WARNING: The following contains spoilers for American Horror Story: Double Feature Episode 8, "Inside," which aired Wednesday on FX.
The “horror” part of American Horror Story is never far from the surface, which means that few of its protagonists stand much of a chance against the forces arrayed against them. Even those in a position to help find their hands tied, and victory for the forces of light comes either at great cost or with the help of the show’s spot-on gift for karmic retribution. The newest season drives this home by including some of the most powerful people in history as its protagonists, then demonstrating how helpless they can be in the face of true evil.
The second half of Season 10, Death Valley, presents President Dwight Eisenhower as its central character, forced to confront an alien incursion on Earth and reckon with the extraterrestrials’ horrifying deal. He passes knowledge of the deed on to John F. Kennedy, who intends to go public with it. Kennedy is assassinated before that can happen, leaving the aliens’ plot intact and Eisenhower helpless to prevent any of it. In so doing, it makes them both victims, despite each of them occupying the most powerful position in the world.
Eisenhower gets the worst of it, starting with American Horror Story Season 10, Episode 7, “Take Me to Your Leader,” when he’s called away from a golfing trip to bear witness to a horrifying first contact. An alien vessel has crashed in the desert, and the extraterrestrials use the opportunity to make their offer: allow them to experiment on several thousand U.S. citizens each year in an effort to save their dying race, and the U.S. government will have access to their advanced technology.
From the beginning, Ike dislikes the deal, which arrives as an ultimatum as much as an offer. If the aliens can’t get what they need from the U.S., they can readily go to the Russians, and advanced technology in the hands of the Kremlin could make the Cold War’s overblown fears of communist domination a reality. Furthermore, the sheer power of the visitors makes any attempts at resistance futile, since they can possess human bodies and cause heads to explode with telekinesis. Accepting the deal is the only viable option Ike has.
Politics boxes him in too, a fact that the aliens seem keenly aware of. They occupy Mamie Eisenhower’s body long enough to reveal the existence of the offer to Richard Nixon, who puts all of his paranoid political tricks towards ensuring that the deal is made. In addition to facing the fact that the extraterrestrials could kill his wife whenever they wished, Eisenhower must contend with a vice president eager to take his place and cut a deal that he would not.
Kennedy plays far less of a central role in the episode, though that may change as American Horror Story's season finale grows closer. He’s shown confiding in his lover Marilyn Monroe – herself a possible alien agent – who urges him to take his knowledge of the treaty to the American public. In apparent response, he’s assassinated, which the Eisenhowers hear about just as they are enjoying dinner from a new “microwave oven” created with help from the aliens’ technology. It forces Eisenhower to ruminate on the folly of his decisions, even as Mamie tells him that she’s proud of his “patriotism” for making the deal happen.
It’s all the more chilling because of Eisenhower’s decency and courage as portrayed on the show. His first goal is the preservation of human life, and he mourns those he cannot help with heartbreaking empathy. He even grabs a pistol and enters one of the labs where a monstrous birth has taken place, his soldier’s instincts leading him to personally confront whatever horrors await. None of it does any good. For all his personal heroics and the immense resources of the office at his command, neither he nor Kennedy can do anything but bend before forces utterly beyond their control. It affirms one of American Horror Story’s guiding principles in the strongest possible terms: in this world, no one is safe, not even the President.
American Horror Story: Double Feature's second segment, "Death Valley," continues. New episodes air each Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.