Tonight American Horror Story: Cult takes us back to the day before, day of, and the days soon after the election as we learn quite a bit of background on some of our more mysterious characters. Several of these folks were intertwined before we knew (or suspected) they were intertwined and I think this episode was a hell of a setup for things to come. Who are the co-conspirators I speak of? Here's what went down in "11/9."
You're Not The Only One
The episode opens with Beverly Hope reporting live from the polls on election night. Beverly wants to do another take on her report, but her cameraman tells her not to bother because their boss, Bob, isn't going use any cutaways that night anyway. She's. Pissed. Her rival, Serena Belinda (welcome back Emma Roberts), strolls past her just then and they exchange insults. Serena is there to "jump the line and pull the lever for HRC" and then she plans to sit on the coverage panel with Bob for the rest of the evening. Beverly goes from pissed to livid.
The camera pans through the voting line and we see Ally and Ivy snuggling and saying things like "madam president," Winter and her friends are nearby chanting some protest stuff, and Meadow and Harrison stand side by side looking miserable. Meadow asks "shouldn't people have to pass some sort of test in order to earn the right to vote?" Ha! Harrison asks her if she'd pass that kind of test and she gives him a quick "of course not." Meadow thinks she's more qualified to vote for the Emmys or Golden Globes. I love that she is willing to admit that....so many people aren't.
Inside the building, Ivy is reminding Ally that she should not submit a protest vote. Ally is totally on board, saying she wants to be just as much a part of history as Ivy does. Cut to them in the voting booth where Ivy votes for Clinton and Ally votes for Jill Stein. We see others make their choice as well, including Winter, Dr. Vincent, and Beverly who vote for Clinton, and Harrison, who votes for Gary Johnson. Serena does not pull the lever for HRC - she votes for Trump instead. Meadow? She writes in "Oprah" and I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Kai stumbles in with Gary, the grocery store cashier that wore the "Make America Great Again" hat during Ally's clown-filled shopping trip. I just now realized that Chaz Bono plays this character. Can't believe I missed that before. Anyway, Gary has his left hand in his pocket and it's bleeding pretty bad. The woman at the check-in table thinks maybe he needs an ambulance but Gary and Kai go apeshit on her and they both make their way to booths to vote for Trump. When Gary is finished, he steps into the main voting area, raises his arm...revealing a bloody stump instead of a hand...and yells "Welcome to Trump's America motherfuckers!" Yup, this network is now able to drop f-bombs as desired. Oh...and cue the opening music.
I Can See A Love Restrained
We go now to Funtime Fitness on November 9th, the day after the election, where Harrison works as a personal trainer. Kai has just joined up and requested Harrison because he "looks strong." Pretty sure Harrison got an immediate boner. Through the course of the workout Harrison says he considers himself a versatile gay but Kai doesn't believe in labels. "A man with no labels has an allegiance only to what is right." Kai explains that he works in computers now but wants to focus on politics and changing the world. He also mentions that he was invited to join MENSA at the age of 14. While he is not into dudes, he tells Harrison, "if someone is in my life, man or woman, and they are part of my crew...I will fight for them...I will kill for them...and if they wake up in the morning with a hard on that won't quit, I will find a way to make sure they know how much I love them." Harrison's boss interrupts the conversation to send Harrison to clean up the sauna. Seems some guy has jerked off in the steam room and Harrison needs to go hose it down. The douchebag boss always sends Harrison in these situations because he's gay. Kai isn't happy about this so he makes an effort to show Harrison his, uh, love by jerking himself off in a shower near the steam room and letting him watch. If Harrison didn't have a boner before, he sure as hell has one now.
Harrison heads home to his gorgeous house with Meadow, hoping to get drunk and watch TV, but Meadow is super upset. She somehow screwed up all of their finances and the bank is going to foreclose on their house. The Wiltons need to be out in 3 days but Meadow has known about this for a while. Harrison is trying to wrap his head around being homeless but Meadow says all she needs in her life is him and a decent cable package. She kisses him and tries to get him to have sex with her but he shuts her down. Apparently they have had sex twice over the years but Harrison isn't looking to do it anymore...even though he is a versatile gay.
The house foreclosure weighs heavily on Harrison's mind when he sees Kai again. Harrison's boss gives him shit because he hasn't locked Kai in for more sessions and tells him his job depends on bringing in business. Harrison himself goes into douchebag mode and tries to sell Kai another personal training session package. Pretty sure he's really just worried about Kai's other package, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Kai calls Harrison out immediately and Harrison tells him about the house, saying he has no idea what to do, where to go, or what to be. Kai has a path for him. "Take my power in both of your hands and take your life back."
Harrison finds his boss bench pressing after hours and sprays cleaning solution in his eyes. He then holds the bar down over his boss' throat and crushes it. Kai is right there telling Harrison how proud he is. The boss man is not quite dead though. He's gasping for air. Harrison picks up a dumbbell and smashes the dude in the head. Kai has taken care of everything at this point, including erasing the last 3 weeks of security footage. "We are going wipe out everything you know and build something bigger and better than anything you could possibly imagine." The last item to be dealt with is the body. The Wiltons are staying in a motel room these days, and when Meadow comes home that evening she sees Harrison in the bathtub with his boss' body and a saw. She also sees Kai sitting in the corner. "Who's that?" she asks. Harrison replies, "someone to believe in."
Just Tryin' To Kill The Pain
In December of 2016, an unidentified male torso is found in a landfill. I guess Harrison did a good job hacking it up. Beverly is on the scene, because she gets assigned all the shitty locations these days, and she's not happy. She reports live then kicks it back to Bob (Dermot Mulrony), who welcomes her back to the news station. Oh dear. Beverly had taken a leave of absence after an incident caught on camera. Apparently an array of immature assholes kept interrupting her live reports and yelling "grab her right in the pussy!" Finally Beverly lost her shit and beat one of those immature assholes with her microphone. It's hilarious and I am loving Adina Porter this season. Beverly "voluntarily" checked herself into a facility for 30 days of psychiatric evaluation and Serena is given the story to report on. Kai finds all of these videos online and targets Beverly as his next minion.
Kai finds Beverly slashing tires in the parking lot after Bob tells her to cut out a portion of her (rather important) report to make room for Serena's wine tasting piece. Not sure if it's Bob's car or Serena's but they were both equally awful to Beverly in that conversation. Kai offers to buy her a cup of coffee and she accepts. Guess there's really nothing to lose at this point. He's done his research and immediately has Beverly's attention when talking about her needing to take control of her life. Kai explains his thoughts on weaponizing fear and having a good messenger to spread it. "Believe me, Beverly Hope, if you get the world scared enough...it would set the world on fire for us." Kai then goes on to tell her that he was in the military and did a tour in Iraq before coming home and graduating from Yale with a double degree in political science and feminist studies. He wants to start his world domination by winning a City Council seat. Then he'll move on to state senate, congress, and so on, building millions of followers along the way. Beverly is intrigued but hesitant. Kai gives her the address to his campaign office and calls it a night.
The next time we see Serena, she's taping a segment at a pet adoption event and she's pissing and moaning about having to hold a cute as shit dog during her report. Emma Roberts plays the bitch roles so well. As the camera starts to roll we see a clown walking toward her from a distance. Then another. And then three clowns are standing right behind her. The camera man is creeped out but Serena thinks they are part of the event even though they are sinister as hell. When she turns to interview them, they stab the shit out of her...and the poor cameraman too. Lots and lots of blood and the whole thing is caught on tape. Thank goodness the dog is okay though. That would have really pissed me off.
Kai is hanging at his "campaign headquarters" with Meadow and Harrison when Beverly shows up. She has seen the footage of Serena's demise and asks if he did it. "Yes, Beverly. Without apologies. For you. I did it for you so you would believe I would do anything for you." She is teary and tells Kai she believes in him. They hug it out, each noting that they have equal power. We then see Beverly reporting on Harrison's boss finally being identified and listing a string of other violent crimes happening in the area. She questions whether people should feel safe in the community, and Kai watches the report on his laptop with a big grin on his face.
Even Friends Seem Out To Harm You
The final story of the night takes us to Ally and Ivy's house the day before the election. Ivy is trying to get her wife to protest with her at a rally, but she opts to stay home. Ally says Michigan is a lock for Hillary and there's nothing a Trump rally the day before the election can do to change that. Ally also hints that she is not a Hillary fan. "She acts like it's owed to her. What does she even believe?" Ivy senses a Jill Stein vote coming on and the ladies argue for a bit before Ivy finally heads out.
Ivy arrives at the rally and protesters are yelling things like "love trumps hate" and taunting the Trump supporters. Those supporters threw it right back, with Gary telling Ivy that Hillary started the hate when she called them deplorables. A few more insults are traded before Gary reaches forward at Ivy and does some pussy grabbing himself. Ivy is stunned. She has no response but Winter jumps in and yells for someone to call the police. Gary runs to his truck and leaves...and Winter and Ivy dine at The Butchery. Ivy makes a comment about Ally not loving the restaurant and Winter asks "then why are you with her?" Ohhhh shit. Ivy deflects, asking Winter what she wants to do with her life. Winter explains that she wants to be behind the scenes right next to a powerful person and pushing them toward greatness. She encourages Ivy to get angry about her assaulter and the conversation leads to punishment for Gary.
As he is closing down the grocery store on election night, Ivy uses a taser on Gary and she and Winter chain him up in the basement so he can't vote. I suppose that could have been punishment enough, but they didn't bank on Kai showing up with a saw and freeing Gary via cutting off his hand. Of to the polls they go. That's....dedication.
In The Cold November Rain
The episode ends on that bloody note and it might actually be my favorite Cult episode so far. Seeing all of these "before and after" stories adds extra madness to this whole season and I really like it. I have to say that it was also incredibly refreshing to sit through an entire hour where Sarah Paulson did not scream and have multiple total breakdowns. That may be the biggest selling point in "11/9." Thank you, Ryan Murphy, for that reprieve...however brief it may be.
In thinking about the violent group of Kai followers coming together, I found his recruiting methods for Beverly, Harrison and (by default) Meadow very interesting. Sure Gary fits the stereotype of one of the so-called deplorables, and I'm sure all Kai had to say was "Trump" to get him on board for setting up Ally's clown-filled shopping adventure, but Kai driving versatile gay Harrison to murder and tapping into Beverly's rage to get her to be the messenger of fear is not what I expected to come from this evening's episode. I was more than entertained and am curious to see who the other followers are. We knew Beverly wasn't in one of the clown costumes during Serena's murder, but were Harrison and Meadow in that clown posse? Did they help slaughter the former inhabitants of their house? When does/did Kai recruit Dr. Vincent to this madness? How about the detective? Did Winter and Ivy start an affair after their teamwork? Has Ivy been recruited as well? And what is the deal with The Tommyknockers trucks (that's what I'm calling them from now on)? I'm hoping we get answers to at least some of these questions next week as we are reaching the midpoint of the season, but regardless, I'm enjoying Cult far more than I thought I would and am looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds. 
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