American Horror Story: NYC finally reveals Big Daddy's identity in devastating finale
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Big Daddy has finally been unmasked on American Horror Story: NYC.
All season long, the hulking, leather-clad figure has made his presence known, whether as a silent sentinel, a stalker, or a cold-blooded killer. When it became clear in episode 7 that the Mai Tai killer (played by Jeff Hiller) was only responsible for a small portion of the deaths and disappearances being investigated, all eyes turned to Big Daddy.
But is he a real person, or the ghost of a real person, as we've seen countless times throughout AHS' run? Or is he something else entirely, a metaphorical AIDs angel of death, slowly closing in on some characters, while swiftly bringing death to others?
The finale, which hopped between the future (1987-1991) and the present (1981) and was certainly the most devastating two episodes in the show's 11-season run, made it clear that Big Daddy was the latter.
He was all over this finale, which kicked off with Theo's (Isaac Powell) funeral. At it, Sam (Zachary Quinto) faints, and he's forced to reckon with all the people he's hurt and those who have hurt him in a very A Christmas Carol-esque sequence that ultimately ends with him running from Big Daddy on a beach, as Denis O'Hare's Henry tells him that his efforts are futile, and he needs to surrender. In the first of many heartbreaking sequences, Sam does just this, and takes off Big Daddy's mask before embracing him.
This is where things are a little confusing (are they ever straightforward on this show?), because underneath the mask is a beautiful blond man who is buff, but not as big as, well, Big Daddy. He's also not the actor who has played Big Daddy all season, Matthew William Bishop. What's likely going on is that this new blond is the angel of death that Sam wants to see before he dies. Or maybe he's meant to represent a past lover — it's not made totally clear here.
FX
Regardless, the Big Daddy we've all come to know and dread returns for the rest of the finale's run time, as he watches over Patrick's (Russell Tovey) death in 1987, and appears in Hannah's (Billie Lourd) apartment after Adam (Charlie Carver) learns that his friend and mother of his child has succumbed to the virus as well. In a very haunting sequence, Big Daddy is also seen digging a mass grave, which anonymous man after anonymous man falls into. He also looms large in poor Gino's (Joe Mantello) final years, as we watch him bravely fight Big Daddy's presence at every turn as he continues to serve as a stalwart defender of his community. After watching Big Daddy take the lives of so many others around him, Gino finally dies in 1991, with Big Daddy standing silently over him.
The only characters who seemingly escaped Big Daddy, at least in the time we're given on screen, are Adam, who starts to give a speech at Gino's funeral as the finale comes to a close, and Patti LuPone's character, who leaves her show at the bathhouse behind because she no longer feels safe there. Some other characters, like Fran (Sandra Bernhard), are not given send-offs but are presumably still out there fighting the good fight.
And thus ends what is the most sad and horrific entry in American Horror Story yet, further proving that sometimes, reality can be scarier than any monster, ghoul, or serial killer — even when it's dressed up like Big Daddy.
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