Although American Horror Story’s season 12 finale was the show’s lowest-rated episode ever, it is easy to see why Delicate’s final chapter was such a letdown for fans and critics alike. Every season of American Horror Story has its highs and lows, but the series has a terrible habit of failing to stick the landing. Even the show’s more consistent outings, such as Freak Show and Cult, have been known to fall apart as they reach their endings. While American Horror Story season 13 might turn this trend around, season 12 failed to fix the issue.
American Horror Story: Delicate was the first season of the series to be based on an existing text, namely author Danielle Valentine’s novel Delicate Condition. The season followed Emma Roberts’ troubled actor Anna Alcott as she attempted to balance her pregnancy with an awards campaign. Gradually, Anna became increasingly convinced that a shadowy group of mysterious cultists was trying to sabotage her pregnancy, although she couldn’t work out how or why. American Horror Story: Delicate’s series finale revealed Anna was right, but the series finale was still a profound disappointment. Short, cluttered, and unclear, the ending was a mess.
American Horror Story: Delicate’s Finale Didn’t Work
The Episode Failed To Tie Together The Preceding Season’s Story
Season 12, episode 9, “The Auteur,” revealed that Kim Kardashian’s character Siobhan Corbyn had secretly been the evil genius behind the cult that engineered Anna’s downfall. Anna had her demonic baby, Siobhan offered to let her join her matriarchal apocalypse cult, and Anna instead defeated her with some help from the spirit of Dex’s late wife, Adeline. These ridiculous twists all occurred within a ludicrously brief timescale since American Horror Story: Delicate’s finale was bizarrely short, but that wasn’t the episode’s biggest issue. “The Auteur” was such a mess that it earned American Horror Story’s lowestIMDbrating yet.
“The Auteur” failed due to a confluence of factors such as a confusing, hurried plot, an unclear ending, an anticlimactic final battle, numerous completely unnecessary plot twists, and various unfinished subplots.
With a rating of only 3.3, “The Auteur” is comfortably the most hated American Horror Story episode ever. This failure is due to a confluence of factors such as a confusing, hurried plot, an unclear ending, an anticlimactic final battle, numerous completely unnecessary plot twists, and various unfinished subplots. While “The Auteur” did reveal that Siobhan was behind all of Anna’s psychological torment, it didn’t mention that Dex was her son until after his sudden death. Though Siobhan told Ivy that her command to kill Dex was a test that Ivy failed, she never seemed even annoyed by her son’s demise.
American Horror Story Season 12’s Finale Twist Was Predictable
The Anthology Horror Never Hid Siobhan’s Villainy
The preceding episode already finally revealed that Siobhan was the ageless leader of the cult in its cold open, so the finale’s twist was less of a shock and more of an elaboration.
The lack of clarity behind Siobhan’s actions was particularly frustrating because Kim Kardashian’s Delicate villain was a high point of season 12’s uneven story. American Horror Story’s love of stunt casting ruined earlier seasons, but the risky ploy paid off in this instance. That said, the revelation that Siobhan was the season’s villain all along fell flat in “The Auteur” for two reasons. One was that the preceding episode already finally revealed that Siobhan was the ageless leader of the cult in its cold open, so the finale’s twist was less of a shock and more of an elaboration.
The other problem was that Siobhan was clearly Delicate’s villain from the very first episode and the show never made much of an attempt to hide this. This was particularly frustrating because season 12 had numerous opportunities to deflect suspicion away from Siobhan with red herrings but never used them. When Ivy caused Anna’s miscarriage, it seemed as though Siobhan might really be innocent, but Siobhan then started feeding Anna “B12 shots” that were blatantly human blood. By the time Dex’s mistress Cora admitted she was behind the break-in, Siobhan was already revealed to be an ageless demonic being.
American Horror Story: Delicate’s Finale Deaths Were Too Sudden
Major Characters Like Dex And Ivy Died Without Fanfare
AlthoughAmerican Horror Story season 12 adapting a book gave the show more shape than it has had in years, this change didn’t help the events of “The Auteur.” Throughout the season, Matt Czuchry’s Dex was set up as a fascinating potential villain whose motives were never really clear. Dex was a terrible husband and eventually turned out to be a cheat, but he also stood up for Anna and took care of her when she struggled physically and mentally. His dislike of Siobhan and his father made him seem potentially heroic, but his death was utterly pointless.
Dex and Ivy’s sudden deaths in “The Auteur” made it clear that their subplots were never going anywhere, which meant all the screen time devoted to the storylines was a waste. Since both Dex and Ivy were posited as potential major villains throughout Delicate, this was a particularly frustrating twist. Dex’s impact on Delicate‘s plot barely extended beyond sleeping with Cora and indirectly leading her to stalk Anna, a subplot that could have been elided without season 12 losing any momentum or substance. Meanwhile, Ivy’s death made the already-annoying villain completely pointless, as it turned out even Siobhan didn’t like her.
American Horror Story Wasted Kim Kardashian’s Siobhan
The Season’s Best Villain Was Defeated Way Too Quickly
Although Kardashian’s campy performance was surprisingly great throughout season 12, Delicate’s ending wasted Siobhan by giving her American Horror Story’s most anti-climatic death ever. American Horror Story season 13 may be setting up her subsequent return, but Anna and Adeline chanting and magically turning Siobhan to dust was still a crushing disappointment. Siobhan supposedly spent over a thousand years manipulating women into joining her cult, amassing immense power in the process. She claimed she could somehow heal Anna’s paralysis and her influence over every facet of Anna’s existence makes this outlandish claim seem reasonable.
As such, it was an unintentionally hilarious letdown when Adeline’s ghost appeared to Anna and started chanting with her. This reduced Siobhan to dust without even a word of protest from the all-powerful matriarch, while her entire cult seemingly vanished into thin air the instant she perished. 1977’s horror classic Suspiria did feature a similar matriarchal coven of murderous witches whose ringleader proved surprisingly weak in the end, but that Dario Argento movie never established its villain as a uniquely powerful, almost god-like entity. This made Siobhan’s ending a complete flop, regardless of whether future seasons bring back her character.
American Horror Story: Delicate Didn’t Tie Up Any Loose Ends
Ms. Preecher’s Death, Anna’s Temporary Paralysis, And The Cult’s Fate Weren’t Explained
As if the finale’s many anticlimactic deaths weren’t enough, there were also numerous subplots that “The Auteur” seemingly forgot altogether. Ms. Preecher’s decapitated head was glimpsed in the cult’s lair, but it wasn’t clear why Siobhan had her killed after American Horror Story season 12 episode 8 made it clear that she didn’t fear her. Anna’s paralysis was healed before the episode’s ending, but there was no guessing how this was achieved or whether it was permanent. Even Siobhan’s cult, which was pivotal to season 12’s story, simply ceased to exist in American Horror Story’s worst episode.
