The AHS Season 10 Episode 8 Scene Fans Thought Made No Sense

"American Horror Story" Season 10 is two seasons in one. "Red Tide" concluded with Episode 6, leaving just four episodes for "Death Valley" to tell its alien story (and hopefully connects with part one of the season as well). Fans and critics aren't entirely sure Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck can stick the landing, especially as we have to learn all new sci-fi mythology on top of the show's regular horrors.

"AHS: Death Valley" centers on President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Neal McDonough) and the treaty he feels coerced into making with aliens. America will let 5000 of its citizens be abducted, and in return, the aliens will give us their technology. So far, both microwave ovens and fiber optic cable have been attributed to alien tech on the show. We also get to see the abduction experience from the perspective of a group of campers. Troy (Isaac Cole Powell), Cal (Nico Greetham), Kendall (Kaia Gerber), and Jamie (Rachel Hilson) are taken from their campsite and impregnated with alien babies. Yes, even the men. The mpreg has fans scratching their heads in Episode 8, with many viewers struggling to find how it makes sense.

In the episode's live discussion thread on Reddit, people were confused about why alien birth, even from humans without birth canals, is so gory. Apparently, the baby burrows out on its own rather than being delivered. "Well that was...mean," u/robotlollipops wrote. "I feel advanced aliens should know about cesareans and sh*t." Indeed, humans figured out C-sections way before microwaves and fiber optics.

Leslie Grossman's character seems to give an in-universe explanation for why the hybrid births are so traumatic for the host body. "Life must find its own way," she says, implying that this alien-style birth plan is just kind of part of the deal. Redditor u/Dexton2992 supposed that it could be part of making the alien/human hybrids strong enough to survive on Earth, writing, "they dig/whatever their own way out of the womb to become stronger and aid in their species evolution." Additionally, u/ConnerKent5985 made the point that this being "American Horror Story," the conventions of the genre demanded gore: "There's only one way that baby is coming out." Let's offer up preemptive condolences to the families of those campers.