In the ‘American Horror Story: Cult’ recap, Kai’s drunk with power and wants blind loyalty from his followers and Ally has a new mission with a fresh lease on life…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The latest season of ‘American Horror Story’ promised that there would be no supernatural element to the story being told for the first time in the history of the series.
The focus has been on a charismatic cult leader seeking power in a post-Trump election world and if that wasn’t scary enough, the latest episode told some mostly true stories about a trio of similar minded folks who ended up costing a lot of people their lives.
The new episode begins with Kai Anderson telling tales of three people he admires — the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult, who convinced his followers that killing themselves would allow entry into an alien ship that was traveling alongside the Hale-Bopp comet. David Koresh, the leader of the Branch-Davidian cult who believed he was the second coming of Jesus and then finally Jim Jones, the man who conned his tribe into drinking the Kool-Aid that ended up killing more than 900 people back in the late 1970’s.
Kai tells his devoted followers these stories to indoctrinate them with the same kind of loyalty to his cause. As he explains, it’s not that hard to convince someone to kill for you but convince them to kill themselves is an entirely different level of devotion.
Elsewhere this week, Ally Mayfair-Richards begins waging her war of revenge that starts with her wife and will soon end with Kai Anderson. It’s safe to say Ally has transformed from the tortured, frightened woman at the start of the season to a person truly unafraid of anything and that might make her the most powerful person of all.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘American Horror Story: Cult’ titled ‘Drink the Kool-Aid’…
Kai for Senate
Following Kai’s storytelling hour before bed, he returns to the city council the next day to enact more of his policies including banning certain websites guilty of spreading fake news to ensure the masses aren’t poised with misinformation. Of course there are fellow councilmen and women opposed to the order, but Kai’s army fills the gallery and one look at the beaten and bloodied member who was the dissenting vote the last time gets everybody in line.
Kai then announces that he plans to run for the Senate in the next election cycle, which earns a laugh from another councilman because he’ll be going up against a very popular incumbent candidate. Still, Kai is steadfast in his proclamation that he’ll soon be representing Michigan in the Senate.
Meanwhile, back at the Mayfair-Richards home, Ally is livid with Ivy over her betrayal and getting involved with Kai’s cult in the first place. Ivy does her best to explain how her love rotted away into hate for her wife over the years and this was the only way to get out along with their son. Winter soon arrives with Ozy in tow and he’s reunited with Ally for the first time in weeks. Ally presents her son with a Twisty the Clown comic book, showing that she’s no longer afraid, and asks him to go upstairs to give the adults time to talk.
Winter says she’s lost faith in her brother after he killed their other sibling Vincent and she knows the only way to break free of his control is to run away. She even prints up a 14 part instruction from Wikihow on escaping a cult.
Ally and Ivy agree that escape is the only way but they can’t raise any red flags with Kai or he will come after them. At that moment a loud knock is heard at the door and Kai’s soldiers enter the house demanding that all of them attend a meeting. They even take Ozy from his upstairs bedroom as they are brought back to Kai’s home where he begins his latest meeting.
First things first, he releases Beverly from her punishment in ‘the hole’ and she immediately attacks Winter for lying about Detective Samuel’s murder. Kai separates them and then places the four ladies on the couch while the rest of his followers gather round. Kai then brings out a giant pot filled with Kool-Aid as he instructs all of his followers to drink up. One soldier refuses and Kai has him shot dead because he’s not a true believer.
Ally, Ivy, Beverly and everybody else drink the Kool-Aid along with Kai, who then announces that he wouldn’t poison everybody — he just announced his run for Senate and he needs them alive! This was just the next text to prove their devotion and loyalty and almost everyone passed.
Daddy’s Home
Following this latest episode with Kai, Ally and Ivy are convinced that they need to escape sooner rather than later. Unfortunately when they arrive at school to pick up Ozy, he’s already been retrieved by his nanny earlier that day.
They rush off to Kai’s house knowing that Winter must have picked him up from school.
At the Kai compound, he’s introducing himself to Ozy and explaining the concept of fatherhood despite the fact that the child says he only has two mommies. By the time Ally and Ivy arrive, Kai has convinced the kid that he’s his father and Ozy is desperate to spend some quality time with dear old dad.
Of course, Ally and Ivy are irate but they get a shock of a lifetime when Kai tells them that he’s been donating sperm to the clinic where they found the anonymous person who fathered Ozy several years ago. Of course, Ally and Ivy are in disbelief but Kai seems rather confident that he’s the father. He then tells the ladies that Ozy is going to spend the night with him and while Ally protests rather loudly, Ivy convinces her that the kid is safe with him and they should allow him to spend some quality time with Kai.
Reluctantly, Ally and Ivy leave while Kai continues his ranting and raving about cults in another night time story with his tribe. This time, however, Ozy fact checks him on a piece of information about Jim Jones’ death and Kai is livid that his “son” questioned him by quoting fake news like Wikipedia. Kai declares that Ozy be put into timeout for the rest of the night and one of his soldiers carries the poor kid upstairs kicking and screaming.
Arsenic and Old Lace
Back at home, Ally prepares a dinner and a nice bottle of wine to share with her wife while she tries to wrap her head around what just happened with Kai and their son. Ivy is beside herself panicking over Kai’s hold on Ozy and what they can do to get him away from this cult.
It seems roles have been reversed as Ally is now the calm, cool and collected one, but she’s also not drinking the wine or eating the pasta she prepared. That should have been the first clue for Ivy but she continues to sip away while taking bite after bite.
That’s when Ally explains how she survived the trip to the mental ward following Kai’s shooting when she hit rock bottom following weeks of torture with clowns and holes and all sorts of other phobias that previously affected her. She was as low as any person could get but something helped her get through that experience and come out on the other side.
It was the motivation of revenge.
Ally stayed sane amongst the insane because she was driven by a single thought and that was making Ivy pay for what she did to her and their family. A moment later, Ivy begins coughing up blood as Ally explains that she laced the food and the wine with arsenic. Killing Ivy was always Ally’s plan and now she’s finished the job.
Ivy falls over dead, blood spewing from her mouth and Ally sits over top of her, smiling with a sense of satisfaction washing over her that she hasn’t felt in forever.
Messiah Baby
With Ivy dead, Ally puts her next plan into motion, which includes inviting Kai over for a dinner with Mamwiches once again.
Before dinner, Ally heads to the clinic where she was impregnated and after bribing an employee, she gets the file on Ozy’s father. It turns out the donor is someone else other than Kai Anderson but Ally has another idea in mind.
When Kai arrives for dinner, he munches down on that Sloppy Joe and doesn’t even blink when Ally tells him that she murdered Ivy by poisoning her. Ally then presents Kai with the file she retrieved from the clinic except the names and photos have been changed to make it look like he’s actually Ozy’s father.
Kai is overjoyed because he believes he just willed this into existence and Ozy is proof that he was meant to create a Messiah baby — just like the one he tried to make last week with Samuels and his sister. Kai then reunites Ally with her son after dumping Ivy’s body in his parents’ bedroom where she will now rot alongside the Andersons and their eldest son Vincent, who has been laid to rest there as well.
Ally hugs her son and Kai in turn hugs them both because his family has finally come together. Little does he know that the woman he helped drive mad is now the one in control.
Only two episodes left this season as ‘American Horror Story: Cult’ returns next Tuesday night at 10pm ET on FX.
