When it was first announced that American Horror Story season 13 would be a “tribute” season, I don’t think fans were prepared for how much of a tribute this would be. The first three episodes just premiered, and a lot went down.
Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead for the first three episodes of American Horror Story season 13 episodes 1, 2, and 3!
American Horror Story season 13 episode 1 recap: “13”
We start with a couple who've only been together a few months but are clearly in love. Ben (Joey Pollari) and Kira (Madelaine Petsch) are in a last-minute couples counseling session because she is upset that he won’t come to her long-planned special celebration with thirteen of her best friends on the thirteenth day of the month. He admits in this session that he has a fear of the number 13, called Triskaidekaphobia.
Facing his fear, he decides to board the plane and take the trip with her to make her happy, despite every instance—the flight number, the gate, even his row number—involving the number 13. As they fly, the plane suddenly hits a storm and is destroyed, sending people flying as pieces of it are torn apart.
At the same time, we see Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) and Madison (Emma Roberts) back at Coven House (from one of the best seasons) in New Orleans, teaching a new flock of witches, when the same storm hits, and Cordelia says she senses something dangerous.
The scene shifts to Constance (Jessica Lange), in an unknown apartment, caring for a man who stands and seems to levitate toward a window to watch the storm while throwing up black sludge. As he’s throwing up, more people die on the plane. We cut to credits.
When we’re back, we see Ben outside of an apartment building in New York at an unknown time. He works in a building called the Apollyon. He takes the elevator up to the thirteenth floor, where his new client is, who bought the entire floor. When the elevator opens, we see Constance, who is caring for an older, wealthier man named Mr. Nas. She is the daytime caregiver. Ben will be the nighttime caregiver.
As he looks around, he sees various works of art, some famous and some not, but many symbolize the number thirteen. He also sees giant sunflowers, which feel mysterious amid all the art.
We see Mr. Nas for the first time, who looks…not really the best, with protrusions and a very malnourished body. We also see a doctor (John Waters) take 13 vials of blood from Mr. Nas and place them in a caretaking bag filled with snakes at the bottom. Whether those snakes are actually there is a mystery.
After that, Constance says it's time for Mr. Nas’ sponge bath, and while they walk there, she says that she knows he was on that flight, revealing that Ben was one of the only survivors and that almost everyone else in his group died. He didn’t have a scratch when they pulled him from the ocean. Constance says there must be something out there for him.
They proceed to bathe Mr. Nas, and Constance tells him exactly how to clean Mr. Nas (including not-so-great areas, like the urethra and butt), which Ben reluctantly does. Afterward, we see him in his room watching a news report, where he looks up how many mucous membranes a human body has, as Constance says that’s the main point of the bath. He answers that there are 13.
He hears a thump from Mr. Nas's bedroom and goes to check but finds it empty. Ben begins to have what looks like a panic attack and goes to lie down to try to get his bearings back. But when he turns his head to the right, he suddenly sees Mr. Nas and is frightened. The scene cuts to black.
American Horror Story season 13 episode 2 recap: “1:13 AM”
This is when things start to get a little…twisty.
The next day, Ben speaks to Constance to understand how Mr. Nas was able to stand, but she says it never said anywhere that he wasn’t immobile. He can get up and sit down. She then says that he doesn’t respond well to him yelling or getting angry. He responds well to kindness. We see the doctor for a split second—as well as another snake—but nothing else.
Ben goes to take care of Mr. Nas once more, but random things begin to burst from the water. Growing anxious, Ben tries to get closer to see, but Mr. Nas throws the nastiest glare his way—or maybe he’s just scared; we’re not sure—and Ben backs off. But Mr. Nas doesn’t stop staring until he turns himself back around in the tub. The credits roll.
After the credits, Ben investigates and looks around the house, taking pictures of the sunflowers, paintings, sculptures, and more, trying to figure out whether they all relate to the number 13 with an A.I. assistant. It confirms that each one relates to the number 13, especially the replica of The Last Summer, which pushed the “unlucky 13th member” taboo.
Ben panics and uses his inhaler to calm himself. And then everything shifts.
Suddenly, we see several people looking to practice circus acts, and we soon learn this is a clown school. However, Twisty (John Carroll Lynch) emerges from somewhere hidden and tries to join in as the lead clown attempts to teach. When he is rejected, Twisty pulls various things from his bag of tricks before pulling out a sling of knives.
One by one, he kills each clown, saying, “Clowns aren’t f**king funny!” The final number dead is 13.
Ben sits up straight in bed, and we’re led to believe it’s all been a dream. He looks at his computer, and it says it's 1:13 AM. At that moment, he walks around once more, only to see Mr. Nas standing in front of the window. When Ben walks closer to check on him, Mr. Nas turns around and throws up the black liquid we saw in the first episode.
Ben, confused and anxious over what he has seen, tells Constance what he saw the next morning, but she says that it’s all a part of his medical issues due to former medications, dried blood in his stomach, and more. Ben doesn’t really buy it, but she keeps trying to convince him that everything is normal for his age.
She says that the reason she even got into hospice care was to learn how to take care of her children after her husband cheated on her with a maid (which we knew about from Murder House), and she wanted to find purpose. But she seemingly says her care wasn’t enough for her kids, insinuating that they are dead. This throws Ben off, because not that long ago, she said they were “thriving.”
When he goes to leave, he asks what happened to the maid her husband had an affair with, and she says the maid understood what she did wrong—after she got a bullet through the eye. So there’s that.
Ben, thinking ahead, goes straight to his supervisor and tries to report what is going on because something feels off, and he wonders if he could talk to the caregiver who works nights there before he did so so he could understand what is happening. The supervisor informs him that the last caregiver took her own life.
That night, Ben eats leftover food but gets an alert on his phone about a “clown massacre” that happened, signaling that what we thought was a dream was real and occurred at 10:13 PM. In a press conference, a reporter asks about a tarot card left at the scene that symbolized the number that would be taken. The police don’t comment. The next day, Ben goes to a convenience store and scratches three 13s in a row but runs out when the black cat there scratches him right after.
The scene then shifts back to the apartment, where Constance shows her daughter, Adelaide (Jaime Brewer), the moon outside and around the apartment while decorating a very macabre Christmas tree for a special German holiday that takes place “thirteen days” after Christmas.
We also see Kai (Evan Peters) helping with the tree, and behind it is Tate (Evan Peters), also there in his rubber suit. At that moment, the elevator dings, and Winter (Billie Lourd) enters with a young woman in a mask.
American Horror Story season 13 episode 3 recap: "Rachnaut"
If you thought episode 2 was wild, wait until you see this one.
We open up with this merry crew of misfits in the apartment Constance is looking over, where she is throwing a get-together for everyone. She explains what Rachnaut is: a German folkloric tradition involving demons and the afterlife and whatnot, and how it takes place after Christ’s birth.
As she talks, the woman removes her mask, revealing the face of the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short. But she doesn’t understand how she got here, and now it’s up to Constance to remind her and offer her a meal.
After the credits roll, Tate cuts up a piece of strange-looking food for her as they all sit around a dinner table. Reluctant at first, Elizabeth takes a bite and enjoys the food. In that moment, she begins to remember what happened to her and how she could feel what was going on, but then she also remembers when she saw something in her PO Box that looked like a bus ticket that brought her straight to Constance’s door.
The elevator dings, and Ben arrives for his shift, but Constance yells at him, saying she specifically told him to stay off that night. When he sees it's a party, he understandably gets a little upset because that’s not what caregivers are supposed to do. However, eventually, she’s able to get him to sit down and drink punch that is drugged with something that knocks him out.
Tate brings him into a room where he remains, and Constance says that what he has to do next is important. After that, we see Constance speak to Elizabeth again, saying it's time for her, Adelaide, and all the younger kids to go to a club called Club Hell, where she’ll be escorted.
After that, Elizabeth, Adelaide, Kai, Tate, and Winter all travel down in an elevator that suddenly appears in the basement of the Apollyon, which is Club Hell. Down there, they meet a group of people in cloaks, plus another character played by Sarah Paulson (who looks a lot like Ms. Wilhelmina Venable), who says to Elizabeth, as she’s covered in a red hood, “This is the portal to Hell.”
The next three episodes of American Horror Story season 13 premiere on Oct. 1, 2026.
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