The titular hotel at the center of American Horror Story this season is packed to the gills with ghouls, ghosts, and Gagas. In fact, there are very few civilians roaming the halls of the Hotel Cortez, and with both Chloë Sevigny and Kathy Bates going full vampire in the last few weeks and Cheyenne Jackson due to become vampire food any day now, that leaves, pretty much, Wes Bentley’s Detective John Lowe representing the human contingent. And what a lackluster representation he’s been. But could Lowe’s extremely low-key demeanor be very intentional? A fantastic theory explains it all.

In last week’s episode, Lowe was invited to a Devil’s Night feast put on by the ghost of Evan Peters’s fictional serial killer, Mr. March. The guests included the ghosts of real-life killer Aileen Wuornos, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and Richard Ramirez. So that’s five serial killers and one cop. Or is it? March (who is based on real-life serial killer H.H. Holmes) says he thought Lowe would be interested in joining them for their ghoulish celebration because of his “line of work.” On the surface, that seems like a reference to Lowe’s law-enforcement work. After all, he spends his non-hotel-dwelling hours trying to track down the Ten Commandments serial killer terrorizing L.A. But is it more likely that Lowe snagged an invitation to the soiree because he is, himself, a serial killer? Is he, in fact, the Ten Commandments killer?

That would explain a lot about Bentley’s performance. Lowe is grappling with a range of traumas, from losing a son to a battle with addiction, but Bentley has been playing the character as almost preternaturally stoic. We saw some cracks in that facade last week as Lowe, having succumbed to his alcoholism, broke down at the gruesome Devil’s Night dinner. But that breakdown means that if Lowe is the Ten Commandments killer, he certainly doesn’t know it himself; something March realized over the course of the evening before having Sally (Sarah Paulson) take Lowe away. So if Lowe is repressing a homicidal other half, then Bentley may be holding back the full extent of what he plans to do. Right now we’re seeing Dr. Jekyll or Fight Club’s Edward Norton. Surely Mr. Hyde and Tyler Durden are right around the corner?

Bentley was, as you’d expect, pretty cagey when confronted with the theory. Though he admitted Lowe “is not the most stable person,” he gave Vulture this reaction to the idea that he’s actually the Ten Commandments killer:

It’s kind of like when someone who is married dies, the spouse is the first suspect. You look at who is closest to them. But there's also an element with these deaths — are these real? Is that even real? Are those real events taking place in his life, or a manifestation of the struggles he’s having? Is it possible that these things are happening around him, or that he's even a part of the investigation?

Granted, “Is this even happening?” is always a good question to ask yourself when watching American Horror Story. But when asked why he, a non-serial killer, was invited to Devil’s Night, Bentley’s still-cagey response holds a pretty significant clue:

But he’s also in the hotel, and he’s a bit of a target, being a detective in a hotel full of crimes. And he could also be a target for being killed. There’s a lot going on, and maybe this is a conspiracy against John, to get him out of the hotel and away from them? If I could design John’s death, though, body parts being sewn together is about as brutal as you can get. Torn apart and sewn together, which would be kind of poetic for his separation of self.

Separation of self? Sounds about right. All this would explain why Lowe is able to instantly understand the motivations behind all the grisly Ten Commandments tableaus. But, more important, it would explain what’s going on with Bentley this season. Anyone who has seen American Beauty knows Bentley is capable of bringing the creepy. Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see when.