WARNING: The following contains spoilers for American Horror Story: Double Feature Episode 6, "Winter Kills," which aired Wednesday on FX.
American Horror Story’s coastal New England setting this season has been compared to Stephen King, and rightfully so. The dour, taciturn residents of Provincetown, MA, closely resemble the characters in his works, keeping to themselves and paying no mind to the dark goings-on in the shadows. The mid-season finale finally brought their monstrosity to the surface, but this time, the show chose another horror classic to make the connection. Jaws, the 1975 blockbuster that launched the career of Steve Spielberg, finally gets its due in typical American Horror Story fashion.
Trappings of the famous shark movie have always circled around the edge of the first half of “Double Feature,” though very subtly in most cases. The show’s cold beaches and icy ocean speak to the same fear of the unknown as the film, while the vampires’ teeth more closely resemble an even-rowed shark’s mouth than the traditional pointed eyeteeth of the undead. Yet it refrained from making any direct nods until the end of the storyline. The homage more than makes up for the wait.
Season 10, Episode 6, “Winter Kills” opens with a Provincetown City Council meeting, featuring a number of characters who have served only peripheral roles until now. They’re the locals, here year ‘round in contrast to the ghoulish writer brigade, quietly reinforcing their banal zoning restrictions and acceptable exterior building colors when a state trooper arrives to inform them that their chief of police has been murdered. The council responds with dismissive chuckles, even going so far as to suggest a fishing boat did it.
The callous nature of it is shocking enough, but when the trooper presses for reasons, the council’s economic Darwinism becomes clear. Provincetown depends on summer tourism and the murder of the police chief would cause a scandal that might affect the business they all depend on. It’s a ready nod to Jaws, specifically its infamous mayor who fought every effort to make the beaches safe from the shark in the name of commerce. The film also features a similar meeting with the city council, who are quietly appalled that the police chief wants the beaches closed and who don’t understand why the shark might change things.
In the movie, it’s merely a case of callousness, as the town’s private concerns ultimately override public safety. “Winter Kills” takes it a step further, revealing that Provincetown is ultimately in cahoots with both the Chemist and her favorite clients like Belle Noir. They get rid of the bodies in the winter and push the Pales back into the woods during the summer, allow Belle and Austin to feed at leisure, and can claim that literary royalty write their works in their little town. Problems only arrive when the bodies pile up, and – in one of the episode’s more surprising power reversals – Denis O’Hare’s fussy councilman curtly informs Belle that she needs to clean up the mess or face the consequences.
The council endures because they accept just enough evil in their midst to get away with it. The show’s condemnation of them echoes back to the town in Jaws, which sees nothing in the tourists getting chewed up in the surf. That film was set during the summer, “Winter Kills” quite obviously takes place during a different time of year, when the visitors can all go home and the town can drop the façade.
That too is King’s realm, where small-town evils are often devoured by the larger monsters they attract. Here, the reverse is true, as the council gets what it needs from Belle and Austin, then discards them when they become a liability. In their own way, that makes them as evil as the two bloodsuckers, and the fact that they get away with it while most of the season’s other villains finally meet their just desserts speaks volumes. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if Amity Island’s winters look any different than theirs.
American Horror Story: Double Feature airs each Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.