Three episodes into American Horror Story: 13 and one image keeps looping in my head: an old man on the 13th floor of a Manhattan building called the Apollyon, bent over, vomiting thick black sludge at the exact moment thirteen people die somewhere else in the world.
That man is Mr. Nas. And after watching the first three episodes more carefully than any normal person should, I am convinced the black sludge is not a medical problem. It is a receipt.
Photo via @GoldCrucifix / original post by @ahsfxoficial on X
Fedor Steer (Mr. Nas) chegou na premiere de #AHS13.
— American Horror Story Brasil (@ahsfxoficial) September 24, 2026
The Two Confirmed Massacres
Episode 1 opens with Ben DeSoto (Joey Pollari) on a plane. Everything is numbered thirteen — the date, the gate, the seat, the birthday party. The plane goes down. Thirteen people die. Cut immediately to Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) in a dark penthouse. Mr. Nas, played in his elderly form by Fedor Steer, rises from his bed and vomits a river of black liquid while the plane is still falling.
Episode 2 does it again. Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) walks into a Los Angeles clown school. Tig Notaro’s character is teaching. Twisty does what Twisty does. The body count hits thirteen. Back in New York, at 1:13 a.m., Mr. Nas is at the window again. Same black sludge. Same timing.
Two separate mass death events. Two identical physical reactions from the same patient. Constance waves both of them away as “an old ulcer.” I do not buy it for a second.
Photo via @fedorsteer on X – actor’s own post about the 4-hour makeup process for Mr. Nas
This picture is not posed. It's really like this to get Mr. Nas ready: 4 hours in the makeup chair, 4 people, 8 hands. Except on full-body bathtub days, then it was 6 people, 12 hands, 8 or 9 hours. American Horror Story 13.
— Fedor Steer (@fedorsteer) September 25, 2026
What the Show Is Actually Showing Us
Look at the details the writers keep putting on screen. Dr. Phibes (John Waters) draws exactly thirteen vials of blood every week and carries live snakes in the same bag. The apartment is filled with paintings that all contain the number thirteen — including a Last Supper with thirteen figures. Mr. Nas has claw-like hands, a visible tail, and at one point what look like horns when the transformation starts. Constance speaks about him with the kind of reverence usually reserved for prophets or monsters. “Praise his name and what he has done for the world,” she tells Ben.
This is not a sick old man. This is something that feeds on death in batches of thirteen.
Young Nas and the Bigger Picture
Paul Anthony Kelly is listed as Young Nas. We have only glimpsed him so far, but the dual casting is not random. Whatever Mr. Nas is, he has existed long enough to need two actors. The building he owns is called the Apollyon — the name of the angel of the bottomless pit in Revelation. By the end of Episode 3 we learn there is a literal portal under the building that Constance is using to bring back the dead. The 13 Leading Ladies. The Rauhnacht ritual. All of it sits on top of the same floor where the sludge keeps appearing.
Ryan Murphy has said this season is about characters from every previous season uniting against “the ultimate evil” — something bigger than the Antichrist. After three episodes, the show has not named that evil. It has only shown us the man who vomits every time thirteen people die.
Why This Pattern Matters More Than Any Cameo
The star power in this season is ridiculous. Jessica Lange playing multiple roles. Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Emma Roberts — the Avengers of American Horror Story. But the scariest thing on screen right now is not any of them. It is the quiet, almost clinical way the show pairs mass death with one old man’s bodily function.
If the pattern holds, every time another group of exactly thirteen people dies, Mr. Nas will vomit again. And every time he does, something on the other side of that portal under the Apollyon gets stronger.
We are four days past the premiere. The next three episodes drop on October 1. I will be watching the death counts more carefully than the dialogue. Because right now the black sludge is the only honest thing in the room.
How the Number Thirteen Becomes a Feeding Language
American Horror Story has always loved cursed numbers, but Season 13 is less interested in superstition as wallpaper and more interested in superstition as logistics. Thirteen is not whispered for atmosphere. It is counted, drawn, vomited, and scheduled. The plane crash establishes the first complete set. Twisty’s massacre confirms that the set can be repeated. Mr. Nas’s body turns the repetition into biology. Once a show teaches the audience that math, every future body count arrives preloaded with meaning.
That is also why Constance’s parallel project matters. While Ben is still trying to do a job, she is building a collection that uses the same number as theology. Leading ladies. Vials. Deaths. The Apollyon is not hosting two unrelated plots. It is hosting two administrative systems that both answer to thirteen. If the black sludge is the body’s receipt, Constance’s guest list is the social receipt.
There is a hard-edged honesty in making the ultimate-evil idea feel hungry instead of theatrical. Monsters that speechify are easy. Monsters that require maintenance are worse, because they imply a staff. Mr. Phibes with the needle, Constance with the invitations, Ben with the washcloth — the season keeps expanding the org chart around the thing on the thirteenth floor. The sludge is only the most visible evidence that the org chart is working.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who plays Mr. Nas in American Horror Story Season 13?
Fedor Steer plays the elderly Mr. Nas. Paul Anthony Kelly is credited as Young Nas.
Does Mr. Nas really vomit every time 13 people die?
In the first two episodes the timing is exact. Plane crash (13 dead) and clown-school massacre (13 dead) both trigger the same black-sludge reaction.
Is Mr. Nas the ultimate evil Ryan Murphy talked about?
The show has not confirmed it. Everything on screen points in that direction, but the season still has ten episodes left to answer the question.
What is the Apollyon building?
It is the Manhattan high-rise where Mr. Nas lives on the 13th floor. By Episode 3 it is revealed to contain a portal connected to Hell.
Author: Shivam Das. Independent coverage for U.S. readers. Updated September 28, 2026.
