WARNING! Spoilers ahead for American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3!
American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3, “Drive,” is full of twists as the real killer is revealed in the gory ending. While American Horror Stories has generally been received with less love than American Horror Story, the spinoff can always be counted on to introduce shocking twists at the end of each episode. Just like the terrifying twist ending of American Horror Stories’ episode “Aura” or the incredible twist revealing various connections to AHS: Coven at the end of “Dollhouse,” American Horror Stories season 2’s “Drive” delivers on an unexpectedly brutal final act.
Featuring Bella Thorne as the lead in American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3’s cast, “Drive” follows club girl Marci as she continues to pick up random men despite warnings of nightclub disappearances. Both her husband Chaz, with whom she has a seemingly open marriage, and best friend Piper fear for her safety, especially after a mysterious red Jeep follows her home and rams her car one night. However, all is not what it seems for Marci in American Horror Stories’ season 2 episode, as her confrontation with the red Jeep’s driver, Paul Winowski (Nico Greetham from AHStories' "The Naughty List"), soon reveals the serial killer’s true identity.
The majority of American Horror Stories’ “Drive” led viewers to expect Paul to be the nightclub serial killer, but it turned out to be none other than the main character Marci. Her “open marriage” with Chaz later revealed that they were a serial killing tag-team, with her bringing home and killing the victims while he buried the bodies in their wine cellar. The twist ending of American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3 certainly cleared up the real reason why Chaz was worried about reports of a serial killer, but ultimately left more questions than it answered.
What Happens In American Horror Stories Season 2 Ep 3’s Ending
In American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3’s ending, Marci confronts Paul about why he followed her home from the club and rammed into her car, with Nico Greetham’s character explaining that he was actually trying to warn her. Having paid attention to news reports of disappearances from nightclubs, Paul kept honking and flashing his lights at Marci when he saw a man’s head continue to pop up in her back seat. Once confessing this, Bella Thorne’s American Horror Stories season 2 character injects him with a tranquilizer, revealing that she was the nightclub serial killer all along. American Horror Stories’ “Drive” then cuts to Paul tied up and gagged in Marci’s house, where she tells him why she takes revenge on clubbers and ends up cutting off his finger and abruptly killing him with a knife. In another last-minute twist, Marci decides she wants Paul to start killing her “guests” as well, with American Horror Stories’ season 2 episode ending as they work together to murder her best friend Piper.
What The Mark Is On Marci’s Neck
Marci has a mysterious purple mark along her neck and face that she covers up with makeup throughout American Horror Stories’ “Drive.” In American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3’s ending, Marci reveals that she was cruelly bullied for the mark throughout high school by jocks and popular guys, so she takes revenge on them now by killing them. While Marci doesn’t explicitly name it, she was born with a port-wine stain birthmark on her neck and face, which is caused by swollen blood vessels that discolor the skin in a purple-red manner. It seems Marci found out how to completely cover the birthmark with makeup in adulthood, but wasn’t able to do so when she was in high school.
Marci’s American Horror Stories Drive Serial Killer Twist Explained
Once Marci injects the character of AHS: Death Valley cast member Nico Greetham with animal tranquilizers, American Horror Stories flashes back to reveal what actually happened on the night that he had rammed into her car to “help” her. Marci had actually been taking Wyatt home to kill after the two hooked up in her car, but the tranquilizer didn’t work on him, so his head kept popping up in the car and alerted Paul. While it seemed that Piper and Chaz had been worried that Marci would be the serial killer’s next victim, American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3’s ending twist implies that Chaz was only worried that she would get caught for her crimes.
American Horror Stories’ “Drive” twist also reveals that Marci became a killer so as to take revenge on the confident men who had tormented her back in high school. American Horror Stories' season 2 character Piper catches onto this as her motive, but thinks that she’s only hooking up with the random clubbers, not taking them home to murder. It’s unclear why Chaz was content with Marci killing all of these random men that he later had to bury in their wine cellar, but he seems to have known that she had a homicidal streak at the beginning of their marriage. Now that both Marci and Chaz will be working together to kill clubbers around town, it seems all the more likely that they’ll be caught for their crimes.
What Was The Point Of AHStories S2 Ep 3’s Urban Legend?
The beginning of American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3 introduced a red herring for the nature of the American Horror Story spinoff’s killer. After leaving the club one night, Marci is closely followed by a Jeep that honks at her, flashes its high beams, rams into the back of her car, and continues to speed behind her, which American Horror Stories’ character Piper realizes matches an urban legend. In the legend, a woman was driving home when a van began following her, honking, flashing its lights, and running into her. However, it wasn’t until she got home that she realized the van was trying to warn her, as a serial killer had been sitting in her back seat.
Despite the opening scene of American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3, “Drive,” mirroring this legend, Marci’s twist ending reveals that this was simply a coincidence. She hadn’t intended the night to repeat the circumstances of the legend, but it certainly helped keep suspicion away from her. Based on the real-life “killer in the backseat” urban legend, which was already adapted for an episode of Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens, this serial killer story may have actually made for a more compelling horror story than the “Drive” twist. However, for those who knew the legend, they would have been expecting the American Horror Stories killer to have been in the back seat, but making Marci the killer instead was a far bigger twist.
How Many People Has Marci Killed?
Considering Chaz mentions that their wine cellar graveyard is getting full, Marci’s kill count was already extremely high before American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3. The Ryan Murphy TV show depicts Marci killing three people (Wyatt, Paul, and Piper), but there are various missing persons posters and newspaper clippings that bring the total much higher. From the board in Paul’s room, it seems there are at the very least 10 more people that Marci killed before American Horror Stories’ season 2 episode, so a very conservative estimate of her kill count is at 13.
Why Marci Decided To Kill Paul & Piper In Drive’s Ending
While Paul still could have become one of her victims in the future, Marci needed to kill him because he knew too much about her killing Wyatt, plus the fact that he had been following the nightclub serial killer case made him dangerous to her. In the American Horror Stories season 2 episode's ending, Marci ultimately explains that she needs to kill him because he seems like the same type of guy that tormented her in high school. As for Piper, her best friend, Marci decided to kill her because she had insulted her at the nightclub and decided to stop being friends with her. It also didn’t help that Piper had called out her insecurities from high school as the reason for her behavior, which ended up being the true reason why Marci was killing nightclubbers. Piper being worried about her safety had also stood in Marci’s way of finding new victims, so American Horror Stories season 2, episode 3’s serial killer ended “Drive” with her best friend as her next “guest.”