Tyler Evains
Arts Editor
Most liberals would agree that Donald Trump’s election was a true American horror story. In the suspenseful, thrilling TV series’ seventh season, “American Horror Story: Cult,” the advantages of fear are explored through one of the nation’s biggest mistakes: electing Trump as president.
The season shows the extremity of the havoc that could take place within the next four years due to the authoritarian nature of his presidency.
Cult leader Kai did everything in his power to make sure Trump was elected.
In the first episode, main character Ivy was assaulted at a Trump rally by a man, played by Chaz Bono, who took his saying “grab her right in the p***y” to the streets.
Winter, who is later revealed as Kai’s sister, stood up for Ivy and helped her kidnap him to prevent him from voting.
In the second episode, Kai found the man in his basement and convinced him to saw off his own arm to free him from the chains, then took him to the poll to cast his vote.
When the nation tuned red, Kai knew the road to his position of world power would be that much easier.
Ivy later joined Kai’s cult, infuriated and overwhelmed by Hillary Clinton’s loss and running her butchery, she was in search for someone to guide her for a change.
Kai ran for a seat on the city council as his first step in overtaking the world, taking out every candidate in his way.
After Kai was elected as councilman, he used his platform to create a dominating team whose efforts would only benefit Kai in the end.
He drew people into his murderous group one by one, making them believe he understood their struggle, truly cared and would help them. He promised that they each had a place in the “bigger picture,” in which he really only saw himself.
Kai’s ploy was leading the group to stick together and letting their drive be dependent on working with each other towards a common goal, while he makes them kill each other off to build a ladder for his own gain.
He used what he knew about people to manipulate them, pinky promising their need and trust because of how he seemed to connect with their stories.
He then incorporated them into his killing spree, a method of making it to the top by just eliminating all competition.
Beverly discovered his true intentions when a woman after tells her the story of an anti-male group started by the murder of artist Andy Warhol in the late 1960s. Beverly realized that Kai did not have the members’ best interests in mind- especially the women’s.
The extreme feminist leader set out to kill every man alive, and used Warhol to signal her followers to continue the killing spree while she was imprisoned.
Kai manipulated a member, Meadow, into shooting him and killing herself for their love, but he stayed alive and used it as a publicity stunt at his last campaign rally.
Even after he almost buried her alive, Meadow’s loyalty to Kai was unconditional.
In episode eight, Winter, tried to assure Beverly and Ivy that Kai did have good intentions and had just lost his way.
“The biggest mistake I ever made was believing in you,” Beverly said with the discontent Kai’s betrayal of his equal partnership promise. Winter said that he just wanted to save people, but his motives rewired after he found his pastor’s house set with death traps reminiscent of the horror film series “Saw,” saved the few still alive and killed the pastor, shooting spikes through his back using his own murder machine.
Kai deflected his true motives by telling stories of other cults leaders like Jim Jones, who convinced his followers to commit mass suicide, a common tactic he would not use until episode nine, “Drink the Kool-Aid,” when he ladled the blood red sugar water into Dixie cups for the members.
He had the true charisma of a leader, as people thought they joined for themselves, but they subconsciously put their lives in Kai’s hands.
“This isn’t suicide, it’s a revolutionary act,” Kai said. “The world will be talking about us forever.”
One minion refused to drink, and was shot and killed. The others drank on command, some with excitement, others choking with agony. He then revealed that the Kool-Aid was not poisoned.
“Why would I kill us?” Kai said. “I’m running for senator and dead people can’t vote.”
Their loyalty to Kai may have blinded them from the fact that they would be useless to him after he reached his position of ultimate power.
“Cult” captured the radical fear that followed Trump’s election. In the works before the presidency became reality, “Cult” foreshadows the potential dysfunctionality of the next four years through power and patriarchy.
Tyler Evains can be reached at tyler.evains@laverne.edu.
