It’s been a few days since the season finale of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, but even with the apocalypse having been undone and Michael thwarted fans still have a lot of questions about everything went down in the final showdown between good and evil.
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In the finale “Apocalypse Then,” Cordelia’s (Sarah Paulson) plan is laid out. Mallory (Billie Lourd) and Coco (Leslie Grossman) will survive the end of the world thanks to an identity spell and then, when Mallory comes into her full powers, the remnants of the coven will come together to hold off Michael (Cody Fern) so that Mallory can go back in time to kill Michael before he is ever able to come to full power.
The plan works, albeit with some unforeseen complications such as Cordelia having to kill herself and Mallory being stabbed by Brock (Bill Eichner). Mallory goes back to the day Michael killed a priest and was thrown out by Constance (Jessica Lange) and runs him over in the street where he ultimately dies. The day is saved, at least until sometime in the future as a new Antichrist is born to keep Satan’s goals moving forward for another generation.
A new Antichrist? Undoing the events of the entire Apocalypse season? While the season had a satisfying end, there are a few lingering questions that we really would like to know the answers to.
What happens to the ‘Murder House’ Characters?
In the episode “Return to Murder House,” Madison (Emma Roberts) and Behold Chablis (Billy Porter) go back to where it all began to find out more about Michael. In the process, Moira (Frances Conroy) is allowed to move on in the afterlife after her bones are found and buried away from the evil property, Violet (Taissa Farmiga) and Tate (Evan Peters) get something of a happy ending, and Constance presumably doesn’t kill herself. So, what happens to them?
With the spirit characters — Moira, Violet, Tate, and even Vivien (Connie Britton) and Ben (Dylan McDermott — it’s possible that they still get their happy endings. One of the things we saw in the finale was that the spirit world or at least the demonic world are aware of the previous timeline. It’s possible that the spirits weren’t impacted by the timeline being changed.
As for Constance? Well, we doubt she’d want to risk the possibility of ending up anywhere the spirit of Michael is. After all, she did let him die in the street instead of taking him to Murder House. It’s likely Constance ensured the end of her own life would come on the Murder House grounds so that she could be with her children for eternity — far, far, away from Michael.
What about Marie and Dinah?
To stop Michael, Cordelia made a deal with Papa Legba: he could have Dinah (Adina Porter) in exchange for Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett). Now that the timeline’s been altered, what happens to them?
There are two things we can think of to resolve this. The first? Dinah is still alive somewhere trying to get her talk show off the ground and generally being kind of evil while Marie remains in Papa Legba’s voodoo hell. The second? Considering Papa Legba is a spiritual entity, that deal may remain intact with Dinah now in his clutches while Marie’s spirit has moved on elsewhere.
What was the purpose of the Rubber Man’s return?
One of the more shocking moments of Apocalypse was the return of the Rubber Man in “The Morning After.”
In the episode, Michael gets Mr. Gallant (Evan Peters) to open up about his sexuality as well as his resentment and anger towards his grandmother Evie (Joan Collins). He also admits to being attracted to Michael before the interview ends. Later, alone in his room his “personal time” is interrupted by a surprise visitor — the Rubber Man. Moments later, Evie discovers Gallant and the Rubber Man having loud sex.
The encounter doesn’t end well for Gallant. He ends up chained up, interrogated, and even emotionally terrorized by Michael who stirs the pot a bit by revealing his grandmother’s betrayal to him. That also gets worse. The Rubber Man appears to Gallant again later, after Michael’s tear down, driving Gallant to brutally stab the Rubber Man to death. Turns out, though, that it ‘s not Michael in the suit. It’s Evie.
As we discovered in the finale, the survivors in Outpost 3 ended up having very specific purposes — but the ending never explained what Mr. Gallant, Evie, or even the Rubber Man were all about.
How could Timothy and Emily conceive a new Antichrist?
Michael was the child of a living person and a dead one, conceived in a house that just so happened to sit on a portal to hell. The fact that he grew up to be the Antichrist makes sense.
But Timothy and Emily are both alive and presumably they didn’t conceive their son over a portal to hell. How is their son the new Antichrist? The answer to that may have been tucked into the season premiere. Remember, Timothy and Emily both had “perfect” DNA, though it was never clear what was meant by that. It’s possible that there was something in their individual DNA that, when combined created the right circumstances for another son of Satan. After all, the series didn’t say there was only one way to have an Antichrist.
How will get Madison out of hell?
Madison was in hell until Michael retrieved her and it is back to hell she went when he literally crushed her head during during the final showdown. Mallory reveals in her closing voiceover that they will retrieve Madison at some point, but how?
The mechanics of how is actually pretty simple. Demons are happy to carry out favors for Mallory considering how she thwarted Satan. It’s easy to see how a demon would help Mallory out by returning Madison. As for explaining Madison’s return — as well as the fact that Madison will probably remember the previous timeline — that part is a mystery though if the way Misty Day’s (Lily Rabe) return was simply dismissed is any clue it won’t really matter that much at all.
How does ‘Apocalypse’ impact the rest of the ‘American Horror Story’ universe?
Surprisingly? Not much at all. Other than Queenie not going to the Hotel Cortez in Hotel, and the undoing of nearly the entire Apocalypse season, the impact appears to be fairly minimal. The real and most major impacts will come in future seasons — and by that we mean season set chronologically after Apocalypse and the rise of a new Antichrist.
Does this mean Mallory will have to stop the end of the world again?
Mallory was the only witch with the ability to go back into time to stop Michael so does that mean that she will have to stop the new Antichrist in a few years? It’s American Horror Story so anything is possible so we wouldn’t be surprised to see the idea of having to stop a new son of Satan in a future season. Whether it will be Mallory to do it, though — perhaps with Cordelia as her Myrtle — is just one of those things fans will have to wait to see.
