There are many parts to being a fan of American Horror Story. There are the constant thrills and chills from each new episode. There’s that pride you get from seeing your favorite actor each season (looking at you Evan Peters). And then there’s the glorious yet frustrating aspect of guessing and waiting for the reveal of the newest theme. Each season garners a new list of characters, setting and, often, time period. As we reported back in May, it’s particularly odd that fans had no theme or cast up until literally the premiere on Sept 14. Was this odd? Yes. Did it intrigue us? Of course. Were we left gasping for even more answers after the first and second episodes aired? Hell yes.
And while this was by far the most unique way any show has marketed themselves, (with over 20 teasers being tweeted out on a regular basis, but only one of them being the actual theme) we still saw a lot of similar imagery and motifs from past seasons, but especially the first season. While we know that all the seasons, though vastly different, take place in the same universe, Ryan Murphy has also said that this is the season where we start to really see more of that connection. Could “Roanoke” be bringing it back all the way to the OG, “Murder House”? Here are some ways that’s possible.
The PIG
While it could be easily argued that the first season of American Horror Story is one of the scariest seasons, one particularly freaky episode included a “Piggy Man.” One of Ben’s patients came to him, telling him how he was so traumatized by urban legends that he couldn’t look in a mirror. The mythical creature that he was so afraid of was a man with a pig’s head who would turn up if you recite “Here, piggy, pig, pig” and you’d (presumably) be slaughtered. Of course, this ends up all being in his mind, but we get to see a lot of pigs in season 6 in just the first episode as well as in scenes for next week.
There is the skinned pig Matt finds and buries on the property. There are the squealing noises that are often the cause of the main characters being awoken in the middle of the night. And then in the creepy home video Shelby and Matt’s sister, Lee, watch in the basement, we see a figure that looks just like the Pig Man. Not to mention the dismembered pig we see on a scarecrow type.
Not to mention, in the most recent episode Angela Basset's character Lee is chased by a pig man and runs into a wall of wiggling, bloody pig tails. The fact that pigs have played a pretty large role in the first two episodes points to even more hogs in our future. To top that off, there's a theory that Evan Peters (who has yet to make an appearance) will play the pig man we see scouring the woods and in the home recording of Dr. Elias Cunningham, played by Denis O'Hare. We don't think the world of AHS is ready for another masked Peters, but we'll just to wait and see what Murphy has up his sleeves.
Related: What We Know About "American Horror Story" Season 6
Similar Layout/Outside interest in the property
I love conspiracy theories as much as the next person, but almost all of them can be refuted and obviously we can’t be sure of anything without the blessing of Mr. Ryan Murphy. However, we noticed that the layout of the farmhouse Matt and Shelby move into looks very similar to the Murder House in season one. While the outsides are completely different, certain rooms and areas of the house, like the upstairs hallway and the study, look a lot like a darkened and older Murder House.
In both cases, there is also outside interest in the property. The “ZZ Top look-a-likes” as Matt calls them in this season as well as Larry, the burn victim in the first season. We know for a fact that Larry had ulterior motives, and right now we can only suspect what the other bidders wanted with the property that Matt and Shelby bought.
The Nurses
Adding to the theory that somehow the two houses are even further connected are the nurses that first appeared briefly in the first episode and that scared the shit out of Matt in the second. It’s quick at first and we don’t get to see too much, but it’s unmissable that she saw two nurses, drawing a parallel to season one and the two nurses whose murder sparked copycats who tried to kill Violet and Vivian.
We soon learn in "Chapter 2" that the nurses are Miranda and Bridget, sadistic killers who set up a fake nursing home for the kill. Surely there will be more of them in the near future.
Related: 7 Questions We All Had While Watching American Horror Story
The obvious “Croatoan” and Possibly Billie Dean Howard?
The first season introduced so many recurring characters and ideas throughout the whole series. One thing that certainly sparked this season’s theme was the story of the Lost Colony at Roanoke. When Violet was trying to get rid of the malevolent ghosts in the house, medium Billie Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson) tells her the story of the colony that vanished in Roanoke, the same place in North Carolina that Matt and Shelby move to in season 6. Billie Dean also tells Violet that the best way to banish a spirit is to burn a personal belonging of theirs and yell “Croatoan,” a word that was left carved into a wooden post on the land. This was apparently what the Native Americans used to expel spirits shortly after their deaths, but ended up not working for Violet in “Murder House.” And judging by the mob with pitchforks, it didn’t hold in North Carolina either.
So what do all these connections mean? Could there be some sort of paranormal highway or portal where ghosts from one house can cross between houses? Or is Ryan Murphy just trying to hint that all ghost stories are the same? Whatever it is, if we can get a Tate and Violet reunion, we are ALL over that!
