'American Horror Story: Cult': Those Cults Kai Talked About Are Real

american horror story cult evan peters characters david koresh

(Note: This post contains light spoilers for the Oct. 31 episode of “American Horror Story: Cult.”)

“American Horror Story: Cult” has drawn on several real-world events throughout the course of the season, most obviously the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In Episode 9, cult leader Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) spends the cold open by discussing three cult mass suicides — and Peters even plays them.

In fact, just like the election and some of the story related to Andy Warhol from Episode 7, the cults Kai mentions were real, and the mass suicides he discusses actually happened.

Also Read: 'American Horror Story: Cult' Is the Most Confusing Mystery Since 'Lost,' and That's Fine (Commentary)

First, Kai brings up Heaven’s Gate, a cult centered on the Hale-Bopp comet. Marshall Applewhite founded the cult in 1974 with Bonnie Nettles on the belief that alien spirits were going to help humanity get to the “Next Level” of existence — the literal heavens. Heaven’s Gate thought that Jesus Christ had been inhabited by one of these aliens from the Next Level.

When the Hale-Bopp comet neared Earth in 1997, Applewhite recorded a video letting his followers know that it was the signal to leave their “vehicles,” their physical bodies, in order to board a ship and evacuate the planet. In March 1997, 39 members of the group committed suicide by eating applesauce laced with barbiturates, believing themselves to be releasing their souls to make their way to Heaven. Applewhite was among them.

The second group Kai discusses are the Branch Davidians. The Branch is an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, but the specific group of Branch Davidians Kai talks about lived in a commune in Waco, Texas, and came to be led by David Koresh in the 1980s.

Also Read: 'American Horror Story: Cult': Every Cult Leader Evan Peters Has Played So Far (Photos)

Koresh became the spiritual leader of his particular group of followers, and used that power to take several wives. The group also was stockpiling weapons and ammunition. In 1993, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to search the compound, ostensibly believing the commune harbored illegal weapons and that it might be abusing the children who lived there. Koresh and his followers refused to allow them entry, and the agents surrounded the compound. The siege lasted 51 days.

Eventually, a fire broke out in the Branch Davidian compound as ATF agents tried to raid it, and Davidians opened fire on them. Koresh and 82 of his followers, including children, were killed in raid and fire, as well as four ATF agents.

Kai finally discusses Jonestown, a commune founded in Guyana by Jim Jones. He originally founded the group, known as the Peoples Temple, in Indiana in the 1950s as a socialist movement. It moved to San Francisco as it gained in popularity, before Jones moved his followers to South America.

Also Read: 'American Horror Story: Cult' Finally Shows Cult Leader Kai's Dark Origin Story

The story Kai tells during the episode is also pretty close to what happened. Some followers had defected from the Peoples Temple and returned to the U.S., and family members of people still in the cult grew concerned. They involved Congressman Leo Ryan, who went to Guyana to investigate whether Jonestown was holding people against their will. In 1978, with a delegation of officials, some relatives and members of the media, Ryan visited Jonestown and tried to negotiate with Jones so that people could be allowed to come and go as they pleased. While he was there, 14 people from Jonestown attempted to defect, but the people Ryan came to interview wanted to stay.

Jones believed Ryan would give a negative report about Jonestown when he returned to the U.S., which would trigger American intervention. Jonestown members shot and killed Ryan and four other members of the delegation aboard a small plane on a nearby airstrip.

That night, Jones convened the Peoples Temple members at Jonestown and served Kool-Aid mixed with cyanide. He urged them to commit suicide, and while some did so willingly, others were reportedly forced to drink the poison. A total of 909 people died in Jonestown as a result, including Jones himself.

Also Read: 'American Horror Story: Cult': Is Judgment House a Real Thing?

Kai admires all of those leaders and the intense loyalty they were able to inspire, or force, on people. If things were bad enough for the members of the cult who are already on the outs with Kai — those that are still alive, anyway — it seems we might be getting a hint of how things might shake out.

Every 'American Horror Story: Cult' Character, Ranked by How Likely It Is That They're a Murderous Clown (Photos)

When "American Horror Story: Cult," kicked off on Sept. 5, fans immediately started speculating that some of the weirdness between the show's characters could be a clown cult conspiracy. After eight episodes most of their suspicions have been confirmed, but now members are turning against each other, and people who were in are trying to find way s to take the cult down. Warning: Spoilers!
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Oz Mayfair-Richards (Cooper Dodson)

Seeing as Oz is a kid, we can be pretty sure he’s not a member of the clown murder cult. But we now know he's an integral part of at least some of the cult's plans. Could little Oz be on the recruitment list? And how is he going to react when he starts to learn the truth? Maybe he'll gather a clown-fighting posse of local kids, a la the movie "It."
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Dr. Rudy Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson)

Poor Vincent. Despite being Kai and Winter's brother, it turns out he really didn't know anything about the clown cult -- until it was too late. Vincent really should have listened to Ally all this time, instead of disbelieving her while never realizing that the guy responsible for her torment was his brother all along.
FX
RJ (James Morosini)

Beverly Hope's cameraman was revealed to be a part of the cult when "American Horror Story: Cult" finally took all the masks off, but he's one member who hasn't been fully on board with all the murders. He might have wanted to keep his mouth shut, though, since Kai and Beverly made an example out of him to prove everyone else's loyalty. It seems likely that'll create some more dissension in the ranks, and soon fans will be guessing who's about to try to leave the cult, rather than who's joining up.
FX
Beverly Hope (Adina Porter)

After Kai got his spot on the city council, he immediately started sidelining the women in the group. Beverly isn't happy about it -- she previously was Kai's favorite cultist and his second-in-command, but now she's thinking about betrayal, and helped get rid of Harrison to start it. It seems she underestimated how much she could trust Winter, though, but Kai hasn't killed her yet. There might yet be time for Beverly to get free and start a cult of her own.
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Ivy Mayfair-Richards (Alison Pill)

Fans immediately started to believe Ivy might be in on the clown cult after the first episode, when clowns repeatedly tormented her wife, Ally, but Ivy saw nothing. Now we know Ivy was using the clowns to try to get out of her marriage and grab custody of her son. After Kai started cutting out the women, though, it seems that Ivy is rethinking her choices. It might be too little, too late though, since Ally is now part of the cult, much to Ivy's shock.
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Winter Anderson (Billie Lourd)

It turns out Kai's sister is among his biggest supporters, which isn't totally shocking. But now that he seems to have replaced her and the other women in the cult's power structure, Winter's loyalties seem to be fluctuating -- starting with taking out Harrison and Samuels. But she was still loyal enough to pick Kai over Vincent and Beverly.
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Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson)

Ally was the cult's target for the longest time, but as she said in Episode 8, Kai's torment might have actually cured her of all her phobias. She's definitely got a plan, and she's executing it -- by joining the cult. Ally turned on Vincent without much trouble, but is she really backing Kai, or does she mean to dismantle the whole thing from the inside?
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Detective Samuels (Colton Haynes)

There have been hints all along that Detective Samuels might be in on the cult. He showed up conveniently at key points in several investigations, and when it turned out he was dating Harrison, there seemed to be no way he wasn't helping the clowns out. We finally found out how Kai brought him aboard, only to watch him bite a bullet for being a sexist Neo-Nazi.
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Bebe Babbit (Frances Conroy)

Appearing out of nowhere to warn the women of Kai's cult against him, it turned out that Zodiac killer Bebe is actually working with Kai. She might not be a full murder member of the clown cult, but she's definitely helping the leader execute his master plans -- which seem to involve literally cutting some people out.
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Gary Longstreet (Chaz Bono)

When the clown masks came off, finding Gary underneath one was about pretty unsurprising. After all, this was the guy who cut off his own hand so he could make sure to vote. He also was clearly involved in one of the first clown cult appearances to torment Ally. Gary's a true believer, that much is obvious.
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Harrison Wilton (Billy Eichner)

Harrison became one of Kai's most committed acolytes. He clearly saw Kai as having saved, and salvaged, his failing life. Harrison was fully on board with all kinds of murder and mayhem, without hesitation. It wasn't enough to stop Beverly, Ivy and Winter from slicing him up, though.
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Meadow Wilton (Leslie Grossman)

The big twist in the sixth episode of "American Horror Story: Cult" revealed that there's nobody more fanatically dedicated to Kai than Meadow. She played double agent beautifully, and went all-in for Kai in a way that probably no one else in the cult would.
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Kai Anderson (Evan Peters)

Kai has a plan for world domination in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, and his clown murder cult is helping him do it. As things begin to pick up speed with Kai's faked assassination attempt, though, it's becoming clear there's more to his strategy than even his followers know. That, or he's completely lost it.
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Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch)

There’s no denying that Twisty the Clown is literally a murderous clown. So far, though, he doesn’t seem to be a real murderous clown, but a fictional one. He’s only appeared in Oz’s comic books and dreams, so he might just be a tormenting, gross-faced monster showing up to confuse the other characters about what’s real and what’s in their heads.
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Alliances are fraying in the murder cult

When "American Horror Story: Cult," kicked off on Sept. 5, fans immediately started speculating that some of the weirdness between the show's characters could be a clown cult conspiracy. After eight episodes most of their suspicions have been confirmed, but now members are turning against each other, and people who were in are trying to find way s to take the cult down. Warning: Spoilers!

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