Warning: there are probably some AHS spoilers below. We don’t want to make die-hard fans who haven’t caught up angry, so read with caution.
Fans of American Horror Story already know it’s a twisted world where every season is vaguely intertwined. Ryan Murphy is a fan of throwing in little Easter eggs from past seasons and Roanoke, the series’ sixth installment, is no different.
We love to debate which season is the best. Some old school fans think nothing can ever compare to Murder House, and popular opinion would have you believe that Freak Show is best avoided (though, I’d strong disagree). Regardless of what critics think of the recently-wrapped Roanoke, it’s a landmark season for one simple reason: this is the only season that connected to every single past installment of the horror anthology.
Here’s how each of American Horror Story’s five other seasons connect to Roanoke.
Connection: Lady Gaga’s witch character is Coven’s original supreme.
Seasons involved: Season 3 (Coven)
Lady Gaga, who now holds a Golden Glob for her performance in AHS: Hotel, has a smaller part in this season because of her busy album schedule — but that doesn’t mean her character was any less important.
Gaga played the most powerful character in the entire AHS anthology — the witch of the woods, who has been around for centuries. She is immortal and can bestow immortality onto others. She also collects souls and happens to be the original supreme from AHS’ third season, Coven.
Connection: Lana Winters from Asylum comes out of retirement.
Seasons involved: Season 2 (Asylum)
Lana Winters, the undercover reporter from Asylum, came out of retirement in Roanoke for a big exclusive with Lee Harris. In Roanoke, an aging Winters (played by Sarah Paulson) sits down with Lee, the sole survivor of My Roanoke Nightmare. Lee reveals she knew all the details of who Lana Winters was (remember, she survived the Bloody Face killer).
Those of us who have been following AHS since the beginning know that Lana Winters murdered her son with the Bloody Face killer at the end of season two. Her presence in My Roanoke Nightmare places the timing of Roanoke shortly after Asylum’s finale (sometime during March 2017).
Connection: Dandy Mott from Freak Show is related to someone in Roanoke.
Seasons involved: Season 4 (Freak Show)
Dandy Mott, the creepy serial killer who lives with his mother in Freak Show, has a rich ancestry that dates back to 16th century North Carolina. Edward Mott (played by Evan Peters) is the original builder of the Roanoke mansion and also one of Dandy’s dear, distant relatives. Roanoke reveals that the mansion remained in the Mott family trust until 1952 when Dandy, the last of the Mott bloodline, was murdered in Florida at the end of Freak Show.
Connection: Murder House’s ‘Piggy Man’ legend began in Roanoke
Seasons involved: Season 1 (Murder House)
If you recall Murder House, Ben (Dylan McDermott’s character) was a psychologist. He treated a man named Derrick (played by Eric Stonestreet) who was terrified of an urban legend called Piggy Man. The legend goes that if you say “Here piggy, piggy pig” into a mirror, a pig-masked butcher who murdered people in 1890’s Chicago would reappear.
Roanoke revealed that this legend is actually true, and Piggy Man is related to the cannibalistic Polk family that tortured Shelby and Matt Miller throughout My Roanoke Nightmare. Piggy Man is actually Kincaid Polk, who went from slaughtering pigs to slaughtering people around the time of the Chicago World’s Fair (1893). He was later killed by the Butcher (played by Kathy Bates and Susan Berger in Roanoke) who skewered him over a fire with a pig on his head. Creepy!
Connection: Cricket from Roanoke and Quentin from Coven are either relatives or the same person reincarnated.
Seasons involved: Season 3 (Coven)
Leslie Jordan’s season three character Quentin Flemin has a lot in common with his Roanoke counterpart Cricket Marlow. Cricket, the medium who helped the Millers find Flora Harris, is from New Orleans, the same place Quentin counseled the witches in Coven. Pair that with the fact that they share similar powers, and Leslie Jordan has only appeared in these two seasons of AHS, and you’ve got enough evidence to make any fan believe this is more than just a coincidence.
Connection: Roanoke and Murder House had the similar stories.
Seasons involved: Season 1 (Murder House)
Murder House and Roanoke shared some pretty uncanny parallels. Shelby and Matt’s story was similar to Ben and Vivien’s. The married couples moved into haunted mansions with hopes of starting over. Both decided to move after a tragedy — Matt was assaulted and it landed him the hospital, and Vivien had a miscarriage.
Let’s also not forget that the Roanoke mansion is basically the Murder House. Those serial killer nurses literally scribbled the letters “M-U-R-D-E” on the wall, missing the final “R” before they succumbed to the evils of the house and were murdered themselves.
Connection: The dead cannot leave.
Seasons involved: Season 1 (Murder House), Season 5 (Hotel)
Similar to the Murder House, the Roanoke mansion trapped its dead within property lines. These rules were also featured in season five, where those who died in the Hotel Cortez couldn’t leave.
Connection: Billie Dean from Murder House mentions Roanoke.
Seasons involved: Season 1 (Murder House), Season 5 (Hotel)
Sarah Paulson’s Murder House character, psychic Billie Dean Howard, first told the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke way back in season one. She said:
“It’s difficult to banish a spirit, but not impossible. The most successful attempt I know of happened when America was known as the new world. In 1590, on the coast of what we now know as North Carolina, the entire colony of Roanoke — all 117 men, women, and children — died inexplicably. It became known as the ghost colony because the spirits remained. They haunted the native tribes living in the surrounding areas. Killing indiscriminately. The elder knew he had to act. He cast a banishment curse. First he collected the personal belongings of all the dead colonists. Then they burned them. The ghosts appeared, summoned by their talismans. But before the spirits could cause them any more harm, the elder completed the curse that would banish the ghosts forever. By uttering a single word. The same word found carved on a post at the abandoned colony: ‘Croatoan.'”
Billie Dean also isn’t a stranger to reality TV. She mentioned she was filming a Lifetime series about Murder House and she reappeared in season five, Hotel, to film a piece of that very show.
Ryan Murphy admitted that all of the seasons are connected. While season six is the first to have a connection to every other season, Murphy says that there’s a whole lot more to come.
“The seasons are connected, for sure. You’ll see it this season, and then you’ll really see it after this season,” Murphy told THR. “We lay a lot of pipe, and you’ll see it explode in seasons seven and eight.”
