‘American Horror Story: Cult’ Finale Recap: Episode 11 “Great Again”

American Horror Story: Cult Season Finale Recap

FX’s American Horror Story: Cult concludes its 11-episode season with “Great Again,” airing November 14, 2017. The episode begins at the Jackson, MI maximum security prison with Kai (Evan Peters) asking prison guard Gloria Whitmore (Liz Jenkins) who she hates the most. She reveals it’s the warden, and even complies when Kai demands she open her shirt and expose her breasts.

The moment’s interrupted by two prisoners telling Kai they need to take a walk. They beat him, telling him he’s messing with the natural order of things inside the prison. Lines are clearly drawn between the races and Kai’s playing with fire. However, Kai isn’t ready to lie down and take a beating. He attacks one of the two prisoners but is quickly overpowered and held against the floor, hands at his throat.

The prisoner didn’t count on his buddy turning on him and he’s stabbed in the back of the head, releasing Kai. The murderer calls Kai “Divine Ruler” and hands over the shiv. The prisoner then agrees he’s a loose end and must be a martyr to Kai’s cause. He kneels before Kai, and Kai slices his throat.

Kai speaks with the imaginary Charlie Manson (also played by Evan Peters), declaring they have more corpses in their future.

A new prisoner pleads to see Kai in the exercise yard, and the Hispanic men guarding him allow the newbie through on Kai’s instructions. Trevor’s in prison for 25 years, but Kai knew that already. He’s made it his business to know about everyone, and after being in prison 11 months he now has 16 men following him.

Kai gets Trevor to pinky promise before calling him a coward. Trevor’s in jail for running over a kid while driving drunk and then hiding the body. Trevor admits that’s what he is, but wants to join Kai’s gang. Kai clarifies this isn’t a gang; it’s an army. Women destroy the outside world while the men inside the prison wait for their time to strike.

Trevor swears to devote himself to Kai and his cause. Kai agrees they’ll protect him on a probationary basis. Trevor asks how Kai ended up in jail, and Kai replies, “I was sold out by a filthy, f*cking rat.”

11 months earlier: Kai calls Speed Wagon but he won’t answer. Ally (Sarah Paulson) calms him down, letting him know the men are ready for him. Kai explains finding 1,000 pregnant women to murder is too hard so the Night of a Thousand Tates is off. But, the Night of One Hundred Tates is on.

A list is distributed with the names of 100 pregnant women. Kai reminds them the Manson family was too sloppy and warns his men to stab both the mother and the unborn baby. Kai even demonstrates on an anatomically correct model just how to stab to end both lives.

Kai thinks his men will be releasing a new power into the universe and galvanizing a new army with these murders. Women will be forced to act/react. Once they rise up, they will attack all the people in power, allowing Kai to win the election and head to the White House.

The men practice stabbing on watermelons as Ally watches, expressionless.

Beverly Hope (Adina Porter) is in the kitchen preparing a meal. She says she’s privileged to be making this food, but then it’s obvious she’s losing control of her emotions. She confides in Ally that she can’t do it anymore, admitting she wanted to be the last person alive but now she just wants to die. She asks Ally to kill her, begging her to end her life and handing her the knife.

Ally won’t do it, telling Beverly they’re still doing what they have to do. “What’s happening tomorrow night will be glorious. You’ll see,” says Ally. She wants Beverly to find her faith again, assuring her she needs to hang on just a little longer.

Kai’s going crazy over the missing Speed Wagon and how he’s probably turned them in. He thinks his phone’s been tapped and Ally has to calm him down. She says everything will be fine and then wants to show him something.

Ally opens a drawer and hands him a recording device. She found it two days ago but didn’t tell him because she didn’t want to upset him. She then describes her meeting with Speed Wagon and how she learned he was the mole. Speed Wagon turned out to be a data processor who was busted and forced into joining this gang just to get information.

A flashback shows Ally in the car with Speed Wagon. She can’t believe he’s doing this just to help the State Police. (It appears she thought he had a higher purpose.) She confirms he can’t call for help using the recording device and the police aren’t currently listening in. She stabs him in the chest. Goodbye, Speed Wagon.

Ally reveals Winter never betrayed Kai and that it was Speed Wagon all along. Everyone was fooled. Kai screams and cries, unable to process what he did to his sister when she was innocent of betraying him.

Ally instructs Kai to channel his rage and finish the job. He has to go through with the plan to kill pregnant women, forcing the world out of its stupor.

Kai apparently agrees as the next night he instructs his men on how the murders will go down. They go through their supplies which include chloroform for multiple targets (like Lamaze classes). If there are husbands present, they should die first.

Ally leaves the room as the men get themselves all worked up. She’s caught leaving the house by one of Kai’s men, makes an excuse about getting snacks, and continues walking to a van full of FBI agents. She tells them to move in now.

The FBI enter the house, open the basement door, and toss down smoke bombs. They yell to the men they’re under arrest and charge down the basement stairs.

Kai responds with a dismayed, “Motherf*cker.”

Gunfire breaks out as Kai fires on the FBI agents. His men are shot protecting him from the heavily armed agents. Some of Kai’s followers take their own lives as Beverly crawls to a gun and shoots one who remains. The agents place both Beverly and Kai under arrest.

Ally waits outside and as Beverly’s brought out, she says, “You were right, Ally. I just had to hang on.”

Kai’s brought out next in handcuffs and as he walks by Ally, he screams that he’ll kill her.

Catching up with Ally 11 months later, she still owns and works at her restaurant. A customer asks if they can take a picture with her, calling her “one of the most inspiring women of our time.” Ally wishes that were true but doesn’t want to take the picture. She wants to put her escape from the cult behind her.

Beverly shows up at the restaurant, asking for a table. She and Ally sit and have a glass of wine, with Beverly revealing Kai pled guilty and won’t face trial. She wants to know why Ally didn’t turn her in, and Ally reminds her a black woman in a cult of angry white nationalists doesn’t fit the profile. Ally says she told the cops she didn’t see Beverly commit any crimes.

Ally believes Kai waved a trial and took a plea to keep from getting the death penalty. Ally also reveals the FBI brought her in as a spy while she was at the psychiatric hospital. She joined the cult shortly thereafter. She was invaluable in the FBI’s case and received immunity.

Beverly believes everyone should be afraid of Ally after all the pain she endured, including watching Kai kill Ivy in front of her. Ally agrees. She says she couldn’t process it then and hasn’t yet.

Beverly wonders why Kai took credit for every murder but blamed Ivy’s death on Ally. Ally says that’s absurd, claiming she joined the cult to save Ivy and Oz but could only save Oz.

Ally introduces Beverly to her new girlfriend, Erica, who she’s been with for two weeks. They’re planning Oz’s birthday party and Ally invites Beverly to attend. Beverly accepts.

Ally and Erica serve cake to the kids on Oz’s birthday, and Beverly is in attendance. Rachel Maddow’s people call and ask, yet again, for an interview but Erica tells them no without hesitation. After she hangs up, Erica tries to convince Ally she should do Maddow, given that Ally’s now a feminist icon. Ally reiterates she wants to be a soccer mom and put this all behind her.

The phone rings again and this time it’s a collect call from Kai in prison. Kai’s just learned Ally tricked him into believing he was Oz’s father and he’s pissed. Ally runs down the list of people around Kai who are now dead – his men, his brother, his sister, etc – and she’s glad he’ll rot in prison and not father any children. His family’s DNA will end with him when he dies in prison.

He screams at Ally, telling her he’s going to rip her apart.

Kai has sex with his follower, Gloria the prison guard, as the news comes on with Ally, Beverly, Oz, and Erica. Ally has decided to run for United States Senator from Michigan.

Ally addresses the camera in an ad saying she’s always been told to smile, look pretty, and blend in. She says no more to that and instead has broken free and has separated from the pack. “It’s time we ban together to bring down all cults – the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the entire two-party system.” She doesn’t believe a powerful few should control the many.

Beverly’s helping with the campaign and although people like Ally, she’s lagging in the polls. People gave her a 25% rating for strength, 14% think she can lead, and people label her inexperienced. She wonders what people see when they look at her, and Beverly says they see Kai. Ally wants Kai taken out of the ads, but Beverly says a picture of Kai is a picture of Ally. She’ll always be seen as his victim.

Back at the prison, Rimshot and Gloria meet with Kai in the kitchen. Rimshot, who now has tattoos that match Kai, really wants to leave with Kai when he escapes. He can’t, but Kai says he’s still critically important in his plans. Kai stabs Rimshot repeatedly in the stomach and then cuts off his face. He has to be mutilated so he can substitute for Kai.

Gloria provides Kai with a guard’s uniform and they walk out of the prison without being questioned.

Beverly reports to Ally that Kai was killed in prison. Despite the news, Ally goes ahead with her planned debate. She stands up to her opponent, telling him to stop interrupting, stop trying to intimidate her, and knock off the mansplaining. She admits she’s been called everything from shrill to snowflake, and she doesn’t mind. “You can call me snowflake if you want to. But I am one of millions and together we make a goddam blizzard,” says Ally on the debate stage.

Kai stands up in the audience to ask a question of Ally, removing his hat and confirming he’s Councilman Kai Anderson. The security guards cover the crowd for Kai as he approaches the stage. He calls Ally kindling and not a hero. She’s just a symbol that he created.

Ally’s opponent tries to stand in Kai’s way and he knocks him out. Kai tells the audience that Americans go crazy when you destroy their symbols. “You symbolize the hope that women will one day win an argument with their husbands,” says Kai, gun in hand and now feet from Ally on the stage. When he kills her, women will lose hope. He screams that women can’t win, can’t lead, and will always be outsmarted. “They need to finally understand that what they can and should do is shut up, know their place, and make me a goddamn sandwich!”

Ally replies, “F*ck you!” She doesn’t even flinch when, gun pointed directly between her eyes, he pulls the trigger. Nothing happens and he pulls it repeatedly. Kai looks out at Gloria in the audience and she nods to Ally.

A flashback shows Ally at a meeting with Gloria, telling her Kai is loyal to no one. Gloria will die in service to his ego and he’ll use her fears to break her. Gloria admitted she’s turned off by the Divine Ruler nonsense.

Back to current events, Ally smiles and advances after Kai yells at her to say something. She tells him she was wrong. “There is something more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man…a nasty woman,” says Ally, obviously relishing every single word.

Beverly shoots Kai dead on stage.

Ally wins her election by a landslide. She’s expected to earn 80% of the female vote when all the votes are tallied.

At home, she tucks Oz in bed and he asks if her win means she’s in charge now. Ally tells her son that elected officials work for the people, and it’s her job to take them to a better world. She notices a Twisty the Clown figure nearby and brings him to Oz in bed.

Ally lets Oz know she’s off to a meeting, but Erica will watch over him. The meeting is of friends who will help her bring about the change they need in this world. She assures Oz these people aren’t like Kai; they are empowered, powerful women who want change.

Ally prepares for the meeting, carefully applying her makeup before covering her head with a black hood.

More on American Horror Story: Cult:
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 1 “Election Night”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 2 “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 3 “Neighbors from Hell”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 4 “11/9”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 5 “Holes”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 6 “Mid-Western Assassin
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 8 “Winter of Our Discontent”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 9 “Drink the Kool-Aid”
Recap of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 10 “Charles (Manson) in Charge”