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This week's episode of American Horror Story: Cult did little to solve the mystery of who killed Meadow, but it did offer some insight into the ways Kai (Evan Peters) draws people into his cult. Using some moves straight out of the Charles Manson playbook, Kai works his way into his followers' lives by pretending to be relatively normal and calm, then finds out what upsets them and gradually starts hinting at ways they could solve their problems themselves. In the case of Harrison (Billy Eichner) and Beverly (Adina Porter), the solution involved serious violence. Kai convinced Harrison to kill his boss at the gym, and later had his clown minions murder Beverly's rival Serena (Emma Roberts).

As gruesome as all of that was, it wasn't exactly surprising — Kai's obviously had a grip on the minds of a lot of people since episode one. But unless you've been suspicious of Ivy (Alison Pill) all along, you probably didn't see the next big reveal coming: Ivy has known Winter (Billie Lourd) since the election. They met after Gary (Chaz Bono) assaulted Ivy at a rally and Winter came to her rescue; this somehow led to them deciding to kidnap Gary and handcuff him to a pipe so he couldn't cast a vote for Trump. Kai later comes along and convinces Gary to saw off his own arm so he can go vote for Trump, but ignore that for a second and concentrate on Ivy.

Was this a one-time flirtation with the cult for Ivy, or has she secretly been one of Kai's followers this whole time? She's thus far seemed like the only semi-decent person on the show, but there have been a few clues that indicate she's not as innocent as she appears to be:

1. She often diminishes Ally's fears and worries. This could be her way of trying to help Ally (Sarah Paulson) through her issues, but her tone never really comes off as sympathetic. It's more like, "I can't believe I'm still having to deal with this."

2. The cult knows a lot of very specific things about Ally's fears for them not to have someone on the inside. The only other person who knows so much about Ally's laundry list of phobias is Dr. Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson), another suspicious character.

3. There's a clown in the group with a striped shirt. A lot of people have striped shirts, it's true. But look at the hair!

Face, Head, Nose, Child, Cheek, Blond, Fun, Adaptation, Smile, Toddler, pinterest
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Mime artist, Fiction, Clown, Performing arts, Fun, Mask, Smile, pinterest
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4. Ivy sets Ally up for more trauma. Remember when Ally called Ivy freaking out about the power going off and Ivy sent Pedro home in her place? Given Ally's history, you would think that Ivy would have known that sending Pedro was a bad idea. She later admits that she should have gone home herself, but by that point, Pedro was dead. Did she know Ally would lose it and shoot him?

The preview for next week's episode doesn't elaborate on any of this, but keep an eye on Ivy anyway. Nobody who's that excited to tie a stranger up in a basement should be trusted!

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