How ‘American Horror Story Roanoke’ Is Calling Back to Every Past Season

An element of each “American Horror Story Roanoke” episode so far has tied to a previous season, with this week’s episode calling back to “Coven”

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(Warning: Please do not read on if you have not seen this week’s episode of “American Horror Story”)

Ryan Murphy has promised that episode six of “American Horror Story Roanoke” will bring a twist that will leave fans floored, and it seems that this season is already building up to it in a very interesting way. If the first three episodes aired so far are any indication, a certain element of each of this season’s first five episodes will be connected to one of the past five seasons.

Let’s go back to the season premiere two weeks ago. That episode kicked things off with Shelby and Matt buying an extremely cheap home in North Carolina, only to get warnings from some strange folks that they were making a mistake by moving in. This is almost exactly how Season 1 of “AHS” kicked off, as the Harmons bought the Murder House in L.A. and stayed there despite warnings that staying in the house would lead to their doom.

Then, in episode two, we discovered that Matt and Shelby’s house was once a nursing home where five elderly patients were killed by the sadistic nurses running it. Though Briarcliff was a mental ward rather than a convalescent home, the concept of a facility for the mentally ill being run by sadists who abuse their patients is one that this episode shares with Season 2, “Asylum.”

In this week’s episode, Shelby, Matt and Lee get an unexpected visit from Cricket, a medium who reveals to them that their house is being haunted by the spirits of the lost Roanoke Colony. Cricket is played by Leslie Jordan, who has only appeared in one previous AHS season: “Coven.” Cricket also mentions that he found out about the disappearance of Lee’s daughter while eating at Cafe Du Monde. That’s a popular cafe in New Orleans, the city where “Coven” took place.

If this pattern holds up, then we should expect that some element of next week’s episode will call back to Season 4, “Freak Show.” Fortunately, we have an idea of what that element might be. Murphy has promised that this season will explore the ancestry of Dandy Mott, one of the major villains of the fourth season of “AHS.” After that, we might see episode five make some reference to “Hotel” before we finally get to the big sixth episode.

The enigmatic promos leading up to this season all focused on the number six, with one commercial even calling back all of the past seasons. With such an emphasis being put on numbers and the past, it seems appropriate that the sixth episode of the sixth season be a pivotal moment for the series. In the meantime, hardcore fans can put their knowledge of the series to good use by following the paper trail of references that “AHS” is leaving for them.

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