Fans Have Spotted A Huge Timeline Error In 'American Horror Story: Apocalypse'

24 September 2018, 21:22

Has Ryan Murphy forgotten about what happened at the end of Hotel?

If you've been keeping up with American Horror Story: Apocalypse, you'll probably already be forming your conspiracy theories about what the hell is going on. From the arrival of the mysterious Michael Langdon and the true identities of Emily and Timothy to the absolutely WILD sex scene involving Evan Peters and the infamous Rubberman, there's a lot to take in. And now, it seems like we've got another thing to start theorising about: an apparent 'error' in the timeline.

Yep, there seems to be a big problem with the AHS timeline and no, we're not talking about the sudden growth spurt of Michael either, who was born in 2011. (The reason for that, by the way? It was stated in Murder House that he grew at a much faster pace than his twin brother and was a fully formed foetus after just 4 months (ish). So while he looks 25, he's actually like... 8 years old. #JustAntichristThings)

So, what's the big problem then? Well, the world seems to have ended a whole two years before the end of AHS: Hotel, which is shown to still exist in 2022.

Ryan Murphy explained a while back that Apocalypse would be set in the near future, around 18 months from "now." In the second episode of the season, fans noticed a very small but important detail on Michael Langdon's laptop. When Emily and Timothy go rifling through his emails, you can clearly read the date on the screen. The month and year the show is currently set in? October 2021.

The date of the emails makes total sense given the 18 month in-bunker time jump and everything that's been teased by Murphy BUT... fans have pointed out that there's now a huge error in the AHS timeline thanks to the ending of Hotel.

If you can cast your minds back to 2016, you'll remember that Hotel ended with Sarah Paulson's Billie Dean Howard filming three episodes of her TV show on Devil's Night... which took place on October 30th... 2022.

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So, if we already know that the AHS universe still exists in 2022, how could the world have 'ended' in 2019? Fans have taken to Twitter to call out the show on the 'timeline error' but it's worth remembering that the storyline we've seen so far might not be as concrete as we've been lead to believe.

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Murphy has stated that there will be a big twist in the fifth episode of the season ("It’s a season unlike anything we’ve done because there’s a big hook to it. There’s a huge thing that happens in episode five,") and judging by what happened with the big twist in Roanoke, it sounds like nothing is going to be what we thought it was. Interestingly enough, the sixth episode of the season is titled "Return To Murder House" which, as we know, technically doesn't exist anymore thanks to the nuclear blast that wiped out California. Unless we see it in flashback, of course.

But, what if it turns out the apocalypse hasn't actually happened yet? There's been theories about everything we've seen so far being one of Cordelia's visions (remember when she was blind and she obtained The Sight?) but surely a vision couldn't be THAT detailed, even for the Supreme. Whatever happens, it'd be wise to take everything you've seen so far with a LARGE pinch of salt.

Do you really think Murphy would have slipped up on something so simple as the main timeline? Oh no, honey... we've got a big storm coming.