So… What Did The Spiders Mean In American Horror Story: Delicate?

American Horror Story: Delicate put a lot of emphasis on spiders in its posters and teasers, but it never actually explained what these meant within the context of Anna (Emma Roberts) and the conspiracy around her. Although every season of American Horror Story has taken inspiration from many horror works and has even included direct references to these, Delicate marked a first in the series as it was based on Danielle Valentine’s book Delicate Condition. Delicate also marked Emma Roberts’ return to the show after 1984, in 2019, but it wasn’t the exciting return viewers expected.

American Horror Story: Delicate follows Anna Victoria Alcott, a young actress whose career is on the rise. When Anna gets pregnant, she begins to suspect there’s a conspiracy around her trying to keep her from having the baby, and she slowly begins to think those closest to her are the ones looking to harm her. The finale of American Horror Story: Delicate revealed the conspiracy behind Anna’s pregnancy and that the real mastermind was her publicist and best friend, Siobhan (Kim Kardashian), but there were many things left unsolved, such as the meaning of the spiders heavily featured in the season’s marketing campaign.

American Horror Story: Delicate’s Spiders Symbolized Siobhan’s Role In The Cult

Kim Kardashian’s Siobhan Was The Real Mastermind

Spiders and spiderwebs were the most used elements in the posters and teasers for American Horror Story: Delicate. The marketing campaigns for each season of American Horror Story are charged with symbolism and don’t give away plot points until the full trailers are released, and Delicate was no exception. However, once the season is over, these symbols and their meaning become clear, but that wasn’t the case with Delicate. The finale of American Horror Story: Delicate has been criticized for being short, rushed, and nonsensical, and leaving too many unanswered questions, including the meaning of the spiders.

At the end of the finale of American Horror Story: Delicate, Anna found a spider in her baby’s crib and stepped on it, but that didn’t answer the questions about their meaning. Before the release of Delicate, it was theorized that the spiders were linked to Siobhan and their meaning comes from Greek mythology. Siobhan was theorized to be the goddess Arachne, the protagonist of a tale in Greek mythology from Book Six of Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses. Arachne was challenged by Athena to a weaving contest, which she won, but Athena found her piece to be insulting to the gods.

Athena ripped Arachne’s weaving and hit her on the head with her shuffle, and Arachne hanged herself out of shame. Athena transformed Arachne into a spider so she could create webs for the rest of time. While Siobhan might not have been literally Arachne (after all, her backstory wasn’t explored), she did create webs as the leader of the cult. Siobhan also birthed many children and creatures, and Anna stepping on the spider was the final move to fully destroy Siobhan.

American Horror Story: Delicate Left Too Many Unanswered Questions

American Horror Story: Delicate Became One Of The Most Frustrating Seasons

As mentioned above, American Horror Story: Delicate left too many unanswered questions that immediately made it one of the most frustrating seasons of the show. Many details and history of the cult weren’t explored, and while Siobhan being revealed as the leader was exciting, her backstory before and after the cult wasn’t explored. Cara Delevingne’s Ivy had more backstory than Siobhan, and she was initially sold to the audience as the leader of the cult. The spiders and their meaning in American Horror Story: Delicate can be explained in different ways, but many other things are left for the writers to answer.