American Horror Story: Cult Starts Living Up to Its Name in ’11/9′

Alright. I have to admit that after Episode 3 I was really starting to feel like this season was going to be a let down. Up to this point, we had no information on who all was in the cult, which is fine, but because of that, we also weren’t seeing how Kai (Evan Peters) was recruiting all of these people. Which was a big deal to me. If you’re going to tell me this season is about a cult, then I need to actually see the cult. Hell, the only reason I know the clowns are part of the cult is because this season is titled “Cult.”

Honestly, if it was just called American Horror Story I would have had NO clue this was going to be about a cult. That changes in this episode though. We actually get to see how Kai gets to Harrison and Meadow, we also find out that Beverly Hope (Adina Porter), the news reporter is in with Kai too! But only after her sends his clowns to brutally murder her competition for her. Emma Roberts was not long for this series, I guess.

That being said, episode 4, “11/9”, FINALLY gave me some of the answers I have been seeking…along with bringing about a whole lot more in classic AHS fashion. We get to see how everyone voted, which is pretty cool I guess, but we kind of already knew how everyone voted except Dr. Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson), Harrison (Billie Eichner), and Meadow (Leslie Grossman). The latter whom wrote in her own vote for Oprah Winfrey. But we knew Winter (Billie Lourd) and Ivy (Alison Pill) voted for Hillary, that Ally (Sarah Paulson) “protest” voted for Jill Stein, and that Kai voted for Trump.

But Kai doesn’t actually even like or support Trump, I’m starting to feel. Kai has said some really ignorant and racist things, but I don’t think he’s actually racist. I don’t even think he’s a Republican or even a liberal, he’s in the Chaos party. He wants to turn the world into utter chaos so he can bring a new world to rise from the ashes. Which you think would be really stupid and unbelievable, but we here in the USA just elected Donald Trump as President, so I can absolutely see how Kai’s manipulation could work out for him in the end.

Speaking of, we not only get to hear Kai’s end goal and how he intends his master plan to work (which is honestly totally possible given the state of the US) by running for City Council (killed Tim Chang as we saw in Episode 1), then Mayor, then Senate, and you get the idea. He really thought this out. But on top of that we also learn his back story in a short-sweet-and-to-the-point fashion. We don’t need a whole episode to explain his upbringing, but I’m glad they gave us some reference that didn’t take away from moving the plot along. I hate when shows take AN ENTIRE EPISODE just to tell someone’s back story and then nothing actually happens in the present.

The most mind-blowing part of this episode though is that Ivy and Winter met before they hired Winter as Oz’s nanny. But wait. It didn’t seem like Winter and Ivy knew each other at all during her interview and initial hire? Something is up with Ivy. I’m pretty sure she’s either in the cult, or on her way in already. When she and Winter are having lunch and Winter compliments her restaurant, calling it “incredible” to which Ivy scoffs and replies “My wife would disagree.” So, I’m thinking Ivy and Ally were having problems even before the election and the crazy clowns. At least, Ivy was having problems with Ally.

From what I can tell, Ivy has put up with a lot of shit from Ally and has helped her through a lot too, all while working her ass off to run her own restaurant which has been her dream. I don’t think she’s directly said how important the restaurant is to her, but you can tell. On the other hand, we never hear about Ally doing anything to support Ivy. She isn’t even the one who carried and delivered Oz. What exactly has Ally brought to this relationship? I could be being harsh, but I am not a fan of Ally. While I don’t agree with tormenting her with clowns, I do think she deserves some kind of reprimand for being so shitty to Ivy. That being said, if Ivy is partly responsible for the clowns, why is she horribly psychologically damaging her son as well? Like, Oz is old enough that he is going to remember this shit. He’s going to need years of therapy to get past it, especially the brutal murder of his poor guinea pig (RIP Mr. Guinea).

I hope that the remainder of the season will follow this episode in a continual upswing.

OVERALL SCORE: 8.5/10