It's been a long journey, folks, but after months and months of theorizing, AHS: Hotel finally clued us in on the identity of the 10 Commandments Killer and, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure it was worth the wait. Most of us (myself included) have expected that John Lowe was the guilty party in question, so it kinda feels a little anticlimactic to find out that we've been right the whole time. That's right, folks — the 10 Commandments Killer was Det. John Lowe, though he's been completely unaware of it this whole time.
In the end, I thought making John the killer would've been a little too easy (not to mention extremely obvious). So I thought Ryan Murphy would end up going in a different direction. However, there's no denying how well it all fit together. John had access to the crime scenes, knew how to get his hands on all the body parts, and understood what it would take to cover up any evidence. Suddenly all of the pieces of this Hotel puzzle are starting to fall into place. Murphy's been playing a long con on us this whole time and now we can finally appreciate the season for all its been leading up to. But let's back up for a minute and discuss how John came to be our Big Bad killer.
You see, it turns out that John had been to the Hotel Cortez long before he walked through those doors at the beginning of the season. He went in there for a drink five years ago when he fell off the wagon after a particularly difficult case. From there, Donovan invited John to an after party with Mr. James March, who immediately took a liking to John and saw a bit of himself in the frustrated detective. So he decided to take him on as his successor, carrying out more murders in the name of divine justice.
But in order to fully convert John over to the dark side, he still needed a little push, which is where The Countess came in. Taking Holden away was what pushed John over the edge and gave him the incentive to carry out March's former work. And there you have it. The killer has been lurking right under John's very nose. And I do mean that quite literally in this case.
Image: Prashant Gupta/FX
