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The ending of American Horror Story season 11 sees Sam, Hannah, and Patrick die from the real-life HIV/AIDS infection; Gino and Adam spend the last episode looking for answers and doing vital campaigning. AHS: NYC said Sam passes through a dream-like hospital where he witnesses males he slept with also dying of the illness. Patrick's death likewise occurs gradually as he returns in time via agonizing recollections, guided by the ghost of his ex-wife Barbara telling him what his self-denial and life reconstruction done to himself and others.
AHS: NYC goes to black as Adam gets about to speak during Gino's funeral. Patrick passes away, and Gino sits by his bedside year after year. Adam, meantime, looks at the HIV/AIDS virus using the data left by the pregnant Dr. Hannah Wells before her death; her expertise helps Adam raise awareness of the sexually transmitted illness. Season 11 of American Horror Story clarified that Gino always tires to keep Big Daddy's fury at distance while he observes more and more of his friends dying from the illness. Then the last flashforward shows Gino's eventual fate. Gino is slain by Big Daddy in 1991 following ten years of demonstrations and observing those close by die-off. Ahs: NYC turns to black as Adam is ready to speak at Gino's funeral.
The HIV/AIDS virus was obviously the cause of the enigmatic illness affecting several of the gay characters in AHS Season 11. Far too late to save those who have already been lost, especially as the authorities were not paying it any attention, it was ultimately identified in AHS season 11's flash-forward to 1987. The real killer of AHS season 11 is a nonfictional illness, but also lot more horrible.
With Big Daddy taking more victims than Mr. Whitely, all except one of the key characters in American Horror Story Season 11 perish in the conclusion. Though each character confronts their emotions, AHS: NYC's ending still leaves much of the narrative unspoken. But given AHS: NYC's killer is based on a real-life epidemic, Adam's uncertain future can still be imagined from what actually happened to activists in the LGBT community in New York City at this period. Ahs: NYC's ending is sadder than many other finales, which begs further questions about the meaning of the horror concept of the show.
Although AHS: NYC brings serial killers as key antagonists, their symbolic meaning differs from earlier seasons. AHS: NYC's killer is a very real menace that speaks to a different fear than religious symbols, sadistic psychopaths, vengeful spirits, or otherworldly beings. AHS: NYC clarified that a far more common and real fear is that of an illness, not of a malevolent man, woman, or ghost.
Inspired by the worries and deaths brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic, AHS: NYC's emphasis on the AIDS epidemic draws attention to the actual horror narrative of the menace that scared the LGBT community in New York City throughout the 1980s AHS: Since many people in NYC have personal knowledge of this criminal, NYC's killer is more emotive than earlier antagonists. With American Horror narrative season 11's real narrative highlighting these terrible concerns, horror stories do not always feature the supernatural or the hideous minds of serial killers. Via WHO, over 40 million people have died worldwide from HIV since the AIDS epidemic started; this makes it far more horrific than the unrealized vampires or aliens in American Horror Story season 10.
American Horror Story: Sam's dream sequence viewing himself and others die of the HIV/AIDS infection starts at Theo's sad funeral, which really marks the heartbreaking climax. AHS: NYC clarified that Sam is brought before men he neglected, abused, or worse, while Big Daddy—who seems to be an embodiment of Sam's guilt— murders or tortues them. With his money and power meaning nothing when he is sick, alone, and dying of a sickness, Sam's death dream is meant to show that he needed to see the agony and suffering he caused others in try to conceal his own.
Sam didn't realize the damage he had done until Theo passed away and his own health got worse. AHS: NYC clarified that Sam is able to move on and embrace himself, as he lets go of his own suffering and keeps himself from continuing to inflict it on others, as he unmasks his shame by pulling off Big Daddy's hood and kisses him. In trying to avoid the darkness, Zachary Quinto's AHS season 11 character unintentionally destroyed the life of others around him. Sam didn't realize he had harmed anyone until Theo passed away and his own health started to deteriorate. Then Henry lets Sam's ashes float in the sea so he could atone in the next world.
AHS: NYC revealed two quite emotionally disturbing endings for Adam and Gino. Living for another ten years, Gino watches everyone around him die from HIV/AIDS and tries to avoid Big Daddy's anger himself. Gino was still engulfed in death even as he tried to push it away; he was hopelessly seeing everyone around die. Patrick brought the worn-out persona into light after Gino's work raised awareness of the illness, but he still battled back against becoming Big Daddy's next victim.
Adam's AHS: NYC finale is equally depressing since he keeps advocating while witnessing every single person he loves pass away from this illness. AHS: NYC clarified that although Adam is left as one of the few who survives, Adam is still working on HIV/AIDS awareness alongside Gino. The finale of American Horror Story season 11 suggests Adam has given this identical speech dozens of times, and will do it once more when he gets ready to speak at Gino's funeral.
Season 11 of American Horror Story answered little and leaves open questions on the source of the epidemic of the illness. Billie Lourd's AHS: NYC character Hannah admits that although the illness did not start on Fire Island's deer, deer ticks from a lab could possibly be the solution. Fran had told Hannah about a conspiracy theory whereby the government experimented on deer ticks and then let them go wild to propagate the illness. But Hannah doesn't have much of faith in Fran's conspiracy hypothesis as the medical world's focus on ticks mostly relates to the causes and spread of Lyme disease.
AHS: NYC's ending leaves one without a clear solution since one wasn't discovered until much later. Researchers discovered in 1999 that a virus altered from chimpanzees is the source of HIV. According to researchers, the virus first affected people in Africa in the 1800s; it then traveled to Haiti in the 1960s and from the Caribbean to New York in the 1970s (via HISTORY). AHS: Given the discoveries of Lyme disease and HIV/AIDS happened at the same time, NYC's emphasis on Fire Island's deer and ticks was a false herring.
The ending of American Horror Story NYC implied that the leather-clad figure was never totally genuine and that Big Daddy was never a serial killer in the conventional sense. Instead, AHS: NYC clarified that Big Daddy was a visual depiction of the virus that pursued and killed different American Horror Story season 11 protagonists.
Big Daddy followed people around to represent their HIV/AIDS virus infection, even if they were not aware of it yet. Big Daddy murdered the characters, so acting as a physical manifestation of the illness killing them. The two-part finale of American Horror Story season 11 explained that Big Daddy was simply a physical manifestation of the disease. Having been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS for years, Gino continued to be visited by Big Daddy, with his sightings becoming more frequent as Gino’s symptoms worsened. American Horror Story: NYC’s ending also included Gino seeing Big Daddy take a machine gun and mass murder his colleagues at his newspaper, revealing how quickly the disease had taken so many people. This explains why it was impossible for AHS: NYC’s dying characters to kill Big Daddy on Fire Island, as the disease would still come back for them later on.
With 10 other seasons under its belt, the anthology series American Horror Story has experienced a variety of different finales, making what AHS: NYC explained not all that out of place. Ryan Murphy introduced the very first season of his TV show, dubbed Murder House, with a similarly down ending and nearly all the main characters meeting their demise to remain trapped in the house forever. However, Murder House didn't necessarily feature the same social commentary or depiction of real-life harrowing events of American Horror Story season 11.
While season 1 did showcase historical figures like Elizabeth Short, the inclusion of great history didn't start happening until later installments. AHS season 7, Cult, is the only other chapter to tackle real-world issues in the same overt way that NYC did, but NYC arguably did it better. The AHS: Cult finale differs from NYC, giving more of a positive-ish conclusion with Kai finally paying for his crimes.
The season finale of American Horror Story: NYC was received well by several critics and newer viewers to the franchise who were perhaps drawn in by the based-on-real-life premise of the 11th season, though there were outspoken corners of the AHS fandom and several reviews who found it lacking. Many of the critiques of the final episode of American Horror Story season 11 mirrored those that had followed it throughout, with pacing and the subtler horror elements failing to hit the mark for some viewers.
The reveal that Big Daddy was a metaphor for the HIV/AIDs crisis rather than being a supernatural being was seen as a negative by just as many who saw it as cleer storytelling. While there were few who could dismiss the emotional impact of American Horror Story season 11's closing moments, there's also a somewhat valid argument that it simply wasn't what longtime viewers wanted from the show. The AHS season 11 finale, like most of NYC, simply didn't feel like American Horror Story. It seems that the American Horror Story: NYC finale suffered from a single key issue — it didn't exist in a vacuum. The muted yet emotional finale was described as lackluster by many, especially those used to the more chilling yet explosive climaxes of prior seasons. Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have both worked on many other projects, and there was a definite sense after NYC concluded that it may have been better suited as a new show in its own right, rather than one which carried the American Horror Story name.