‘American Horror Story: Cult’ Premiere Recap: The Good, The Bad, And The Weird

American Horror Story: Cult premiered on FX on Tuesday night, and fans showed up in full force to watch the Season 7 premiere. While there were some mixed reviews, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about the first episode, titled “Election Night.”

American Horror Story: Cult opened with scenes of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton announcing their presidential runs. Later, the scenes of the two candidates faded away and we see two very different households on election night. The first is a blue haired, eccentric man sitting on his couch watching the election results, the second a woman gathered with her family and friends doing the same. However, these two characters couldn’t be more different.

The blue haired man, whom we later find out is Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) is elated when it’s announced that Donald Trump has won the presidency. Kai gets a little over-excited while pelvic thrusting at the television, and couldn’t be happier about the businessman, turned reality TV star, becoming the nation’s next commander in chief.

However, at the second house, a shock wave breaks out over the small group as Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson) breaks down into tears. As she sobs on her living room floor, the group talk about how they can’t believe Trump has been elected. It’s an interesting first scene to say the least, and the best of the episode.

Later, it’s revealed to American Horror Story viewers that Ally has a lot of emotional issues. She’s dealing with a ton of phobias, including a fear of clowns, blood, tight spaces, holes and patterns, and more. Paulson plays the mentally ill character beautifully as always, but there seemed to be something missing. Most of the episode consisted of Ally freaking out over one of her irrational fears, while her wife, Ivy (Alison Pill), comforted her.

When Ally heads into the grocery store to do a little late night shopping she is attacked by a group of sexual deviant clowns, but was she really? It seems she’s imagining things, but later Ally and Ivy’s son, Ozzy, sees the same group of clowns attack their neighbors, killing them both. Oh, and did we forget to mention that Ozzy’s new nanny happens to be Kai’s sister, Winter, played by Billie Lourde?

Meanwhile, American Horror Story viewers get to know Kai a bit better as well. Kai is an extremist, who is thrilled with Trump’s win, and can’t wait to start making America great again. He immediately jumps into action, even heading to a city council meeting, where he speaks out about why the government and law enforcement should pull back and let people deal with the world’s issues on their own terms. Kai is ultimately rejected and humiliated at the meeting by the president (Who happens to be Ally’s neighbor and friend that’s later killed by the clowns), but doesn’t let that stop him.

Following his muddled speech, Kai heads out to the streets, where he has a run-in with Ally and Ivy, and later fills a condom with his own urine like a water balloon and tosses it into a group of latinos, who later attack him and beat him up for his vulgar gesture and cruel words as someone in the shadows video tapes the incident.

So, there you have it, the very strange, at times confusing, politically charged American Horror Story: Cult premiere had people talking, but fell a bit short of the hype. Don’t get us wrong, we’ll definitely be tuning in next week with high hopes that the story will unfold in new and terrifying ways, and of course to watch the stellar acting of Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson.

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