Last week’s episode of American Horror Story concluded with the first story in Season 10’s Double Feature. Whereas vampires ruled supreme in part one, the second story is all about aliens.
Even though this part is the B grade younger sibling of part one, there is still a lot of set up to be had in Episode 7 (titled Take Me To Your Leader) in order to lay out all of those alien trope in a neat little line.
So, let’s take a look at how the story unfolded in Episode 7 of AHS: Double Feature.
Welcome to 1954
The episode opens in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1954. It looks like an old movie or sitcom with the wife immaculately dressed as she prepares dinner and her son, Timothy (Henry Joseph Samiri), plays outside in the yard.
Then the lights flicker.
Little Timothy sees dust devils outside and the record player starts playing backward — and it’s not even the 1980s yet when Satanic panic struck. Then, time also starts turning back and Maria Wycoff (Rebecca Dayan) is perplexed.
It all gets super B grade movie after that, which is what it’s supposed to be, I suppose, since we have moved on from the main feature in Season 10 of AHS and are now heading down into the feature that no one really wants to see first up.
Tommy gets taken, Maria tries to call the operator but gets Timmy on the line instead, telling her not to worry about him. He then shows up in person but he’s super creepy now and asks her to take his hand. And, considering she is now stuck to the ceiling, she probably has no choice in the matter.
While Maria and Tommy may be perfect fodder for the aliens, it seems that Mr. Wycoff (Adam Noel Jones) is not. Instead, he gets death by head explosion as soon as he gets home from work.
Palm Springs, California, 1954
Now that the scene is set, let’s head over to California where the president, Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower (Neal McDonough) is enjoying a game of golf.
That is until there is an urgent interruption. Can anyone guess what that’s about? Yep, it’s the aliens.
Ike packs and tries to pull the wool over his wife’s eyes in the process but Mamie Eisenhower (Sarah Paulson) is having none of that s**t.
When he turns up at the “incident” a crashed spacecraft is revealed and a body onsite that an army officer refers to as looking like the body of a child. This sounds very much like the Rosewell incident that occurred in 1947, just made over for American Horror Story.
Ike is just relieved it’s not the Russians or Chinese attacking this time. I feel like he might come to rue that initial response, though.
Over in the bushes, they come across a naked survivor.
Amelia Earhart is abducted by aliens
She has strange scarring on her back and goes by the name of Amelia Earhart (Lily Rabe). Yes, that same one that went missing in 1937.
As Distractify points out, this is not the first time people have speculated that the aviator was abducted by aliens.
In AHS: Double Feature, this also looks to be the official story. However, no one seems willing to believe that at first because, in their time, she should be approaching 60 and not the young woman before them.
They’re still waiting on fingerprints to confirm anything, though. Also, she’s pregnant.
That’s not a child — that’s an alien
Next up, it’s autopsy time for the body found.
It looks nothing like a small child. Instead, it has the classic alien appeal with it’s large dark eyes and big head.
The autopsy starts off entirely normal but they soon discover that the body is completely empty inside.
Except for some small sticky creature that immediately suction-cups to one of the medical examiners faces. The other goes to help and they score a face-sucker as well.
Then, their heads explode.
The president is whisked away afterthat but they are quickly confronted by the Maria-alien from the start of the episode. She explodes a few heads
The president tries to strike a deal but Maria is having none of that and informs him that he must listen to them, instead.
Hello, present day
Now that the past has been sorted out as far as backstory goes, let’s head into the present day. Enter Cal Cambon (Nico Greetham) who is literally the worst. He’s been to Japan and wants all the special deals when ordering dinner. Honestly, let the aliens take him first.
Kendall Carr (Kaia Gerber) is up next and she wants to be a doctor to the stars. So, a major overachiever — and a know-it-all.
Troy Lord’s (Isaac Powell) hobbies include cocaine — enough said. Finally, Jamie Howard (Rachel Hilson) turns up and she’s dealing with a break up.
Also included in the mix is the fact that Troy and Cal are dating and Kendall’s dad has cancer. Oh, and Jamie broke up with her boyfriend because she’s deathly allergic to his “man juice.”
Kendall is anti-technology — even though she’s going to be a doctor. She then announces a camping trip and they all decide it sounds like a definite summer plan. Because what could possibly go wrong with no technology?
Glamping it up
They all have a great time on their camping trip — on the first day, anyway.
The second day turns into a bit of a bummer when they let Troy lead them to the swimming spot — only to find out there’s no water there. They chalk it up to Troy’s crappy sense of direction.
Then, Jamie gets an odd feeling and insists they should all leave now. That is, until they all smell something dead and Kendall takes off running to find out what it is.
What it turns out to be is a field of mutilated cows. Kendall immediately notices that there’s no blood left beneath the carcasses.
Upon closer inspection, they appear to have been sawn in half. Because American Horror Story is determined to cover every possible alien trope in the first episode.
Then, one of the cow’s eyes moves and it moos at them, so they all take off at a sprint.
Immediately, they start packing up and leave. The problem is, now it’s dark, and we all know how s**t gets worse after sundown in these sorts of situations.
Cal complains that he hates driving at night, Troy can’t for religious reasons on a Saturday, so they pull over to swap out drivers.
In. Their. Mad. Dash. To. Escape. Like, nothing will go wrong here…
Or, they start to but the car stops all by itself and the aliens turn up.
There is a lot of tentacle action before the scene cuts to the group waking up from a sleep, still inside the car.
They drive off — suddenly Troy is okay to drive this time since he’s the one in the driver’s seat. Also, Jamie is missing.
Nope, there she is, in the middle of the road. They quickly collect her up and start to realize that something odd is definitely going down.
Back at home
Kendall is having a conflict of interests once home again. She wants to google stuff about alien abduction but, as her boyfriend, Adam (Samuel Hunt), points out, it’s a slippery slope once you start using technology again.
She can’t argue the point, though, as she is feeling ill and promptly throws up.
Jamie is also puking and quickly deduces that they might both be pregnant. Kendall’s boyfriend the more likely scenario is that Cal and Troy drugged them and had sex with them. Because control freaks like him always like to isolate their victims’ girlfriends.
Meanwhile, Cal thinks he has Giardia because he and Troy are both throwing up too.
Jamie turns up at Kendall’s house and they do pregnancy tests: both positive. Also, so are Cal and Troy’s when they take them too. I s**t you not.
Although, as Forbes points out, it could just mean that both guys have testicular cancer. However, for the sake of this TV show, I’m guessing it’s the aliens.
Unfortunately, viewers will have to wait until next week in order to find out more.
American Horror Story airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.