Holy Crap — Let's Discuss That Giant Twist on American Horror Story: Cult

Spoilers for the eighth episode of American Horror Story: Cult!

Well, we have to hand it to Ryan Murphy — American Horror Story: Cult's latest twist definitely took us by surprise.

The eighth episode, "Winter of Our Discontent," centers around the shifting alliances within Kai Anderson's unstable cult, specifically between him and his sister, Winter. Although he doesn't betray her like we suspected he might, the episode's conclusion still doesn't bode well for the Anderson family. Kai stabs his older brother (aka Ally's psychiatrist, Dr. Rudy Vincent) in the neck in front of all of his new cult members. Winter is visibly shaken by Kai's violence, but there's one clown standing in the circle around Rudy's dead body who doesn't seem remotely perturbed: Ally.

Yes, Ally Mayfair-Richards! It turns out the phobia-prone heroine of season seven might end up being the cult leader after all.

Ally rolls up to the gruesome dispatching of her psychiatrist dressed in what once was Beverly's hand-head clown costume, much to the chagrin of her unsuspecting and estranged wife, Ivy. Earlier on in the episode, Rudy (still alive at that point) tells her he's actually Kai's older brother and that Kai must have slipped into his office and stolen Ally's patient files. That's how he figured out how to taunt her and push her buttons in just the right way. It seems like Ally is about to spiral into one of her many anxiety attacks, but then something amazing happens — she takes a second to think about how to use this new information to her advantage.

This results in Ally calling a brief truce with Kai, inviting him and his new alt-right-esque followers over for a dinner of Sloppy Joes. She boldly informs him that all of his fearmongering has had the opposite effect on her; by all accounts, she's now cured of her former phobias, and it's all thanks to Kai. She goes on to tell him that Rudy is conspiring to throw Kai into a psych ward, and in return Kai promises to give Ally's son, Oz, back to her. She doesn't care about Ivy as long as she has Oz. Say hello to Ally Mayfair-Richards, cult member.

We have a feeling Ally will still team up with Winter (or perhaps the exiled Beverly?) to take Kai down, but for now it looks like she's going with the flow of the cult in an effort to bring Oz home. Needless to say, we weren't the only ones who had feelings about the big reveal.