American Horror Story: Cult introduced Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) and his followers, and here’s why every character ended up joining his cult. For its seventh season, American Horror Story left supernatural elements aside and instead focused on more real horrors, with a dangerous cult at the core of the story. Cult took the audience to the fictional suburb of Brookfield Heights, Michigan, in 2017, where Kai started forming a cult in the aftermath of Donal Trump’s presidential win in 2016.

Kai had no trouble finding followers around town as he was very charismatic, intelligent, and manipulative, so he knew exactly what to do and say to get what he wanted. This made Kai an extremely dangerous man, and while he had a bunch of loyal followers everywhere and in different positions of power, one of them turned out to be smarter than him and put an end to his reign, but not before he ruined the lives of most of his followers. Here’s why every character joined Kai’s cult in American Horror Story: Cult and what happened to them.

6Winter Anderson

Winter Anderson (Billie Lourde) was the person closest to Kai as she was his sister, but she was also manipulated by her brother. Following the death of her parents and the reveal of her siblings, Kai and Rudy Vincent, keeping their bodies at home, Winter went through a period of self-harm, and she never fully recovered from the shocking loss of her parents – and on top of that, she was scared of Kai.

Although she worked alongside her brother in the cult before it was formed, such as when they infiltrated an ultra-conservative religious order through the dark web, Winter didn’t share the same ideas as Kai, as seen when Trump won the elections. Winter was manipulated by Kai to join the cult, but she stayed because she knew he wasn’t like this and because she owed him her life, but in the end, Ally told Kai that Winter was the mole in the cult (but it was actually Speedwagon), and he strangled his sister to death.

5Ally Mayfair-Richards

Ally Mayfair-Richards (Sarah Paulson) was not only tormented by her own inner demons but also by her wife, Ivy (Alison Pill), and Kai’s cult. Ally dealt with multiple phobias, which resurfaced after Trump’s win, and by then, her relationship with Ivy was already starting to break. To make it all worse, Ally started being terrorized by clowns that she was led to believe were hallucinations, but they were actually Kai’s followers, as Kai was taking advantage of her phobias with the help of Ivy, who was already in the cult.

After trying to stop Meadow from committing a mass shooting at a rally and killing herself, Ally was arrested for Meadow’s death and sent to a mental institution, and while there, her feelings of revenge against Ivy cured her of her phobias. Ally returned stronger and with a clear purpose, so she joined Kai’s cult with the purpose of getting back at Ivy, keeping their son, and also getting back at Kai for everything he did to her and her family. Ally helped the FBI catch Kai and at the end of American Horror Story: Cult, she recruited his one follower and had him killed, revealing that Ally was now part of the cult named SCUM.

4Ivy Mayfair-Richards

Ivy Mayfair-Richards was Ally’s wife and chef at their restaurant, and she met Winter during a protest against Donald Trump’s supporters, as they were both supporters of Hillary Clinton. Ivy’s relationship with Ally was already fragile by then, as Ally was the one who gave birth to their son, Oz, which made Ivy feel like a stranger in her own family. Ivy started to hate Ally after she voted for Jill Stein instead of Hillary Clinton, and the resurfacing of Ally’s phobias after Trump’s win didn’t help Ivy’s feelings toward her.

Kai earned Ivy’s trust when he asked her about her greatest fears, one of them being losing Oz. Kai used this to persuade her to join the cult, and she was involved in tormenting Ally with her phobias, as she hoped to stay with Oz by driving her wife into insanity. After learning about Ivy’s involvement with the cult, and after getting out of the mental institution she was sent to, Ally got her revenge by poisoning Ivy.

3Meadow Wilton

Meadow Wilton (Leslie Grossman) was married to Harrison Wilson (Billy Eichner), her gay best friend with whom he made a pact when they were in high school that led to their marriage years later, but she didn’t get the love and attention she craved from him. It was due to Harrison that Meadow ended up joining Kai’s cult, as she found herself involved in disposing of the body of Vincenzo Ravoli, a personal trainer at the local gym and Harrison’s employer who harassed him at work.

From that moment on, Meadow joined the cult, and she designed the clown costumes with which they terrorized Ally. Meadow and Kai bonded through her artwork for the cult and after she helped him with a style makeover, but Meadow’s biggest mistake was falling in love with Kai, which made her even more malleable. Meadow shot several people at a political rally before killing herself, as ordered by Kai, which she saw as proof of her love for Kai.

2Harrison Wilton

Harrison Wilton was a beekeeper and personal trainer at a gym where he was constantly harassed by his homophobic boss. Harrison met Kai when the latter joined the gym, and Kai confronted Harrison that same day, telling him he was living a meaningless life, which resonated with Harrison. Kai was dangerously persuasive, and taking advantage of Harrison’s weaknesses, he pushed Harrison to kill his boss and even helped him, and from that moment on, Harrison became a loyal follower of Kai. Harrison was eventually killed by Bebe Babbitt, Beverly, Ivy, and Winter, who threw his body into a lake.

1Beverly Hope

Beverly Hope (Adina Porter) is a broadcast news journalist whose work rival, Serena Belinda, was having an affair with their boss, which negatively impacted Beverly’s career and mental health. After confronting her boss without success, she cut the wires of his car while Kai was casually passing by, and he offered to buy her a coffee. Beverly and Kai talked about their goals and concluded that in order to get what they wanted, they had to exploit the fear of people. Kai’s gang clown killed Serena, after which Beverly started to believe in Kai and joined the cult. After a lot of problems with Kai and the cult in American Horror Story season 7, Beverly joined Ally’s side and was the one who shot Kai in the head, killing him.