been able to come together as a weird sort of family--[[spoiler: The Countess and Liz Taylor have reconciled, the Swedish girls' murder victim is now in a three-way relationship with them both, Will Drake apparently has forgiven Ramona for killing him enough to allow her to star in his fashion shows, and March and the Countess seem to be at least civil to one another]]. This may be helped by the fact that most of the characters by the end of the show are either ghosts or vampires, and so they'll ''have'' to live together for the foreseeable future

* HalloweenEpisode: "Devil's Night"

* HellHotel: The setting of the season.

* HotterAndSexier: In contract with the show becoming DarkerAndEdgier, the show picks up more sex than the previous seasons combined. Likely due to [[NotUsingTheZWord the "ancient blood virus" carriers]] being [[VampiresAreSexGods vampiric sex gods]].
** It's also set in a formerly glamorous but now run down Hollywood hotel. Seedy behavior including sex, drug use, and suicides are common place.

* MonsterMash: The hotel seems to house a rather eclectic group of unusual long-term tenants, including ghosts, vampires, and serial killers. While the vampires are the ''new'' monster, the season seems more focused on following multiple threads a la Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum. Serial killers and ghosts were present in ''Coven'' and ''Freak Show'' as secondary monsters, but get more attention in ''Hotel''.

* OffscreenTeleportation: The Countess is great at this, although it might just be stylized editing.

* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Wes Bentley, Creator/MattBomer and Creator/ChloeSevigny.

* SomethingElseAlsoRises: When the Countess and Donavan invites a couple for an orgy at a screening of ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', the sequence when Orlok rises from his coffin is played.

** "She Gets Revenge". [[spoiler:Liz meets her son for the first time in over thirty years, and together with Iris, they seemingly gun down the Countess and Donavon just after the both of them were about to kill each other.]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Iris moans over the fact she'll spend eternity as an old lady nobody notices
** Donovan tells the 2 tourists that they need to find a purpose to breakup the monotony of eternity.
** The Countess misses the '70s as this was the only time she felt she could be herself.
** Ramona compares it to being preserved in amber, never changing

** In "Devil's Night," which features famous serial killers coming to the Hotel Cortez to have dinner together, John Carroll Lynch plays John Wayne Gacy, perhaps the most notorious real life MonsterClown. He previously played Twisty the Clown in ''Freak Show''. Additionally, during the meal, Gacy sits opposite the Zodiac Killer. Lynch played one of the main suspects in ''Film/{{Zodiac}}''.

* AdultFear: John and Alex losing their young son at a carnival.

* ActorAllusion: During a flashback to TheSeventies in episode two, the Countess rides a horse into a disco. Music/LadyGaga herself has ridden two mechanical horses: once during the Born This Way Ball, and later as her entrance to the 2013 American Music Awards. The song "I Want Your Love" by Music/{{Chic}}, which Gaga covered for Tom Ford's spring/summer 2016 line, also plays during this flashback.

** That storyline starts out as SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped, though: Get your children vaccinated because the diseases the vaccinations protect them from are serious, life-threatening, and (due to being caused by viruses) often incurable even by modern medicine. The reason Alex infected the boy with vampirism was because he was dying of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia attacking his already measles-ravaged body.

** The incident with the Swedish tourists actually counts ''tripple'': They "seduced" him while he was clearly very drunk, so his ability to consent to sex is highly doubtful. During the sex they suddenly start some gruesome bloodplay and try to strangle him, which he ''definitely'' never consented to. And the whole thing was instigated by Alex specifically with the intent to torture John into a MindBreak, so he would stop bothering her and looking for their son - and yet, he never gets angry at her for this and they're happily back together in the end.

** The Ten Commandment Killer sodomized his first victim with an Oscar statue. (Though when we are much later shown the attack, that part is neglected, so it probably happened post-humously. Or the writers just forgot about it.) It turns out this was a case of PayEvilUntoEvil, as the victim was chosen because he was a pedophile who hit [[spoiler: John's]] BerserkButton about harming children. (Though it's not outright stated that he actually went through with any sexual assault on the young boy he brought into the hotel. All we're shown is half-dressed pictures of the kid sitting on the bed, which might have been taken for sale, not personal use, given that they guy was also selling off a prized possession.) Weird that apparently the police didn't find anything incriminating in the victim's house.

The cast is led by Music/LadyGaga with [[ProductionPosse returning cast members]] Creator/SarahPaulson, Creator/KathyBates, Creator/AngelaBassett, Creator/WesBentley, Creator/MattBomer, Creator/ChloeSevigny, Creator/DenisOHare, Creator/EvanPeters, Creator/FinnWittrock, and Creator/MareWinningham with guest appearances by ''AHS'' alumni Creator/LilyRabe, Creator/GaboureySidibe and Creator/ChristineEstabrook. New cast members include Cheyenne Jackson, Max Greenfield, Richard T. Jones, Creator/HelenaMattsson, Creator/NaomiCampbell, Creator/MadchenAmick, and Creator/DarrenCriss.

The cast is led by Music/LadyGaga with [[ProductionPosse returning cast members]] Creator/SarahPaulson, Creator/KathyBates, Creator/AngelaBassett, Creator/WesBentley, Creator/MattBomer, Creator/ChloeSevigny, Creator/DenisOHare, Creator/EvanPeters, Creator/FinnWittrock, and Creator/MareWinningham with guest appearances by ''AHS'' alumni Creator/LilyRabe, Creator/GaboureySidibe and Creator/ChristineEstabrook. New cast members include Cheyenne Jackson, Max Greenfield, Richard T. Jones, Helena Mattsson, Creator/NaomiCampbell, Creator/MadchenAmick, and Creator/DarrenCriss.

The cast is led by Music/LadyGaga with [[ProductionPosse returning cast members]] Creator/SarahPaulson, Creator/KathyBates, Creator/AngelaBassett, Creator/WesBentley, Creator/MattBomer, Creator/ChloeSevigny, Creator/DenisOHare, Creator/EvanPeters, Creator/FinnWittrock, and Mare Winningham with guest appearances by ''AHS'' alumni Creator/LilyRabe, Creator/GaboureySidibe and Christine Estabrook. New cast members include Cheyenne Jackson, Max Greenfield, Richard T. Jones, Helena Mattsson, Creator/NaomiCampbell, Creator/MadchenAmick, and Creator/DarrenCriss.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Hotel'' cast.[[note]]Second floor, left to right: [[PsychoSupporter Miss Evers]], [[EvilMentor James Patrick March]], [[TheFashionista Will Drake]], [[LonelyRichKid Lachlan Drake]]. Elevator floor, left to right: [[BrainlessBeauty Tristan Duffy]], [[VampireMonarch The Countess]], [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Rudolph Valentino]]. Ground floor stairs, left to right: [[TheUnfavorite Scarlett Lowe]], [[TheVamp "Hypodermic" Sally]]. Ground floor background, left to right: [[TheRenfield Iris]], [[DeadpanSnarker Liz Taylor]], [[UndeadChild The Vampire Triplets]], [[ClingyJealousGirl Donovan]], [[{{Blaxploitation}} Ramona Royale]]. Foreground, left to right: [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Detective John Lowe]], [[DrJerk Alex Lowe]].[[/note]]]]

** They are able to walk in sunlight, but as the Countess herself says, it saps their vitality to do so, although this is not really demonstrated in any significant degree. She also prefers a bed and blackout curtains to a coffin, though her vampire children do sleep in metal and glass coffins. In addition, while these vampires are technically immortal, they can be killed by human means; they only have an enhanced immune system that prevents aging and disease (unless they consume tainted blood). They also show up on film as blurs. Their HealingFactor also seems to be very limited: while any recently converted vampire will instantly heal most injuries and diseases, they need a constant supply of blood to keep it working, causing any existing disease they might've had prior to being turned to come back with a vengeance if they neglect to do so and it also seems unable to cure any neurological diseases, only halting their progress, as Ramona ends up finding the hard way with his father.

** They are able to walk in sunlight, but as the Countess herself says, it saps their vitality to do so. She also prefers a bed and blackout curtains to a coffin, though her vampire children do sleep in metal and glass coffins. In addition, while these vampires are technically immortal, they can be killed by human means; they only have an enhanced immune system that prevents aging and disease (unless they consume tainted blood). And they show up on film as blurs.

* EasilyForgiven: By the end of the season, every major character with the exception of Scarlett and possibly Holden [[spoiler:(Although he killed Jasper the dog and Agnetha)]] has either killed, been killed, killed the loved one of another major character, or screwed over another character in a major way, but by the end they have mostly been able to come together as a weird sort of family--[[spoiler: The Countess and Liz Taylor have reconciled, the Swedish girls' murder victim is now in a three-way relationship with them both, Will Drake apparently has forgiven Ramona for killing him enough to allow her to star in his fashion shows, and March and the Countess seem to be at least civil to one another]]. This may be helped by the fact that most of the characters by the end of the show are either ghosts or vampires, and so they'll ''have'' to live together for the foreseeable future
** Not Holden. He [[spoiler: kills the family dog.]]