AHS: NYC Fans Can't Stop Comparing Whitley's Sentinel To Frankenstein's Monster
On the upcoming finale of "American Horror Story: New York City," things are shifting from the horrific straight into the surreal. Big Daddy's increasingly erratic and inexplicable behavior has fans leaning harder than ever into the theory that he is non-corporeal. On Fire Island, we've crossed over into another plane of existence in order to say goodbye to a major character. Oh, yeah, and Whitely is trying to make a flesh golem out of his victims (whom he murdered in cold blood) in order to (somehow) altruistically protect the gay community.
Apparently, there's not a lot of overlap between the D&D crowd and "American Horror Story" fans, so most viewers on social media have been referring to this flesh golem as a type of Frankenstein's monster. People on Twitter are spamming his nickname all over the place, and Reddit is on fire with people discussing Whitely's creation. So let's take a look at what people are actually saying, and what it could mean for the overarching themes of this season.
The literary significance of the Frankenstein metaphor seems to be lost on most fans
Some of the most amusing Twitter comments have come from fans who have been watching the exact same show, yet expecting different outcomes. The jaded sometimes-writer @krodatem ho-hummed that "Yeah, I kind of figured this would go to a Frankenstein's monster sort of place." @HypnoticSmile_, on the other hand, expressed utter disbelief at the revelation. When a fellow fan questioned his incredulity and pointed out that they did it in "American Horror Story: Coven," his succinct and arguably logical reply was that "they're witches so it was more acceptable lol But this...idk this is on a whole new level of dark to have a 'normal' human being doing it."
On Reddit, fans are trying to resolve their discomfort with humor. /u/armoirschmamoir is concerned "that they're going to 'find' a way to animate gay Jesus into gay Frankenstein Jesus. God it would be so stupid I'm cringing into a dot thinking about it." And on this live discussion Reddit thread, the top comment with the most points is /u/then-there-were-none doing his best Mr. Whitely impression: "THIS IS MY GAY PRIDE ZOMBIE AND Y'ALL GONNA LOVE IT!"
But when you get past the jokes, confusion, and cynicism expressed by fans since the episode aired, you discover that a lot of viewers have missed the literary significance of this particular plot element. For anyone who wasn't forced to read "Frankenstein" in high school, it's a story about a reanimated corpse who tries to fit in with society — and gets shunned at every turn. Given Whitely's struggles as both a gay man and a traumatized war veteran, this seems to be a multi-layered metaphor for both his personal struggles and those of the queer community.