Rating: 8.5/10

First clowns, then blood and now trypophobia takes over the newest episode. American Horror Story (AHS): Cult takes a more sophisticated, psychological turn in the second episode titled “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.”

In this episode, Ally and Ivy get new, suspicious neighbors after the previous ones die. Ally continues to be pummeled by her own fears of clowns and blood. However, her trypophobia starts to act up due to her neighbors owning a bee hive. Winter, Kai’s sister, continues to to terrorize Ally and Ivy’s son, named Ozzie, and Kai is running for city council to help carry out his plan.

The two newest cast members are Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman as the new neighbors Harrison and Meadow Wilton. I don’t why the show decided to put these two characters in the show. They bring nothing to the story; they’re just put into the show to make it more entertaining, which doesn’t work. The characters are one dimensional. There is no depth to these characters; they have no other sides to them besides one: having an exuberant personality. Also, the actors’ performances were pretty over the top. The Wiltons should’ve never moved in.

Although there was a horrible addition to the cast, the writing of the season is getting really good. There are still some distracting political undertones, but, overall, the season is turning out to be the best one of the series. The script also explores more of Ally’s fears. The last episode explores Ally’s fear of clowns, but this episode takes on trypophobia as her new fear. The new neighbors own a bee hive, and the little holes in the honeycombs start to make Ally uncomfortable. The beehive is also a brilliant metaphor for the show overall. Harrison explains how a bee hive is amazing because each individual bee is focused on an overall singular task. This perfectly describes Kai’s cult, which really brings the whole show into focus.

This episode gave me faith that this season will be one of the best. The story is getting darker, and the twists and turns are becoming more unexpected. I am very excited to see how Episode 3 plays out.