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Ally's Therapist Could Be Hiding Something On 'AHS: Cult'

by Megan Walsh

In the first three episodes of American Horror Story: Cult, Ally's psychiatrist Dr. Rudy Vincent has mostly been a peripheral character. He's there to be a sounding board for Ally's anxieties, but doesn't step outside that box often. However, "Neighbors From Hell" raised the possibility that there's more going on with Dr. Vincent. In fact, he may have a connection to the murderous clowns suddenly swarming the neighborhood. So is Ally's psychiatrist a clown on AHS: Cult? It may seem ridiculous at first, but there are signs that he could have something to do with whatever is going on.

In Episode 3, Vincent met with one of his patients and her husband to discuss how she had miraculously overcome her phobia. The patient, Rosie, was terrified of being trapped in small, confined spaces after a childhood spent being locked in a tiny cabinet by her father. The fear manifested itself in nightmares, but luckily Rosie was able to get past it. However, later in the episode that very fear was used to kill her: the murderous group of clowns from the previous two episodes descended on Rosie and her husband, shut them up inside of two coffins, and then screwed the lids shut.

It's incredibly suspicious that Rosie would be killed in a way that exactly mirrored her greatest fear — and it's equally hard to believe that Dr. Vincent had nothing to do with it. While the audience might not have all the information yet, it seems like there were only two people who knew about Rosie's phobia: her husband and her doctor. The husband was just as much of a victim as she was, so he's not a suspect. The only explanation for the clowns knowing such personal details about Rosie is if Dr. Vincent was the one who shared them.

There are roundabout ways the information could be gathered that leave the doctor uninvolved: maybe someone stole his files, or perhaps someone was watching Rosie closely enough to guess at her extremely specific fear. But positioning the therapy session and the murder one right after the other made it seem like there was a connection there. And if Dr. Vincent is involved with the clowns, then it could explain some of what's going on with Ally.

Ally was terrified of clowns, and their sudden appearance in town seemed like a manifestation of her fear. But just like Rosie's death, it was too much of a coincidence for the very thing Ally feared above all else to pop up in her neighborhood and start causing trouble. They were both patients of Dr. Vincent. He was the only one in the perfect position to provide information on the most horrifying ways to torment his patients. But why?

If Dr. Vincent is in the cult — or if he's one of the people under the clown masks — then the personality he presents to the world is a total lie. He could be operating on a Ted Bundy level of pretense, pretending to help people just so that he can take advantage of them later on. People who are truly monstrous rarely need motives other than that. Still, he could be targeting specific people the cult wants taken care of; if that's the case, then the reasoning behind all the murder remains a mystery.

Dr. Vincent hasn't technically done anything wrong yet besides be an ineffectual psychiatrist for Ally (why wouldn't you mention the gun to Ivy, Dr. Vincent?) and have an uncomfortable number of connections to the clown murders. But he could still be involved. Viewers ought to keep an eye on him for now.

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