Entertainment
This Theory Connects 'AHS: Cult' & 'Murder House' In A Game-Changing Way
American Horror Story may be a anthology series, but as the years go by it has begun to connect its separate seasons more and more. Some characters will recur across seasons or there will be a reference to past events, and it's exciting to see the way the different worlds can link up. But this fan theory could connect American Horror Story: Cult and Murder House in a game-changing way. Some viewers have begun to wonder if the question of Oz's paternity might lead all the way back to the very first season of the show.
When Winter asked Oz about who his birth parents were and he demurred, fans immediately jumped on it, sensing that the answer could be important later on. At first it seemed obvious that Kai could be Oz's dad because of Kai's obsession with Ally and Oz's resemblance to Evan Peters. But Kai isn't really the Peters character Oz looks like the most. Oz is a dead ringer for a young Tate Langdon.
Thus a theory was born: fans began to wonder if Oz was actually the child of Tate and Vivian Harmon, whom he raped while wearing a rubber fetish suit and pretending to be her husband. Vivian became pregnant with twins; one died and was taken care of by her in the great beyond along with the rest of the family, but the other survived. That little blonde boy at the end of Murder House was presumably raised by his grandmother Constance, but there's a chance he may have found his way to a new home.
Murder House was set in the present day (which at the time was 2011) just like Cult is, so it's not too difficult to imagine that they exist in the same universe. However, the timeline may not support the theory that Oz is Tate's son. Both might be little blonde boys who favor Peters in appearance, but Tate's son Michael would only be around five years old in 2016. In their ad for a nanny for Oz, Ally and Ivy specified that he was 10 years old. It's possible, of course, that demon children grow at twice the speed of other children, but it makes the possibility seem much less likely.
Series creator Ryan Murphy also made it clear that AHS: Cult would be free from the supernatural elements that dominated previous seasons. All the horror would be due to choices made by the very human characters, without ghosts or witches or vampires around to intercede. That doesn't preclude the existence of the Anti-Christ since Michael appeared to be human despite his ghostly father, but once again narrows the chances that a pure evil half-undead kid will be making an appearance any time soon.
As far as anyone knows, Constance is still out in Los Angeles raising Michael as her very own demon spawn. Even if she died and Tate's son went into foster care, he probably wouldn't have been adopted by a couple across the country in Michigan. Adoptions across state lines do happen, but it would probably be more difficult. Michael would have also been at least a few years old, so it's hard to imagine his adoptive parents would have changed his name — unless Ally desperately wanted something more gender-neutral.
Though fans only got a brief glimpse of Michael at the end of Season 1, he was already a seasoned killer dispatching of his babysitter with a giggle. Oz is much more perturbed by gore and violence even as Winter tries to inure him to it. Plus Oz did imply that one of his moms gave birth to him, even if he didn't know which one it was. If he was adopted, he probably would have just said so.
The theory that Oz is Tate's son would make for a cool twist, but it's just too difficult to make the connection happen in a way that makes sense.
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