It’s not uncommon for American Horror Story seasons to connect in some way. For instance, American Horror Story: Hotel briefly includes Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) from American Horror Story: Coven, while American Horror Story: Asylum’s Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) comes back for The Lana Winters Special in American Horror Story: Roanoke. This also goes for American Horror Story: 1984, which features Richard Ramirez, a.k.a. the Night Stalker, and this real life killer has a brief appearance in Hotel. However, while he’s officially a recurring character, his appearance in 1984 creates a plot hole for Hotel.
Ramirez’s first appearance in AHS is with Hotel in “Devil’s Night.” Portrayed by Anthony Ruivivar, Hotel’s Ramirez is a guest to James Patrick March’s (Evan Peters) dinner for the ghosts of dead killers. This dinner includes the likes of real life murderers Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, the Zodiac Killer and the Night Stalker. While Ramirez does not play a major role in Hotel, he continues AHS‘ long standing tradition of incorporating real killers into its narratives, whether that’s by literally including them into an episode or basing an original character — like March — on them.
The rules for the ghosts in AHS are that they cannot leave the place they’ve died unless it is Halloween, so it’s understandable that the only way to bring back Ramirez would be with a prequel. 1984 takes place before many of the events in AHS, and its ’80s setting makes it perfect for the Night Stalker, a serial killer whose killing spree began in this year.
Unlike in Hotel, Ramirez is portrayed by Zach Villa in 1984, and he has a significantly larger role. Inspired by Montana (Billie Lourd) to kill Brooke Thompson (Emma Roberts), Ramirez follows the core cast to Camp Redwood, where he meets Mr. Jiggles (John Carroll Lynch), who he resurrects with the help of the Devil. Because of this, Jiggles is indebted to them, accompanying Ramirez on his murder spree until he can no longer take it.
While the events at Redwood are fictionalized, how Jiggles turns Ramirez in is oddly accurate. Of course, many liberties are still taken — like Jiggles tipping off two women about who Ramirez is; however, the civilians pursuing him until authorities arrive is true. This then leads to his imprisonment, both in AHS and real life.
Up to this point, what happens to Ramirez sets him up to attend Devil’s Night, as he’s supposed to die in prison in 2013, and Hotel aired between 2015 and 2016. However, this is where 1984 makes a major change, with Ramirez calling upon the Devil to help him escape prison in 1989. He then returns to Redwood, but instead of coming out on top, the dead counselors kill him at the camp.
However, unlike others who’ve died in Camp Redwood, Ramirez is not a ghost like he is in Hotel. Instead, his physical body can be resurrected again by the Devil. There is the possibility that later down the line Ramirez could properly die, and his spirit could then make his way to the Hotel Cortez on Halloween, but that means at some point Ramirez falls out of favor with the Devil. It also means that he would’ve had to escape the counselors of Camp Redwood, who’ve been watching his corpse 24/7, with one counselor always present to kill him when he comes back to life.
This continues all the way through 2019, with the Devil still resurrecting Ramirez after all these years. While he almost breaks free of the counselors, they eventually kill him once more, again condemning Ramirez to this cycle. That means Ramirez never becomes a ghost; therefore, he never attends Devil’s Night. Plus, even if he could attend March’s dinner in his physical body, he must have escaped the counselors, but since he’s been trapped here for the entirety of the 21st century, he would’ve missed the events of Hotel.
Hotel’s iteration of Ramirez does not play a major role in the season, so this plot hole doesn’t deeply affect the storyline. Plus, AHS is an anthology, with nearly every season standing on its own. When the seasons connect, it’s a nice gift for long time fans, but that doesn’t mean these references need to be perfect as the stories are often not dependent on the overarching continuity.
While this plot hole is not deeply impactful, it is noticeable, especially for those familiar with the Night Stalker. Of course, liberties were taken before his arrest in AHS for Ramirez, but 1984 rewrites his entire life after his imprisonment. Ramirez escaping and being condemned to the camp has no connection to reality, and it calls into question how his ghost ended up in Hotel in the first place.
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