Suggesting that its classification as a “miniseries or TV movie” was just a cheap ploy to win Emmys, Ryan Murphy has confirmed that all of the seasons of American Horror Story are, in fact, connected. This news comes from a recent interview that Murphy—who co-created American Horror Story—did with Entertainment Weekly, in which he responded to the recent reveal that Lily Rabe would be appearing on the show’s current Freak Show season as Sister Mary Eunice, her character from the show’s Asylum year. This casting announcement raised a lot of questions about how the show’s varyingly nutso seasons actually fit together, but it seems like Murphy actually has some kind of grand scheme that cohesively ties everything up in a way that doesn’t seem at all crazy just for the sake of being crazy. However, we are talking about Ryan Murphy, so it’s extremely likely that he’ll come up with a bizarre twist at any moment and throw all of this supposed interconnectedness out the window.
Anyway, beyond Freak Show‘s ties to Asylum, Murphy implied that something in season four will connect with something in season one—retroactively titled Murder House—which will be a neat trick since the two are set decades apart from each other. Also, a seemingly throwaway scene in this current season that featured Emma Roberts’ Maggie being handed a coffee cup with a top hat on it is apparently an “arcane” and “very purposeful” clue to season five. All we know about American Horror Story‘s next season at the moment is that it might be Lange-less, so maybe this means a top hat will replace her as one of the female leads. Just picture all of the off-putting sex scenes they’ll be able to do!