One of the biggest legacies in horror is American Horror Story, which premiered in 2011 and is still going strong. However, over the years, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have made plenty of changes and tried to tell different kind of stories, which inevitably started to fall short at times and led to a drop in viewership. On the other hand, the newest Season 13 seemed to change that by raising expectations with the announcement of the return of the show’s original cast, almost as a way of celebrating a series that made TV history. And while that sounds great, things are not quite that simple, since the first three episodes were released last week and countless reactions have already started making the rounds online. The problem is that some of them are worth bringing up because they mostly come down to one thing: confusion.
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It’s true that the show has never exactly been interested in explaining all the rules of each new season right from the start. AHS has always been about introducing the story and its mysteries first, then slowly making things clearer as the episodes go on. However, the premise is already out, and it seems like a lot of fans still have absolutely no idea what this season is actually about: Who is Mr. Nas (Fedor Steer)? Why does the number 13 appear practically everywhere? What is Ben’s (Joey Pollari) importance? Is Constance (Jessica Lange) alive? Did the ending of Apocalypse affect the storylines of characters who died in previous seasons? A lot is still unclear, but some things can already be explained.
What Happens in the First 3 Episodes of American Horror Story Season 13
The first episode introduces the problem, the second starts showing there’s a pattern, and the third puts many of these pieces together. In this new season, we meet Ben DeSoto, who reveals that he suffers from triskaidekaphobia (a fear of the number 13), but has a girlfriend who seems to be the complete opposite. During a therapy session, we learn that Kira (Madelaine Petsch) wants to take a birthday trip with 13 friends and insists that Ben come along, even though pretty much everything surrounding the trip involves the number he fears. With a lot of courage, he eventually goes along, and, as you would expect from an AHS season, the trip goes horribly wrong: the plane crashes, almost everyone dies, and Ben is basically left as the only survivor.
Then, after the crash, the character gets a job offer to work as the overnight caretaker of a man named Mr. Nas, who lives on the 13th floor of the Apollyon building. And this is where the mystery really begins, because everything about the weakened patient seems to revolve around that number, on top of the fact that he doesn’t exactly look human: he has horns, a tail, and other features that basically make him look like some kind of demonic creature. And there is still a lot to figure out about him, but so far, what we can say is that Mr. Nas is connected to the deaths — he vomits a black substance after the plane crash, and similar reactions appear after other deaths, such as those caused by Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch). The question is whether he is causing these deaths or somehow receiving something from them.
Then, Constance shows up, who is introduced this season as Mr. Nas’ daytime caretaker, except she knows things that apparently no one else does, and Ben naturally starts getting suspicious. For anyone who doesn’t remember, in Murder House, she was one of the few characters who survived, but in Apocalypse, we saw her choose to go to the Afterlife following the events involving Michael (Cody Fern). So how is she alive? Her death may have been reversed when Mallory (Billie Lourd) went back in time and prevented everything that happened in Season 8, although none of this has been confirmed, as we still don’t know exactly which AHS events were preserved or erased after the timeline reset. That is also why things get more confusing when her children Adelaide (Jamie Brewer) and Tate (Evan Peters) show up alongside Kai Anderson (Peters) and his sister Winter (Lourd), all of whom died in previous seasons.
From a distance, all of this can look like nothing more than a huge piece of fan service in yet another macabre storyline trying to create a crossover between all the seasons fans love the most. But there is actually a lot more going on here, even if it doesn’t seem that way yet. Constance is gathering very specific people for a reason, so there is nothing random about the new story. The thing is that we are watching the season through Ben’s perspective — someone who has absolutely no idea what is going on. But take a closer look, and you’ll realize that AHS Season 13 is about a ritual.
What Exactly Does the New Season Seem to Be About?
“Rauhnacht,” the third episode, not only marks the return of several dead AHS characters in one place, but also suggests that Constance is throwing a very unusual party and plans to gather 13 women. That is when we see Elizabeth Short (Mena Suvari), the Black Dahlia from Murder House. At first, her return seems unexpected, considering she was never as important as some of the other characters, but her inclusion is not random. Why? Because Constance is looking for figures who have some kind of supernatural significance. Her party is connected to the episode’s title, which refers to a period associated with a time when the boundary between the living world and the supernatural becomes weaker. That is why all the familiar characters we have seen so far are dead people crossing that boundary.
But what exactly does Constance want with this group of 13 women? So far, that is one of the biggest mysteries. The season has not explained what she plans to do with them yet. What we do know is that the number 13 is once again at the center of something important, which makes us wonder why it keeps showing up so much. Is it really necessary? Well, it’s not just a symbol or a theme for the season; it seems to be an actual rule of the story.
When the plane crashes, for example, Ben ends up in seat 13F and miraculously survives without a scratch (there is also another survivor in 13B, who was his girlfriend’s friend). So, this number that Ben fears is not actually killing people — it’s selecting them. We then see him arrive at the Apollyon, which seems to be pretty terrifying. And is the building also important? Yes, since its name is connected to destruction in biblical imagery, as it appears in Revelation 9:11. Apollyon is the Greek name for Abaddon, which is Hebrew, and means “The Destroyer,” the angel who rules over the abyss. Could Mr. Nas be this angel?
Well, Constance initially introduces him as being 87 years old, but we see her celebrate with Dr. Phibes (John Waters) after discovering that Mr. Nas’ biomarkers have already advanced his apparent age to 89. Later, she even starts treating him as if he were already 90. On top of that, he physically reacts to each group of 13 deaths, almost as if some kind of transformation is taking place inside him. In other words, it seems that every new group of 13 deaths is making Mr. Nas age further. And there is also the exact location where he lives in the building, which is worth paying attention to: the 13th floor is surrounded by demonic and otherwise significant symbols. And, as we saw in Episode 3, there is Club Hell in the basement of the Apollyon. So, basically, Mr. Nas is at the top of the building, the floors in between could represent the abyss, and the bottom of the building is hell.
In short, so far, the new AHS season has been built around Mr. Nas, the Apollyon, and the number 13 as a way of introducing the show’s new story. Ben ended up in this situation because of the plane crash, but his survival seems to be connected to the same phenomenon causing the other deaths (and this is where the fan theory that he could be the new Antichrist comes in, referring to the baby seen in the Apocalypse finale after Michael’s death). At the same time, Constance is doing something completely different, but everything points to her preparing for a ritual. For what purpose? That is still a mystery. Everything feels confusing at first because, honestly, AHS has always been like that — but there is a logic to it.
What do you think Constance is really planning with the group of 13 women? And what is Mr. Nas becoming? Share your theories in the comments!
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