Entertainment

That Time Sarah Paulson Had Two Heads...

by Kaitlin Reilly

Are you excited to meet the American Horror Story "freaks" this October? I know I am. American Horror Story: Freak Show is shaping up to be one of the creepiest installments of the series, in part due to the collection of characters this show already has on its roster. Ryan Murphy recently announced that we would see a killer clown on American Horror Story: Freak Show and now actress Sarah Paulson is making a character announcement of her very own. We already knew that Paulson's character would be "physically rigorous," and now, Paulson is letting us in on why: She's playing two characters that inhabit the same body. Paulson will play a two-headed woman on American Horror Story: Freak Show , and it's the perfect role for Paulson to drum up some horrific drama.

Paulson may be playing a woman with two heads, but she's actually playing two separate characters: Bettie and Dot. Paulson's dual role is historically familiar — we've already noted the similarities between Paulson's new role and real-life conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton, who were sold into a freak show in the 1950s. Though Paulson's two characters may be based loosely on real-life conjoined twins, there's no way that the show will make the story totally historically inaccurate — there's bound to be some creepy stuff going on with these twins. The American Horror Story writers could use Paulson's role in fantastically terrifying ways.

You know how, in cartoons, ones internal battle between good and evil is depicted as a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other? Here, that could be way more literal. Bettie and Dot could represent two opposing sides — one could be inherently good, and one could be evil.

We've seen some sort of "good vs. evil" battle across every season of American Horror Story. On Murder House, it was the characters battling the evil nature within themselves. (Remember Ben's guilt over wanting to cheat on his wife and Tate's constant struggle to not be a homicidal maniac?) Asylum and Coven saw a more literal definition of the battle — in Asylum, the church had to destroy the devil inside of Sister Mary Eunice, while in Coven, the witches had to fight the organization looking to annihilate their kind. It's almost guaranteed that there will be a battle for good on AHS: Freak Show, and Paulson's character could physical embody the struggle.

If there is a battle being fought on Freak Show, Bettie and Dot could very well be on opposing sides. (After all, what's the point of having a character with two distinct personalities if they're going to agree all the time, right?) These twins could battle for control of their body in the same way that Sister Mary Eunice did against the devil inside of hers. Unfortunately for Bettie and Dot, that means only one of them can survive.

American Horror Story: Freak Show promises another season of horrifying characters and circumstances... but perhaps the scariest part of it all is that we'll have to wait until October to finally see them.

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