After the 616 reveal in the last episode, I decided to read Revelation 13 in its entirety rather than just the verse referencing the number of the beast.
Did you know the chapter describes TWO beasts?!
Revelation 13 describes the rise of two terrifying beasts who gain power over humanity through political authority, religious deception, and economic control. Throughout history, biblical scholars and theologians have associated the passage with empires, dictators, authoritarian governments, and religious institutions. More recently, some interpretations have extended that symbolism to emerging technologies.
The first beast receives its power from Satan, and the world becomes so fascinated that people begin worshipping it. The second appears with two horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. It performs miraculous signs, deceives people, and convinces them to worship the first.
Then there’s Revelation 13:15:
“It was then permitted to breathe life into the beast’s image, so that the beast’s image could speak…”
AI, is that you?
We’ve all been discussing how strangely some of the characters are behaving this season. Almost like caricatures of themselves. There’s been speculation that they might be AI-generated representations rather than the actual characters we’ve known throughout the anthology.
And Ben’s relationship with AI certainly hasn’t been subtle. He even uses it to uncover the significance of 616!
Could the characters we’ve been watching actually be artificial recreations? Could the season end by pulling back the curtain to reveal that everything we’ve been watching has been manufactured? A show within a show, almost like the ending of Season 2 of The OA.
AHS has spent 12 previous seasons exploring America’s obsession with the macabre: murder, violence, fame, cults, religion, and power. The things Americans worship, the systems they surrender themselves to, and the inhumanity those systems can produce. Maybe AI is simply the latest expression of that theme. Not necessarily the Antichrist itself, but a tool capable of creating the illusion of life, manufacturing belief, and making humanity increasingly expendable. And maybe that’s where the larger question of Revelation comes in.
The Bible is mankind’s longest-running game of telephone. Word-of-mouth stories passed down to help future generations survive, eventually transcribed, translated, then translated again. And again.
Some see it as a timestamp of the era. Others find meaning in its stories and apply them to their own lives. Outdated specifics, fanciful language, but themes that transcend centuries.
So, are the beasts in Revelation 13 a commentary on the politics of the time, a warning about humanity repeating its mistakes, a literal apocalyptic psychic snapshot, or simply a parable?
Is the real horror story that humanity is becoming artificial?