American Horror Story: Delicate - Every Change Between Season 12's Finale & The Book
Contains Spoilers for "American Horror Story: Delicate" Episode 9 — "The Auteur"
"American Horror Story: Delicate" has gotten much of its inspiration from the world of Hollywood, but motion pictures aren't the only things that have inspired this season. "Delicate" is the first season of "American Horror Story" to be based on a book instead of an original story — "Delicate Condition" by Danielle Rollins. This game-changer rips apart the typical "American Horror Story" format, adding something fresh to the show's typically heady, campy, horrific brew. But every adaptation undergoes a few twists and turns on its way to the big or small screen, and "Delicate" isn't an exception to the rule.
In the season finale of "Delicate" alone, the sex of Anna Alcott's (Emma Roberts) baby is changed from a girl to a boy. The purpose of the Delicate Cult is also different in the book; in "Delicate Condition," they're simply a circle of fertility-worshipping witches who use magic to protect the pregnant. On the show, it's revealed that the cult is a centuries-old organization that has been delving into black magic and fertility rites for millennia to control the world and turn it into a matriarchy by creating a batch of human-demon hybrids. In "Delicate Condition," the coven is well-meaning but bound by rules and strictures; in "Delicate," it's all about selecting which men will become sex slaves for the apocalypse.
On top of all of that, two major character deaths take place in "The Auteur" — deaths that occur in a completely different manner than they do in "Delicate Condition."
Dex and Siobhan's deaths in Delicate Condition are different in Delicate -- but just as bloody
Death is a constant presence in the "American Horror Story" world, but in "Delicate," it looms in a way that's quite dissimilar from "Delicate Condition." While in the book, Siobhan (Kim Kardashian) and Anna Alcott's husband, Dex Harding ("Gilmore Girls" co-star Matt Czuchry) both meet their makers, they die in entirely different ways than they do on "American Horror Story: Delicate."
In the book, Dex dies in a car accident while transporting Anna to the hospital to deliver her child. On the series, he's put through more of a wringer — first, Anna's nether parts bite off his hand, and then he's killed by Ivy (Cara Delevingne, who also played Meg this season) at the hospital.
Siobhan, meanwhile, is an entirely different person in "Delicate Condition" — she's much kinder, and while she has nothing to do with Anna's career, she is her best friend. Originally, she's part of a fertility cult that tries to help the barren conceive. Unfortunately, when Siobhan explicitly intervenes to keep Anna from miscarrying, she breaks one of the coven's major rules. Per their scriptures, she dies to ensure the continued life of Anna's baby. In trade, Anna willingly agrees to allow Siobhan's soul to take over her child's body as a show of gratefulness. It's even implied via a time jump that she, too, is a part of the Delicate cult now.
That's quite different from what happens on the series, where Siobhan is revealed to be the millennia-old head of the Delicate Cult. She's also Dex's biological mother and has been tracking Anna since she was a child to use her as the perfect breeding stock. Talk about adaptation dissonance!