After a lot of anticipation, creepy teasers and the promise of a great season, American Horror Story is back with its seventh season, more specifically with “Election Night”, which is the title of this first episode.

The season did promise to get very political and that did not disappoint. Right in the first seconds we were able to relive some of the moments of the campaign of Both Clinton and Trump and that led us to election night and to the surprising announcement of Donald Trump’s victory. It is in this moment that we meet the leads of the season: Kai Anderson, who couldn’t be happier with this; and Ally Mayfair-Richards, who couldn’t be more shocked and pissed at everyone. These two definitely represent the extreme of both parties. Kai now feels very powerful and like he can do anything he wants, while Ally feels like this is all the most stupid joke of all time, not sure how she is supposed to survive for the next 4 years.

Fear is quite an effective tool, and that is something else this season promises to deal with. After election night, Ally’s phobias are back, stronger than ever, and she now sees clowns pretty much everywhere she looks. It sure seemed for most of the episode like she was going crazy and seeing things that weren’t there, but closer to the end, her son Ozzy also saw clowns murdering the neighbors. Are they both crazy? Did Ally’s fear start affecting her son in a similar way? Or is this all part of a major conspiracy? Nothing is black and white in this show, and so maybe the answer to all these questions could be “Yes”.

Meanwhile, Kai also seems very interested in fear. I really liked the speech he gave to that little counsel about how fears run the world and how we love it. The reason why I liked it is probably because it is true. A bit extreme, but true. What was also a bit extreme was his reaction when they pretty much ignored him, because it seemed like he thought they would actually listen to that. “There is nothing more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man”, and Kai really seems invested in making everyone see that he is right.

Of course that this couldn’t be a season about clowns if our favorite murderous clown from American Horror Story didn’t show up, but, as promised, he did. Twisty the clown is back with more murders and even though he is just a comic book character for now, that doesn’t make it any less great nor terrifying. Thanks to the clown sightings last year and to the upcoming remake of Stephen King’s It, clowns are getting more and more creepy, and it would definitely be very hard to find a better moment in time to present people with a season like this.

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One thing that seems great about this season is that it doesn’t seem like supernatural is going to be a big part of it. Sure that ghosts, aliens, witches, vampires and spirits (which is what was featured in previous seasons) can definitely provide a few scares, but in the end of the day they aren’t real (or are they?). But the same can’t be said for people who want to rise to power at all cost, no matter if they have to make everyone lose their minds to get it (like Kai said). This is definitely the perfect season for the supernatural to be sidelined, because talking about something devastating and controversial that took place 40 years ago (for example) sure that it hits close to home, but it is still at the neighbor’s house. Talking about something that is happening right now will totally hit straight at everyone’s homes and if monsters were added to the equation it would lose a lot of significance and connection to reality.

Another great thing about this season is that there doesn’t seem to be many major characters, maybe only a hand full of them, and that will make everything much easier to understand. There is Ally, Ivy, Kai and Winter: these seem like the most major characters so far. There only seems to be two others who will maybe be more relevant than they did in this episode and those are Dr. Rudy and Detective Samuels.

This was definitely a very nice episode that set up the season in a very satisfying way. I am sure that if Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters continue to go down the road they started in this premiere, they are sure to make way to the Emmys next year. I am giving this episode an 8.5/10.

As satisfactory as this episode was, it was just the beginning and I am sure that more clowns and craziness is coming towards us. The second episode of American Horror Story: Cult will premiere next Tuesday and it is entitled “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark”.