Every American Horror Story fan is aware that, although each season is a new and unique storyline, they all tie together. There is a grander storyline that encapsulates the storylines and characters in each of the seasons, even if they are all very different.
Even now, 11 seasons into the series, it isn’t completely clear just what that greater storyline is. There is still a lot of ambiguity about what the point of all of these different stories being sewed together is, and our only real hints at figuring it out are hidden within the seasons.
Sometimes these hints come in the form of recurring characters, when familiar characters from past seasons show up in a different season, and create a clear connection between the two worlds. Sometimes the hints are a familiar location that we’ve seen before in a different season. Lastly, sometimes the hints are even more subtle, coming in the forms of objects, dialogue, or names. No matter what form they come in, these hints can sometimes be easy to overlook, but they are important to appreciating the greater story of American Horror Story.
From its beginning, AHS stood out as a unique series with its anthology structure, but it took that a step further by weaving all the seasons together. While in the first few seasons, those connections were much harder to identify, they’ve gotten easier to spot as the show goes on. That said, as clever and layered as American Horror Story has proven to be, it can still be difficult to miss things, which requires rewatching or researching.
Season eleven, NYC, having just concluded, has viewers eager for more information. It mostly followed the story of a mysterious plague and a masked killer, called big daddy. However, in classic AHS fashion, it incorporates several true-life stories, folklore, movie references, and pop culture references to draw inspiration from. In this season, that included a nod to A Christmas Carol and plenty of 80s references. Though the impactful season left fans with some questions, it also seems to have offered up some clues.
In particular, this season featured several easter eggs that highlighted the connections between seasons. Every season somehow reflects the shows connecting themes about the darkness among humanity and in the case of NYC, this is seen through the government’s mistreatment of the LGBTQ+ community and the multiple effects it has. Beyond just reflecting the theme in a memorable storyline, the season nods to other seasons and the greater storyline in more than one form.
For one, we get a nod to AHS Asylum through the mention of the government experimenting on gay patients, which was certainly a point in Asylum. We also see a connection to Asylum and Double Feature’s alien storyline through Hannah’s dream about giving birth to a baby with tentacles. Also like Double Feature, but focused on its vampire storyline, is the emphasis on blood in NYC.
Looking at these points, it’s clear to see that NYC veers the storyline back toward the government’s role in the evil among humanity. Asylum, Cult, and Apocalypse all touch on how the government doesn’t always work for the benefit of the people.
In NYC these points in the story often reflect conspiracy theories about the government at the time, but they actually fit quite appropriately, considering that they’re kind of like the horror stories of a nation. This focus on the government coming up so many times can’t be an accident. Along with its frequency, Apocalypse, which seems to be the storyline that’s set the farthest in the future, suggests that the government plays a role in the downfall of humanity.
We also see the appearance of a familiar face in the tarot card reading that Gino gets, as well as a few quick images in other scenes. This familiar character is the angel of death from Asylum. In Asylum, we learned that the angel of death would be conscious of those who were dying but would only kiss them, and thus take them to the other side, if they were ready. In this season, she is clearly used to foreshadow the fate of those with the virus, though not all of them must face her immediately. The constant use of her character explores humanity’s relationship with death and how that plays into how people behave in life.
Of course, there are other little connecting details that simply serve as familiar surprises within the season. There are also several questions that the season opened but didn’t answer that will probably be fulfilled in later seasons, already revealing what this season’s relevance could be in the future. Based on what AHS NYC focused on as its own storyline, along with the elements of other seasons it combined, it’s evident that the greater story will likely involve death and a corrupt government in some way. The only way to know for sure though, is to keep watching and hunting for clues as the series goes on.