This post contains spoilers for the ninth instalment ofAmerican Horror Story : Roanoke .
OnAmerican Horror Story , the definition of " dead " is … unaffixed . A haunted homeowner can have his neck opening slit and reappear freshly - faced and ethereal a few episodes later . A nanny can slam into a wall with deadly force only to resurface possessed by demonic forces . Or takeRoanoke , where characters go missing in the cannibal hillbilly woods and swing by like it ’s no openhanded thing ; where an enchanted murderer can take a few stab to the chest and pop up in the final 10 minutes to stalk her quarry ; an actress , cleavered in the shoulder , can decrease 15 feet to the earth , mount up a 400 - year - honest-to-goodness ladder , and reenter the fray . They can also all die again , dreadfully . This the Ryan Murphy means – and it ’s devilish merriment .
As we ’ve come to require from seasons past , the penultimate instalment ofRoanokeplayed like a finis , with twist and turn and several railyard of spilling small intestines . Afterrewiring itself in the sixth episodeas theBig Brother - like world seriesReturn to Roanoke , a sequel series to the reenactedMy Roanoke Nightmare , Murphy set a burning interrogative in motion : what we were about to see was " found footage , " recovered from a meltdown scenario on set where only one person survived . Who would stick it out until the terminal ? We ’d watch Evan Peters ' budding A - lister plough Rory Monahan , Cheyenne Jackson ’s TV manufacturer Sidney , André Holland ’s horny enchantress - lover Matt , Lily Rabe ’s struggling wife Shelby , Kathy Bates ' cark thespian Agnes , and Cuba Gooding Jr. ’s Hollywood genius Dominic all bleed out before we ’d have room to gauge .
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Three remained going into " Chapter 9":Angela Basset ’s Monet , Sarah Paulson ’s Audrey , and Adina Porter ’s Lee . So , understandably , it was time for Murphy to add more characters and pile on the phony - outs .
Could the " lone survivor " be Dylan , theMy Roanoke Nightmarereenactor played by Wes Bentley , who served two tours in Afghanistan and apparently Ubered his way to the Roanoke house ? No . Not even cheeseparing – the Polks did him in , then the Butcher did him in a second time . But he did provide a spatter of mirth in a rather bleak sequence .
Then there was the long - awaited appearance by show alum Taisa Farmiga , as Sophie , a placeholder of every acute - eyed fan dig for clues and posting to theAHSsubreddit . Along with her destined - to - be - slaughtered cohort Todd and Milo ( Jacob Artist and Jon Bass ) , Sophie rummaged through the wild plant ofMy Roanoke Nightmarelooking for homicidal evidence to feed her Instagram following . She cause it – while we all think one of the remainingReturn to Roanokecast members would die at the manus of the Butcher , the three kids became the targets , strike down in to the serial publication like goats into a velociraptor pen . They never stand a fortune ( but their iCloud livestream tipped off the cops – thanks , millennials ! ) .
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Last workweek , we ( and many other Sophie - likeAmerican Horror Storyviewers ) predicted Lee would be the holdout among the group , the only character with enough of a story spark to deserve a payoff in the finish . Murphy was one step onward of us , turn her character into a dangle pendulum of bushed / not dead . Her first " demise " come up as Audrey and Monet notice her confessional mag tape . Maybe this is it for Lee . She did kill her married man , after all . The Witchhas other plans . One pig heart later , Lee is a handmaiden of the supernatural , hunting down Sophie and the kids as a ramp - up to her substantial aim .
We see Lee compromised a second time . After hurtle Monet over the rails , Lee turns her attention to Audrey , who stakes her through the chest without hesitation . The beauty of Roanoke ’s retrieve - footage data formatting is that no one go bad ceremonially . In " Chapter 8 , " Dominic break in a close - up shake in and out of frame . The havoc was pixelated enough that you could theorize he was animated . The blurred realness gave us stack of grounds to cogitate Audrey was the survivor . unluckily , she only work it so far . Just as she reaches the Witch ’s basement , Lee bolt of lightning in from behind , slice her arm and pushing her to the floor . We have a victor !
Or not . There ’s always a twist with Murphy , and it comes after we watch over Sophie and Todd staked up the butt and lay on fire . How does a found - footage show cut to a God’s - oculus aspect of the ritualistic killing ? Murphy does n’t hover , but do n’t niggle : Reddit ’s on the case ( groupthink tell it ’s aCovencallback ) .
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Murphy toys with our emotions once more , as cops speed to the scene to find Lee , who does n’t seem hurt or able to recall the case of the prior Nox . Audrey also emerges from the wine cellar – the competition is n’t over yet . Until it is : Audrey snaffle a police officer ’s gas to judge and take out Lee once and for all . The rest of the team take up her down in a barrage of bullets . As Sophie climb poetical onMy Roanoke Nightmare ’s exploration of interracial dynamics in a post - racial humans , there ’s something to be enounce that the white principal role inRoanokedied in a don’t - believe - just - shoot scenario protecting a black char , the inverse of everything we find in real lifetime , but Murphy is n’t about to take out that in the text of his episode . This is a climax , and a brutal one , declare confirmed murderer Lee as the ultimate superior . So what ’s next ?
As forebode , American Horror Story : Asylumcharacter Lana Winters , also played by Sarah Paulson , return to the show next week , interviewing Lee in a alive television event . The prevue for the installment looks , and we have to imagine purposefully , like scenes out of Murphy ’s recentAmerican Crime Story : The People v. O.J. Simpson . Lee ’s on test . The grounds is there . The media ’s all over it . And get it on Murphy , there will be wrench aplenty . Maybe she ’ll even give way for real .
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