From the looks of how Rockabye’s promise of a sweet dream strings Anna along to desert her in the middle of a nightmare, Halley Feiffer isn’t playing around. And neither is the 12th season of American Horror Story, as our haunted, paranoid actress’ conditions are evidently growing more and more delicate. Callously multiplying the stakes that waged a war against Anna’s emotional and physical well-being in Multiply Thy Pain, the second episode hoists her up only to drop her on the cold, hard ground of unfathomable terror. How’s our Gotham Award winner handling her increasingly wicked personal and professional life? Let’s find out.
Spoilers Ahead
Congratulations Are In Order
Just when you thought that a signature dismissive husband whose wife is being haunted by something very obviously sinister couldn’t have any redeemable qualities. Dex gives you a pleasant surprise. You’re right, Dex; Anna isn’t making it up. But how seriously the cops are going to take her plight is frustrating enough—the big question. The security footage doesn’t just indicate that nothing strange (other than Anna’s lipstick-reddened hands and hate-comment mirror, of course) was afoot, but apparently, Dex made a little jaunt to get some dog food on the night of the break-in.
We sure would’ve found him adorable in that pastel pink beanie if he weren’t so cavalier! Anna can’t possibly be expected to keep her cool when the woman in black eerily metamorphoses into a toddler with the same fashion sense. But there’s no reason for her to dump all hope when not just one but two pieces of grand news are on their way to Anna. Where do I sign up for a best friend like Siobhan? With her setting cutthroat boundaries for Anna to revamp her image and the team’s “jaw-breaking” efforts to get the actress a Gotham Award nomination, there’s no stopping Anna from getting closer to that much-sought-after Academy Award. Although that bizarre vial claiming to contain Vitamin B12 probably shouldn’t have been consumed by someone with a painfully implanted embryo growing within her womb. All’s well, though. At least, as of now. With a brand new zit on her pretty little chin, freshly back from throwing up in the bathroom, Anna didn’t expect to overhear Dr. Hill trying to dodge her call. Ouch! 11 more days of excruciating waiting until the woman desperate for motherhood can take a pregnancy test. And Dr. Hill’s assistant reassuring Anna that Miss Preecher is too old and feeble to follow her around does nothing to calm her down.
Is Anna pregnant?
Ol’ Miss Preecher may not have the healthiest knees, but she sure does know how to create a moodboard of sorts, crammed with conspiracy theories and a picture of the anxious Anna. Apparently, witches run Hollywood. And if I know the Murphy-Falchuk universe at all, I wouldn’t put it past AHS to draw the connection that we’ve all been expecting and re-evoke the “Coven” vibes. I can practically hear Kim K’s sassy chants summoning Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, and Taissa Farmiga. Anna, sadly, is hardly as over the moon at the mention of witches as yours truly, and bearing the brunt of her agitation and the tip of her knife is Dex’s poor face. She’s losing time, though, as she’s dumbfounded to see that it’s been two weeks already, and it’s time for her to put Dr. Hill’s expertise to the test.
Well, it looks like the embryo has survived the overwhelming amount of anxiety Anna’s been enduring, and she is finally pregnant with Dex’s child. It’s pretty odd of Dr. Hill to ask his patient to avoid stress with that terrifying look on his face, don’t you think? I guess that’s how Hollywood doctors work. When it rains, it pours. And to top off her happiness over finally conceiving after multiple trials and errors, Siobhan has gotten her hands on Madonna’s gorgeous white gown from the Oscars for Anna to rock on the Gotham Awards show. A spontaneously shattering mirror can’t be anything but a bad omen. And when it shatters just in time for Anna and her bestie’s dance to come to a halt, they’re basically told that the show is not going to end well.
Does Anna have a Miscarriage? Who is Ivy?
The most tried and tested horror trope that flourishes in all its vicious glory in “Delicate” is how a victim’s innate insecurities are the strongest weapon at their enemy’s disposal. We don’t know much or, frankly, anything about who’s after Anna and why she’s going through the things that she’s going through. But one thing is for certain: whether it’s all in her mind, she’s being targeted by a sinister force, or it’s a terrifying amalgamation of both, Anna’s insecurities are what’s being preyed on. Take the younger actress stealing the spotlight on the Gotham Awards red carpet, for instance. Is it just the universe’s conniving design tightening its grip around Anna and crushing her spirit in every possible way? Is she just this unlucky? Even as her obnoxious director can’t keep his mouth shut and blurts out his most ill-timed question about the break-in, you can’t help but think in the same vein as Anna.
Everything and everyone around her is conspiring against her. Why else would Anna’s plight of peeling off her own skin be doubled down on with a creepy fan grabbing her stomach? The absolute terror that engulfs her as one light push leads to the woman lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood is unfathomable. But Anna perseveres. Even as Zachary Quinto hands her the award, it is followed by terrifying visions of the bloodied woman clapping away and Dex getting mushy with his dead ex-wife and her artist lookalike. The horror! If throwing up on stage is not bad press, I don’t know what is. But Siobhan can spin it in her favor, right? And as long as Talia’s literal glass house is available for Anna and Dex to take a little retreat away from all the horror, there’s no reason Anna shouldn’t recover.
Luck, however, is not her best friend. That is, if it was luck that placed a picture of Anna’s dead nemesis in the cutlery drawer in the first place. Nothing a yoga session can’t fix. But wait, there’s blood pouring down Anna’s legs as Kamal frantically drives her to the local hospital. Was it the supposed B12? Or was this obvious miscarriage brought on by the sedative she was forcefully injected with when she freaked out at the award show? It could be either. Or it could be the eerie Ivy’s very intrusive ultrasound that put an end to the fetus that was supposed to be Anna and Dex’s boy. By now, we are well aware that the woman in black who’s been following Anna is none other than Ivy, the icy pretend nurse who gave Anna the chills and left to go look for a doctor. But there’s no nurse named Ivy in the small community hospital that Anna was brought to. Considering all of this can’t possibly be a long ruse her mind’s playing on her, there’s certainly something supernatural at play here. For now, Anna somehow has to clutch her heart, bear the pain of yet another failed attempt at conceiving, and hopefully get out of it all in one piece.
