The tenth season of American Horror Story, titled Double Feature, is certainly off to a bloody and violent start. With the season broken up into two separate stories–one about vampires, the other concerning aliens–the vampiric tale is already stacking quite the pile of dead bodies.
The following contains spoilers from the third episode of American Horror Story: Double feature. If you’re not caught up on the FX series, it’s best you stop reading now.
The “Red Tide” portion of Double Feature follows the Gardner family as they settle into life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, not realizing they’re surrounded by vampires. These aren’t your run of the mill vampires, though. Instead, these vampires are artists who take a drug to inspire their brilliance. The side effect is they have a thirst for human blood that must be quenched.
While many in the town are very aware of the contingent of blood-drinkers residing there, Police Chief Burleson (Adina Porter) seemed to be in the dark about what was really happening. That, unfortunately, proved to be her downfall in Episode 3, “Thirst.”
By this point, two members of the Gardner family–father Harry (Finn Wittrock) and his young daughter Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong)–had indulged in the drug, becoming vampiric in their own right. So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that when the chief stopped by their house to question Alma about a rash of murders in the area, the hungry little vampire killed and drained the police officer of her blood.
It was a short stay for Porter, but one she hopes left an impact on American Horror Story fans. “As an actor, I was like, ‘Ah, too soon!’ But you know, the play is the thing, and I just wanted to make the audience really fall for the Chief in what little time we had, so that when she was taken out, it hurt,” the actress told GameSpot.
Not only did the chief’s death hurt, but it also promised to send the show spinning out of control going forward. “You needed someone who was relatable and grounded when you’re in a world of folks that will do anything to be famous,” Porter noted. “You needed someone to be grounded and someone who’s not obsessed with fame. And I’m glad that the Chief got to be that person.”
Now, without that grounding force, things are likely about to get very strange as the artsy vampires try to kill each other in an effort to keep the town’s secret. Still, that said, this is American Horror Story. A dire situation getting completely out of control is to be expected. And, who knows? While we watched the chief bleed out at the hands of a little girl, is she really gone? Even Porter doesn’t know for sure. “There might be more because in our universe anything can happen,” she said.
American Horror Story airs Wednesdays on FX, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.
