WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for American Horror Stories Season 1, Episode 5, "BA'AL," now streaming on Hulu.
American Horror Stories' fifth episode, "BA'AL," puts a spin on the premise Ira Levin popularized in his 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby and later with Roman Polanski's acclaimed film adaption. It spotlights couple Liv (Billie Lourd) and Matt (Ronen Rubinstein), who have been struggling to get pregnant for two years. The former is the heiress to a staggering amount of money, while the latter is a struggling actor. Although money is no issue, Liv dabbles in alternative conception methods after accepting a totem of Ba'al from the fertility clinic's unassuming receptionist (Virginia Gardner).
The episode jumps to 16 months later and opens with a screaming baby, proving the totem a success. The bulk of what follows primarily features Liv's struggle to connect with her baby, who she thinks hates her. At the same time, Liv believes the totem manifested the demon Ba'al. Staticky voices on the baby monitor and glimpses of a winged demon-like creature seem to confirm her fears. As the supernatural occurrences intensify, the totem slowly transforms from a most unrecognizable black blob into a carving of Ba'al.
Meanwhile, Matt becomes concerned about Liv's erratic, paranoid behavior. However, he remains supportive, offering to ditch his gig as a background actor on NCIS -- despite it being what may be his break-out role -- and even connecting her to a doctor (Vanessa Williams). Much like Matt, the doctor offers a sympathetic ear, informing Liv that she's likely settling from post-partum depression exasperated by lack of sleep and stress. When Liv denies medication and the possibility of bringing on a night nurse, the doctor offers some helpful strategies that seem to work temporarily. The next scene shows Liv happily bonding with her baby while bathing him.
However, Liv's confidence as a new mother comes crashing down when she discovers the totem in her baby's crib. To make matters worse, strange noises lead her to the basement, where she finds scratch marks on the wall and a torn duct. The discovery prompts her to confide in Matt about a demonic haunting, which he quickly shrugs off as stress. After a bad encounter on an ouija board and replaying a staticky voice on the baby monitor that she believes is saying, "I want him," Liv confronts the receptionist, Bernadette, that originally gifted her the totem.
Bernadette insists that Ba'al is a fertility god, not a demon. Rifling through her magical items, she gifts Liv a ritual and sacred dagger to banish the demon. Later that night, Liv performs the ritual. However, she's unexpectedly interrupted by Matt. Startled, she stabs him in the shoulder with the ritual dagger. After signing herself in, cut to Liv in a psychiatric hospital, convinced her delusions made her a danger to her husband and baby. It seems that stabbing Matt brought Liv to her senses, but there's a little more to the story than that.
American Horror Stories delivers its big twist -- or, more accurately, twists. After visiting his wife, Matt leaves and disappears into the passenger's seat of a car. In the driver's seat is Bernadette, the receptionist. It turns out Matt and Bernadette are having an affair. They return to Matt's home, where they celebrate with a group of Matt's friends. Matt, his mistress and his buddies were in it for the long con. Using a concoction of audio/visual special effects, dry ice and impressive prosthetics, they created the illusion of a demonic haunting. The goal: drive Liv crazy to get her committed, allowing Matt to take her fortune and deal out substantial cuts to his friends for their help.
As they all drink champagne, it seems Matt's devious plan succeeded. However, that's when twist number two occurs -- the real Ba'al appears. While the friend group initially believes it to be another hoax, Ba'al shows no mercy and brutally slaughters them one by one. The demon spares Matt, and the next scene shows him behind bars, awaiting trial for the apparent murder of his friends. Liv comes to visit him, revealing she (somehow) discovered his nefarious plan. However, little did Bernadette know, she'd given Liv a real ritual capable of summoning Ba'al to do her bidding. As such, Liv conjured the demon from her hospital room and sent him to take revenge on Matt by killing his co-conspirators and framing him for murder.
Liv also points out he didn't need to steal her money because they were married, and she had no trouble sharing it with him. In turn, Matt confesses he never wanted a baby, and her desire to have one eventually overwhelmed him and turned him off. Ultimately, he wanted to take the money and run. With that said, Liv is more than happy to let him rot in prison and refuses to help him pay for a lawyer.
However, greed isn't just Matt's sin; it's also Liv's. She isn't satisfied with one baby. Upon returning home, Ba'al greets her and begs to for freedom, apparently bonded to her via the ritual. Liv agrees but tells him he must do one last thing for her -- give her another baby. With that third and final twist, American Horror Stories fully flips its Rosemary's Baby roots around, delivering a chilling moment of a woman so eager to have another child, she literally fornicates with a demon, harkening back (although differently ) to American Horror Story: Murder House. While it's unclear if Liv's baby is good or evil, having a demon father suggests the mother and infant's story is far from over.
"BA'AL" put a spin on horror's demonic baby trope. To see what unique terror American Horror Stories spotlights next, new episodes drop each Thursday on Hulu.
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