“American Horror Story” Season 7 barely even connects to the others, and I want my money back

While the show is very much an anthology series, meaning a new series of characters and setting, year after year, the cool thing about American Horror Story is that it’s slowly been connecting its seasons together. Season 1 is connected to Season 3, Season 4 goes back to Season 5, and the same character from Season 2 shows up in Season 6. It’s pretty cool, like a giant American Horror Story puzzle. So now that we’re at the end, how does American Horror Story: Cult connect to the rest of the series?

Just real fast: It doesn’t. The long answer is much longer, but the short answer is very simple: Cult basically operates as its own stand-alone season, and how rude.

“But,” you ask, “What about the fact that Twisty the Clown from Season 4 popped up in Cult?” That little thing is nothing more than an Easter egg, a blip in the overall Cult story. It’s basically like someone hung a poster of Twisty on the wall. It’s like Sarah Paulson pointed at it and yelled, “LOOK, THERE HE IS! SEASON 4!” That’s the gist of it. Twisty is part of some kid’s nightmare, and that’s like…it. Twisty is part of my nightmares, too. Does that mean I’m connected to American Horror Story?

“But, but,” you interject again. “What about the fact that Beverly brings up Lana Winters in the finale?” And to that I say PIC OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. Did we see Lana Winters — aka the unstoppable Sarah Paulson as Lana Winters from Season 2? No, we did not. So Lana Winters could literally be anyone out there on the planet, and maybe she’s one of the neighbors in Michigan. Anyone can name drop Lana Winters, but it’s another thing to make Sarah Paulson sit through like 3+ hours of makeup to see her IRL.

There were plenty of opportunities for major connections — like how I hoped and prayed that Ozzy would secretly be the demon child from Murder House — and now it all feels like a missed opportunity. For a show that literally prides itself with winks and nudges, Season 7 should have included at least a dozen references. And, for Evan Peters’ sake, he literally played a ghost in Season 6 just so the series could connect back to Season 4. With Season 7, there aren’t even any speculation connections — like how Madison Montgomery from Season 3 is probably connected to the Montgomery’s of Murder House.

Instead, we just have an insane clown cult and there’s not even A SINGLE GHOST. NOT ONE. NOT ONE GHOST.

However, I do want to quickly mention that Ryan Murphy did suggest that each season reflects a circle of hell, and that’s the greater overarching connection between them, BUT STILL. I NEED A LEAST ONE GHOST FROM SEASONS PAST.

Also, no Denis O’Hare and I feel cheated.

At this point, it’s just best if we chalk Cult up to being the ~lost~ American Horror Story season, and leave it at that. Hey, at least we have that Murder House/Coven crossover to look forward to, premiere date TBD and TBA.