The AHS: 1984 Detail Only Coven Fans Saw
American Horror Story: 1984 was the last AHS season before the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning we've had longer than usual to ruminate on the season's details and easter eggs. Creator Ryan Murphy said 1984 would be a standalone series, not related to the greater Murder House through Apocalypse mythos. Fans didn't buy it, noticing connections between the season and its predecessors. Besides the mechanics of haunting remaining constant throughout the AHS-verse, 1984 featured Richard Ramirez, who also popped up in Hotel. Margaret (played by Leslie Grossman) owns Briarcliff Manor, the setting for season 2. And there's one nod to Coven, first spotted by ScreenRant.
Aerobics instructor Xavier doesn't have the background of many camp counselors. Before coming to Camp Redwood, Xavier dabbled in pornography. Although identifying as straight, Xavier did some gay pornography back in the day. One of his films was titled The X Man Cometh, which assiduous Coven fans may recognize as a play on an episode title from season 3.
New Orleans' infamous Axeman
In a season 3 episode of American Horror Story, "The Axeman Cometh," the girls of Miss Robichaux's Academy are menaced by the ghost of the Axeman of New Orleans. Much like Richard Ramirez in 1984, Coven's Axeman is based on a real-life killer. The Axeman of New Orleans terrorized the city in the 1910s, killing victims with — you guessed it — an ax. ("Axe" is also a nickname for a saxophone in the jazz world.) The Axeman mainly targeted immigrants but may have also committed his killings to further the cause of jazz music. "Here it is: I am very fond of jazz music," the Axeman allegedly wrote, "If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it out on that specific Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe."
The Axeman was never caught, and in the world of AHS, it was because the witches at Miss Robichaux's killed him and trapped his ghost in the academy. The Axeman (played by Danny Huston) is let out of his purgatorial prison in the Coven episode "The Axeman Cometh." The title is a spin on a Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh, about the way humanity deludes itself with dreams of grandeur — a fitting commentary on the characters of American Horror Story.