'American Horror Story' Season 7, Episode 6 'Mid-Western Assassin' Recap: Love, Politics, Less Violence [SPOILERS]

The seventh season of “American Horror Story”—titled “Cult” is trying to make a bold political statement since its first episode. Focusing on the Trump hysteria and exaggerating people’s perceptions of a Trump-stamped America. This week’s episode was supposed to be a commentary on gun violence. But due to the timing of the Las Vegas shooting, creator Ryan Murphy had the episode’s mass shooting scene re-edited. Murphy believed a mass shooting scene would be too traumatic.
In “American Horror Story” Season 7, episode 6 titled “Mid-Western Assassin,” we learn Ivy’s motives for joining Kai’s Cult and why Meadows ran from the cult.

Ally’s Valid Paranoia

The scene opens during Kai Anderson’s (Evan Peters) campaign press conference and as everyone cheered for him a gun was fired. Everyone started panicking until a SWAT team arrived. The shooter in question was revealed to be Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson). We see her holding a gun standing in front a few dead bodies. She drops the gun and the camera pans over the stage where we see a Kai who was also shot.

Like in many episodes this season, we flashback to an earlier scene picking up right where we left off in the last episode. A disoriented and panic-stricken Meadow banging on Ally’s door asking for her help. Before Meadow was capture, she told Ally about Kai’s cult and how her wife Ivy was involved. Curious if she was telling the truth, she starts to get paranoid. Was she being fooled by everyone? Even her therapist, Dr. Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson) told her she was having a manic episode.
But can we really trust Dr. Vincent? Just last week we found out he was the older brother to Kai and Winter. Maybe he is part of the cult as well and continues to gaslight Ally into believing it is all in her head. Determined to get the truth, Ally goes across the street and save a tied-up Meadow. Once saved, Meadow proceeds to spill all the cult’s secrets and to prove Ivy is in it too. She told Ally that during the night of the guinea pig explosion, Ivy left the alarm off and texted when they were almost home. Meadow continues explaining that the cult was out to get Ally and make her appear crazy.

Why Ivy Joined Kai’s Cult

In last week’s episode we find out Ivy (Allison Pill) is also in the cult. But unlike the other members, we were not treated to a flashback on why she joined. But now we have an explanation why with a flashback during the day of the announcement of Trump’s presidency.
Ivy goes over to see Winter (Billie Lourd) about the man who cut off his own hand to vote. It is later revealed by Kai that Ivy and Winter kidnapped a man named Gary Longstreet so he couldn’t vote for Trump. But Kai found him in the basement and helped him exercise his right to vote. Looking for a way to make sure she was not convicted on any charges, Kai offered Ivy to be part of his plans. Just like any member, he asked her the same question, what fills her up with dread? Her first answer was Trump’s presidency, but Kai knew it was deeper than that. Tied into the pinky swear, he continued probing her until Ivy broke and said it was her wife Ally.
Ivy revealed she has grown resentment towards her partner since the pregnancy. She wanted to be the one to carry their child and Ally constantly referred to Ozzy as “her child,” because she was his biological child. Her resentment grew more with Ally’s irrational fears and when she voted for Jill Stein. Kai promised Ivy she could get full custody of their son by making it seem like Ally is an unfit parent.

‘American Horror Story’ Mass Shooting Parallel

When Ally finds out that Kai isn’t the only leader of the cult, but also running for a seat on the City council, she knew he had to be stopped. Seeking help from Kai’s new opponent Sally Keffler, who publicly called Kai a snake-oil dealer, who believed Ally’s claims about Kai. But it was all foiled when Kai and his cult came after Sally. Then she was hit with a hard realization that stopping Kai is harder than expected.
Kai is a master manipulator. He is able to find out his follower’s weaknesses and desires to use against them. Especially towards Meadow, who wanted nothing but to be loved. But because she married a childhood friend who will never love her, she craved male attention. Kai was able to give her that, making her fall in love with him and do anything he tells her to do.

It almost looks like Meadow is on Ally’s side when her jealousy towards Kai’s attention triggered her to betray him. But it was all a red herring. Nearing the end of the episode, we are taken back to the opening scene. The gunshot we heard was not Ally holding the gun but Meadow. We learn Meadow’s decision to betray Kai was all a ruse and planned by the blue-haired man himself. He instructed her to tell Ally everything and pin the shooting on her. Meadowmotivated by her pure love for Kai and not for any other political cause.
As soon as Ally steps into the scene to confront Meadow, she takes a gun right through her head. Shocked by Meadow’s suicide, Ally was caught by a SWAT team with a gun in her hand surrounded by dead bodies.
Unlike the other episodes this season, the sixth episode “American Horror Story: Cult” episode was the least gruesome. It tried its best to shoe-horn a message about gun violence which only turned out to be another one of Kai’s convoluted plans for world domination.
“American Horror Story: Cult” continues next week with “Valerie Solanas Died for Your Sins: Scumbag,” Tuesday, October 17 at 10 PM on FX.