American Horror Story launched its 13th season Thursday with a three-part premiere, opening the door to an ambitious crossover of the FX anthology’s past storylines and characters.
Rather than functioning only as another chapter in the worlds of Coven and Apocalypse, AHS: 13 is embracing a broader multiverse. The season brings together familiar faces from seemingly every previous installment of the series, drawing ghosts, witches, drug addicts and Satanists from across Ryan Murphy’s universe into the same story. Sarah Paulson alone is playing characters from across that supernatural and sinister spectrum.
The first episode begins building that sprawling collision through two very different storylines: an ill-fated birthday trip centered on the number 13 and a warning of impending doom at Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.
A Birthday Celebration Takes a Terrifying Turn
One side of the premiere introduces Ben, played by Joey Pollari, a well-mannered hospice worker with triskaidekaphobia — a fear of the number 13.
That phobia makes his relationship with Kira particularly complicated. Played by Madelaine Petsch, Kira is a Swiftie whose enthusiasm for 13 dominates her personality. Despite his misgivings, Ben agrees to join his girlfriend and her 13 best friends for a birthday excursion built around the very number he fears.
His concerns quickly prove justified. The celebration turns disastrous when their plane begins going down, establishing the episode’s first major deadly threat.
The crash also appears to connect Ben and Kira’s story to a much darker figure elsewhere in the premiere. At the precise moment the plane crashes, a mysterious old man begins vomiting black liquid. The timing suggests that he may be drawing something from the victims’ deaths, though the episode does not confirm exactly what is happening.
The Witches Sense a New Threat
In New Orleans, the episode returns to Miss Robichaux’s Academy, where young witch Ophelia, played by Avantika, is developing her abilities under Cordelia Goode’s supervision.
Paulson reprises Cordelia, the most powerful living witch and the Supreme familiar to viewers of Coven. Ophelia also receives input from Madison Montgomery, with Emma Roberts making her entrance by delivering Madison’s well-known line: “Surprise, b***h!”
The reunion soon takes an ominous turn. A cold wind moves through the manor as Cordelia experiences a premonition involving a harbinger of doom. Her visions include “death… so much terrifying, vengeful death,” although Madison dismisses the warning as another example of Cordelia being overdramatic.
Cordelia remains convinced that danger is approaching. “Something wicked this way comes,” she warns before the episode shifts to another major returning character.
Constance Langdon Is Back — With a Disturbing New Charge
Jessica Lange returns as Constance Langdon, her character from Murder House. The premiere does not establish exactly where Constance is now, but she appears to have become the caretaker of a mysterious elderly man.
Everything about him signals danger. He has grotesque skin, hands resembling claws and what appears to be a tail trailing behind him. His apparent connection to the plane crash only deepens the mystery surrounding his identity and purpose.
Constance’s appearance links the new season directly to Murder House, while Cordelia and Madison anchor the returning Coven mythology. Ben, Kira and Ophelia, meanwhile, provide the premiere’s new characters and potential entry points into the expanding crossover.
What Happens Next?
The opening episode leaves several central questions unresolved: what Cordelia’s harbinger means, how the plane disaster connects to the witches and who — or what — Constance is caring for.
Most crucially, the sinister old man’s reaction to the crash raises the possibility that the deaths are serving him in some way. With Cordelia already predicting terrifying and vengeful death, the three-part premiere has set its multiverse story in motion by placing several corners of American Horror Story on an apparent collision course.