FX’s American Horror Story
12×04: “Vanishing Twin”
Directed by John J. Gray
Written by Halley Feiffer

* For a recap & review of 12×03, click here.
* For a recap & review of 12×05, click here.
Hampton Court, England, 1555.
Mary I is in the midst of childbirth when her sister Elizabeth arrives to check in. In bed, Mary writhes with pain and bleeds, as she holds her child: “It is a monster.” Suddenly, Elizabeth hears whispers around them from all over. She wonders who else is in the room with them, but Mary only sings to her newborn. Strange female figures in black cloaks arrive. They say the child has “waited over 6,000 years to be born,” as a claw reaches out of the blanket. Mary made a deal for a great kingdom in exchange for the baby, whereas Elizabeth says she’d never give up her child for anything, to which the dark-cloaked women respond by making Elizabeth barren. A harrowing scene all around.
And we’ve seen those women in their black cloaks before in present day. Hmm…

Anna confronts Dexter about being with Sonia. He plays it off as work stuff. She’s even more suspicious about Dexter when he says something that she didn’t think he was around to hear. Everything with Dexter has a great explanation. Is he full of shit? Or is Anna’s headspace crumbling? Maybe a bit of both, who knows. Right now, Anna’s having difficult trusting the world around her, not just her husband. A bit later, Nicolette finds Anna carrying the dead animal from outside. Anna’s “an animal lover” and wants to nurse the animal back to life, even though the thing has a hole in it full of rotting maggots. Very yikes! Anna takes the dead fox down to the basement, where she puts it in the bassinet like it’s a baby. Because that’s not creepy at all. There’s also strange Satanic whisperings from a room downstairs, but when Anna goes looking for the source they disappear. The next day there’s one of those dark female figures lurking close by, if only for a blink of an eye.
At Sibohan’s office, the agent has brought in Ashley (Billie Lourd) and Ashleigh (Leslie Grossman), the same two dark-cloaked women from 1555, to help manage Anna’s career crisis. It’s not what Anna wants but it’s what Siobhan believes is needed. Ashley and Ashleigh don’t want Anna to do anything traditional. Today it’s less about going on The View and more about making a cool, trendy, totally not “cringe” Instagram reel. Anna’s not into it at all, though A & A urge it’s necessary if she wants to turn things around and up a notch.
Back home, Anna’s noticing new security measures since the apparent break in, which includes some serious sensors keeping an eye on the place. She’s further surprised to find Virginia (Debra Monk), Dexter’s mother, lurking around without notice. Virginia wants to be the comforting mother-in-law after what’s happened. She also requests time alone with Dexter so they can talk about Anna behind her back. She calls him “the balanced one,” implying that Anna’s psychologically unstable. She generally calls Anna down to the dirt until Dexter mentions the miscarriage. Then Virginia says she’s suing her ex-husband and needs Dexter to testify for her. This woman has no tact.

While Anna’s not necessarily psychologically unstable, given this is the American Horror Story universe and sinister things are most certainly swirling around her, she isn’t having a great time in terms of her mental state. She freaks out and smashes her mirror, thinking of Ivy and the miscarriage. Then she sees some of her bloody-rooted hair in the shattered glass. Some time later, Anna’s back at Dr. Hill’s clinic because she felt some movement. The doc assures his patient this is impossible until suddenly a heartbeat returns, as if resurrected from the dead, surprising everyone, especially Dr. Hill. It’s a joyous moment for Dexter and Anna, even if it’s all pretty inexplicable. Dr. Hill says it was perhaps “vanishing twin syndrome.” When Anna’s leaving the clinic she sees Ivy, elaborately dressed up and looking sinister. Yet nobody can find her; she disappears fast.

We see Siobhan’s been helping Anna’s career by banging director Hamish Moss. A whole quid-pro-quo thing, or, y’know, whatever. Siobhan has Hamish wrapped around her finger. Plus, they have secrets to keep; not only from Siobhan’s client but from the rest of Hollywood and the world, it seems. Siobhan threatens to break Hamish’s dick off if he says anything out of line. Skip to Anna talking about throwing up, shitting, orgasming, and everything else that women should be able to do if they “need to.” A hilarious commercial-like feminist manifesto from Anna attempting to reclaim her image in the public eye. Anna’s too busy playing would-be feminist icon while she should be wondering why she was vomiting black liquid in the first place. Meanwhile, the video has nearly 6 million views online already.
Virginia goes on poisoning her son’s mind against Anna and having a family, probably because of her own unhappiness. She’s avoiding talking about the legal stuff involving her ex-husband. She mentions her friend, Eugenia, who’s experienced in “Satanic ritual abuse.” She claims that Dexter’s father Satanically abused her and she won’t hear otherwise. Definitely someone who has grounds to be claiming Anna’s the unstable one. Not to mention that Satanic ritual abuse was disproved long ago after the Satanic Panic of the 80s and early 90s literally put innocent people behind bars (some of whom, like Damien Echols, nearly died on Death Row).
Back at home, Anna and Nicolette briefly chat about pregnancy. Nicolette’s thrilled by the “sisterhood” of pregnant women. She congratulates Anna, but there’s something… weird… about Nicolette and her interest. Anna then finds flowers have arrived with her including a card that tells her she can’t trust anybody, like she doesn’t already have suspicious thoughts.

In the night, Anna hears strange sounds, almost like a scratching inside the walls. She goes to the fridge and finds very little except for some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream along with pickles; the trope of pregnancy hunger food rears its head. She goes for a spoon and finds a photograph of Dexter with his previous wife; the dead wife’s face morphs into Sonia’s face. So this just drives Anna to eat and eat and eat some more, going from mouthfuls of ice cream to crispy crunches of pickle until nothing remains. After that, there are more Satanic whisperings from downstairs, so Anna goes to take another look. She tries to open up a passageway down in the basement but winds up smacking her head. She wakes up some time later and goes to the bassinet where the dead, rotting fox lies with flies swarming around it. She notices her own mouth bleeding, too. Then there’s news about the Golden Globes buzzing on Anna’s phone. We hear that Anna’s nominated, and as soon as she hears this she takes a deep bite into the dead fox’s body, chewing up the dead, rotten meat.