American Horror Story: Double Feature recap: How does Red Tide end?

We’ve reached the end of American Horror Story: Double Feature‘s first story, “Red Tide.” In American Horror Story: Double Feature Episode 6, “Winter Kills,” we find out what becomes of the Gardener family and the other Provincetown pill poppers.

The sixth episode starts with a few P-Town fishermen finding Chief Burelson’s body floating in the water. This discovery causes Mass State Police Trooper Jan Remy (Dot-Marie Jones) to show up at a local town council meeting to demand they do more to investigate the recent string of murders. But no one on the council is interested in ruffling feathers.

They’ve come to accept that these murders, like all other oddities in this town, are “wintertime problems.” Bad things happen in the winter, sure, but they always go away by the spring. And the council depends on the tourist season to pay for winter. It’s easier to turn a blind eye to it all than risk scaring people away from visiting in the spring and summer.

In the aftermath of the council meeting, an irritated Holden visits the Chemist, Austin and Belle. He demands they take care of the Hollywood people, so they don’t mess up the good thing they all have going.

Back at the Gardener household, Harry has informed Alma that they’re done with the pills now, for good. Since he has written his magnum opus, he thinks they can coast by on the money he’ll make from it for years without needing to take any more pills. Alma isn’t crazy about the plan but pretends to go along with it.

In the meantime, they’ve got more significant concerns as Belle breaks into the house to kidnap baby Eli. She leaves a ransom note, telling Alma, Harry and Ursula to come over or she’ll kill Eli. Without much choice, Harry and Alma do as they’re told, leaving Ursula to enact a crazy plan to save them all. Ursula plans to entice the pale people to attack Belle and Austin.

Ursula arrives with her pale posse before Belle and Austin can sink their teeth into Harry or Alma. The bloodthirsty group makes short work of the writers, and Ursula shoots them all dead before they can set their sights on the Gardeners.

At first, it looks like it’s going to be a happy ending for Alma and Harry, who might be able to escape the town and return to a relatively normal life, but as we all know by now, Alma doesn’t let anyone stand in the way of her ambition. She kills her own father, and we learn Ursula and The Chemist have been in cahoots the whole time since Ursula offered her that deal at the beginning of the season.

The Chemist supplied Ursula with an old formula to give the pale people. This version of the pill causes them to attack pill users with talent, hence why they didn’t turn on Ursula. As for the state trooper, they intend to blame all the murders on Harry.

American Horror Story: Double Feature Episode 6 recap: Life in Hollywood

Three months later, in Hollywood, The Chemist, Ursula, Alma and Eli have formed an odd makeshift family. The Chemist, now living large on the profits from Ursula’s successful boutique agency, has set her sights on giving back to her community by weeding out the most racist cops in the LAPD. She plies them with her pills, and when they turn into pale people and go on murderous rampages, they get killed.

Alma auditions for the first chair at an elite symposium in Hollywood, and it comes down to her and a single competitor named Rory (Benjamin Papac). Given her track record, you probably guessed how Alma would handle the competition. She kills him.

And the last we see of Ursula, she crashes a screenwriting symposium to give all of the writers in attendance one of her black pills, unleashing a horde of pale people on the streets of Los Angeles. The Chemist watches as the streets run red and takes off to start over in a new town, with baby Eli in tow.

What did you think about the American Horror Story: Double Feature – Red Tide finale? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The next part of American Horror Story: Double Feature, “Death Valley,” begins next Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. EST on FX.