Although Kim Kardashian’s Siobhan might have been American Horror Story: Delicate’s breakout character, this didn’t stop the series from blocking her best route to return. Now that American Horror Story: Delicate’s finale has been and gone, it is fair to say that the outing made some questionable creative choices. Unlike earlier seasons of American Horror Story, Delicate was based on an existing piece of source material. Author Danielle Valentine’s novel Delicate Condition provided Delicate with its main characters and premise, although the show altered a lot of specific details in terms of style, tone, and plot twists.

At first, Delicate had a relatively slow pace in comparison to earlier seasons. However, American Horror Story season 12’s finale was a mile-a-minute absurd extravaganza that undid any clever character work or subtle atmosphere found in earlier episodes. Delicate’s ending featured a slew of plot twists in quick succession. First, the episode killed off the heroine Anna’s husband, Dex. Then Anna gave birth to a demon, then she became paralyzed and captive to a cult. Then she learned her publicist and best friend, Siobhan, was the cult’s ageless leader and secretly Dex’s mother. Then things got even weirder.

Kim Kardashian’s American Horror Story Season 12 Character Doesn’t Die In The Book

Delicate’s Villain Siobhan Survives The Source Novel (Sort Of)

Delicate’s finale ended with the ghost of Dex’s ex-wife returning to help Anna destroy Siobhan. Anna magically regained her ability to walk and the rest of Siobhan’s cult seemingly vanished as Siobhan crumbled into dust. This was a major departure from the plot of Delicate Condition, which offers a much more holistic explanation for the cult that has been targeting Anna. Although the book’s version of Siobhan is still in league with the cult, she has been trying to save Anna’s pregnancy from the good of her heart, instead of some nefarious intent. Her fate is also very different.

Siobhan isn’t a villain in the novel and, when she sacrifices her life to ensure that Anna’s baby will live, the book’s version of Anna lets Siobhan’s soul inhabit her baby to keep her spirit alive. In the book, the cult is angered by Siobhan flouting the rules and this is the only compromise that allows her to live on. American Horror Story’s twists are always unpredictable, but it is particularly hard to see why the show changed Siobhan’s fate so radically. After all, Siobhan’s survival would have allowed guest star Kim Kardashian to reprise her American Horror Story: Delicate role.

American Horror Story Season 13 Could Have Brought Back Kim Kardashian’s Siobhan

Siobhan’s Less Villainous Role Would Make A Return Viable

Reality TV legend Kardashian didn’t appear in American Horror Story until season 12 and, before the outing’s release, numerous commentators worried that her part was an egregious instance of stunt casting. However, this did not bear out in the show’s reviews. Somewhat surprisingly, Kardashian’s character was one of the most highly praised elements of Delicate. The acerbic, catty Siobhan was a campy character who felt perfectly at home in the world of American Horror Story. At times, Kardashian’s performance fit the winking, self-aware tone of the series more than the respective turns from Matt Czuchry or Emma Roberts.

If American Horror Story: Delicate had followed the book more faithfully, it would have been easy for the series to introduce an older version of Anna’s baby in a later season. This character could have been played by Kardashian, thus sticking to Delicate Condition’s twist ending. However, American Horror Story’s weird sense of self-mocking humor hurt the show in this instance. The series instead revealed that Siobhan was the head of a matriarchal cult that instilled patriarchy worldwide to lead to eventual societal breakdown so they could return to matriarchy, an absurdly convoluted twist that fell flat with viewers and critics.

Kim Kardashian’s Siobhan Was American Horror Story: Delicate’s Breakout Character

Kardashian’s Villain Was A Highlight of The Uneven American Horror Story Season

Despite how intensely silly and illogical Delicate’s instantly infamous finale was, Kardashian’s Siobhan remained a well-liked addition to the show’s roster of villains. After both NYC and Double Bill failed to provide viewers with a singularly memorable American Horror Story villain, Siobhan’s goofiness was a breath of fresh air. Kardashian’s character livened up proceedings whether she was supplying Anna with “B12 shots” that were blatantly vials of human blood or dispassionately laughing off the death of her own son. Even American Horror Story season 12’s terrible real-life character cameo was improved by her presence. Siobhan’s campiness redeemed the regrettable scene.

American Horror Story revealing that Mia Farrow was secretly visited by an immortal demonic witch on the set of Rosemary’s Baby was initially terribly tacky. The storyline mixed lurid elements of the living actor’s real-life biography, like her relationship with Sinatra and her work with Roman Polanski, into a story of demonic babies and witch cults. However, Kardashian’s Siobhan elevated the scene by giving it the level of absurd detachment that it required. This proves just how much she salvaged a deeply flawed season and explains why Siobhan’s death in the finale was an unfortunate unforced error.

Kim Kardashian Should Still Return In American Horror Story Season 13

Siobhan’s American Horror Story Season 13 Comeback May Not Have Worked

While it is bizarre that Delicate killed off its funniest new character, it is understandable that the show changed Siobhan’s role in the story. The book’s surviving version of the character admittedly may not have been as interesting and appealing as Kardashian’s cartoonishly cruel villain. The book’s Siobhan isn’t an over-the-top, callous publicist in the novel and instead plays the role of a more traditional mentor to Anna. Not only that, but future seasons of American Horror Story can still revive Kim Kardashian in new roles even if Siobhan is gone. Not every returning actor plays the same character in the series.

From Lily Rabe to Evan Peters, to Kathy Bates, to Sarah Paulson, plenty of actors have played entirely unrelated roles in different seasons of the anthology horror show. Some stars, like Taissa Farmiga and Emma Roberts, have played the same character in more than one season. However, this is not a necessity. American Horror Story season 13 could adapt another unrelated novel, meaning Kardashian could play a new character now that she has proven her potential. Thus, American Horror Story hasn’t necessarily seen the last of its best new heroine, even if her original character was inexplicably killed off.