FX’s American Horror Story
12×05: “Preech”
Directed by John J. Gray
Written by Halley Feiffer

* For a recap & review of 12×04, click here.
* For a recap & review of 12×06, click here.
Manhattan, 1987.
Young Ms. Preecher is going into labour. She’s rushed to the hospital where Dr. Hill’s waiting for her along with some nurses. Apparently, Ms. Preecher “made a deal that cannot be reneged.” A deal with who, exactly? The whole procedure’s a bit unprofessional, just from the way Dr. Hill talks to Ms. Preecher. And then, of course, they’re joined by Ashley and Ashleigh in their dark cloaks, as the blood runs out of the woman and the two cloaked figures push on her belly to force the baby out. A monstrous birth, indeed.

Skip to the Hamptons of 2023.
Virginia’s still trying to persuade her son to testify for her character and against his father’s character. This doesn’t sit well with Dexter, who still loves his father. Virginia can’t turn back now when it comes to the trial. She doesn’t care about how people see her. She’s convinced that she was Satanically abused and she’s, admittedly, desperate. She tries guilting Dexter into standing by her side, using the fact that she physically birthed him into the world as leverage. And still, her son won’t agree to testify. Virginia tells him: “You‘re going to regret not believing me.”
Anna runs into rival actress Babette at Siobhan’s office and isn’t happy about it. She wonders why Siobhan is working with an actress in the same competing category of the Golden Globes, but her agent says there’s nothing fishy about it. Siobhan appears very cold here compared to the other times we’ve seen her with Anna. Not only that, she’s pushing those weird blood-red supplements on Anna since it’s “Awards Season.” In the street afterwards, Anna nearly gets run over by a vehicle when she spies Io Preecher watching her across the road. Then, suddenly, Ms. Preecher disappears into thin air. At home, Anna hears more Satanic whisperings that lead her back to the fridge, inside of which are a ton of new Ben & Jerry’s cartons. She goes back to the drawer, where the photograph of Dexter and his dead wife is still sitting. She looks at it but the face doesn’t change into Sonia’s face as it did before.

In the city, Virginia leaves a meeting with her lawyer and stumbles onto an unfriendly street where a dog barks at her, voices cackle in the distance, and then a couple goats turn up, as do four dark-cloaked figures. She runs back out from the alleyway and then comes face-to-face with Io Preecher, who wants to have a chat. Io talks about when she was 25 and a rising fashion star, hoping to be a designer. She was “scooped up by Lagerfeld and St. Laurent” but then she had a fling during Fleet Week that ended in pregnancy. She met a woman who wanted her baby, in exchange for big things. She says the women are “planning something.” Virginia asks why Io’s come to her and the latter says it’s because Dexter and Anna are in danger. Io says the couple are in the crosshairs because Dexter’s dead wife was a prized possession of whatever shadowy group is behind all this madness.
Back home, Anna gets a house call from Dr. Hill. She’s in serious pain, but the doc plays it off as typical pregnancy pains. He does his best smiley face doctor impression and then tries to gaslight Anna a bit for good measure. He insists that Anna can’t travel any more, even though the Golden Globes are coming up. He says being a parent means “having your dreams crushed.” And he tells Anna: “Stop listening to your gut.” Maybe the better advice is be afraid of whatever’s in your gut.

When Anna’s in the shower later she finds more bloody hair coming out of her head. Then the lights flicker and the sound of a goat approaches. For a second it’s as if the goat’s right in the shower with Anna. But then it’s gone. Anna goes looking for any sign of strangeness, only to find one of those old dolls from the TV show in her past sitting out; it even has a bloody, patchy scalp like Anna’s own. Incredibly creepy. Later that day, Anna and Dexter have Sonia come over for dinner with them. When Sonia does turn up she isn’t welcomed warmly by Nicolette immediately; what’s going on there? Then Anna and Sonia get some time alone together, as the former tells the latter she’s sorry for potentially acting weird lately. Sonia tells Anna not to worry, then she asks about the stalker. Anna mentions thinking Sonia was following her, and she talks about the “green shoes,” but Sonia claims to never wear green. So, has Anna been seeing what she thinks? Or is it really just paranoid delusion?
Hamish is getting curious about the screenplay Siobhan brought him, the film in which Anna starred that’s now getting nominated for tons of awards. He knows there’s something not quite right. Yet Siobhan isn’t about to tell him the truth. There’s definitely something dark going on, but what is it exactly? The typical Satanic quest for fame we see so often? Could it be something far bigger? At the same time Hamish and Siobhan are arguing over fame and fortune, Anna’s walking Sonia back to her car after dinner. Anna asks Sonia about the photograph from the cutlery drawer featuring Dexter and his dead wife; Sonia immediately recognises how similar she and the dead wife look. Anna asks if Sonia knew Dexter’s wife, but Sonia says she’d remember meeting her “less evil twin.”
That evening, Anna starts to feel stranger about Nicolette, who seems to have recognised Sonia and pretends not to know about the dead wife Adeline. Then Nicolette even opens up Anna’s gift from Sonia: inside is a stuffed owl.

The doc suggests a bit of massage therapy for Anna, so she goes to meet a woman called Cora. Anna has to sign a consent form, but she’s told it’s “standard practice” and she doesn’t bother to read it. Cora gets Anna comfortable on the table before getting to work with her hands. She’s working away and it makes Anna feel uncomfortable. Anna finally has to outright say “Get your fingers out of me,” which stops Cora in her tracks. A creepy moment, especially after Cora made a big deal of saying “It‘s your body!” only a few minutes prior. In so many ways, Anna’s body has not been her own for quite a while. When she gets home she tells Dexter about Cora violating her. This makes Dexter laugh instead of taking his wife seriously, which deeply pisses Anna off. Then he gets very nasty with her; there’s absolutely a dark side to him. He has the nerve to tell Anna not to laugh at him when she cackles at his suggestion that she’s only upset over missing the Golden Globes, right after he laughed at her for saying she was molested. Anna wants Dexter to admit he thinks she’s crazy. So he admits it, finally, as if even the audience couldn’t tell. Things are changing in this relationship, but, in the end, does that matter? Is Anna and her unborn child’s fate already sealed? Is there even a child in there, or is it a demon baby like Mary I of England seemingly delivered?

Anna watches the Golden Globes ceremony on her phone, only to see her rival Babette win and give a speech. She has those old Anna dolls with her, too. Then she starts to cough and spits out what looks like a spiked tooth, maybe belonging to the demon child in her belly. She hears a woman’s voice somewhere within the walls laughing. Then her phone rings; it’s Siobhan, dangling hopes of an Oscar in front of her client. Anna agrees to do whatever Siobhan says in order to get an Academy Award. Except suddenly someone grabs Anna and pulls her away. She wakes up a bit later to Dexter with news of Babette being decapitated in a car crash, and Siobhan’s already calling.