11 Ways The 'American Horror Story' Seasons Are All Connected
By Erin Whitney & Jan Diehm
Posted: 01/27/2015 8:28 am EST Updated: 01/27/2015 10:59 am EST
Season 4 of "American Horror Story" came to a close last week, and beyond ranking the best characters and waiting for Ryan Murphy to announce the Season 5 theme, we've investigated all the connections between the four seasons.
From "Murder House" to "Freak Show," Murphy has slipped in a handful of possible clues -- repeated character names to continual references to cities and states. Murphy already revealed that all four seasons of the series are connected, so we've done the dirty work for you to figure out the many ways that could be possible:
(Major spoiler alert for all four seasons of "American Horror Story.")
Ryan Murphy does not seem like a man to meddle with coincidence or to accidentally reuse surnames. Thus, we can only assume that Dr. Charles Montgomery, the famed "surgeon to the stars" from Season 1, has some connection to Emma Roberts' Madison Montgomery in Season 3. Charles moved to Los Angeles with his wife Nora (Lily Rabe) in 1922 in "Murder House" and we meet Madison in present-day 2013 in "Coven." Could they be relatives?
The state of Massachusetts somehow finds a way to pop up in every season of "AHS." In Season 1, the Harmon family moves to L.A. from Boston (and Ben also visits Boston briefly). Briarcliff Manor in "Asylum" was built in Massachusetts in 1908 as a tuberculosis ward, and then taken over by the Catholic church in 1962. Season 3 flashes back to the Salem witch trials, and Queenie mentions she's a descendant of Tituba. In Season 4, we get a flashback to Elsa working at a Boston circus in 1936, and Pepper also goes to live with her sister Rita in Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1952.
Remember that Los Angeles detective from Season 1 who visited Ben multiple times about his missing patient? Remember his name? It was Det. Jack Colquitt, played by Geoffrey Rivas. If you were paying close attention during "Freak Show," you probably noticed that the detective who investigates Elsa and her "freaks" about the missing police officer (and who throws Jimmy in jail) was also named Det. Jack Colquitt. Although he was played by a different actor: P.J. Marshall the second time around. Maybe he travelled in time to 2013, or maybe the "Asylum" aliens are behind this? Who knows.
Murphy said all the seasons were connected and he delivered, finally revealing Pepper's origin story. We first met Naomi Grossman's beloved character in 1964 at Briarcliff, but "Freak Show" told Pepper's history as an orphan taken in by Elsa Mars. Season 4 revealed that after Pepper had gone to live with her sister and brother-in-law, the two conspired against her, murdering their own baby and framing Pepper for it. Flash forward to 1962 when Pepper is brought to Briarcliff, meets a pre-Satanic Sister Mary Eunice, and sees Elsa on an old cover of LIFE magazine. Seasons connected, BAM!
This is second major connection between "AHS" seasons that we know for sure. The penultimate episode of "Freak Show" revealed that the "Asylum" physician Dr. Arthur Arden, ne้ Hans Gruper, was the same German who surgically removed Elsa's legs in 1932. (James Cromwell's son, John Cromwell, played the young Hans in Season 2, as well as Season 4.) It only makes sense that the same sadistic doctor to chainsaw off Elsa's legs would come to the U.S. to experiment on patients, and then removed Shelley's legs in 1964.
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