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Official podcast guests #AHS13
— @ahsfxoficial September 2026
Photo credit: @AHSZone on X
New still of Jessica Lange as Constance in AHS 13 #AHS13
— @AHSZone September 2026
In the second episode of American Horror Story Season 13, a clown school in Los Angeles becomes the site of a precise and brutal killing. Twisty the Clown walks in, is rejected, and proceeds to murder every person in the room. The final count is thirteen. Among the dead is the teacher, played by Tig Notaro.
The sequence is short. It is also one of the clearest demonstrations yet that the number 13 in this season is not atmospheric. It is functional. Every time the count reaches thirteen, something answers on the 13th floor of the Apollyon in New York.
Who Tig Notaro Plays
Notaro appears as Ricochet, the instructor at a clown school that is trying, with earnest intensity, to rehabilitate the image of clowns. She delivers a lesson on the art and history of the craft. The room is full of students practicing. The tone is almost hopeful until Twisty arrives.
John Carroll Lynch reprises the role that first terrified audiences in Freak Show. Twisty attempts to join the class. He demonstrates knife-throwing. When Ricochet rejects him, the demonstration ends and the killing begins. Twisty works methodically. He leaves no one standing. The last body brings the total to thirteen.
Notaro’s character does not survive the scene. Her death is not prolonged or especially stylized. It is simply one more number in a total that the season has already trained viewers to notice.
The Exact Timing with Mr. Nas
While the massacre unfolds in Los Angeles, Ben DeSoto is alone with Mr. Nas on the 13th floor of the Apollyon. Nas’s body contorts. He vomits the same thick black liquid that appeared during the plane crash in episode 1. The show cuts between the two locations without commentary. The parallel is the point.
In episode 1, twelve people died on the plane and two survived in seats marked 13. Nas reacted. In episode 2, Twisty kills exactly thirteen. Nas reacts again. The pattern is no longer suggestive. It is repetitive and deliberate.
Ben later sees news coverage of the clown school killings. The report confirms the body count. Thirteen. The information lands while he is still trying to process the non-human features he has already observed on his patient.
Why Twisty Is the Instrument
Twisty has always been a figure of pure, almost elemental violence inside the American Horror Story universe. He does not negotiate. He does not explain. In Freak Show he was a damaged, disfigured man whose trauma curdled into predation. In Season 13 he functions as a delivery system for the number the season requires.
The choice of a clown school is not accidental. It allows the show to place Twisty back in an environment that once defined him, then invert the expectation of performance into slaughter. Ricochet’s attempt to redeem the image of clowns becomes the setup for the punchline Twisty delivers with knives.
The massacre also expands the geographic reach of the season’s central threat. The Apollyon is in New York. The plane crash involved a flight leaving the United States. The clown school is in Los Angeles. Whatever is feeding on groups of thirteen is not confined to one city or one building.
What the Number Demands
Season 13 has already established that thirteen is the operative number. The building floor. The seats on the plane. The figures in the Last Supper painting inside Nas’s penthouse. The “lucky leading ladies” Constance is collecting. The deaths Twisty provides.
Tig Notaro’s character is not a major ongoing presence. She exists to complete a count. That fact does not make the sequence less effective. It makes the season’s logic clearer. People are dying in sets of thirteen because something on the 13th floor requires it. Twisty is one of the tools that supplies the requirement. Ricochet is one of the bodies that fills the quota.
What Comes Next
Twisty is still at large after the massacre. The show has not yet shown him traveling to New York, but the question is already in the air. If the pattern continues, another cluster of thirteen deaths will trigger another physical reaction from Mr. Nas. Whether Twisty remains the primary instrument or whether other returning killers take turns is still open.
For now the clown school sequence stands as the season’s most direct statement of cause and effect. Thirteen people die. Nas answers. Tig Notaro’s Ricochet is part of that equation. The number is not unlucky. In this season, it is the point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who does Tig Notaro play in American Horror Story Season 13?
She plays Ricochet, a teacher at a clown school in Los Angeles. The character is killed during Twisty’s massacre in episode 2.
How many people does Twisty kill at the clown school?
Exactly thirteen, including the teacher played by Tig Notaro.
Does the massacre connect to Mr. Nas?
Yes. While the killings occur, Mr. Nas contorts and vomits black liquid on the 13th floor of the Apollyon, repeating the reaction he had during the plane crash in episode 1.
Is Twisty the Clown back for the full season?
John Carroll Lynch reprises the role. The character is active in episode 2 and remains a presence whose further movements have not yet been fully shown.
Why does the number 13 keep appearing with the deaths?
The season treats groups of thirteen deaths as a recurring trigger linked to Mr. Nas’s physical responses. The clown school massacre is the second clear example after the plane crash.
Photo credit for stills referenced: Eric Liebowitz / FX. Details drawn from the first three episodes of American Horror Story: 13, which premiered September 24, 2026 on FX and Hulu.
More American Horror Story Season 13 photos and key visuals
Additional stills for American Horror Story Season 13 coverage of Tig Notaro’s Death in American Horror Story Season 13: Twisty’s Clown School Massacre and the Number 13 Connection.
Original photo shared on X by @AHSZone. Hosted on our CDN.
Original photo shared on X by @AHSZone. Hosted on our CDN.
Original photo shared on X by @AHSZone. Hosted on our CDN.
Original photo shared on X by @AHSZone. Hosted on our CDN.
Photos from the set and promotional stills
Photo: @AHSZone on X (Twitter).
Photo: @AHSZone on X (Twitter).
Official video
Source: FX Networks. Watch on FX and Hulu.
Further reading and sources
Related American Horror Story Season 13 coverage
- Wilhemina Venable Returns in American Horror Story Season 13: Why She Guards the Portal to Hell at Club Hell
- The 13 Lucky Leading Ladies in American Horror Story Season 13 Explained: Why Constance Is Gathering Them at Rauhnacht
- Mr. Nas Transformation in American Horror Story Season 13: Black Vomit, Horns and the Ultimate Evil Clue
- Why American Horror Story Season 13 Went Half-Hour: The Format Experiment Explained
- The Apollyon Building in American Horror Story Season 13: Architecture, Symbolism and Real NYC Inspiration
Author: Shivam Das
