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This American Horror Story: Apocalypse Theory Predicts a Devastating Twist Ending

Could this be how it all ends?

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Sadie Gennis

American Horror Story: Apocalypsewraps up on Wednesday, which means fans are scrambling to predict how the final showdown between Michael (Cody Fern) and the witches is going to go down. Despite the world essentially ending when Michael incited a nuclear apocalypse in the season premiere, viewers pretty much know that this will somehow be reversed given that we already saw Billie Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson) strolling around Hotelin 2022. But according to one theory, just because the apocalypse may be reversed doesn't necessarily mean the world will be saved.

If Mallory (Billie Lourd) does her use abilities to travel back in time and change the course of history, preventing the bombs from dropping and erasing the timeline of everything that happened since (including the events at the Outpost), she would do it to stop Michael, thinking he's the mastermind behind everything. But really, as we saw quite clearly in the penultimate episode, Michael is only concerned with getting vengeance against Cordelia (Paulson) and the witches for murdering Mead (Kathy Bates). It's Jeff (Evan Peters) and Mutt (Billy Eichner), and by extension The Cooperative, who seem to be most interested in bringing about the End of Days.

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This means that even if the witches are successful in defeating Michael, there's still this huge organization that will be plotting to bring about the apocalypse, whether the bombs went off or not. If this is the case, while a major inconvenience, Michael's death won't greatly affect The Cooperative and they likely will just pivot to Plan B. And according to Reddit user EvilCooper87, Plan B will revolve around this season's dullest characters: Timothy (Kyle Allen) and Emily (Ash Santos).

​Ash Santos and Kyle Allen, American Horror Story: Apocalypse
FX

The only people in Outpost 3 who didn't buy their way in, Timothy and Emily were allegedly selected by The Cooperative for their "special DNA." We still have no clue what makes their genetic makeup so special, but it doesn't appear to be tied to aliens as so many initially assumed. Instead, Reddit user EvilCooper87 suggests that there's something in Timothy and Emily's DNA that has the unique ability to create another Antichrist. As the user predicts, this season will end with Michael being defeated by the witches only to later reveal the happy couple giving birth to the second-coming of Satan's spawn, starting the whole cycle over again.

"Wait a minute," you're probably saying. "If the bombs don't drop, then Timothy and Emily never would have even met!" To which we say, excuse me, this is the Illuminati we're talking about and they can easily manipulate two people into meeting if they damn well choose. Maybe they orchestrate things so that Emily somehow gets out of jail and gets a scholarship to UCLA where she just so happens to have a lot of classes with Timothy. The two fall in love again, have sex again and wham, bam, it's baby time.

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During the three episodes before their gruesome deaths, Timothy and Emily's storyline was rife with Adam and Eve symbolism, so the idea of them playing a key role in The Cooperative's planned new world would provide much needed payoff to the early season's foreshadowing. It also would play off the recent push-pull between Michael and The Cooperative regarding magic versus science. If Michael were the Antichrist born from magic, Timothy and Emily might bring about the Antichrist born for science -- Satanic science, but science none the less. And don't forget about all The Cooperative emails regarding research into fetuses on Michael's computer. The organization is clearly already interested in eugenics, and this might just be the reason why.

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"This would totally square the circle in a creative way. They made us think that the Apocalypse was related to Michael and atomic bombs, but they only were a distraction from a wider plan," the Reddit user states. "Maybe we'll see again the Outpost under a new form (a genetic laboratory?) and Venable. Maybe we'll revive the whole premiere under a totally different point of view and starting from totally new premises and now with all the cards lying on the table."

In a season that came full circle to the beginning of the series itself, it would feel fitting for Apocalypse to embrace this cyclical ending that mirrors the beginning of its own season, but with a whole new angle. It would also, more importantly, stop any potential time travel-based victory from feeling like a cop-out that wraps everything up too neatly. This is American Horror Story. Endings can't be happy. At the most, they can be bittersweet, but never truly happy. Having Mallory, Cordelia and the coven sacrifice so much to defeat Michael, never knowing that there's a new Antichrist and apocalypse on the way would definitely be a devastating final twist, which just seems to make it all the more probable.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse's finale airs Wednesday at 10/9c on FX.

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​Cody Fern, American Horror Story: Apocalypse
FX