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Another season of American Horror Story is almost over, with the finale of 1984 airing on Wednesday on FX.
The finale of AHS Season 9 is titled "Final Girl," with the season hinting since last week that only one character would remain alive by the end of Episode 9, which star Billie Lourd called a "blood tsunami" in an interview with HollywoodLife.
"Final girl" is a term coined in Men, Women and Chainsaws, an academic book analyzing horror film tropes by Carol J. Clover. In it, Clover describes the "final girl" as "the character whose story we follow from beginning to end, and the one from whose vantage, even through whose eyes, we see the action; and it is she who, at the end of the film, brings the killer down (though more often by chance than intention)."
This, plus hints from throughout the season, gives us some idea of who tonight's "final girl" might be.
Who will be the "final girl" of American Horror Story: 1984?
Brooke
In American Horror Story: 1984 Episode 8, Donna (Angelica Ross) revealed that she thinks that Brooke (Emma Roberts) will be the final girl. Donna told her: "Every horror movie has a final girl the one who survives it all and lives to tell the tale. As I see it, that's either you or Margaret [Leslie Grossman]."
Though Brooke feels like the person most likely to be the final girl of the three remaining characters, this could actually count against her—after all, if one thing has united all of American Horror Story so far, it's that the show never does what people expect it to do.
Donna
As such, Donna herself could be the twist "final girl." When the character formerly known as Nurse Rita said that she thought Brooke would last until the end, Brooke replied, "Why can't it be you?"
Although Donna herself seemed to suggest she would not survive—telling Brooke, "A black final girl? Sweetheart, they kill folks off with my complexion first"—this could be exactly why she does survive. After all, Donna was not killed first and by killing one of the series' many killers, her character would go full circle, from studying serial killers to stopping them by becoming a killer herself.
Ross, who also starred in Ryan Murphy's Pose, told TVLine: "It's going to be a fight to the finish... I don't know what the end will mean for Donna, but I wouldn't expect her to go out without a fight."
She added in a TV Guide interview: "The odds are against me being a black final girl. But in Ryan Murphy's universe, sometimes anything can happen."
Margaret
Donna's suggestion that either Brooke or Margaret will be the "final girl" throws the former camp counselor's hat into the ring. However, this seems to misunderstand what the role of a "final girl" is—arguably, Margaret is unable to bring the central killer down as she is the central killer of the series.
In the finale, Jingles (John Carroll Lynch) and Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa) are likely to finish each other off, leaving the final battle between the "final girl" and Margaret, who has more blood on her hands than perhaps any character in 1984.
Though a villain being the "final girl" would be a huge twist, it seems more likely that Donna or Brooke will be the one to kill Margaret.
Montana
If a "final girl" is, per Clover's book, "the character whose story we follow from beginning to end," then this suggests that it will be Montana (Billie Lourd) who will make it, as she is the first of our female characters to be introduced in the opening aerobics sequence, edging out Brooke by a few seconds.
However, Montana being the "final girl" would complicate things—after all, she is already dead, and living at Camp Redwood as a ghost. However, fans should not rule out some gigantic twist that sees Montana ending Margaret's life and somehow surviving while the other Redwood ghosts are able to escape their captivity.
The producers of American Horror Story have been very tightlipped about the identity of the "final girl," but Angelica Ross told TV Guide: "Once we finally filmed the final thing, the final scenes and everything, it just was not what any of us expected. I think that everybody is going to be just on the edge of their seats. And some people are going to be happy and I think some people are not going to be happy and, you know, that's storytelling, right? We can't all survive."
American Horror Story: 1984 airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
