Each episode of American Horror Story's eighth season brings with it just as many questions as it does answers, particularly when it comes to Michael Langdon's mysterious past. Initially, when it was revealed that the robot version of Ms. Mead was modeled after someone Michael had cared for deeply as a young boy, many fans assumed he meant his paternal grandmother, Constance Langdon. But now that we know that isn't the case, the plot has only gotten thicker. So, what happened to Constance on AHS: Apocalypse? Why does it seem like she's no longer a part of her grandson's life, and hasn't been for quite some time?
One possibility is that she's dead, which would explain why she hasn't appeared in any of the present day scenes. It's been well-publicized that Jessica Lange will reprise her role as Constance in next week's episode, but that doesn't necessarily mean her character is alive. This season has already proven to be quite flashback-heavy, so her time appearance may be taking place at some point in the past. If that's the case, then Constance's fate post-Murder House could actually be quite grim.
For those in need of quick refresher, Constance was one of the few characters still alive by the time Murder House reached its finale. After Tate Langdon, Constance's son, raped and impregnated Vivien Harmon with twins, she gave birth to Michael; the other baby died during childbirth, as did Vivien.
Since Vivien's husband, Ben, was also killed in the house, Constance decided to raise the baby as her own, despite being warned by medium Billie Dean Howard (played by Sarah Paulson) that a child born out of spirit and human flesh would very likely become the antichrist.
Cut to a couple years later, and Constance came home to find Michael, then a toddler, had murdered his nanny. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked herself, smiling at him affectionately. She didn't seem too alarmed by his actions to the point of giving him up for adoption, but maybe that's exactly what she did. It would certainly help to explain how Ms. Mead came into his life and seemingly raised him.
When recalling how Mead came to existence, Michael said that when he tasked the Cooperative's R&D department with designing her, he gave them a prototype to model of someone from his childhood, "someone very dear" to him. The very fact that Ms. Mead was part of his childhood indicates that his time with Constance was pretty short-lived. But why? Did she give him up because she feared what he was becoming? Was it for his own protection so that the Murder House didn't try to kill him or toy with him themselves? Was he taken away from her after some other gruesome incident? Or did he merely grow tired of his grandmother, like he did with the nanny, and kill her?
Episode 6 should shed some light on the matter, but in the meantime, Constance's fate remains uncertain.
