‘American Horror Story’ Season 13 Episode 13 Finale Recap and Ending Explained: How the Witches Trapped the Devil

The ‘American Horror Story’ finale brought the long battle between the witches and the devil to a close with an episode titled “Devil of a Good Time.” TheWrap described the hour as subdued, though it still packed a few outlandish twists. The outcome is not a clean victory for either side, as the details below show.

The crossover season reunited characters from across the anthology, including every role Jessica Lange played in the first four seasons. Satan, played by Paul Anthony Kelly, worked to complete a bet with God that would let him rule the world through his son Ben, played by Joey Pollari, while the Coven witches led by Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and Mallory (Billie Lourd) tried to stop him. This recap looks at how the ‘American Horror Story’ finale settled that fight.

Finale Recap Opens With Satan Changing Course

The previous episode ended with Mr. Phibes, played by John Waters, and the Rubber Man killing Cordelia and Queenie, so the finale began at a low point for the witches. Phibes had gathered a group of men at the devil’s New York penthouse to serve as the final sacrifices, and he fed them cookies laced with meth. The men began dying while Phibes celebrated, watching a monitor climb toward the total he needed.

Satan then interrupted and revealed that he had saved one of the men, which kept his human form from fulfilling the bet. The monitor stopped just short of the mark, and a furious Phibes met a violent end, with his head knocked off and tossed into the fireplace. It was the first sign that the devil was not playing the game the way his followers expected.

The story then moved to hell, where Cordelia endured an endless shift at a kill shelter alongside her assistant Nan, played by Jamie Brewer. When Satan offered her a helping hand, she said she would rather suffer forever than bow to him, and he admired her nerve enough to move them both to a park in New York.

There he explained that winning the bet would cost him what he loves about his job, which is tempting people to do wrong, since evil has little appeal without a light to corrupt. Cordelia refused to admit that he had won, and she vowed to find some way to kill him.

Ending Explained Through a Sacrifice and a Painting

Satan offered Cordelia the keys to his penthouse at the Apollyon as her slice of the inheritance, a reference to the revelation that she is his granddaughter. He also warned her to stay vigilant, since he could return at any moment. Cordelia then reunited with Queenie, whom Ben had pulled out of hell, and Mallory cast a time travel spell and vanished.

Back in New Orleans, Ben and Madison, played by Emma Roberts, realized a condom had broken, and Madison almost immediately went into labor. The baby girl arrived unconscious until Satan appeared and breathed life into her. He remarked that the child had star power.

When Mallory returned, she explained that she had stopped the Salem witch massacre and learned of a spell used by Dorian Gray to move his soul into a painting. She picked it up from Sarah Goode, the woman who inspired that spell. The spell required an immense sacrifice from an unwilling source.

That source was Ben, who the witches told was the most powerful of the Antichrists, coming after a dozen others whose remains had been stolen earlier in the season. He accepted his fate after Cordelia assured him that Madison would be proud, then stabbed himself and turned to dust. His death gave the two Supremes enough power to trap Satan inside The Last Supper, where he replaced Judas and must remain at the table forever.

Season Finale Leaves Room for the Devil’s Return

The victory comes with a catch. The final moments at the penthouse show the dust from Ben’s body rising and drifting into a nearby fireplace. The season then closes with Mr. Phibes in his own version of hell, directing a B movie and smiling at the idea of doing it for eternity.

Kelly seemed comfortable with that uncertainty. Speaking to TheWrap, he called the ending a great one for his character, who is now stuck in a painting and watched over by his granddaughter and daughter. He also noted that you can always break out of that at some point.

Kelly played the devil as suave and a little debonair, an approach fans debated heatedly throughout the season. He said he would gladly return for another season if Ryan Murphy called again.

That possibility is not far off, since FX announced a renewal for another season on October 20, just ahead of the finale. No story or cast details have been revealed, though FX said the crossover season became a major streaming hit that landed on Nielsen’s Top 10. With Satan trapped in a painting the coven must now guard and Ben’s ashes drifting toward the fire, do you think the devil’s confinement will hold, or was Ben’s sacrifice only the beginning of a longer fight?