Although the anthology horror series was criticized for its reliance on stunt casting in the past, American Horror Story season 12 was saved by an ingenious high-profile guest role. Every season of American Horror Story is connected, but this has never stopped the long-running series from offering roles to A-list stars who only appear in an outing or two. For years, American Horror Story has delighted in casting actors in roles that mess with their established screen personae, whether it is Babe’s beloved James Cromwell as a monstrous mad scientist or pop music legend Lady Gaga as an immortal, murderous witch.

Only time will tell who American Horror Story season 13 chooses as the show’s next outlandish guest actor, but the series will struggle to beat season 12’s breakout star. Reality TV legend Kim Kardashian played a major role in American Horror Story: Delicate, taking on the part of the heroine’s non-nonsense publicist. American Horror Story season 12’s ending revealed that Kardashian’s character was secretly Delicate’s main villain all along, but many viewers had already guessed this twist thanks to her gleefully mean performance. Surprising as it sounds, Kardashian was an unexpected highlight of season 12.

American Horror Story Season 12’s Stunt Casting Was Perfect

Kim Kardashian Stole The Show As Delicate’s Villain Siobhan

Although she wasn’t Delicate’s main character, Kim Kardashian’s villainous Siobhan was the most compelling character in American Horror Story season 12. Her casual callousness initially made her villainy obvious, but this same character detail later went on to obscure her real motives. As Emma Roberts’ heroine Anna Alcott was drawn further into a complex web of intrigue, mystery, and murder, Siobhan bluntly maintained that nothing mattered beyond Anna’s awards campaign. This shallow, superficial attitude made it seem like Siobhan couldn’t possibly be the mastermind of an ageless, endlessly influential cult that had ruined countless lives for over nine centuries.

This led viewers to focus on various red herrings before American Horror Story: Delicate’s book adaptation revealed that Siobhan was the cult’s amoral leader after all. Kardashian’s Siobhan dominated American Horror Story: Delicate’s finale as she explained the convoluted machinations of her matriarchal cult to a paralyzed Anna. Their plan to breed evil demonic men who would destroy the world and make room for a matriarchal utopia didn’t really add up, but Kardashian’s campy performance ensured that this silly plot still worked. This was a recurring theme throughout the season, with the inexperienced actor elevating earlier episodes too.

American Horror Story: Delicate Badly Needed Kim Kardashian’s Siobhan

Kardashian’s Villain Role Helped Elevate An Uneven Outing

American Horror Story: Delicate was the first season of the series to be based on an existing piece of source material, namely author Danielle Valentine’s novel Delicate Condition. This was a good thing as it meant the show had a more consistent storyline, although American Horror Story season 12’s biggest change wasn’t enough to save the series from the problems that have plagued it for years. Between slow pacing, predictable twists, pointless subplots, and superfluous characters, Delicate was desperately in need of a savior. Fortunately, Kardashian was the best thing about the show’s first few episodes.

American Horror Story: Delicate took a while to find its footing, with its first episodes chiefly focusing on a break-in at Dex and Anna’s apartment. This convinced the pair to move to Talia’s remote country home but otherwise served little narrative purpose and the story couldn’t help feeling like a waste of screen time. During these outings, Kardashian’s acerbic character was a highlight in a dull, slow-moving story. American Horror Story season 12 episode 8 finally explained who broke into the apartment and why, but it was Siobhan’s bon mots that kept viewers watching until that later outing.

American Horror Story’s Stunt Casting Ruined 3 Earlier Seasons

The Anthology Horror Series Struggled To Justify Some Celebrity Cameos

Although Kardashian’s stunt casting was a stroke of genius, not all of American Horror Story’s earlier guest stars were so lucky. If anything, the show’s penchant for rolling out surprise guest stars has often indicated a dearth of imagination and a lack of faith in the strength of its storytelling. Most infamously, Neil Patrick Harris’s pointless Freak Show role started scary only for the short-lived bit part to end with a goofy punchline. Similarly, Billy Eichner’s part in season 8, Apocalypse, was rendered utterly irrelevant when the vast majority of the cast were killed off in episode 3’s ending.

Lena Dunham’s mean-spirited Cult cameo also fell victim this trend, with the controversial actor playing a pantomime parody of the troubled artist Valerie Solanis. Intriguingly, most of these guest appearances riffed on the established screen personae of their actors, whether it was Eichner playing against type as a hyper-aggressive macho meathead or Dunham playing a humorless, unhinged feminist. However, American Horror Story season 12’s Kim Kardashian role made this idea work. Instead of simply drawing attention to the star’s cult of personality, Delicate allowed Kardashian to mock the soulless, composed paragon of female corporate media success she is frequently posited as.

American Horror Story: Delicate Still Let Down Kardashian’s Character

Siobhan’s Season 12 Death Was A Major Finale Letdown

Although Kardashian’s part did give the actor room to satirize her own social media brand, this didn’t mean that every aspect of Siobhan’s story worked. The early episodes that implied she was the villain were a little too heavy-handed, so, although later episodes threw viewers off the scent, it was still no major surprise when her true nature was revealed. However, the real problem with Kardashian’s role was that Siobhan was killed off way too quickly and easily in American Horror Story: Delicate’s ending. Ironically, this undermined all of her monologuing about female power and matriarchal dominance.

After American Horror Story: Delicate episode 7 made Dex’s late wife Adeline a major character, it was clear that the series had plans for her. However, seeing Adeline return to chant with Anna and reduce Siobhan to dust was a hilariously abrupt, anticlimactic ending to Delicate’s main storyline. Siobhan was supposedly all-powerful and had been around for at least a thousand years, so the thought that two of her cult’s victims could easily overpower her and destroy her completely with a chant was laughable. This meant that Kim Kardashian’s otherwise successful American Horror Story stunt casting ended on a sour note.