It has been well established that each season of “American Horror Story” functions as its own separate entity, but now two of those worlds are about to collide.
First it was announced that Naomi Grossman’s Pepper from Season 2’s “Asylum” would reprise her role for “Freak Show” to reveal the character’s origin story. Now, Entertainment Weekly has announced that Lily Rabe will join “Freak Show” as Sister Mary Eunice, also previously in “Asylum,” as part of a storyline that connects to Pepper’s backstory. But wait, how will this make any sense? Let’s break it down for you:
We know that the events of “Freak Show” take place in 1952 in Jupiter, Florida, and “Asylum” starts in 1964 at Briarcliff Manor in Massachusetts. This gives the show a solid 12 years to build Pepper and Mary Eunice’s backstories. Let’s also remember why Pepper arrived at the mental institution in Season 2: she was convicted of drowning her sister’s baby and cutting his ears off. She denied these claims in “Asylum” though, saying that her sister’s husband was the murderer and he blamed her. “AHS” fans will also remember that Sister Mary was (spoiler alert) possessed by the devil later in Season 2. So when we meet Rabe in “Freak Show,” she’ll still be her sweet, innocent self.
Now while these two characters are the only official connections between “Asylum” and “Freak Show” so far, there have been a few other small things linking the two seasons. In Wednesday’s episode, “Edward Mordrake (Part 2)” Jessica Lange’s Elsa Mars mentions that she has a dream of owning her own night club. If we’ll remember, Lange’s Sister Jude in “Aslyum” was a night club singer before she arrived at Briarcliff. As Vulture pointed out in its unifying “AHS” theory, Sister Jude (spoiler alert) killed a young girl while drunk driving in 1949. This happened before the events of “Freak Show,” so could there possibly be a connection to Sister Jude and Elsa Mars?
There are also fan theories brewing on Reddit about Season 5 already, and many are predicting that it will be about aliens and/or Area 51. If this turns out to be true, then maybe “Freak Show” will connect with the aliens introduced in “Asylum,” leading into to the fifth season.
But then again, most of this is pure speculation. What we do know for sure: Pepper always wants someone to play with her.
For more, head to Entertainment Weekly.
“American Horror Story: Freak Show” airs on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX.
