Between Gaga’s hive of baby bloodsuckers and the antagonistic and tragic relationship between Kathy Bates and Matt Bomer, American Horror Story: Hotel already had a whole mess of mommy issues before Wednesday night’s “Mommy” episode dove head first into the unfathomable and never-ending agony a parent experiences when they lose a child, especially under nefarious circumstances. Add in the uphill battle Dr. Alex Lowe (Chloë Sevigny) is fighting against the anti-vaxxers of Los Angeles and it is no wonder she attempted to go bloodily into that good night.



Sevigny spoke exclusively with Yahoo TV via telephone about her intense return to AHS, whose wardrobe she envies every time she slides on that beret (again!), and the conspiracy theories about Alex and the Countess being related that have popped up thanks to physical similarities between the actresses, Lowe’s disclosure of an unhappy childhood, and photos of Lady Gaga filming at a spruced-up Murder House with a prosthetic belly surfacing.

This week’s episode was pretty heavy in regard to Alex’s storyline. She mentions her unhappy childhood and reveals why she became a pediatrician, the intensity of her bond with Holden, the utter despair she suffers after his kidnapping, and her suicide attempt. When you signed on to this season, did you know just how intense this character would be?

Ryan gave me a little bit of an outline and timeline for the character and I knew we would be building to this moment. I didn’t know it would come quite so soon in the season but I think generally everything is moving along at a quicker pace than anyone could have anticipated. I eventually have to make very big sacrifices and we wanted the audience to understand the weight of her loss and the depths of her sadness before we asked them to accept what she does in the rest of the season. That way the leaps she makes are justified. I knew that from the get-go. For me it is about trying to find the line where I am playing it too heavy and sad and end up looking silly. We needed her to be grounded so the audience could follow her as a through line in this wild world with all these outrageous and larger-than-life characters. I want her to be more like someone that you know.

Related: Get Caught Up With Our ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Recaps

Parenting issues are always sensitive subjects and she certainly made some bold statements about how she never wanted kids or how she loved one child more than the other. Are you worried about strong reactions from viewers?

I think she needed to make those bold statements because the turns she makes are so big and brazen as the season goes on. The audience needs to know where she was at going in. I think that opening sequence was supposed to play like she was being honest and pouring her heart out to her family and the psychiatrist, but it turns out it was all being said in her head. She was admitting it to herself more than anyone. Ryan is a new parent and I think he is going through all these new situations and emotions and he wanted to make a lot of strong statements about family and parenting at all stages. Because there was a lot in the episode about Kathy’s relationship with her grown son. The episode wasn’t called “Mommy” for nothing.

He certainly hasn’t pulled any punches about where he stands on the vaccination issue. They have made Alex the voice of the pro-vaccination movement.

He’s trying to weave all sorts of topical issues into his crazy TV show. Wait until you see what happens with my measles case. It gets a little hectic.

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She has tried to stay strong for her daughter and her husband, but she has finally come to a place where she is ready to move on as she gives him the divorce papers. But when he starts to panic in the bar, it is obvious she also still loves him.

She cares about her family and her husband, but that isn’t enough always especially after the loss of a child. John has a lot of demons — the alcoholism, the guilt, and so on — which we introduced more in last night’s episode and those really feed into their relationship in future episodes and contribute to why things take a turn.