American Horror Story season 12 episode 3 ended with Anna discovering her pregnancy might not be over yet, but could this actually be a bad thing?

While American Horror Story season 12, episode 3 featured a lot of major twists, it is still not yet clear where the story of the series is going. American Horror Story: Delicate is notable for numerous reasons. For one thing, it is the first season of the long-running horror anthology series that is based on a novel. American Horror Story: Delicate adapts actor Danielle Valentine’s novel Delicate Condition to the small screen, although it remains to be seen how much the series will diverge from its inspiration. American Horror Story: Delicate is also notable for providing reality TV star Kim Kardashian with her first major scripted acting role.

While it may sound like American Horror Story season 12 is going out of the show’s way to take big risks, its first two episodes proved this notion isn’t entirely true. Where the first outings of season 2, Asylum, featured demons, serial killers, alien abductions, and zombies, American Horror Story: Delicate has kept things comparatively simple. Episode 1 introduced Anna Alcott, an actor who was attempting to mount an awards season campaign while also simultaneously undergoing IVF treatment. She was disturbed by encounters with a strange stalker but, other than that, her life did not seem to be particularly surreal or strange.

Anna Came Across Ms. Preecher Again

However, after this comparatively straightforward premiere, the series took a turn for the bizarre. American Horror Story season 12, episode 2 saw Anna finally get pregnant only for her to then lose the pregnancy almost immediately when a creepy nurse gave her a suspicious ultrasound. At the end of the episode, Anna learned this nurse wasn’t really an employee of the hospital and that she had miscarried. American Horror Story season 12, episode 3, “When the Bough Breaks,” opened with Anna and her husband Dex driving home from the hospital. Anna demanded that they pull over and insisted on walking home, only to soon regret this.

Anna wandered deep into the woods near the secluded house that she shared with Dex and her bodyguard Kamal. There, she came across Ms. Preecher, the strange older woman who had previously appeared in the audience of a late-night show that Anna appeared on. Preecher was hiding in the trees near a fire as Anna went for a walk through the forest, issuing cryptic warnings to the American Horror Story: Delicate heroine. Anna was terrified by Preecher’s return and ran home but, when she returned with Dex and Kamal, the woman was nowhere to be seen. American Horror Story season 12, episode 1’s enigmatic character wasn’t seen again.

Anna’s Trolls Seemingly Vanished

Not only could Dex and Kamal find no trace of Ms. Preecher, but Anna also discovered that the online footprint of her stalker had disappeared overnight when she looked her up the next morning. The Instagram profiles of both Anna’s troll “Annihilate Anna” and Ms. Preecher had seemingly vanished without explanation, but Anna was soon visited by Siobhan before she could look into this any further. While Anna’s troll might simply have deactivated their account, this seems unlikely since Anna’s public image was in free fall. As such, her troll would be more likely to harangue her even more than ever.

Someone Found Anna’s Secret Address

Anna had no chance to question this development before she was greeted with a welcome basket. This meant that Dex had given someone the address of Anna’s secluded hideout and, although Anna was convinced the culprit was the director she disliked, there was no way of confirming if he really sent the hamper. American Horror Story: Delicate’s supporting star Kim Kardashian showed up to distract Anna before she could look into the origins of the hamper, thus setting up a trippy sequence that proved Anna might not be entirely lucid.

Anna’s Hallucinations Are Getting Worse

Anna ate the entire gift basket despite how suspicious it looked, but she didn’t remember doing so. She checked her phone when Dex left the room, saw Siobhan calling her, and then immediately turned around to see Siobhan already in her doorway. Judging by this, Anna has been blacking out for hours at a time without noticing, or both Dex and Siobhan are working together to gaslight her. While this is a possibility, it wouldn’t explain the intense hallucinations that Anna as well as her uncertain perception of time. Throughout the episode, she was convinced that shadowy figures were after her.

There Is A Cult Following Anna

American Horror Story: Delicate’s story owes a creative debt to the classic horror movie Rosemary’s Baby, wherein a cult conspires to get an innocent woman pregnant with the Antichrist. “When the Bough Breaks” seemed to set up this same twist when a pair of cultists who were dressed all in black, hooded, and accompanied by a goat on a leash appeared. They were first seen on the beach, where they may have left Anna a discontinued doll with pins in its stomach. They then appeared in Anna’s nightmare, before showing up in what might have been a hallucination during the episode’s final scene, Anna’s trip to a pharmacy.

American Horror Story: Delicate Updated A Rosemary’s Baby Scene

Instead of a demon assaulting Anna while she slept, as happens in Rosemary’s Baby, a pair of masked and hooded cultists dressed entirely in black strapped Anna to a surgical chair and seemingly surgically impregnated her. This allowed American Horror Story: Delicate to update Rosemary’s Baby, turning the original movie’s assault scene into a sequence that highlighted fears of medical malpractice and mistreatment. Currently, it is unclear whether this scene only happened in Anna’s mind, although the episode’s final moments provided a clue. Unfortunately for her, this scene may have taken place and imperiled her future.

Anna’s Pregnancy Might Not Be Over

Anna managed to get in touch with Ms. Preecher in the final scenes of “When the Bough Breaks” and the creepy character informed her that her pregnancy had not really ended with a miscarriage. However, that’s not necessarily a good thing, judging by the chanting Satanists who surgically impregnated her in a dream, the decomposing fox left by her patio, and the fact that she was bleeding from her mouth. Although Anna seemed relieved to see that her pregnancy could still be salvaged, it seemed increasingly likely that there was something very wrong with the American Horror Story heroine’s baby.