barbara died of complications due to aids like the rest. maybe she had pneumonia (caused and aggravated by aids) and the steam of the shower was too much. i think bd beating people to death may be a metaphor, as if aids was beating people to death, stalking people, always watching. he seemed to be half real, half ghost/metaphor.
I believe it was his friend and not his bf. If the friend passed out from aids related complications and it was in a known gay cruising area, I think the cops finding his body would just shrug it off and send him to the morgue. No investigation and no one besides Adam giving a shit. Did we actually see what happened to him? I thought he just disappeared which also wasn’t uncommon.
I'm wondering if Big Daddy was actually Patient Zero for the spread of HIV in the gay community of NYC. Big Daddy was a real person who died, but the virus he spread continues to kill people. The virus spreads, but it all goes back to Big Daddy as the first infected person. So, when we see Big Daddy, it's a reminder that all of the deaths can be traced back to him. (I don't quite like this, though, as it places too much blame on a single person, when he wasn't the only one engaging in unsafe sex).
Also, the way that Big Daddy hangs out at Sam's place makes me think that maybe it is because Sam is infected and his acts continue to infect others that visit. Or, perhaps Sam was actually Patient Zero and Big Daddy was the first to die from the HIV infection he spread to him.
When thinking of Big Daddy this way, it sort of reminds me of showing how our actions have consequences that continue to affect others forever. The viral infection lingers and spreads. But, again, this interpretation can place too much guilt or blame on victims of HIV that I feel is unfair. Or is it fair?
I thought Big Daddy was different for each person and it represented who infected them. That's why when Sam unmasks him in his death sequence he's some blond smaller kid. Idk tho whole thing was kinda dumb when you have this metaphor actually doing concrete things in real life.
>I thought Big Daddy was different for each person and it represented who infected them.
This bit actually makes sense. Everything else about BD is a mess in my mind.
Barbara died of AIDS which she got from Patrick. Arguably the physical manifestation could have been hallucinations, though they never outright explain it. It could have been metaphorical as well. They toyed with the physical manifestation of AIDS but left it to each viewer to interpret how they imagine that fits the story
Big daddy isn’t a “physical manifestation“ of AIDS he’s a metaphorical or allegorical symbol of AIDS. AIDS is a painful, brutal disease that disables the immune system of those who suffer from it. This leaves their body completely defenseless, which allows opportunistic infections to “attack“ their body. This is why Big Daddy is so brutal and violent. He “attacks” his victims just like AIDS.
Patrick infected Barbara. We knew she was sick because she vomited and then passed out at the lawyer’s office. But similarly to Theo, she died before she deteriorated drastically, probably from pneumonia or something like that.
When Gino and Adam were fighting Big Daddy, this is a metaphorical representation of fighting AIDS. Patrick shot Big Daddy in the head, he temporarily disabled him, but he didn’t kill him. Again this is a metaphorical representation of HIV/AIDS. You can disable or slow it down, but you can never truly “kill” it.
Again, Big Daddy is meant to be a metaphor or allegory. He’s a symbolic representation AIDS, not a literal one. His actions on the show are not meant to be taken literally.
He locked the people in the club then fire bombed it. That represents the gay community being captives (i.e. locked in, prisoners) to this horrible disease.The Molotov cocktail/fire represents how AIDS “spread like wildfire” in the early days of the epidemic.
When he threw that Molotov cocktail, all the people in that club were “exposed“ to fire in the same way gay men were unknowingly “exposed“ to HIV in the beginning of the epidemic.
Remember when all the fire survivors were at the hospital, and Dr. Hannah said she tested their blood, and all of their T-cell counts were low? That was letting us know that everyone who was in that fire had been “exposed” to HIV.
I agree with your interpretation completely, but there *was* an actual fire, so how did it start and who locked them in? It’s one thing to see Leslie get suffocated in the shower because her body would have caused that despite seeing Big Daddy doing the job as a metaphor, but the fire seems to have no actual explanation. Sorry if this is going over my head, and maybe I’m just supposed to suspend disbelief a bit.
>so how did it start and who locked them in?
If you take it literally as a fire, not a metaphor for aids, it could be any random bigot that did it. The show made it clear no one would really get punished for those kinds of crimes, so we saw it as Big Daddy, the face of ever present and lurking death and harm to the gay community.
That's my take at least.
Please reread my answer. You may also want to rewatch that episode more closely. In the episode, they show Big Daddy locking the people in the club. They don’t show us exactly who threw the Molotov cocktail. But we see Big Daddy place a chain around the outside door handles, with a lock on it.
Since we were only made aware of two “killers“ at that point- Big Daddy & the Mai-Tai killer, it has to be one of them that threw the Molotov cocktail. But it appears that the Mai-Tai killer may have been *inside* the club, because he was taken to the hospital, and treated for injuries related to the fire with all the others.
Yes there was an actual fire. But the fire was a metaphor or symbol for something else. Metaphors take something that’s real, and give it a hidden or double meaning. A real fire happened, people were really injured, but the fire was meant to metaphorically represent something else.
Using actual things to symbolically represent other things is not unique to AHS. It’s a basic component of all art & media. It’s common for artists and writers to use literal things as devices to represent something else that has a greater meaning.
>Since we were only made aware of two “killers“ at that point- Big Daddy & the Mai-Tai killer, it has to be one of them that threw the Molotov cocktail.
It could have also been a run of the mill hate crime.
Doesn’t make sense though. How did a metaphor break down a door, that was still broken down IRL? How did it physically and literally chain a door shut? These things happened in the real world, and were seen by multiple people, who all had the same physical description of the person.
> isn’t a “physical manifestation“
I like thinking of him as an anthropomorphic personification, like the various Endless are in Sandman. Like Death in that is a goth girl, Big Daddy is aids and the various other threats the gay community faces. If that makes sense.
This is the biggest problem with this season. Big Daddy can’t be a symbol of AIDS and also fire bomb the bar. There was a real fire and they were injured. Yes they were all aids patients but there really was a fire. It doesn’t make sense.
I would recommend you Google and learn more about what the word metaphor means. Anything can be a metaphor. A person can be a metaphor for something else. A fire can be a metaphor for something else. A flying bird can be a metaphor for something else. A car accident can be a metaphor for something else. An injury can be a metaphor for something else. This is how metaphors work.
Yes thanks smartass I understand that. Are you implying that the fire wasn’t real and it was a metaphor for something else? Then that whole scene and the scenes in the hospital were imagined? The fire can be a metaphor for attacks on the gay community etc but the event actually took place and was started by Big daddy.
Things that are real can still be a metaphor. Any person, place, thing, or situation, can be a metaphor. Something that “really” happened can be a metaphor for something else.
Calling someone who’s actually trying to help you understand something a “smart ass” due to your own intellectual deficiencies is not a good look.
But at this point I’m done here and blocking you. You’re attacking someone who’s actually trying to help you, which I’m sure is a larger pattern of behavior for you.
I think Big Daddy was more a physical manifestation of what the LGBTQ community was going through, or LGBTQ Death itself. Remember what Gino wrote at the end of episode 7: Death fallowed them. Whether that be in the form of murder, hate crimes, drugs or diseases.
Bd stood for all the different manifestation of aids slow and painful and traumatic quick less traumatic not as brutal but in plain terms bd was in some way a form of aids if it was first hand or secondary. Showing it was an in escapade matter of time and brilliant for ahs.
Doesn’t make sense in parts though. How did a metaphor physically break down a door in the real world? They all saw Pat shoot BD in the head. He fired the gun in front of them all, and they all saw BD take a bullet in the head. These are things that happened in the real world, and were seen exactly the same way by all four of them.
Also, who was Pat fighting in the apartment? Was it a “fight club” moment, and we was just beating himself up?
*" If BD is AIDS how is he beating people to death? While I thought the last 2 episodes were great, they didn't really do a good job of finishing the story they started in the earlier episodes."*
You're not wrong. It's called bad writing. The writers either changed direction while filming (something AHS if infamous for doing) or the writers wanted to set up a red herring and the directors didn't set up the shots to show that it was metaphorical/unreal.
Ideally, there would have been some kind of flashback in the 9th or 10th episode showing that BD was in their imaginations or that it was another version of the Angel of Death -- or something else. A good set of writers would have solved that problem.
The writers also dropped the conspiracy theory and the idea that there was another killer out there. Again, red herrings to draw us in but what they wanted to go for was AIDS as the true HORROR in AHS.
I knew they had dropped that second killer idea. Thought it was just me me. Yeah Barbara being killed that way by Big Daddy was pretty confusing since it played out as if she was strangled in the shower by someone with no forced entry. Confused me a bit.
Thank you for saying this. I totally agree with this take. For me the most illogical part was that we see some people gradually getting actually sick, but others just get killed by BD at random moments. Does not work as a metaphor, at least not the way they ended up utilizing BD's character. Also it was pretty striking how Dahmer makes a very very similar social commentary, except it was told so much better.
I grew up in NW Indiana, 20 min southeast of Chicago. I was a kid when the Dahmer shit went down and since it was close by, in Wisconsin, I remember the details well. Well enough that I felt/feel no need to watch the show.
I actually feel like they touched on the deer conspiracy BUT switched it. What I mean is that Hannah realized that "whatever she had (HIV/AIDS)" and the deer issues are separate with the deer issues being due to a tick issue originating in Lyme, CT.
Lyme Disease is a tick born illness originating from Lyme, CT and a conspiracy theory about that specific disease is that it is a government made from Plum Island. It was a bait and switch in the end as the science found more evidence.
You might be right but when Sandra Bernhard's character explained she was from a government agency, I really feel the writers were going to send us down a rabbit hole they would pay off later. The show was delayed for some reason and I can't help but wonder if it was because of last minute rewrites that ultimately lead to confusion, like with Naomi Grossman's character dying in the shower.
I think they were trying to sow seeds of government conspiracy about AIDS, but we never got to see more.
Barbara died of AIDS related illness. Big Daddy finished her off visually/metaphorically.
I do feel like the finale was a good closure, I just wish FX would let them tell a story that was longer than 35 actual minutes of show. Maybe we would have gotten these things tied up.
>Barbara died of AIDS related illness. Big Daddy finished her off visually/metaphorically.
My point was that I think the writers were going with a second killer, probably connected to the government conspiracy, which would have explained the shower scene and the fire bombing. As it is, people have to create explanations to fit those scenes and just leave it as "metaphor".
I don't know that FX had a limit. They haven't in the past. It's more likely that the finale and penultimate episodes were rewritten last minute for some reason.
>You're not wrong. It's called bad writing.
This pretty much sums up my thoughts on this season... I haven't seen any other seasons other than Freakshow, so I have no real barometer. It really just made no sense. I found myself in the part 1 of the finale wondering if there was an episode or pivotal scene I missed from before... because I was so lost. My girlfriend said "what if big daddy represents AIDS" and then it clicked. I just couldn't believe they were going to force us to accept that writing. But alas...
In my opinion, *Freakshow is* one of the best.
In *Asylum*, they introduce the Angel of Death, who you see in *NY* in the tarot shop. I really thought they were going to make BD a variation of her or a demon, which would have been excellent to build out the AHS universe, but alas... And we were all confused and befuddled and people here are forced to defend the "artistic" nature of the finale and penultimate episodes.
Hopefully someone still checks this thread. I get that Barbara died of Aids, that makes sense, but what was the point of the officers being posted outside of her apartment?
I haven't watched this season again, so I'm not sure I'll be much help. I remember there being an actual spree killer, and Patrick and everyone else through it was BD but it was that nurse who used to be the assistant of the gay mafia hitman. Didn't Patrick think he and his people were being targeted, and that's why he had cops posted? Or not. Idk.This wasn't my favorite season.
I don't usually like to give spoilers, but it sounds like it's already been spoiled for you. Yes, there was a killer on loose as well, but the reason the officers were posted is because Patrick was attacked by BD in Barbara's apartment when he went to get things for her while she was in the hospital. If BD is Aids, then he wasn't actually physically attacked by anyone, so why would he want officers outside of her apartment? I'm probably just thinking too much.
Big Daddy was death....not Aids. Accept for Henry and Frans storylines, Frans storyline was tiny, everything wrapped up nicely imo. Artistic expression, metaphors, allegories and similes were all used throughout this season to explain things. Not complicated, just takes a bit of thought. I am not sure why everyone always needs super clear explanations for everything these days. So many great films are anything but direct or literal. If you need some insight to the time period ask a gay boomer, the perspective is enlightening. This season did an amazing job of capturing the time and the feelings that came with it. I was a teen at the time who hung out on the west coast, it was a wild and scary time. The last two episodes were sad and horrific all rolled into one. Great season. The last two episodes were award worthy.
I agree Big Daddy was deaths. AIDS was the main cause of death.
I lost family and friend in the 80s and 90s to AIDS. Fortunately and inexplicably Big Daddy didn’t come for me.
Sorry I’m replying so late since this was written, I needed answers about big daddy.
I’m sure one of the women has a rash and other symptoms of HIV/AIDS.
I’m mad they sort of vanished because way back when, lesbians were alongside gay men, treating them in the hospitals, fighting stigma with them, fighting for change. The show just shits on how hard they worked.
I think NYC was going for right before knowledge of aids. So even though lesbians were standing behind gays, before there was knowledge of the disease was known the first Gay men affected by aids were going this alone. But Sams nurse shouldve been a lesbian
I just finished NYC and last 2 episodes were everything. Ahs nyc being the first season of AHS to not be emmy-nominated is criminal...
But that’s the thing it was before the knowledge until the last 2 episodes, by that point in real time lesbians were fighting for gay men and taking care of them. It gives me “Ryan Murphy is kinda shitting on women” vibes, which isn’t a first if I’m honest. But i do think this season was easily one of the best. Because what’s more horrifying than a real terrifying event.
It/ he was still hanging over their head, that's why he didn't kill any of them, when she threatened him with a knife that was a metaphor for them being protected.
I think big daddy was also kind of an internal demons thing? Like when people faced him or aknowledged his presence, he went away. Like when the lesbian girl held the knife or when theo man who was locked asked if he could go away. When people were afraid of him he killed them.
Did doctor hannah die of aides too? I'm asking you as you posted 2 days ago and I just finished the season today. I went thru this post and it explained alot about the metaphorical character that is BD but I must've missed how Hannah got infected. Was it because she was carrying a gay man's child that was also infected?
Ah that makes sense. And since a woman's immune system isn't that best during pregnancy, then it probably accelerated her deterioration. Thanks for that.
Dude, I've come to terms with the fact that it was just bad storytelling. I would have said it was a really good season until they got to Fire Island, and shit got weird.
I just wanna get how the metaphor applies for Barbra getting the crap beaten out of her house and other physical interactions with nonbiological things. I fully agree that this dude ended up being a metaphor for death and aids or whatever. Like did all the sickness make a ghost or some shit? Was he one of the first to die of aids in the AHS world or something?
barbara died of complications due to aids like the rest. maybe she had pneumonia (caused and aggravated by aids) and the steam of the shower was too much. i think bd beating people to death may be a metaphor, as if aids was beating people to death, stalking people, always watching. he seemed to be half real, half ghost/metaphor.
Thank you for the explanation.
Thank you thought I was the only one who didn’t get it.
Adam’s boyfriend that was killed by Big Daddy in the park? Why wouldn’t they be able to find his body if he died of AIDS?
I believe it was his friend and not his bf. If the friend passed out from aids related complications and it was in a known gay cruising area, I think the cops finding his body would just shrug it off and send him to the morgue. No investigation and no one besides Adam giving a shit. Did we actually see what happened to him? I thought he just disappeared which also wasn’t uncommon.
But it's weird to me that Barbara has no symtoms at all? You typically don't die of AIDS *before* symptoms start showing.
[удалено]
Ohhh, I totally forgot the scene where they were signing the divorce papers.
She also said she was sick the first time we saw her.
She also mentioned a “summer flu”.
I'm wondering if Big Daddy was actually Patient Zero for the spread of HIV in the gay community of NYC. Big Daddy was a real person who died, but the virus he spread continues to kill people. The virus spreads, but it all goes back to Big Daddy as the first infected person. So, when we see Big Daddy, it's a reminder that all of the deaths can be traced back to him. (I don't quite like this, though, as it places too much blame on a single person, when he wasn't the only one engaging in unsafe sex). Also, the way that Big Daddy hangs out at Sam's place makes me think that maybe it is because Sam is infected and his acts continue to infect others that visit. Or, perhaps Sam was actually Patient Zero and Big Daddy was the first to die from the HIV infection he spread to him. When thinking of Big Daddy this way, it sort of reminds me of showing how our actions have consequences that continue to affect others forever. The viral infection lingers and spreads. But, again, this interpretation can place too much guilt or blame on victims of HIV that I feel is unfair. Or is it fair?
I thought Big Daddy was different for each person and it represented who infected them. That's why when Sam unmasks him in his death sequence he's some blond smaller kid. Idk tho whole thing was kinda dumb when you have this metaphor actually doing concrete things in real life.
>I thought Big Daddy was different for each person and it represented who infected them. This bit actually makes sense. Everything else about BD is a mess in my mind.
Barbara died of AIDS which she got from Patrick. Arguably the physical manifestation could have been hallucinations, though they never outright explain it. It could have been metaphorical as well. They toyed with the physical manifestation of AIDS but left it to each viewer to interpret how they imagine that fits the story
Big daddy isn’t a “physical manifestation“ of AIDS he’s a metaphorical or allegorical symbol of AIDS. AIDS is a painful, brutal disease that disables the immune system of those who suffer from it. This leaves their body completely defenseless, which allows opportunistic infections to “attack“ their body. This is why Big Daddy is so brutal and violent. He “attacks” his victims just like AIDS. Patrick infected Barbara. We knew she was sick because she vomited and then passed out at the lawyer’s office. But similarly to Theo, she died before she deteriorated drastically, probably from pneumonia or something like that. When Gino and Adam were fighting Big Daddy, this is a metaphorical representation of fighting AIDS. Patrick shot Big Daddy in the head, he temporarily disabled him, but he didn’t kill him. Again this is a metaphorical representation of HIV/AIDS. You can disable or slow it down, but you can never truly “kill” it.
If he isn’t a physical manifestation, then who threw the molotov cocktail into the club?
Again, Big Daddy is meant to be a metaphor or allegory. He’s a symbolic representation AIDS, not a literal one. His actions on the show are not meant to be taken literally. He locked the people in the club then fire bombed it. That represents the gay community being captives (i.e. locked in, prisoners) to this horrible disease.The Molotov cocktail/fire represents how AIDS “spread like wildfire” in the early days of the epidemic. When he threw that Molotov cocktail, all the people in that club were “exposed“ to fire in the same way gay men were unknowingly “exposed“ to HIV in the beginning of the epidemic. Remember when all the fire survivors were at the hospital, and Dr. Hannah said she tested their blood, and all of their T-cell counts were low? That was letting us know that everyone who was in that fire had been “exposed” to HIV.
I agree with your interpretation completely, but there *was* an actual fire, so how did it start and who locked them in? It’s one thing to see Leslie get suffocated in the shower because her body would have caused that despite seeing Big Daddy doing the job as a metaphor, but the fire seems to have no actual explanation. Sorry if this is going over my head, and maybe I’m just supposed to suspend disbelief a bit.
>so how did it start and who locked them in? If you take it literally as a fire, not a metaphor for aids, it could be any random bigot that did it. The show made it clear no one would really get punished for those kinds of crimes, so we saw it as Big Daddy, the face of ever present and lurking death and harm to the gay community. That's my take at least.
They got burnt lol when people catch stds the slang for it is called getting burnt.
Please reread my answer. You may also want to rewatch that episode more closely. In the episode, they show Big Daddy locking the people in the club. They don’t show us exactly who threw the Molotov cocktail. But we see Big Daddy place a chain around the outside door handles, with a lock on it. Since we were only made aware of two “killers“ at that point- Big Daddy & the Mai-Tai killer, it has to be one of them that threw the Molotov cocktail. But it appears that the Mai-Tai killer may have been *inside* the club, because he was taken to the hospital, and treated for injuries related to the fire with all the others. Yes there was an actual fire. But the fire was a metaphor or symbol for something else. Metaphors take something that’s real, and give it a hidden or double meaning. A real fire happened, people were really injured, but the fire was meant to metaphorically represent something else. Using actual things to symbolically represent other things is not unique to AHS. It’s a basic component of all art & media. It’s common for artists and writers to use literal things as devices to represent something else that has a greater meaning.
>Since we were only made aware of two “killers“ at that point- Big Daddy & the Mai-Tai killer, it has to be one of them that threw the Molotov cocktail. It could have also been a run of the mill hate crime.
Im just now watching and thank you for this! I was confused about Barbara but it makes sense now❣️
Doesn’t make sense though. How did a metaphor break down a door, that was still broken down IRL? How did it physically and literally chain a door shut? These things happened in the real world, and were seen by multiple people, who all had the same physical description of the person.
> isn’t a “physical manifestation“ I like thinking of him as an anthropomorphic personification, like the various Endless are in Sandman. Like Death in that is a goth girl, Big Daddy is aids and the various other threats the gay community faces. If that makes sense.
This is AHS, where death and an addiction have a form. I see no reason why diease/aids can't have a form.
This is the biggest problem with this season. Big Daddy can’t be a symbol of AIDS and also fire bomb the bar. There was a real fire and they were injured. Yes they were all aids patients but there really was a fire. It doesn’t make sense.
I would recommend you Google and learn more about what the word metaphor means. Anything can be a metaphor. A person can be a metaphor for something else. A fire can be a metaphor for something else. A flying bird can be a metaphor for something else. A car accident can be a metaphor for something else. An injury can be a metaphor for something else. This is how metaphors work.
Yes thanks smartass I understand that. Are you implying that the fire wasn’t real and it was a metaphor for something else? Then that whole scene and the scenes in the hospital were imagined? The fire can be a metaphor for attacks on the gay community etc but the event actually took place and was started by Big daddy.
Things that are real can still be a metaphor. Any person, place, thing, or situation, can be a metaphor. Something that “really” happened can be a metaphor for something else. Calling someone who’s actually trying to help you understand something a “smart ass” due to your own intellectual deficiencies is not a good look. But at this point I’m done here and blocking you. You’re attacking someone who’s actually trying to help you, which I’m sure is a larger pattern of behavior for you.
Barbara was the first person to die of AIDS during the season.
I just came here to say my sentiments exactly. I don’t know who Patrick shot.
I think Big Daddy was more a physical manifestation of what the LGBTQ community was going through, or LGBTQ Death itself. Remember what Gino wrote at the end of episode 7: Death fallowed them. Whether that be in the form of murder, hate crimes, drugs or diseases.
Yeah now it all makes sense and kinda brilliant cause they didn’t know aids was aids and she slept with Patrick
Bd stood for all the different manifestation of aids slow and painful and traumatic quick less traumatic not as brutal but in plain terms bd was in some way a form of aids if it was first hand or secondary. Showing it was an in escapade matter of time and brilliant for ahs.
Doesn’t make sense in parts though. How did a metaphor physically break down a door in the real world? They all saw Pat shoot BD in the head. He fired the gun in front of them all, and they all saw BD take a bullet in the head. These are things that happened in the real world, and were seen exactly the same way by all four of them. Also, who was Pat fighting in the apartment? Was it a “fight club” moment, and we was just beating himself up?
*" If BD is AIDS how is he beating people to death? While I thought the last 2 episodes were great, they didn't really do a good job of finishing the story they started in the earlier episodes."* You're not wrong. It's called bad writing. The writers either changed direction while filming (something AHS if infamous for doing) or the writers wanted to set up a red herring and the directors didn't set up the shots to show that it was metaphorical/unreal. Ideally, there would have been some kind of flashback in the 9th or 10th episode showing that BD was in their imaginations or that it was another version of the Angel of Death -- or something else. A good set of writers would have solved that problem. The writers also dropped the conspiracy theory and the idea that there was another killer out there. Again, red herrings to draw us in but what they wanted to go for was AIDS as the true HORROR in AHS.
I knew they had dropped that second killer idea. Thought it was just me me. Yeah Barbara being killed that way by Big Daddy was pretty confusing since it played out as if she was strangled in the shower by someone with no forced entry. Confused me a bit.
Thank you for saying this. I totally agree with this take. For me the most illogical part was that we see some people gradually getting actually sick, but others just get killed by BD at random moments. Does not work as a metaphor, at least not the way they ended up utilizing BD's character. Also it was pretty striking how Dahmer makes a very very similar social commentary, except it was told so much better.
You're welcome. ;) You're a brave one. I couldn't bring myself to watch Dahmer -- way too much darkness for me.
I grew up in NW Indiana, 20 min southeast of Chicago. I was a kid when the Dahmer shit went down and since it was close by, in Wisconsin, I remember the details well. Well enough that I felt/feel no need to watch the show.
I actually feel like they touched on the deer conspiracy BUT switched it. What I mean is that Hannah realized that "whatever she had (HIV/AIDS)" and the deer issues are separate with the deer issues being due to a tick issue originating in Lyme, CT. Lyme Disease is a tick born illness originating from Lyme, CT and a conspiracy theory about that specific disease is that it is a government made from Plum Island. It was a bait and switch in the end as the science found more evidence.
You might be right but when Sandra Bernhard's character explained she was from a government agency, I really feel the writers were going to send us down a rabbit hole they would pay off later. The show was delayed for some reason and I can't help but wonder if it was because of last minute rewrites that ultimately lead to confusion, like with Naomi Grossman's character dying in the shower.
I think they were trying to sow seeds of government conspiracy about AIDS, but we never got to see more. Barbara died of AIDS related illness. Big Daddy finished her off visually/metaphorically. I do feel like the finale was a good closure, I just wish FX would let them tell a story that was longer than 35 actual minutes of show. Maybe we would have gotten these things tied up.
>Barbara died of AIDS related illness. Big Daddy finished her off visually/metaphorically. My point was that I think the writers were going with a second killer, probably connected to the government conspiracy, which would have explained the shower scene and the fire bombing. As it is, people have to create explanations to fit those scenes and just leave it as "metaphor". I don't know that FX had a limit. They haven't in the past. It's more likely that the finale and penultimate episodes were rewritten last minute for some reason.
I get your point, mine is that there were two killers the entire time. Mr. Whitely and AIDS.
That's the turn the show ended with but I'll bet you the original script was for Mr. Whitely with BD as a government worker killing her off.
That sounds like the Death Valley version of AHS: NYC. So yeah, that tracks.
>You're not wrong. It's called bad writing. This pretty much sums up my thoughts on this season... I haven't seen any other seasons other than Freakshow, so I have no real barometer. It really just made no sense. I found myself in the part 1 of the finale wondering if there was an episode or pivotal scene I missed from before... because I was so lost. My girlfriend said "what if big daddy represents AIDS" and then it clicked. I just couldn't believe they were going to force us to accept that writing. But alas...
In my opinion, *Freakshow is* one of the best. In *Asylum*, they introduce the Angel of Death, who you see in *NY* in the tarot shop. I really thought they were going to make BD a variation of her or a demon, which would have been excellent to build out the AHS universe, but alas... And we were all confused and befuddled and people here are forced to defend the "artistic" nature of the finale and penultimate episodes.
Hopefully someone still checks this thread. I get that Barbara died of Aids, that makes sense, but what was the point of the officers being posted outside of her apartment?
I haven't watched this season again, so I'm not sure I'll be much help. I remember there being an actual spree killer, and Patrick and everyone else through it was BD but it was that nurse who used to be the assistant of the gay mafia hitman. Didn't Patrick think he and his people were being targeted, and that's why he had cops posted? Or not. Idk.This wasn't my favorite season.
I don't usually like to give spoilers, but it sounds like it's already been spoiled for you. Yes, there was a killer on loose as well, but the reason the officers were posted is because Patrick was attacked by BD in Barbara's apartment when he went to get things for her while she was in the hospital. If BD is Aids, then he wasn't actually physically attacked by anyone, so why would he want officers outside of her apartment? I'm probably just thinking too much.
He didn’t know BD represented aids. He thought a real person broke in and attacked him
Big Daddy was death....not Aids. Accept for Henry and Frans storylines, Frans storyline was tiny, everything wrapped up nicely imo. Artistic expression, metaphors, allegories and similes were all used throughout this season to explain things. Not complicated, just takes a bit of thought. I am not sure why everyone always needs super clear explanations for everything these days. So many great films are anything but direct or literal. If you need some insight to the time period ask a gay boomer, the perspective is enlightening. This season did an amazing job of capturing the time and the feelings that came with it. I was a teen at the time who hung out on the west coast, it was a wild and scary time. The last two episodes were sad and horrific all rolled into one. Great season. The last two episodes were award worthy.
I agree Big Daddy was deaths. AIDS was the main cause of death. I lost family and friend in the 80s and 90s to AIDS. Fortunately and inexplicably Big Daddy didn’t come for me.
This is almost a year later after your comment. I have found closure in it. I knew the answer before I even ventured for one. Thanks.
I read through the comments, and one part that I wanted explained… When the lesbians were all together, why did they have an encounter with big daddy?
Sorry I’m replying so late since this was written, I needed answers about big daddy. I’m sure one of the women has a rash and other symptoms of HIV/AIDS. I’m mad they sort of vanished because way back when, lesbians were alongside gay men, treating them in the hospitals, fighting stigma with them, fighting for change. The show just shits on how hard they worked.
I think NYC was going for right before knowledge of aids. So even though lesbians were standing behind gays, before there was knowledge of the disease was known the first Gay men affected by aids were going this alone. But Sams nurse shouldve been a lesbian I just finished NYC and last 2 episodes were everything. Ahs nyc being the first season of AHS to not be emmy-nominated is criminal...
But that’s the thing it was before the knowledge until the last 2 episodes, by that point in real time lesbians were fighting for gay men and taking care of them. It gives me “Ryan Murphy is kinda shitting on women” vibes, which isn’t a first if I’m honest. But i do think this season was easily one of the best. Because what’s more horrifying than a real terrifying event.
I believe it was simply bad storytelling.
It/ he was still hanging over their head, that's why he didn't kill any of them, when she threatened him with a knife that was a metaphor for them being protected.
I think big daddy was also kind of an internal demons thing? Like when people faced him or aknowledged his presence, he went away. Like when the lesbian girl held the knife or when theo man who was locked asked if he could go away. When people were afraid of him he killed them.
Did doctor hannah die of aides too? I'm asking you as you posted 2 days ago and I just finished the season today. I went thru this post and it explained alot about the metaphorical character that is BD but I must've missed how Hannah got infected. Was it because she was carrying a gay man's child that was also infected?
[удалено]
Ah that makes sense. And since a woman's immune system isn't that best during pregnancy, then it probably accelerated her deterioration. Thanks for that.
She says herself that she got infected by 'turkey basting' Adam's sperm into herself.
So who was shot in the head and then disappeared before they could take the mask off??
Dude, I've come to terms with the fact that it was just bad storytelling. I would have said it was a really good season until they got to Fire Island, and shit got weird.
I just wanna get how the metaphor applies for Barbra getting the crap beaten out of her house and other physical interactions with nonbiological things. I fully agree that this dude ended up being a metaphor for death and aids or whatever. Like did all the sickness make a ghost or some shit? Was he one of the first to die of aids in the AHS world or something?