American Horror Stories’ season 2 episode “Milkmaids” repeats a disturbing cannibalistic feature of AHS: Apocalypse. American Horror Stories is FX on Hulu’s AHS spinoff series, which tells a new story every episode rather than every season. Several of American Horror Stories’ episodes have repeated familiar storylines or are directly connected to past seasons and characters of AHS, including an odd cannibal link between Cody Fern’s characters in “Milkmaids” and Apocalypse.
“Milkmaids” is set in New England in 1757, following a small Puritan village trying to find cures for the deadly smallpox virus. Before the milkmaids discover that the pus from and previous exposure to cowpox help prevent smallpox infections, Pastor Walter and Thomas (Cody Fern) test out a theory that cutting out the heart of the dead and burning it will stop the disease’s spread. However, this is taken a step further when the Pastor suggests eating the hearts will cure those infected with smallpox. Following this reveal, the village begins exhuming the dead, cutting out their hearts, and engaging in the cannibalistic ritual of eating the organs.
As disturbing as the action is, this isn’t the first time the American Horror Story has included the act of cutting out hearts and eating them. Seemingly not a coincidence, Cody Fern’s AHS: Apocalypse character Michael Langdon ate the hearts of two people in season 8. However, while he unabashedly ate the hearts in Apocalypse, Fern’s American Horror Stories season 2 character is the one who initially advises against eating the organs. Michael Langdon ate hearts due to his title as the Antichrist, with the sacrifice of beating hearts being one of his sacrificial rituals to Satan. In American Horror Stories’ “Milkmaids,” however, the cannibalism is seen as the cure for smallpox advised by God. While the act of eating hearts in a ritual loosely connects “Milkmaids” to Michael Langdon’s Apocalypse story, American Horror Stories season 1's "Feral" had already included a cannibal story starring Cody Fern – but he wasn’t the one eating humans that time.
Why American Horror Stories Season 2 Has So Many Coven Connections
While American Horror Stories “Milkmaids”’s cannibalism connects to Apocalypse, this AHS season was an extension of both Murder House and Coven. Before “Milkmaids,” American Horror Stories’ season 2 episode “Dollhouse” had a direct Coven connection as it told the origin story of the AHS season 3 character Spalding. Later episodes of American Horror Stories season 2 are also teasing links to Coven stories, such as some characters sewing the bodies of the dead and apparently forming relationships with the resurrected similarly to Madison and Zoe.
Much like the way that American Horror Stories season 1 returned to Murder House in three episodes, season 2 seems to be using American Horror Story: Coven as an inspiration for its tales. “Milkmaids” is also set in Puritan New England, which suggests the episode’s village is in Massachusetts, perhaps even near the Coven-related Salem. This location is familiar to several American Horror Story seasons, as Murder House, Asylum, Coven, and the Provincetown-set Red Tide all had notable connections to the state. As American Horror Stories continues, it seems each installment will incorporate features or memorable plotlines of past American Horror Story seasons, with season 2’s common link being Coven.