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"Valerie Solanas Died For Your Sins: Scumbag" is the seventh episode of Cult. It premiered on October 17, 2017.

Synopsis[]

Kai's presence in national headlines attracts a new underground following. The women in the cult find themselves pushed aside before finding inspiration in the stories of an enigmatic stranger.[1]

Plot[]

June 3, 1968[]

In the back of a parked car, a woman (Valerie Solanas) and a man are having sex. He shorts her $5 on the $10 fee for her services. She leaves and inquires inside a store how many bullets $5 will pay for. Her mission: kill Andy Warhol.

24 hours earlier[]

On a film set, an actress asks for direction from Andy Warhol, the visionary of the film. Solanas storms in and demands her script back from Warhol, who has lost it. She accuses him of having lost it on purpose. Warhol retorts that as a woman, she should not expect to be a great artist. Infuriated, she's escorted off the set.

June 3, 1968[]

Solanas loads her gun in a freight elevator, and she's told that Warhol isn't coming in that week. She returns to the elevator, and Warhol enters it. She follows him back to the set and shoots at him until she hits him in the stomach.

2017[]

The news reports the shooting at Kai's rally; 5 are dead, one is wounded. Meadow is identified as the shooter, and Ally has been arrested as a suspect. Harrison reads a prepared statement about Meadow's actions. Kai is polling ahead and is the apparent winner. Beverly emerges from the studio to find a hooded figure near her car. The woman tells her that she knows about the cult and that the assassination attempt was fake. She tells Beverly to call her at a hotel when she's ready.

The next day, Beverly Hope is locked out of Kai's house, where bodyguards fill and guard the house. Each of the men is dressed identically. Kai welcomes her in and tells her that the men are volunteers from all over the nation. He leads her downstairs to discuss the next steps, and she bristles that the terms of their equal partnership have changed. Beverly reminds him of Meadow, and Harrison tells her to leave.

Beverly visits the mystery woman, who has been expecting her.

At The Butchery, Ivy and Winter discuss Ally's disappearance. Ivy is worried, but Det. Samuels won't return her calls. Winter says that it is because he's part of the no-women-allowed inner sanctum in Kai's basement. Ivy invites in a knocking Beverly and the woman, whom Beverly identifies as Bebe Babbitt. Beverly asked all the women to assemble. They are all unnerved that "the patriarchy" has taken over the movement's leadership and that they are being marginalized. Bebe discloses that Valerie Solanas was her lover, and tells her story. 

1967[]

Valerie gathered a group of like-minded people in a room at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Solanas' SCUM Manifesto was a feminist tipping point and intrigued Babbitt (and a number of other devotees) with the notion of killing most men (those pre-approved by the group, such as gay men, would be conditionally exempted as gender-traitors).

1968[]

Upon being placed in a psychiatric hospital in San Francisco, Solanas outlined her plan to new followers. The attack on Warhol launched other attacks on men by SCUM. The credit of those attacks went to the never-identified Zodiac Killer, but Babbitt explains that there was never a single Zodiac killer and that all those actions were actually the work of SCUM.

1969[]

Ahs bruce death

Other couples continued to be murdered, directed by Solanas from her hospital cell. Solanas was infuriated when a rogue, self-identifying as Zodiac, began sending letters to the newspapers, taking credit for SCUM's work. Babbitt suggested taking credit as SCUM, but Solanas was clear in the manifesto that step would only happen after a thousand were dead from the revolution.

1973[]

Solanas became increasingly unhinged until she emerged from the hospital years later. Her new paradigm did not allow for any exceptions among men, especially as she blamed one of the group's members -- a man named Maurice -- for being the imposter taking credit as the Zodiac killer. However, this was just a front. As she confronted Maurice she stabbed the other male member, Bruce. As Maurice flees, Valerie states she could tell that Bruce was the culprit despite his attempt to frame Maurice. She orders the women of SCUM to kill Bruce, and his body is found later--ritually dismembered with his genitals in his mouth.

Solanas presented herself to the police and took credit on behalf of SCUM for the murders, but the officer did not believe her confession and sent her away. More left the group as Solanas's schizophrenia decompensated, and she imagined Warhol visiting her to criticize her. Her public identity became tied with shooting Warhol, and her legacy did not include the rest of her SCUM work. And, in 1988, Valerie Solanas passed away in relative obscurity.

2017[]

Babbitt warns the assembled women that they must reclaim their power from Kai and the rest of the men. Beverly says they must strike back.

The next day, Winter finds Kai communing with their mummified parents, wondering if they'd be proud of him. She says that she's not happy with all his actions, but she loves and supports him. He questions her loyalty and asks her about the copy of the SCUM Manifesto he found in her room. She tries to play it off as an old textbook, but he says it has inspired him to post his own message on social media. He tests out titles with her. FIT, or "Fear Is Truth", makes her smirk. Harrison's idea of MLWB, "Men Lead, Women Bleed," has more of a negative reaction. He asks her to leave for more solitary time, and as she walks away says "Say hi to the girls for me."

Back at the restaurant, Harrison and Ivy plan a victory party for Kai. She questions whether Harrison's treatment of Kai as a king isn't a bit much, which he scoffs at. They move further in, and the women surround him. Beverly incapacitates him, and he awakes in the meat locker to find Ivy with an engaged chainsaw. They pump him for answers about Meadow and Ally. He says everything is Kai's idea, even "Men Lead, Women Bleed". Ivy lowers the chainsaw and severs his arm.

Beverly reports on Harrison's "scum-covered" dismembered corpse and associates it with retaliation for Meadow's assassination attempt. She suggests to the public that Kai's promise of law and order is not being kept, as Kai eyes the SCUM Manifesto resting in front of him. He turns to a guest, saying that they're at their best when they're angry. Bebe Babbitt, his co-conspirator, agrees.

Featured Characters[]

Valerie Solanas[]

Valerie Solanas was an American radical feminist who attempted to kill Andy Warhol. She is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by actress Lena Dunham. Being the first female cult leader, she commanded a legion of females, codenamed "SCUM".

On June 2, 1968, Valerie had a discussion with Andy Warhol, who rejected her film script and retorted that as a woman, she shouldn't be expected to be a great artist. The morning after, she prostituted herself to buy bullets for her gun. Valerie then went to his studio and his employees told her that he was gone for the week. However, after meeting him in the elevator, she followed him back to his office and shot him in the stomach. The authorities later hospitalized her in an asylum for the criminally insane in New York. While in her cell, she organized the murdering of various men and their female partners. The credit of the SCUM attacks, however, were taken by a man calling himself the Zodiac Killer. The thought of a man taking credit for her SCUM killings caused Valerie to go crazy and led to her followers to lose faith in her teachings and abandon her. All alone, she contracted pneumonia and began to hallucinate Andy Warhol, who mocked her for her appearance and false legacy.

Andy Warhol[]

Andy Warhol is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Evan Peters.

He was an American artist who rejected a script written by Valerie Solanas, which made her angry, thus leading her to attempt to assassinate him. Andy meets Valerie in a elevator before going to his desk and she shoots him. A hallucination Andy is later seen eating a hamburger talking to Valerie who believes he messed up her typewritter. She goes to tackle him and he moves making her bump her head and is knocked out. 

Notes[]

  • Andy is the nineth character portrayed by Evan Peters. For a complete list of his characters, see Cast.



Hedda[]

Hedda is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Jamie Brewer.

Hedda is a follower of Valerie Solanas and a member of SCUM. It is revealed that she was abandoned and orphaned as a child. She went to murder the two couples and Bruce. She and the other women later abandoned Solanas because of her behavior.

Notes[]

  • Hedda is the fourth character portrayed by Jamie Brewer. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.


Butchy May[]

Butchy May is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Dot-Marie Jones.

Butchy May joined SCUM whilst on the run from the police for murdering a man. She particpated in killing the two couples and Bruce. She and the other women later abandoned Solanas because of her behavior. Given her costume, she is seemingly the Zodiac Killer who attends Devil's Night, implying that she died at some point.

Notes[]

  • May is the first character portrayed by Dot-Marie Jones. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.


Maurice[]

Maurice is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Ryan Alvarez. He was made fun of and "bullied" by the women of SCUM and he was later threatened to be murdered by the women who said he was the Zodiac and was taking credit but they killed Bruce and Maurice ran. 

Bruce[]

Bruce is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Miguel Sagaz. He was accused and "bullied" by the women of SCUM for him being a gay man. He was a member of SCUM up until the time of his death at the hands of the organizations female members. After the murder of the couples by SCUM, an anonymous person sent coded messages to the police claiming responsibility for the murders. According to Bebe Babbitt, the imposter perpetrated another murder attributed to the Zodiac, that of Paul Lee Stine. Valerie determined this imposter to be Bruce after finding a notebook under Maurice's bed with markings matching those sent to the police. Although he had planted the notebook under the bed to frame Maurice, Valerie could tell by the handwriting that it belonged to Bruce. She stabs Bruce as Maurice flees the apartment. Valerie orders the women of SCUM to stand up and they viciously stab Bruce to death for taking credit for the SCUM murders under the Zodiac alias. His dismembered body is found by police the next day.


Betty Lou Jensen[]

Betty Lou Jensen is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Audrey Ellis Fox. She is a fictionalized version of Betty Lou Jensen, a young woman known for being one of the first victims of the Zodiac Killer.

In AHS: Cult, Betty Lou Jensen and her lover, David Faraday, were victims of a SCUM attack perpetrated by Bebe Babbitt and other members in 1968 after the hospitalization of Valerie Solanas. In accordance with her "ultimate plan," Valerie instructed SCUM to start with "couple busting." She explains: "It's not just men who are the problem. It's women who think that by spreading their legs for a man they gain value. They're lost. So we have to kill them both to send a message."

As Bebe tells the story of SCUM's history to Winter, Ivy, and Beverly she explains that Valerie shooting Andy Warhol was the signal to begin the SCUM killings. Bebe states that the group stalked out a lovers lane and picked the first couple they came upon, who she described as being in the "wrong place, wrong time."

In the flashback to 1968 Vallejo, California, the couple is Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. As they make out in a parked car, Betty notices something outside of the car. David assures her it is an animal but as they resume kissing a shot rings out. When the couple gets out to investigate they are approached by the cloaked SCUM members. Bebe shoots David in the head and then Betty Lou in the back as she attempts to flee. The SCUM members then surround Betty Lou and recite SCUM mantras at her as she lay dying.

Back in the present Winter recognizes the killings as the work of the Zodiac Killer. Bebe confirms and reveals that SCUM were the actual perpetrators of the Zodiac killings.


David Faraday[]

David Faraday is a guest starring character in American Horror Story portrayed by Geoff Katz. He is a fictionalized version of David Faraday, a young man known for being one of the first victims of the Zodiac Killer.

In AHS: Cult, David Faraday is murdered by SCUM in 1968 at a lovers lane in Vallejo, California, alongside his lover, Betty Lou Jensen. While making out in a parked car the couple hears a gunshot. When the couple investigates they are approached by cloaked members of SCUM, who shoot David in the head and then Betty Lou in the back as she attempts to flee.


Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard[]

Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard are guest starring characters in American Horror Story portrayed by Tim Braun and Erin Mulvey, respectively. They are fictionalized versions of actual victims of the Zodiac Killer.

In Cult, the couple is attacked in 1969 at Lake Berryessa where they were laying together on a picnic blanket. A flashback shows the two cuddling in a field when they are approached by a figure wearing all-black, including a concealing hood emblazoned with a crosshair logo. In present day Bebe explains that the couple was another attempt at "couple busting": the murder of a couple to send the message that coupling with a man will only get a woman killed. In the flashback the couple is shown being stabbed by Bebe, Hedda, Butchy May, and other SCUM members.

Although unconfirmed in the series, the actual Cecelia Shepard succumbed to her wombs and died while the actual Bryan Hartnell survived the attack.


Quotes[]

  • Maurice and Bruce to female SCUM members: "I'm a turd, a lonely abstract turd."
  •  Winter: "Down with the patriarchy!"
  • Bebe to Beverly: "I know what it feels like to assassinate a man."
  • Bebe, unknown member of SCUM, and Hedda (respectively) to Betty Lou Jensen as she lay dying: "SCUM is impatient" ; "SCUM will not be consoled by the thought that future generations will thrive" ; "SCUM wants to grab some thrilling living for itself"

Cultural References[]

Notes[]

Raised Questions[]

  • What are Bebe's intensions? 

Videos[]

References[]

Mid-Western Assassin

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