'American Horror Story' Season 7, Episode 8 'Winter of Our Discontent' Recap: Incest, Punishments, and Power Struggles [SPOILERS]

“American Horror Story” loves stepping over boundaries. Nudity is one thing but violent murder scenes and explicit sacrificial sex scenes? Ryan Murphy takes the cake in making viewers uncomfortable. “AHS: Cult” is doing more than just letting you drink the kool-aid. Season 7, Episode 8 tackles punishments and conceiving the next messiah in any means necessary.
The episode opens with Dr. Rudy Vincent visiting his brother Kai congratulating him for his victories. He goes as far as praising Kai for creating a movement for a new world order. Kai accuses his brother of being ashamed, Vincent agrees but now he is proud of him. And that is the only heart-warming scene you’ll get for “Winter of Our Discontent.”

Kai’s Descent Into Madness

As punishment for rallying against Kai, Beverly and the others are pushed aside to be kitchen maids. They are fed up with Kai’s antics. His reigning power is influencing more people than they thought. Kai’s army is quickly growing and Beverly wants to go after Kai knife first. But Winter insists that they can’t go after him. If he falls, they all fall. She then tells a story about how Kai became what he is now.
Flashback to October 2005, where Kai and Winter troll social justice warriors online and engage in a debate in an abortion forum. The two siblings receive an invitation from someone named Pastor Charles to the “Judgment House.”  Kai convinces Winter to visit the obviously insane Pastor Charles and his madhouse. But they were not prepared for what they saw—Pastor Charles is an insane extremist who punishes people for their sins.

Kai and Winter run into several of his victims. They find a woman bleeding out from a crib, it’s assumed she is being punished for an abortion. But in truth, she was kidnapped when she was in Planned Parenthood for UTI. Next, they see a man being pumped with drugs of his choice. Again it’s assumed he is punished for being an addict. However, he was captured by Pastor Charles while the man was in rehab to get sober. Lastly, they see a man about to be punished for being gay. Kai and Winter were able to save him from his torture chair before he was wrongly punished for a sin he never committed. The man was volunteering at an AIDs clinic when he was captured by the mad pastor.
Kai rushes to save the others in the “Judgement House.” The pastor corners Winter, telling her that she should be part of the show. Kai saves her and kills the Pastor for torturing the innocents. Since then Kai has never been the same. He delved deeper and deeper into the dark web until he reaches to a realization for a new world order.

Winter’s Punishment And Sickening Threesome

After Winter pleads with Beverly about attacking Kai, Beverly gives her an ultimatum. If Winter can’t talk Kai out of his madness by the end of the week, they attack. In hopes of reaching out to her brother, Winter hopes Kai sees the pain he is putting them through. But the confrontation takes a disturbing turn. Kai wants her to give birth to the next messiah to save the world. To do this, he needs it to be pure-bred from them. Yes, he was offering incest but with a twist.
Instead of engaging in intercourse with his sister, she will have sex with one of his loyal followers. He tells her it will be Samuel who will be Kai’s very own vessel. He will have sex with him the same time Samuel is having sex with her. The three were about to engage in the weirdest threesome in Television history. In cult-like fashion, there are candles and a soothing soundtrack. Nothing says let’s get it on than All-4-One’s “I Swear,” in the background. But Winter ends up refusing before anything happens. As punishment, she was forced to wear a dunce hat and an orange jumpsuit while cleaning trash on the side of the road.

‘American Horror Story: Cult’ Characters Dropping Like Flies

Samuel visits Winter offering her food before she scatters the trash all over the road again. Here he reveals why he follows Kai like a sick puppy. At first, it was Kai following Samuel for drug deals but one night changed everything. It was Kai who taught him how to make love to a man, but Samuel is still in denial that he’s gay. Winter further insists he is gay; and due to anger, Samuel tried to rape Winter—but not until she turns a gun on him and shoots.

Meanwhile, Ally is out of the psych ward. Vincent visits her and tries to warn her about his brother Kai. Appalled by her therapist she invites Kai over for dinner. There she offers Kai a truce, she gives information about Vincent if Kai promises to return Oz.  This leads to a creepy execution ritual for traitors. Kai sentenced his brother Vincent to death for lying to him. The other traitor is Beverly, who Winter framed for Samuel’s death. Before the episode ends, we meet a new member of the cult aside from Kai’s denim-clad bodyguards.
Ally finally decides to join the cult.
“American Horror Story: Cult” continues next Tuesday with “Drink the Kool-Aid” at 10 PM on FX.