Wherefore art thou, Kim K? American Horror Story: Delicate took a break from its regular storyline surrounding rising star Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts) and her troublesome pregnancy to dedicate an entire episode to the women also haunted by the Satanic baby-stealing cult before her. With season MVP Kim Kardashian out of the way, this week’s episode finds a new scene-stealer in Cara Delevingne.
The Suicide Squad actor was introduced as Anna’s nurse Ivy in the first part of the season, which began airing in September 2023. However now, Delevingne is shaping up to have a bigger role.
Episode 7, “Ave Hestia,” shows that Ivy is part of the Satanic cult that’s after Anna and her baby. The episode’s gruesome opener features Ivy giving herself a C-section to birth twin girls in 42 A.D. in Western Europe.
Ivy falls asleep and is holding two clean babies swaddled in baby blankets when she awakens. Who washed them off? And why do they appear far more healthy than they were when the mother was pulling them out of the incision in her stomach?
Delevingne’s character sees a person in cultish garb with a deer headpiece approach her and she asks, “Who are you?”
Viewers meet Ivy again in year 1243 in Galway, Ireland where she is raising her twins under the strict rules of the cult. The mother-of-two clashes with her daughter who expresses that she doesn’t want to hurt women, despite Ivy’s claims that they are doing so for “the greater good.” The daughter ominously points out that their actions are only good for “her good,” referencing an undisclosed woman.
As the scene continues, Ivy turns into a mother from Hell as she licks the dinner off her fingers sloppily and chastises her daugher before participating in a creepy ritual. She uses magic to slam her daughter against a brick wall, spits a red substance on her face, and grabs her by the neck. “Do you dare contradict me? I cut myself open for you and your sister to enter this world. I laid down my life and you repay me with what? Insolence?”
Ivy continues to scold her. “You stupid, stupid thing. We cannot create anything. We’re women. We’re not allowed to. We can only choose whether to be right or happy.”
She tells her other daughter to “finish the placenta,” and the meal continues. After which, the three creepily dance around their living room while chanting to do a night-time ritual.
It is later revealed that the nonconformist daughter is Adeline Harding (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), the late ex-wife of Anna’s problematic husband Dex Harding (Matt Czuchry).
Delevingne gives her all in the dinner scene, and even left one person on Twitter claiming that she’s “coming for Kathy Bates’ crown” in allusion to the American Horror Story alum’s history in horror movies and television shows. Delevingne channeled the strictness of Toni Collette’s viral “I am your mother” speech from Heredity, the co-dependency of Norma Bates from Psycho, and the psychological abuse by Bates’ Annie Wilkes in Misery.
Another wrote after the intense dinner scene, “Cara Delevingne ate that up so good.”
The trailer for next week’s episode teases the return of Anna and her publicist Siobhan, played by Kardashian, which leaves us excited to see if Delevingne can hold her own opposite the two’s beloved flair for the dramatics. As for now, kudos to Delevingne.
American Horror Story: Delicate airs Wednesdays on FX and streams next-day on Hulu.
