WARNING: The following contains spoilers for American Horror Story: Double Feature Episode 3, "Thirst," which aired Wednesday on FX.
Macaulay Culkin has been one of the more pleasant surprises on this season’s American Horror Story. His storied past never diminished a very talented actor, and fans who know him only from the Home Alone films may be surprised at the darkness and vulnerability of his hustler here. The series, ever mindful of pop culture, didn’t let the opportunity pass without taking advantage of it. In an elegant reversal, Culkin’s character gets to play the burglar. The results are both funny and grim.
Culkin shot to fame at the age of ten as Kevin McAllister, the hero of Home Alone inadvertently left behind by his harried parents over the holidays. When a pair of burglars tries to break in on Christmas Eve, he fights them off with a series of improvised booby traps before his family returns to reconcile with him. The film was a colossal hit when it was released just before Thanksgiving in 1990, and has gone on to become a holiday classic. Culkin “retired” from acting at the age of 14, followed by a series of scandals and personal tragedies that took him out of the limelight. He has made a few notable appearances since then – notably on Will & Grace and the 2003 independent film Party Monster – but largely remained off screen since his heyday.
American Horror Story finds him playing Mickey, a would-be screenwriter reduced to drug addiction and male prostitution on the wintry shores of Cape Cod. In Season 10, Episode 3, “Thirst” he engages in not one but two inept break-ins. The first comes at the behest of Ursula, a talent agent who’s onto the show’s mysterious black pills, and who tasks him with breaking into the home of Belle Noir in order to steal some. That seems to be successful until he finds Belle waiting for him in his house. She orders him to break into Ursula’s hotel room and kill her. There too, he finds his would-be victim miles ahead of him.
The parallels are subtle but striking. The two burglaries follow the arc of both Home Alone and its first sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The first takes place in a suburban home, the second, a high-end hotel. The time of year is the same as well – in the winter, at a time when local homeowners are out of town and burglaries are common – and for all of Mickey’s desperation, he still shows flashes of Kevin’s confidence in his schemes.
“Thirst” takes those parallels and contrasts them with a lot of hard, adult tragedy. Part of Kevin’s appeal was his self-sufficiency. Before the burglars’ invasion, he teaches himself how to cook and clean, as well as giving the impression that his all-but empty house is fully occupied by family members during the holidays. It made the film something of an empowerment fantasy for young viewers, which added to its bright comedic tone and eventual evergreen status. Mickey, on the other hand, is a desperate crystal meth addict who sees in the black pills his one chance at escaping his miserable life, and stumbles over himself trying to grab it.
And yet in a strange way, he’s still Kevin’s spiritual kin. For all of his missteps in the episode, he’s still alive and very much a participant in the town’s emerging power politics. He strikes a bargain with Ursula that seems sensible – he understands where his best chances lie – and with so little to lose, he’s clearly willing to take risks that some of his ostensibly more powerful foils won’t. That makes him a wild card, with the potential for unexpected behavior that could catch his supposed controllers by surprise. Kevin had the same energy – the entire film hinges on the burglars underestimating him – and Culkin makes the emotional connection between the two characters beautifully.
American Horror Story embraces morality plays, which means downtrodden figures like Mickey sometimes end up as the last one standing at the end of the season. Either way, "Thirst" relies on viewers’ past associations to bring his dire status home. Culkin proves a strong choice for the character as it stands, but the links to Home Alone turn his performance into something special.
New episodes of American Horror Story: Double Feature air each Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.