Nan

Nan is an enigmatic ward at Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. She is a character in American Horror Story portrayed by Jamie Brewer. She was a witch prominent with the ability of Clairvoyance, and as the series drew on she developed various others skills such as Telekinesis and Concilium.

Background[]

Constantly (and wrongly) underestimated by the other girls, and considered simple minded by the outside world, 20-year-old Nan is anything but, she has the ability to get into the minds of others. Nan surprises everyone when her gifts attract the attention of Fiona Goode, the Supreme.^[3]

Personality and Appearance[]

Nan is a young witch with a kind yet ominous personality. Born with Down syndrome, Nan has long wavy hair and an affinity for wearing dresses. Well-meaning, she is shown to act as a mediator in fights.

Her clairvoyance gives her insight to secrets and information about others that they would rather keep to themselves. This is shown when Madison tries to gloss over a story about a director she killed which Nan quickly clarifies was anything but a simple accident.

Nan will at times become enthralled with a clairvoyant reading, wandering off in the direction that it leads her. One of these bouts led to the discovery of Delphine LaLaurie, whose body laid secretly buried at her home, turned museum, for centuries.

Nan will also demonstrate aggression with little remorse when she is being undermined. An example is when Madison brushes her off as a possibility as the next supreme and Nan used mind control to make her nearly insert a cigarette into her vagina.

Story[]

Coven[]

At the iron gates of Miss Robichaux's Academy, Zoe Benson enters what seems an empty antebellum house. Dark figures, cloaked and masked, stalk and grab Zoe, and begin a ritual. One figure mounts the bewildered new student and raises a ceremonial knife. At the last second, the figures reveal they are joking and unmask themselves. Zoe recognizes Madison Montgomery, a movie star. The other two introduce themselves as Queenie and Nan. The headmistress, Cordelia Foxx, enters and explains the history of the Academy to the girls. That night during dinner the girls get to know each other, and Nan's clairvoyance is revealed as she constantly, and annoyingly, reveals secrets and information about her fellow students.

The next morning Nan and Queenie watch the news as it covers a story about a fatal accident that happened at a frat party, a frat party that Madison and Zoe attended.

Fiona Goode decides to take the girls out and lecture them about society and the increasing need for witches to defend themselves. None of the girls knew who Fiona was until Nan pointed out that she was the supreme witch, prompting Fiona to state that Nan is smarter than all of the other girls together. It is also during this trip that Nan is captured by a clairvoyant reading and wanders off to the museum of Delphine LaLaurie. There she wanders about trying to pinpoint the source of the reading. Fiona finally finds Nan in the backyard of the museum sitting alone. When asked why she is there Nan reveals that the lady of the house is there.

Later that night Fiona digs up the still alive LaLaurie from her unmarked grave and takes her to the school where she keeps her captive.^[4]

Nan later releases LaLaurie because the socialite's incessant loud thoughts irritate her, later bearing witness to Queenie being knocked out by LaLaurie.

Along with Queenie, Nan watches their new neighbor, Joan and Luke Ramsey, move in. They are joined by Madison, who expresses interest in Luke. They walk in, and go to the dining hall, in which Nan reveals that boys find her "hot", and she gets it on quite a lot.

Nan is accompanied by Madison to the Ramsey house, bringing a cake to welcome them into the neighborhood. After Madison and Joan face off, Nan and Madison are kicked out of the house, but not before Nan witnesses Madison's new powers, which she demonstrates by setting the neighbor's curtains on fire.^[5]

When the Council on Witchcraft formed by Myrtle Snow, Quentin Flaming and Cecily Pembroke pays a visit to Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, Cordelia clumsily lets slip about the Minotaur incident and her entering voodoo territory, necessitating Fiona's placating them. Nan reveals that she sent the Council here because Madison went silent in Nan's head. They are conducting an official inquiry. The death of a descendant of Salem is punishable by incineration. They interrogate Cordelia, Zoe, Queenie, and Nan. They ask, among other things, if she was manifesting new powers. Cordelia notices the rug is missing. They realize that Fiona was aware that Madison gained another power, and Myrtle suspects her of killing Madison for having the potential as the next Supreme. After Nan crafts a shrine for Madison, Luke arrives bearing cookies to repay the cake Nan brought him.^[6] He is not long inside before more seekers arrive at the door. Delphine takes a good look at the zombie trick-or-treaters and recognizes them not as made-up children, but as her own long-dead daughters, the smiling one in the middle being Marie Pauline, the daughter who seduced Bastien shortly before Delphine turned him into the Minotaur. A look outside shows an army of the undead laying siege to the house.

The girls are terrified, but Luke thinks it is all a prank. He finds his way out the door. In Cornrow City, Marie is levitating on her ritual Voodoo vévé. While Luke walks among the dormant zombies, Marie commands them to begin. They tear apart an innocent bystander. Luke tries to flee for safety but is struck down. Zoe takes charge and has the lights killed and curtains drawn. She then orders everyone upstairs. She tells Spalding to take Delphine and Queenie to his room but when he refuses she says to pick a room. Nan slips out the door and aids Luke to take refuge inside Cordelia's car. Zoe charges to the aid of an exposed Nan and Luke with a chainsaw and quickly dispatches the intruders.

Fiona, Nan, and Zoe incinerate the fallen dead army in the yard with a bonfire. Luke is asleep in Nan's bed.

After suspicions rise over the missing Madison and Fiona's aggressive behavior, Zoe, Queenie and Nan make a pact over absinthe shots to watch each other's back.

The three young witches use a spirit board in hopes of finding the possibly deceased Madison. Instead of contacting Madison, the trio contact The Axeman at which point Queenie ends the seance.

Zoe tries to convince the witches to reestablish contact with the Axeman, but neither Nan nor Queenie are interested, so Zoe goes it alone.

After discovering the whereabouts of Madison's corpse in Spalding's room, Zoe brings Nan and Queenie to interrogate him. Nan uses her Clairvoyance to translate for the mute, though her modesty does not permit her to quote Spalding's thoughts verbatim.

Nan becomes increasingly more worried about Luke, whose mother wiil not let Nan see him, as his thoughts suggest to her that he is being harmed. Despite her concerns, Cordelia reminds Nan that the coven has more pressing matters to attend. The remaining witches at the School will concoct a plan to kill Fiona. With the help of Myrtle Snow, this plan becomes the ritual called The Sacred Taking.

After the newly resurrected Madison tries to convince Fiona to commit suicide, the girls all gather on the school stairway and discuss who could be the possible new Supreme. When she is dismissed as a possibility, Nan storms off.

Nan decides that she will visit Luke and as she approaches his home she uses, for the first time, telekinesis to open the front door. She follows the sounds of grunting up to a closet on the second floor where she finds Luke bound and gagged. After releasing him, Luke insists that they leave. Nan kisses him on the cheek and agrees. They are stopped before they can reach the front door by Joan. She threatens to call the police and report Nan as an intruder.

As the mother and son get into a brief altercation, Hank Foxx, who had been following Nan since she left the school, raises his gun and fires. The bullets hit Joan twice, killing her, and, before one can hit Nan, Luke jumps into the way to save her and it hits him instead. Nan is immediately distraught and insists that Luke can not die because she is his Supreme. Luke does not die and is taken to the hospital in critical care, with Nan going with him while Fiona orders Misty to resurrect Joan. After being brought back to life, Joan attends to Luke and bars Nan from seeing him.

When Madison and Zoe come to collect Nan she reveals that she has not seen Luke since he was taken in. The witches help Nan find Luke against his mother's wishes. Joan becomes furious at their presence and blames them for this incident. Nan uses her powers to speak for a comatose Luke, telling his mother to calm down. Nan uses Luke's thoughts to prove that she is a mind-reader and can help Joan, resulting in Madison ultimately revealing that they are witches and Nan is clairvoyant. Joan then allows for Nan's continued presence when Nan says that Luke wishes his mother to sing "A Closer Walk With Thee." After singing to Joan, she embraces Nan and accepts her.

Joan returns to the room with snacks and expresses gratitude towards Nan. However, Nan listens to Luke and reveals that Luke has seen God and that God is judging Joan for the murder of her husband after Joan saw him with another woman, using bees and making it appear as an accident as her husband was deeply allergic to bee stings. Joan rebukes this truth and orders Nan out of the room. Nan is then comforted by Madison and taken back to the house as Joan then smothers Luke to death. After she finds out that Luke is dead and his mother suffocated him with a pillow, an enraged and heartbroken Nan compels Joan to drink bleach, killing her.

Back at Miss Robichaux's Academy, Nan's clairvoyance leads her to the baby that Marie Laveau kidnapped from the hospital and intended on killing it in sacrifice to Papa Legba. Compromised at this point by her knowledge and their predicament, Marie and Fiona drown Nan in a bathtub as a substitute for the "innocent" that Marie had intended to sacrifice, rationalizing that while not a complete innocent, Nan is close enough. When her soul appears, she asks if she will be stuck in her dress for all eternity, but Papa Legba assures her she wiil not and that her afterlife is filled with treats. When she goes with him, though, she comments it is better than being in the coven.^[7]

Later, a photo of Nan is seen as Queenie is preparing for the Seven Wonders.^[8]

Apocalypse[]

During a seance with Cordelia Goode and Dinah Stevens, they summon Papa Legba. Cordelia explains to Legba that she wishes for him to open the gates of the underworld to lure Michael Langdon inside. Getting the understanding that Cordelia wants him to perform a coup against the Anti-Christ, Legba tells Cordelia he will only go along with the plan if he gets something in return. He mentions that the last time the Witch and Voodoo Queens had summoned him he was given the best offering of all. Nan appears behind him greeting Cordelia and Dinah in a somewhat harsh and sarcastic manner. Cordelia is shocked to find that Nan is with Legba as Fiona never told her what actually caused Nan's death. Legba explains that Nan is one of his favorite little helpers as Nan states she is having fun in Hell, stirring up trouble. Legba insists that the offering Cordelia must give is all her Witches' souls. Nan coaxes Cordelia into taking the deal as she "wants to see her friends again". Cordelia apologizes to Nan and denies Papa Legba's deal which leads him and Nan to vanish, leaving Cordelia and Dinah dumbfounded.^[9]

While Marie Laveau is reluctantly torturing Delphine's family in Hell, who is begging for mercy, Nan walks in and informs Marie that she has been doing terrible work and Papa is finally releasing her due to a deal he made with Cordelia: replacing Marie with Dinah Stevens. Cordelia tells Marie that she was not made to torture because it is not in her heart and takes her to Outpost 3.

After Mallory defeated Michael Langdon and erased the previous events of Apocalypse, Nan shows up at Miss Robichaux's Academy on Mallory's "first day", bringing Misty with her. Mallory was able to bring her back because she has major street cred with the demons since she killed Michael. Nan says she has to go back to her job, Cordelia tries to stop her but Nan says she likes to be with Papa.^[10]

Powers[]

Nan was a powerful natural born witch who is shown to have mastered three of the Seven Wonders.

Clairvoyance - The magical ability to read the minds of others and project her thoughts into them. This power is also known as Telepathy. It is seemingly different from that of Bubbles McGee, who can read souls, although it seems to have the same application.
Divination - One of the Seven Wonders, the magical ability to gain knowledge through indirect means. She could get insights about someone's future and past. She told Zoe Benson during a dinner that she would find a strange and unexpected love and knew that Zoe killed her ex-boyfriend accidentally. She also could sense that Madison's heart murmur was cured.^[7]
Telekinesis - One of the Seven Wonders, the magical ability to move things with only the power of the mind. With this power she was able to easily throw Zoe on the ground and pushed her away while she was murdering Joan.
Concilium - One of the Seven Wonders, the magical ability to bend the will of another individual and force them to do whatever the user desires. This power is more commonly known as Mind Control. Nan develops this power as an evolution of her Clairvoyance power and with it she was able to easily control Madison's mind and kill Joan by forcing her to drink bleach while at the same time keeping Zoe steady with Telekinesis. Zoe even stated that her Mind Control was comparable to Fiona's.
Transmutation (as a spirit) - The magical ability to move instantaneously from one location to another. This power is more commonly known as Teleportation. Although this is one of the Seven Wonders, Nan was not shown using this before her death. As a spirit, Nan disappeared with Papa Legba before Cordelia Goode and Dinah Stevens.^[9]
- Interdimensional Travel - Nan can move freely through different dimensions.
Spellcraft - An affinity to perform rituals and spells. She successfully banished the Axeman's ghost from the Academy, casting the spell with Queenie and Zoe.

Quotes[]

To Madison Montgomery: "I'm not a virgin, I get it all the time and guys find me hot."
To Zoe Benson: "Fiona's a bitch, I'm going to be a nice Supreme."
To Papa Legba: "Do I have to wear this outfit for all eternity?"
To Marie Laveau: "Eat my shit. I'm the next Supreme, I just killed the neighbor next door and I will kill you."
To Joan Ramsey: "You have to be cleansed!"
To Madison Montgomery: "Put out that cigarette. Now stick it in your vagina."
To Cordelia Goode: "Cordelia! Long time no see, bitch."

Notes[]

She is the second character to be portrayed by Jamie Brewer. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.
Nan is the fourth character, after Adelaide Langdon, Elsa Mars and Donovan, to be revealed being happy in the Afterlife.^[9] Interestingly, two of them are portrayed by Jamie Brewer.
She is one of the few main characters whose surnames are not confirmed in the series.
Not many were aware of her truth of death besides Zoe Benson, Kyle Spencer, Fiona Goode and Marie Laveau.