Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Jen Maravegias | TV | October 30, 2026
Well, I was kind of right about what was going on this season on AHS 13. And “kind of” counts when parsing Ryan Murphy scripts.
In a very large nutshell:
When Pius XII became Pope, he found a letter explaining a bet between God and the Devil. If the Devil could live on earth, in a human body, for 100 years, then all of Heaven, Earth, and Hell would be his to rule.
Crusty old Mr. Nas is the human embodiment of the Devil, and Paul Anthony Kelly plays his handsome, noncorporeal form as he waits for his human body to reach 100 so he can attain full power and dominion over all creation. Every time a group of 13 humans is killed by one of Satan’s minions, Mr. Nas’ body ages and he gets closer to 100. Because Mallory (Billie Lourd) killed Michael Langdon, the previous Antichrist, in AHS Apocalypse, Satan has a personal vendetta against the coven of 13 and wants to make them one of his sacrifices. But he fails.
The witches enlist Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) to conjure up Papa Legba (Orlando Jones) to help them figure out how to defeat Satan. Legba tells them their best bet is to find the current Antichrist and turn him to their cause before Satan corrupts him completely.
You probably already guessed who that is.
Ben DeSoto (Joey Pollari) is the son of Satan, the Antichrist, and everything that has ever happened to him has been part of the plan to bring him into the family fold. But Ben’s A Good Guy, and he’s mad about all of the bad things that have happened to him. When The Handsome Devil tells him he’ll have unlimited power and will rule over all of Earth on his behalf, Ben’s first thought is that maybe he can use all of that power to do some good. But the Devil laughs at this, telling Ben that he’s not that good and absolute power will corrupt him absolutely.
Ben is summoned to the witches’ academy where he and Madison (Emma Roberts, who once again has some really great one-liners) immediately fall madly in love. There’s a brief montage of Madison’s tragic dating history that also covers her decision to freeze her eggs for some reason. The whole diversion feels very unnecessary, but at least it’s funny! She and Ben sleep together, and she is magically impregnated with a fetus that comes to term in seconds. Congratulations, Madison! You’ve given birth to Handsome Satan’s granddaughter!
Do you know who else is Satan’s granddaughter? Cordelia (Sarah Paulson).
Follow me here: Fiona’s (Jessica Lange) mother was a nun named Sister Jude (Jessica Lange). A direct descendant of one of the Salem witches, Jude ended up in an asylum (AHS Asylum) where she was impregnated by The Handsome Devil. She gave birth to twin girls; Fiona and Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) are sisters.
Fiona has been brought back from hell to help defeat Satan, and Constance has been magically summoned to New Orleans. They meet, and Constance is mad that she got all of their daddy’s darkness and none of their mother’s magic. Fiona believes she can teach her to bring out her magic, as she has taught generations of witches before her. We didn’t really need this storyline at all. It does not serve the plot, only Murphy’s desire to corral all of his Jessica Lange characters into one timeline.
Marie Laveau comes up with a plan and a spell to defeat Satan. They will sever The Handsome Devil from crusty old Mr. Nas, casting the Devil’s soul back into Hell and causing Mr. Nas to transform into an eternal baby, who the coven will then watch over for all of eternity to ensure he never reaches the age of 100.
Cordelia and Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) go to New York to enact the plan, and fail spectacularly. Sending them both to hell.
Mr. Nas is about to roll the odometer over to 100 after Mr. Phibes (John Waters) sacrifices a bunch of “rough trade” bank robbers and murderers, led by Cheyenne Jackson. The Handsome Devil swings by and tanks the whole project, killing Nas and Phibes.
He just changed his mind. He doesn’t want to rule over everything anymore. We humans are an unruly bunch. A real pain in the ass. And it turns out Satan doesn’t really want anything to do with us. Honestly, who could blame him right now? We’re a mess.
He releases Cordelia from Hell. Somehow, Queenie returns. And everything is fine.
The end.
Just kidding.
The Coven splits up. Some of the witches stay in New Orleans to run the school, and some of them move to New York, where they live in Mr. Nas’ apartment and hunt the streets for new witches.
Mallory decides it’s too dangerous for two Supremes to exist in the same timeline - oh, did I forget to mention they figured out Mallory was going to be the next Supreme? That happened somewhere around episode 10. Or maybe 11. Anyway, she goes off time traveling and comes back with a super secret 17th-century spell given to her by Salem witch Sarah Good, that should banish the Devil forever.
But the spell requires Ben, the 13th Antichrist, to make “the ultimate sacrifice” of himself. He’s reluctant because he has finally found love and has a family. But Ben’s A Good Guy. When the Antichrist destroys himself, the Handsome Devil is banished into DaVinci’s Last Supper as the thirteenth guest at the table for all eternity.
The end
Just kidding.
Earlier in the season, we were treated to a John Waters monologue about Mr. Phibes’ reward for helping Mr. Nas attain his 100 years: Being able to make his long-dreamed biker film inspired by Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising. The Handsome Devil kills him and Mr. Nas before that happens, but promises Phibes the reward will be his in Hell.
AHS 13 closes on John Waters directing a smutty, camp biker movie in Hell.
The one thing in the whole season that had me saying “OK, that makes sense.”
So, I guess the witches won. Another apocalypse has been avoided. Satan is stuck in a painting, like Dorian Gray. Queenie, Cordelia, Fiona, and Myrtle Snow are back from Hell. All is right with the world?
But Madison and Ben’s baby, the granddaughter of Satan, is still out there, being raised by a coven of witches (I assume). After Ben sacrificed himself, we see his ashes rising and floating into the fire. Meaning we’ll eventually come back to this story again.
Even though this season was one or two episodes longer than typical American Horror Story seasons, it was confusing and stuffed, like an overpacked suitcase, into its thirteen episodes. The story didn’t fall apart so much as it felt unnecessary from the beginning, and the ending was not at all satisfying. Would the Devil really get bored of a century-long game just as he’s about to win? The Devil is a petty narcissist. It seems unlikely that he’d give up regardless of how annoying human beings are. If he were bored of us, he’d set obstacles in our path, rain brimstone down upon us, or raise Leviathan from the sea. Something. But give up? Because he’s bored? It feels more like Ryan Murphy got bored of trying to tell this story and just gave up.
Other gripes I have about this season include Evan Peters being criminally underused, even though he appeared as three different characters. We definitely did not get enough of Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau either.
And, I struggle to understand why they bothered bringing back Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow, besides the sight gag of her personal hell as an employee of JCPenney.
Hopefully Murphy will be so busy with his upcoming “Untitled Vampire Project” and trying to get his who-asked-for-this reboot of Glee off the ground that we have time before another season of labyrinthine storytelling in the AHS Universe.
All episodes of AHS 13 are streaming on Hulu.
