This Especially Freaky ‘Murder House’ Character Just Made A Mysterious Return On ‘AHS’

Spoilers ahead for AHS: Apocalypse Episodes 1 and 2. It's the end of the world in American Horror Story: Apocalypse, but that doesn't mean that people can't still show up to Outpost 3 unexpectedly. And this week, an old villain has returned to tempt and torment those stationed in the bunker. The Rubber Man from American Horror Story: Murder House is back and creepier than ever, but is this definitely the same creature that caused so much chaos for the Harmon family in Season 1? Is Tate the Rubber Man on AHS: Apocalypse?

If you're new to AHS, or have so many years of AHS freakiness in your memory you can't keep it all straight, here's a refresher on the original Rubber Man. He was a silent, murderous figure that haunted the Harmon's house and wrecked havoc on its occupants. He raped Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton) and impregnated her with a demonic child, a child she gave birth to in the finale. That child has become a central figure in AHS: Apocalypse, because his name was Michael Langdon, and he is the member of the Cooperative that has come to Outpost 3, ostensibly to select elite members for the Sanctuary. The identity of Michael Langdon's father remained a secret for most of the Murder House season, until the dramatic reveal that it was Tate, a ghost of an angry teenage boy that haunted the house and fell in love with Violet Harmon.

So by fathering Michael, who may in fact be the antichrist, Tate set off the events of this apocalypse years ago, in Murder House. And now, not only has an adult Michael returned to stir things up in Outpost 3, but the Rubber Man has returned as well. In the second episode, 'The Morning After', the Rubber Man appears in the bedroom of Mr. Gallant (played by Evan Peters, the same actor who played Tate, likely not-so-coincidentally). Thinking that it was Michael Langdon come to seduce him, Gallant has sex with the Rubber Man, who never speaks or takes off the latex suit. If it truly is Tate under all that rubber (and we know that Tate is set to make a cameo appearance eventually in the season) then Evan Peters' character had sex with another one of Evan Peters' characters. Mind = Blown.

The Rubber Man also watches as Tim and Emily break the rules of chastity, and creates a hallucination in which Gallant thinks he's stabbing the Rubber Man, but is actually murdering his own grandmother. Anywhere where chaos can be sewn, the Rubber Man is there.

But who is the Rubber Man? Gallant is convinced that it's Michael Langdon, and though Langdon denies the claim, he certainly doesn't seem like the most truthful of fellows. Maybe he inherited the suit from his father, resuming the legacy of sewing discord in relationships and sexually tormenting his victims. Seems like something the antichrist would do.

But it very well could be Tate. After all, he was the original Rubber Man, and he is coming back. But if it is Tate, the show will have to answer a key question, a question that also needs to be addressed for the Harmon family, who are also set to return: how can they leave the Murder House? If there was one thing Season 1 of AHS made very clear, it's that those who die in Murder House are doomed to haunt its halls forever. Only on Halloween night are the spirits able to leave the scenes of their deaths. So if Tate is really the Rubber Man skulking around Outpost 3, somehow, in the apocalypse, the rules of the dead have shifted.

The storylines of American Horror Story are notoriously secretive, so fans likely won't get an answer about the identity of the Rubber Man until it's revealed on the show. But whether it's Michael Langdon, or Tate, or someone (or something) else entirely, the Rubber Man is still a figure to be feared.

But perhaps not as much as Ms. Venable.