American Horror Story season 10 follows a Cape Cod-area town full of blood-sucking people, where AHS creator Ryan Murphy is hinted at being a vampire himself in the show's canon. Although AHS: Double Feature teased, including a mermaid or sirens theme, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk surprised audiences by making the season's mythological creatures vampires. Double Feature: Red Tide follows a screenwriter who moves to Provincetown, Massachusetts, for the winter with his family, hoping to conjure some much-needed inspiration. His wish comes true, but only when he discovers the sinister nature of P-Town’s off-season residents.
After Harry meets award-winning playwright Austin Sommers (played by Evan Peters) and best-selling romance author Belle Noir at The Muse restaurant, he’s invited to come over and speak about how the talented writers get their inspiration from the town. Austin explains that he comes out for the winter and takes a little black pill, which has no name and no description of what’s inside; it just makes the stories in your head fall right out onto the page. In Austin’s pitch, he did happen to leave out the key side effect that it’ll turn him into a vampire, but it doesn't take long for Harry to find that out.
When explaining how Austin himself was introduced to Provincetown and the talented magic of the black pill, he says another creative friend of his recommended it a few years before. When Austin describes the friend who used to spend his winters there, he sounds eerily like AHS creator Ryan Murphy: “He writes for television. You know the name. Disgustingly prolific, filthy rich, couldn’t write a thank you note without someone handing him a trophy of some kind.” After coming out for the winter, Austin’s friend would return with a tremendous stack of ideas, all of which can apply to Murphy. Considering Murphy has written or created over 20 television series, plenty of cash tossed his way by FX and Netflix, and has won 6 Emmys out of 35 nominations, it seems pretty clear. Also, Austin saying “you know the name” seems like it could have been delivered looking into the camera, telling the audience they obviously know because they’re watching his show.
The most obvious clue in connecting Austin’s story to AHS's Ryan Murphy was the bit about how he comes back from the town with an insane amount of fresh ideas. Ryan Murphy is notable for biting off more television series at once than most people could chew, but he continually does so flawlessly. Without revealing Ryan Murphy’s true secrets behind crafting all of his series like AHS, Pose, Glee, The Politician, Hollywood, Ratched, and more, he hints in Double Feature that it’s because he visits Provincetown and takes The Chemist’s special black pill. Within the dialogue of Austin’s speech, Murphy also relates that not every show creator should try this tactic; it only works if the person is especially talented like himself. The more interesting implication from the connection is that this makes Ryan Murphy a blood-sucking vampire within American Horror Story's canon, drinking blood to feed his inspiration.
Aside from the recent reveal that AHS exists within its own universe, Red Tide is the first time the series has indirectly acknowledged Ryan Murphy as a real pop culture figure. Since Austin hints that his friend doesn’t come out to Provincetown for winters anymore, it seems unlikely Murphy himself will show up in Red Tide. At the same time, Ryan Murphy notably does own a house in Cape Cod’s Provincetown, which he’s had for a few years. The town is also near and dear to his heart, having wed his husband on the P-Town beach back in 2012. Without actually having Austin say his name, American Horror Story made it clear Austin's mysterious writer friend is actually the seasonal Cape Cod resident Ryan Murphy, who also happens to be a vampire in franchise lore.