Here's every time Emma Roberts' character died (and was resurrected) on American Horror Story. The horror anthology stories created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck debuted in October 2011 on FX, with subsequent seasons introducing different themes and characters. The pandemic caused production delays in March 2020, making it the first year American Horror Story didn't air a new installment in the fall. In March 2021, Murphy announced via Instagram that season 10's title was AHS: Double Feature and that it will deliver "two horrifying stories" in one season: "one by the sea ... one by the sand." Breaking with tradition, Part 1 of Double Feature will premiere on August 25.
Roberts is absent from the season 10 cast, which includes a mix of familiar and fresh faces and marks the returns of series mainstays and fan favorites Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson, who both sat out season 9's 1984. Roberts first appeared in Coven and quickly made a name for herself among an ensemble that included veteran actresses Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Angela Bassett.
AHS is never short on gore, killing off both main and supporting characters in creative and often disturbing ways. Before 1984, Roberts appeared in four seasons of the series, and her characters all met grisly ends, although supernatural storylines enabled one to be resurrected multiple times. 1984 was the first time Roberts' character - final girl Brooke Thompson - survived an entire season. Here's a look back at how Roberts' other characters died and how one in particular repeatedly returned to the land of the living.
Madison Montgomery - Coven/Apocalypse
Roberts made her AHS debut in season 3's Coven, playing Madison Montgomery, a Hollywood D-lister and witch. Believing Madison was in line to be the next Supreme, Fiona Goode urged Madison to kill her with the same knife Fiona used to murder her Supreme. When Madison refused, a physical altercation ensued that ended when Fiona slit Madison's throat. Madison's decaying body was kept in the attic and sexually assaulted by the necrophiliac butler Spalding. Zoe Benson discovered Madison and convinced Misty Day to use her power of resurgence to bring Madison back to life. However, when Madison refused to use Vitalum Vitalus to resurrect Zoe during the test of the Seven Wonders, Kyle Spencer strangled Madison, sending her to hell.
Season 8's Apocalypse had the witches from Coven fighting Michael Langdon, aka "the Antichrist." To demonstrate his power, Michael brought Madison back from her version of hell - working at a discount department store. Madison joined forces with the other witches to destroy Michael and save the world, but she lost her life (and head) during the battle. After Mallory successfully traveled back in time to kill Michael Langdon, changing the course of history, she revealed that Madison was back in hell, having never been freed by Michael.
Miss Rothschild/Maggie Esmerelda - Freak Show
In season 4's Freak Show, Roberts' character infiltrated Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities by pretending to be a fortune teller. After Maggie revealed Stanley's true identity and her part in killing and mutilating multiple freaks, she was determined to make up for her duplicity and win Jimmy Darling back. Her eagerness to please led her to volunteer to be part of a delusional Chester Creb's (Neil Patrick Harris) act. At the urging of his ventriloquist dummy, Marjorie, Chester planned to murder the Tattler twins by sawing them in half, but when they refused to get in the box, Maggie took their place. Neil Patrick Harris' Chester hallucinated that Maggie was his dead wife and her lover, whom he butchered, mocking him. In a homicidal rage, he carved Maggie in two during the season's penultimate episode.
Serena Belinda - Cult
Roberts' character in season 7's Cult was the ambitious Serena Belinda. Serena was determined to sleep her way to the anchor's desk, much to the dismay of fellow reporter Beverly Hope. To win Beverly's trust and indoctrinate her into his cult, Kai Anderson and two of his acolytes brutally stabbed Serena as she taped a segment for the local news.