The Ending Of American Horror Story: Delicate Part 1 Explained
An over-the-top horror fantasia with an ever-widening world of lore, "American Horror Story" is still spinning its deliciously moreish yarns 12 seasons in with "American Horror Story: Delicate." Over the course of its run, the series has painted with a colorful palette of horror subgenres, splashing in shades of body horror, psychological horror, supernatural terror, slashers, and even true crime. The "AHS" world is a strange and twisted landscape populated with vibrant, flawed — and often fashionable figures — and just about every type of monster American folklore can dream up.
To this world of ghosts, aliens, and creativity vampires, "Delicate" offers a new, equally campy addition: a demonic spider-baby cult populated by power-hungry women. Adapted from Danielle Valentine's 2023 horror novel "Delicate Condition," "Delicate" feels like the Murphyverse retelling of "Rosemary's Baby," particularly with its themes of paranoia, gaslighting, and an expectant mother's desperation to maintain bodily autonomy.
After a short five episodes exploring the hellscape of Anna's pregnancy journey, the first half of "Delicate" is a wrap. While we'll have to wait until 2024 to find out whether Kim K and her spider cult triumphs, that just gives us more time to chase fan theories down rabbit holes. Follow Anna's lead — grab a pint of Ben & Jerry's as we take a scoop out of "AHS: Delicate" Part 1.
What you need to remember about the plot of AHS: Delicate so far
Unlike past "AHS" stories that follow several points of view, "Delicate" is told almost entirely from the perspective of rising star Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts). Like many American women, Anna has postponed her dreams of motherhood to focus on her career, and now that she's ready, both goals seem at odds with each other. After years of plugging away on a low-budget CW network series, Anna's recent role in the indie horror flick "The Auteur" proved an unexpected breakout success. This puts her on the path to an Oscar just as she's beginning her third round of fertility treatment.
Although it would seem like Anna is finally in control of her own life and body, her publicist and best friend Siobhan (Kim Kardashian) keeps pushing sketchy vitamin shots at her, while Anna's husband (Matt Czuchry) and fertility doctor (Denis O'Hare) continue to talk across her. Even her own body seems at odds with her mind as Anna grapples with lost time, apparent hallucinations, and debilitating versions of the usual pregnancy symptoms like nausea and pain.
Despite a distressing miscarriage of one of her embryos and Anna's belief that a stalker is trying to stop her pregnancy, her Oscar run and gestation race ahead. By the time she's in her second trimester, the slew of psychological horrors plaguing Anna includes visions of a Satanic coven in the basement, cravings for raccoon carrion, and worst of all, the passive-aggressive gratitude of her Gen Z Oscar competition.
What happened at the end of AHS: Delicate Part 1
Every time Anna turns around, she's caught up in a quiet power struggle with her husband Dex, her doctor, or Siobhan, each of whom seems intent on Anna passively accepting that they know what's best for her. Anna's growing sense that some unseen force is out to harm her or her baby is amplified by her realization that an artist Dex works with looks just like his ex-wife. It's a fact that others — even Dex and the artist — acknowledge but seem largely unbothered by.
To undo the damage of Anna vomiting at the Gotham Awards ceremony, Siobhan brings in crisis PR managers, collectively known as the Ashleys (Leslie Grossman and Billie Lourd). Unknown to Anna, they're part of the centuries-old cult that gave Queen Mary I a prosperous reign in exchange for birthing a monstrous child. We learn Siobhan engineered the success of "The Auteur" and is involved in a quid pro quo affair with its director, Hamish (Dominic Burgess), adding to the sense that history is repeating itself.
As Dex's mom (Debra Monk) sets out to sue his dad for Satanic ritual abuse unearthed via hypnosis, Ms. Preecher (Julie White) approaches her to reveal she believes that's what is happening to Dex and Anna. Anna's frustrations mount after confronting Dex for not believing her and realizing Siobhan is representing her Oscar competition, Babette (Taylor Richardson). But hours after Siobhan calls to ask if Anna wants an Oscar as much as a baby, Babette dies horrifically, apparently solidifying a Faustian deal Anna doesn't seem to understand she made.
What the end of AHS: Delicate Part 1 means
"AHS: Delicate" doesn't bring the heavy-handed schlock of the campy, pill-popping vampire writers' club of "AHS: Red Tide" or the purple-clad, gelatin-cubed apocalyptic hellscape of "AHS: Apocalypse." But like the roadkill-eating rage monster seething under Anna's calm exterior, there's still plenty of cartoonishly glam horror to dig into beneath the serenity of Talia's (Juliana Canfield) Hamptons estate in "Delicate." For Anna, there's something strange, ominous, and straight out of Fashion Week lurking around every corner: From the glittering green heels underneath a bathroom stall to the warnings in high-end red lipstick stating, "Don't do it Anna."
By the mid-season finale, it feels hard to tell who is actually trying to help or harm her, but it's not a puzzle we're meant to solve at this point. Like Anna, we're left wondering who we can trust. Dex doesn't seem to be a very supportive husband, but his conversations with his mom seem to suggest he is just a standard, well-intentioned — but nonetheless insensitive — man.
Although it's true that Dex doesn't believe Anna about her stalker, even Anna doesn't seem to fully trust her own mind between all of the moving dolls and morphing photo images. It's a reminder that in a world where gaslighting is the norm, reality seems in flux and no one can ever be fully trusted. It's a theme that will resonate with anyone who may be or has been pregnant.
What is going on with Dex's first wife
"AHS" has always played around with body doubles and duality. After all, it's a series where actors like Denis O'Hare can appear in one role after another. Even if characters in the universe don't seem to recognize doppelgängers when they see them, it's hard to escape the multiverse implications of the storytelling. With the characters of Adeline and Sonia (both played by Annabelle Dexter-Jones), it's almost as if "Delicate" is finally saying what the audience has been thinking by giving us two nearly identical characters.
Shown through photos, Adeline is Dex's late wife, a woman he loved dearly who died in a fire. Although Anna apparently never met Adeline, she seems to be the only person who voices any kind of real concern about Sonia's resemblance to Adeline. But it's not that others can't see it — both Talia and Sonia acknowledge the likeness. And when Nicolette (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) lays eyes on Sonia, her expression seems cold or even unnerved. But to Nicolette, Sonia doesn't look like Adeline but another friend she once knew. But then, it's possible that Nicolette knows more than she is letting on, particularly as it's very likely the house manager is the one who keeps placing the photograph of Adeline in the kitchen drawer of the Hamptons home.
While Anna seems — at least at first — to suspect Sonia is somehow Adeline rebranded, it's possible that there are more than two Adeline doubles. Some fans have even speculated that Sonia is Adeline's spirit returning to help Anna.
Ms. Preecher might not be a villain
Equally difficult to discern are the motives of Ms. Preecher, the enigmatic figure Anna first meets on the threshold of the fertility clinic. Upon meeting Anna, Ms. Preecher immediately recognizes her, telling Anna, "I know you." But when Anna thanks her for watching, Preecher seems briefly confused before snapping a picture of Anna leaving the clinic.
What felt like an unsettling but harmless encounter takes on a darker hue when Anna realizes she's being stalked. Anna's sense that something sinister is afoot escalates when she believes she sees Preecher in the audience at her talk show appearance and during her embryo transfer procedure. Despite Cora (Tavi Gevinson) brushing the woman off as a harmless "old bag" who "thinks IVF is murder and drops off crazy pamphlets every week," Ms. Preecher's internet presence suggests she's trolling Anna.
While it's easy to see why Anna would fear her, a closer look at Preecher's social media page suggests she might actually be looking out for Anna. The first post Anna sees by @preecher_spe@ks simply warns, "Watch out, Anna." Preecher's Reddit page includes a post about the "sinister truths behind Celtic rituals," a "new breed of super-humans bred on the Black Market," a "secret cabal of witches," and the truth behind Queen Mary I. As it's later revealed, Preecher was victimized by the same cult that took Mary's child, so she may be one of the good guys after all.
What the Ashleys are really up to
After three episodes of lurking around ominously in the background, the black-cloaked figures with feathered ears finally get some context in "Vanishing Twin" (Season 12, Episode 4). The episode opens in 1555 as Queen Mary Tudor (Sophie von Haselberg) has just given birth to a talon-handed infant. Moments later, two figures (Billie Lourd and Leslie Grossman) arrive clad in owl-like cloaks to take the child they say they "waited over 6,000 years to be born." Restating the terms of their Faustian deal, the pair reminds Mary she was promised a fruitful reign as payment for her child.
We see the terrifying power of the duo when one phrase leaves Mary's sister Elizabeth I (Erin Murray) barren, and she writhes in pain as they teleport away. They also seem to be immortal when they show up in the 21st century as the Ashleys, and it seems likely that Siobhan is one of them — a conclusion further supported by the trio's mutual love for dressing in black.
While they seem to be part of a coven, the Ashleys' motivations are much less clear than the Robichaux witches in "AHS: Coven." Some Redditors are even convinced that they're part of a rogue coven attempting to bring back the Antichrist (again). As u/thepeoplessgt observed, the only truly immortal witch we've met so far is Scathach, who bargained with the old gods for immortality when she massacred the Roanoke colony. A Satanic verse scrawled in Latin in the basement room suggests the group we meet in "AHS: Delicate" may even be a Satanic witch coven.
How Dex's mom is connected
Dex seems to be dismissive of just about everything the women in his life have to say. After nearly five full episodes of quietly placating Anna, he finally admits that he hasn't believed her claims about a stalker all along, even suggesting she made the entire thing up. But despite apparently believing she is delusional, Dex has been more concerned with calming her down than getting her mental health support. When his friend and colleague Talia starts talking about Adeline at dinner, Dex's frustration comes across as support for Anna. But in light of his treatment of other women throughout the series, it makes just as much sense in retrospect that he simply finds her sensitivity grating.
The same is true for Dex's mom Virginia, who initially sounds hyperbolic or even hysterical with her claims of Satanic ritual abuse. But the more we see what Anna and Preecher endured, the more apparent it becomes that Dex is the one who refuses to accept the reality in front of him — that everything his wife is describing lines up perfectly with his own mother's claims. Although Dex's dad isn't in the picture in "Delicate" Part 1, Virginia's dialogue reveals that he is wealthy and willing to shell out for his son. As Dex hardly seems like the Antichrist type and genuinely seems to have no knowledge of Anna's abuse, it's hard to know exactly what happened to Virginia. But she certainly seems connected to everything.
What the cast and crew has said about the ending of AHS: Delicate Part 1
While the cast of "AHS: Delicate" hasn't piped up with any potential spoilers or fan theories, they have had a few things to say about one performance in particular. "American Horror Story" has put out its share of controversial seasons, from Season 11's heavier subject matter to the inclusion of the Anne Frank story in "Asylum." But Ryan Murphy's decision to cast Kim Kardashian ranks among the show's most divisive moments. Stunt casting is nothing new to the series, and performances from the likes of Trixie Mattel ("Roanoke"), Patti Lupone ("NYC"), and Lady Gaga ("Hotel" and "Roanoke") have fit well into the "AHS" universe. But some fans felt casting reality queen Kim Kardashian as a main cast member in "Delicate" was a bridge too far. However, one person who had her back was veteran "AHS" star Zachary Quinto, who has appeared in several seasons of the series so far including a cameo in "Delicate."
Speaking to People, Quinto was positive about Kardashian, saying, "She seemed really in her element, and I was really impressed by her spirit and her openness." It's a sentiment backed up by Murphy in The Hollywood Reporter as he praised Kardashian's casting in the "a fun, stylish and ultimately terrifying role" written with her in mind while calling the season "ambitious and unlike anything we have ever done."
How AHS: Delicate ties into the franchise
For long-standing fans of the "American Horror Story" universe, it's always fun to see if and when the stories will be woven together. Sometimes, the connection can be as minor as a character floating from one storyline into another like Pepper's appearance in both "Asylum" and "Freak Show." And very occasionally, they delight fans by bringing several storylines together as "Apocalypse" does with "Hotel," "Coven," and "Murder House." Witchcraft is central to the wider "AHS" universe, so the appearance of familiar elements like a coven and Satanic rituals in "Delicate" is enough to have fans hoping they'll see some of their favorite witches before long. No matter where the story goes, now that we know there's magic involved, there's almost invariably a connection to "Coven."
We last saw the witches of Miss Robichaux's Academy in their reset timeline after an epic Antichrist showdown ("Apocalypse"). Essential to defeating him were sleeper agents Mallory and Coco, played by Billie Lourd and Leslie Grossman. The fact that they're paired up again as the Ashleys could mean another "Coven" connection, with some fans even speculating they're Mallory and Coco working undercover.
Integral to this theory is the belief that Anna is Madison with an altered memory — something we know is possible in "AHS" thanks to "Apocalypse." U/Equivalent-Nature-92 observed, "Child actress? Check. Resurrected? Check. she's probably THE SUPREME ... So what better womb for this baby everyone is obsessed over?" And as u/Winter-Shame-8071 added, "Yep. It's Mallory and Coco time hopping hunting down the antichrist."
Where things are headed in AHS: Delicate Part 2
By the end of the "AHS" midseason finale, we're left with far more questions than answers — which means there's a lot to look forward to when the series resumes in 2024. No one sums it up better than Anna, who bemoans her frustration to Dex in Episode 3. "I don't know how it works. I just know they're up to something," she tells Dex as he looks on with a condescending half-smile.
While the season is based on the Danielle Valentine book, fans who have read it have been quick to point out how much the series diverges from its source material, which means it's probably not a good place to look for clues. One of the most pressing questions the series will need to answer when it returns is exactly who has Anna's best interest in mind and who is working against her. There's even the possibility that no one is purely good and instead, Anna is mixed up in an ages-old power struggle between ancient warring factions. If the series takes much from the book, there's a good chance that some of the folks who seem to be working against her could actually be her allies.