‘American Horror Story’ Is Back With 13: Here’s How All the Seasons Connect (So Far)

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the first three episodes of American Horror Story season 13, “13,” 1:13 AM” and “Rauhnacht.”]

As Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts) says, “Surprise, bitch!” American Horror Story is officially back for its 13th season — and so are many of the franchise’s most memorable characters, with a plethora of superstitions to come.

Thursday night debuted the first three episodes of the highly anticipated season 13, introducing new character Ben (Joey Pollari) as the audience’s entry point to this twisted, crossover story. Ben fittingly has triskaidekaphobia, a fear of the number 13, though he can’t seem to escape it.

Despite his debilitating triskaidekaphobia, his greater fear is that his relationship with his Taylor Swift-superfan girlfriend, Kira (Madelaine Petsch), will crumble if he doesn’t attend her birthday trip on the 13th with 13 of her best friends. He ends up taking the flight, but the plane crashes, killing Kira and 12 of her friends. Ben survives, as does another passenger who was sitting in 13B. Ben was sitting in 13F.

The crash is the first indication that the number 13 is more than just a superstition in the new season. As the first three episodes unfold, the number keeps appearing in increasingly sinister ways — ultimately helping connect the season’s seemingly disparate characters and storylines.

Before getting to what appears to be the main setting of the season — an apartment building called the Apollyon in New York City — the episode flashes to Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, where Supreme Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) and Madison of season three’s Coven are helping newbie Ophelia (Avantika) work on her telepathy. This is where Madison makes her iconic grand entrance: “Surprise, bitch! This witch approves.”

A storm is happening, however, hinting that we’re in the same timeline as the plane crash. Cordelia senses something sinister approaching.

“So much vengeful death,” she says. “Something wicked this way comes.”

With so many stars returning for the 13th installment and reprising their roles, Ryan Murphy had clarified to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of its release that this season is not a sequel; instead, “It’s a different story with characters that you love returning.”

“They’re fighting a very big villain,” he said of the returning stars. “There has to be something big enough that even the ones who were villains before are now heroes — they’re united against a force that we’ve touched on in other seasons, but not in the way we are doing this season. There’s a big villain.”

That villain remains a mystery after the first three episodes, but the story increasingly points toward the mysterious Mr. Nas.

A month following the plane crash, Ben arrives at the Apollyon and meets the one-and-only Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange), who lives on the 13th floor and is apparently no longer tethered to the infamous Murder House from season one. She introduces Ben to Nas, played by Fedor Steer, who portrays the character in his older years. Paul Anthony Kelly plays Young Nas. Constance says Nas is 87, and Ben becomes his caregiver.

Pollari told THR that Lange took him under her wing, as he’s a newcomer this season.

“We are close off screen as well, and the scenes that we have together really developed a bond,” he said at the show’s New York premiere. “I learned a lot from her.”

During the time of the plane crash, Nas is shown coughing up a strange black substance at the same time. Could Nas be the ultimate villain Murphy is referring to?

The connection only becomes more suspicious in the second episode. After Ben discovers a series of strange references to the number 13 throughout Nas’ penthouse, including 13 figures in a depiction of The Last Supper, the episode cuts to Los Angeles, where Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch), the serial killer clown from season four’s Freak Show, arrives at a clown school and proceeds to massacre 13 people at the school, including the teacher played by Tig Notaro.

Back at the Apollyon, Nas vomits the same black, viscous substance again. The episode therefore appears to establish a connection between Nas and the deaths, though exactly what that connection is remains unclear.

Ben also continues to question why Constance is caring for Nas. She reveals that all of her children are “alive and thriving,” which leads to one of the season’s biggest surprises: the return of her daughter Adelaide (Jamie Brewer), who is back “in this mortal coil.”

The reunion becomes even stranger when Constance prepares for a dark holiday celebration, with Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) from Cult helping decorate a black Christmas tree topped with a pentagram. Constance’s son, Tate Langdon (also Peters), is there as well, with Peters playing both characters in the same scene.

The gathering then grows into a supernatural AHS reunion in the third episode.

Winter Anderson (Billie Lourd) from Cult arrives with a masked friend who is revealed to be Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia (Mena Suvari), from Murder House.

Lourd — who first joined the Murphy-verse in 2015 for Scream Queens, which she hopes is revived — appeared in season seven’s Cult alongside Peters’ Kai. Of reuniting with the star, she told THR, “Evan is my brother from another mother. I love that man so much. We have so much fun together.”

For the dark holiday scene, Lourd said she watched Peters put on his Rubber Man suit.

“I did feel bad for him, having to be in that latex suit though. I watched him get lubed up and into it one day,” she said.

During the reunion, Constance tells Elizabeth that she will become one of “13 lucky leading ladies,” adding yet another ominous reference to the number.

Of season 13 bringing everyone together, Suvari told THR, “It’s really for all of the fans that have been so loving about this show along the way.”

But the gathering has a larger purpose.

The holiday is Rauhnacht, a period when the veil between Hell and Earth is at its thinnest. After Constance’s party, Winter, Kai, Tate and Adelaide take Elizabeth to a speakeasy called Club Hell. When they reach the basement of the Apollyon, Wilhemina Venable (Sarah Paulson) from season eight’s Apocalypse meets them, marking Paulson’s second character entrance, and welcomes them to what she calls a portal to Hell.

The episode ends before revealing exactly what Constance and the others have planned for Elizabeth, though the references to sacrifices and the group’s plans for the 13 “leading ladies” suggest that she is being prepared for some kind of ritual.

That leaves the first three episodes with a much larger mystery than simply why so many familiar faces have returned. The season appears to be building toward a supernatural conflict that connects the worlds — and timelines — of several previous American Horror Story installments.

As audiences wait for more episodes to drop weekly, Leslie Grossman, another regular in Murphy shows who is set to reprise Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt from Apocalypse, explained how the seasons connect.

“It is one big universe, but there’s many different timelines, and we have taken great care to make sure that all of the timelines intersect in a way that makes sense and is very satisfying for the fanbase,” she told THR. “So remember, all one universe, different timelines and they’re going to intersect in ways that are surprising.”

She added, “I have to tell you, I read scripts and I was like, ‘No way! I had no idea that was going to happen.’ There are many Easter eggs and a lot of good payoff if you’ve been a fan of the show, but you can also have not watched it before, and I think you’re going to still enjoy this season.”

After three episodes, big questions remain: Who exactly is Nas? Why does he seem connected to the deaths surrounding the number 13? Why has Constance brought these particular characters back together? And what exactly is waiting beneath the Apollyon? Oh, and is Ben really alive?

New episodes of AHS: 13 premiere Thursdays on FX. Read all of THR’s coverage here.