American Horror Stories: Marilyn, JFK and an Alien Fantasy

American Horror Story: Double Feature, the 10th season of Ryan Murphy’s shock TV drama, is currently airing on the FX channel and Disney+. The second feature, ‘Death Valley,’ starts at episode 7, with a rumoured UFO landing in 1954. In the eighth episode (‘Inside’), we jump to 1963, and a bizarre explanation for the deaths of Marilyn (Alisha Soper) and John F. Kennedy (Mike Vogel.) Both episodes have now aired in the U.S., though viewers elsewhere will have to wait a while.

“In the black-and-white world that was, Ike [Eisenhower] and Dick (aka Richard Nixon) caught wind that JFK was planning to expose a secret human-alien pact made several years earlier. More specifically, in exchange for access to their sweet space technology, Ike allowed the extraterrestrials to abduct 5,000 humans per year to serve as test subjects … JFK apparently arrived at this crisis of conscience after some political pillow talk with Marilyn Monroe, who briefly came up for air to tell JFK about her own traumatic experience with aliens as a child. Tragically, JFK would never get the opportunity to speak out.” – TVLine

Of course, Marilyn actually died in 1962 – but that’s all grist to the mill in this campy slice of alternate history, inspired by the fringe conspiracy theory that Marilyn was murdered because she knew about the alien landings in New Mexico (see here.)

The Monroe-JFK storyline is concluded in episode 9, ‘Blue Moon.’

“Nixon (Craig Sheffer) shows Ike footage of Marilyn Monroe (Alisha Soper) raving about aliens. Realizing John Kennedy spilled the beans, Nixon suggests taking advantage of Marilyn’s affinity for pills and alcohol. Sure enough, the scene transitions to Marilyn at home as two men break in and forcibly make her overdose …” – CBR

If Alisha Soper looks familiar to you (and she’s a dead ringer for Carroll Baker in The Carpetbaggers here), you may remember her from the opening scene of Feud: Bette and Joan (2017.) Another Ryan Murphy production, Feud placed Marilyn at the Golden Globes in 1961, though she didn’t attend that year. More recently, Alisha also played Marilyn in a YouTube live reading of Marilyn, Mom and Me, Luke Yankee’s play about his mother, Bus Stop actress Eileen Heckart.