While American Horror Story season 12 solved some of the anthology show’s biggest issues, the outing’s best improvement only complicates the future of the series. Every season of American Horror Story is connected, but the show upset this tradition with its most recent outing. American Horror Story: Delicate was the first season to be based on an existing piece of source material, namely author Danielle Valentine’s novel Delicate Condition. Although American Horror Story season 13 might return to the fictional universe shared by the anthology show’s earlier seasons, Delicate seemingly took place in a world of its own.

Delicate told the story of Anna Alcott, an actor balancing her pregnancy with an awards campaign while trying to uncover a creepy conspiracy of cultists working against her. American Horror Story: Delicate’s ending finally explained the show’s big twist, revealing that Kim Kardashian’s character Siobhan Corbyn was secretly the season’s villain all along. Siobhan was Anna’s publicist, but she was also revealed to be an ageless demonic entity who convinced women to incubate demons in exchange for success and power. Anna defeated Siobhan in a bizarrely rushed, anti-climactic series finale, but it was not clear if either character can return.

American Horror Story: Delicate May Not Be Canon

The Anthology Horror Season Was Based On A Book

Since Delicate was based on a pre-existing, self-contained text and didn’t share any characters with earlier seasons (unlike every preceding outing of the series), American Horror Story season 12 may not even be part of the show’s larger overarching canon. It is unclear whether the characters featured in the series can return in later outings, which is doubly unfortunate after American Horror Story: Delicate’s short season 12 finale. Although Anna’s story did get an ending, the way she destroyed her nemesis was unclear, the fate of the cult members went unmentioned, and various subplots ended abruptly after entire episodes of setup.

While the preceding episode revealed that Anna’s husband, Dex, had an affair with a nurse, this was never mentioned again since Dex was swiftly killed off in the finale. Siobhan inexplicably revealed that she was Dex’s mother after his death, but there was no time for the implications of this twist to sink in. American Horror Story season 12’s hurried finale revealed numerous interesting villains and left various plot threads dangling. Since the season was based on a novel, it is currently unclear whether subsequent outings will mention these characters and events again or if they will be forgotten.

American Horror Story: Delicate’s Best Characters Might Never Be Seen Again

Season 12’s Story Didn’t Explore Its Full Potential

Many of American Horror Story season 12’s best characters were woefully under-explored and this was exacerbated by the panicked pacing of the final episode. In particular, Matt Czuchry’s Dex and Kim Kardashian’s villain Siobhan turned out to be campy highlights, with Dex’s affair being one of American Horror Story season 12 episode 8’s best twists. However, Anna’s final interaction with her husband consisted of a thirty-second scene where she informed him that they were separating, followed by a chaotic ambulance ride that ended with his grisly, sudden, unexplained death. Even this death had untapped story potential.

Kardashian’s villain ordered an underling to kill Dex, only to then kill her when she went through with the request. Siobhan said that this was all a test, a bizarre and hilarious twist that proved Kardashian’s character could have become as iconic as Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates’ earlier American Horror Story villains. However, her sudden, disappointing death in the very next scene will likely be the last time that viewers ever see Siobhan. Adapting a book improved American Horror Story season 12, but it also means that the show will now have a hard time bringing back these underused characters.

Delicate Hurts American Horror Story’s Best Future

Upcoming Outings Should Adapt More Original Stories

The last four seasons of the series, Apocalypse , 1984 , Double Bill , and NYC , started strong, switched plots after only an episode or two, and completely lost their purpose before their halfway point.

The next seasons of American Horror Story should consider repeating Delicate’s best trick by adapting other original stories. Compared to the messiness of season 10, Double Bill, and season 11, NYC, Delicate had a cohesive plot with clear stakes until its finale. It might be hard to believe since the ending descended into jumbled silliness, but Delicate featured some of the show’s strongest plotting in years until its finale. The last four seasons of the series, Apocalypse, 1984, Double Bill, and NYC, started strong, switched plots after only an episode or two, and completely lost their original purpose before their halfway point.

In contrast, Delicate not only made sense but patiently built tension across its first half. Even the first episodes of Part Two were strong, maintaining a clear storyline while slowly adding in increasingly zany and outlandish twists. However, adapting original works is an approach that has drawbacks of its own. Bringing another book to life would mean that American Horror Story once again couldn’t use the settings and events from the sprawling fictional universe of its first 11 seasons. The series also couldn’t bring back underrated characters, like Talia, who were wasted throughout American Horror Story season 12’s earlier episodes.

How American Horror Story Season 13 Can Handle Delicate’s Standalone Story

The Next American Horror Story Outing Should Reference Season 12

There is a way for American Horror Story season 13 to fix Delicate’s biggest mistake and the fact that the series often retcons events from earlier seasons helps. Characters from season 13 could make oblique references to the story of Delicate, thus confirming that the season did take place in the show’s universe after the fact. American Horror Story has used the same actors in new roles for over a decade, so there is nothing strange about the same stars appearing in season 13 and playing different characters. This means that Delicate’s story doesn’t need to be an unrelated waste.

As such, American Horror Story season 13 could make the most of Delicate’s fictional universe without necessarily being a direct follow-up to the season. The only direct sequel in the show’s history, season 8’s Apocalypse, was one of the worst outings of the series and a misjudged belated follow-up to 2013’s Coven. It is clear that Delicate doesn’t need a second season to flesh out its plot. What Delicate does need is to become part of the larger universe of the series, meaning its under-utilized characters could potentially crop up again in later outings of American Horror Story.