12 WTF AHS Double Feature Questions: JFK and Marilyn Learn Truth, Pregnant Four Get Answers

This half-season of "American Horror Story" is taking the "Double Feature" aspect of the season to heart, with "Death Valley" coming at us in two very distinct and separate storylines. One takes place in the 1960s in stark black and white, while the other is in bawdy color.

We have to give credit to the entire production team for really creating two distinct visual images for the two halves of each episode. Even were it in color, everything from how its being filmed to camera angles to script to the performances from the actors is so different, it really feels like we're watching back-to-back episodes of different shows at times.

Obviously, the connecting story threads throw that out the window, but it gives us yet another clever narrative device we can credit to this anthology series. They've not all been wholly effective, but this one is actually progressing in a way that's remained compelling thus far.

We do have to concede that we're actually enjoying the black-and-white portion better so far. The story is meatier -- it is the backstory for what's happening in the present, after all -- and it feels like we're getting stronger acting performances from the ensemble.

Plus, it's been fun to see all the famous and recognizable figures that have sashayed their way into President Dwight D. Eisenhower's life. Interestingly, this week flashed forward all the way to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy before jumping back to the immediate aftermath of last week's segment.

As for the present-day storyline, things picked up immediately and progressed fairly linear, if somewhat sloppily from an in-universe standpoint. Well, things have been a bit messy in both timelines we suppose. We're only two episodes in, and we've found ourselves shouting WTF at the screen so many times, and we have even more questions every moment, it seems.

Why Do the Aliens Want So Many Americans Per Year?

Right off the bat, we started learning some of the details of what Ike did back in the day on the even of him handing the reins of the country over to JFK. Apparently, he sold out the American people for advanced technology to the tune of 5,000 abductions per year. That's a huge number of people he's just allowing to get abducted, which makes you wonder why he would do it, and how he could live with it?

It was also suggested that he should make this deal for fear that the aliens might make a deal with the Russians, but is there any reason to think they haven't already. After all, the deal in America has apparently been kept secret for nearly 70 years now; why couldn't the same be happening all over the world.

Was Marilyn Monroe a Victim of Aliens?

Jumping ahead, we got to see what happened after Ike decided JFK deserved to know about the deal with the aliens. We're not sure how the deal could be managed -- and it definitely appears to still be being managed -- without someone in power knowing, but maybe it doesn't have to be the president.

Regardless, JFK decided to tell his lover, Marilyn Monroe, about the aliens, and she was pretty nonplussed about the whole thing. In fact, she encouraged him to come clean to the American people, and through Vice President Richard M. Nixon, Ike and we learned that he was intending to move forward and do just that. The next scene was saw was his assassination.

The implication that he was murdered as a result of his plans was certainly pretty present, and Mamie Eisenhower gave voice to it, but does that further imply that Marilyn Monroe was perhaps a loose end that needed to be taken care of, as well. Clearly secrecy is very important to the aliens.

At the same time, we can't help but wonder if Marilyn's creepy story about an alien-eyed teddy bear was just childish imagination from when she was young, or if the aliens really did visit her. She was not of child-bearing age in either gender, so what would be the point? She didn't appear under their thrall or she wouldn't have convinced JFK to go public -- unless the aliens really wanted Nixon in office.

Is Maria Telling the Truth About the Deal?

As Eisenhower is bringing his generals up to speed, alien-controlled Maria came floating into the room to just go ahead and explain herself (so much for total secrecy). She said her race needed to find a way to live on Earth, but as it was deadly to them with viruses and toxins, their only hope was to create a new hybrid species of humans and aliens. That explains Amelia Earhart's pregnancy. But not why they just left her with the humans after making contact.

So is Maria telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? It seems kind of hard to believe. Just as we suspect these aliens are making deals with any nation with a pulse; maybe even staging crashed ships around the world; we have a feeling their plans are far more nefarious. After all, she quickly revealed that their test subject had failed. Amelia Earhart was dead, and Lily Rabe proved useless and died almost immediately in both halves of this "Double Feature," which is a shame. She's better than that.

Did Maria Have to Die?

Speaking again to this idea that the aliens are looking to live on Earth, implying peacefully among humans, is their indiscriminate taking of human life. Maria killed one general who stood against her offer of radar-proof technology by blowing up his head, and then she went ahead and blew up her own head.

Is this a natural side effect that always happens when they leave a body, or was that an intentional choice? It was certainly effective in showing the extent of the alien's powers, but it's suggesting that they really don't hold human life as having much value. So is annihilation the end goal here? If so, they're doing a terrible job of it, based on present day.

Why Did the Aliens Just Leave Amelia's Baby?

After declaring the test subject a failure, we saw Amelia's dead body. So is it possible to carry an alien baby to term and survive? It doesn't look like it (hint, hint), but at the same time, Amelia's baby wasn't dead. So why leave it for the U.S. to find and kill? Was it the hybrid itself that was a failure? In what way was it not acceptable?

The aliens clearly understand that they won't be wholly themselves, so are they genetically trying to breed their future iterations just right, the way humans breed dogs? Are these new alien bodies completely new, or are the aliens intending to inhabit them the way they've been doing the human bodies? What is their range on that? Are there a bunch of aliens lying around in a space ship controlling humans all over the planet?

Is Mamie Still Possessed by an Alien in the Near Future?

We suspect we know the answer to this, but we're not completely sure. If she isn't, then that answers whether or not Maria had to die. Based on Sarah Paulson's performance, that creepy twist of the neck and look in her eyes, we already knew that Mamie had been taken over by an alien. Turns out it's the same one that was prior in Maria.

So the question becomes, how was Mamie taken over? Maria was taken when her son, Timmy, approached her. From then on, it was Maria. So was the same alien inside Timmy when it decided to trade up for mom? Did Timmy's head explode as well? Is there a reason we've mostly seen women being mind-controlled? Are they more compatible?

Certainly it doesn't seem to matter which gender carries the alien babies, which quickly come to term. Considering how different the bodies are in humans for those designed to carry babies and those not, it's certainly interesting that both seem to work just as well for carrying aliens. Or maybe it's all just a continuing experiment to find the perfect hybrids. After all, they appear to still be at it today.

Why Isn't U.S. More on Top of Who's Getting Impregnated?

If this whole operation has become a vast conspiracy with stark white facilities for housing impregnated humans, how is it that our foursome of college kids managed to get abducted, get impregnated and then move about freely enough to get to a regular doctor's office before the men in black came calling?

Why even abduct and impregnate them and dump them back in the wild at all? Unless the aliens are doing the adbucting, and the humans are running this facility. That raises all kinds of questions about Theta, the woman who Kendall sees when she briefly wakes up -- the woman who is revealed to be an alien hybrid by the end of the episode.

If this is being run by the aliens, then it's very sloppy to drop the four back off in their cars. They're all disappeared from their lives right now, anyway, so why not just disappear them that night and keep them. If this isn't being run by the aliens, then why not? And what are the humans trying to accomplish by collecting the impregnated humans? And how did they find out about it, and how many OBGYNs have they had to kill?

Why Do Aliens Still Need to Be Impregnating Humans?

It's been more than six decades, why are the aliens still having to abduct and impregnate humans the way they did Amelia Earhart so long ago? Are they still struggling to create their perfect hybrids that can exist on Earth? Maria suggested that time was running out for the aliens ... but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Maybe the species lives thousands of years, so this is still a short span of time for them. But if Theta is an example of a hybrid, as has been suggested, that doesn't appear to be a perfect creation. She's got one human eye and one alien eye and doesn't really pass well for either one. Are the species this incompatible that they'd combine so directly? That's way stranger than one blue eye and one brown one.

Also, if they've been at this since the 1960s or before, how many hybrids actually exist? Is Theta one of very few? And what happened to all those babies that were created? Did they all die? Are they being held somewhere until the aliens decide to just take over Earth completely?

Where Are the Impregnated People Being Held?

After finally getting taken by the government (or the aliens controlling government-looking people), the kids came to in a white facility with advanced technology where they were told they'd be held until they had their babies. Is this a facility on Earth? Is it run by the government, or secret from them, too?

They were not told how long that would be or what happens next. Troy was adamantly not told literally how he could deliver a baby, but we're thinking "Alien" or something similar.

Based on Amelia, we would think maybe they'd all die, but maybe the technology has advanced such that women are able to survive delivery, but men aren't. Or maybe Troy will survive this somehow. C-sections are a thing. There are surgical options, no matter how many arms the baby has.

Why Did Steve Jobs Fake His Death?

One of the strangest moments cam when we first met Calico, having a chat with Steve Jobs. So ... what was he doing there? Was he abducted? Did he intentionally fake his own death? If the deal between aliens was for technology, we can assume Jobs benefited from it with Apple. Or is he an alien? Controlled by one?

Why would he just be wandering around this facility, and why was no one impressed by him being there? Was he aware of this while alive? Is Bill Gates? Jeff Bezos? Mark Zuckerberg? Elon Musk? How complicit are all the big tech names? And why would Jobs be hanging out in the maternity ward? Is he just friends with Calico? Is she someone we should know?

Why Is Calico Still There After All These Years?

According to her, she's some kind of special deal, "on the annual plan." This suggests she's impregnated every year, and otherwise gets to just stay in this facility. What's more, she's been there just about as long as this deal has been active. Why? Why pick her? Is she telling the truth? How has she survived all those births, and especially back then?

How is she able to just live there? And if she has been there that long, how have they kept her from aging? And again why? Is there something special about the babies she makes that's better than other humans? Plus, how do they have the technology to keep her from aging? If they can do that, how is it they can't protect themselves from our toxins and viruses? Maybe they should look into vaccine technology.

Is Theta a Mutant Hybrid or a Failure?

The big dramatic reveal to close the episode was that of Theta, the woman who's taking care of all the pregnant patients. She's clearly a human/alien hybrid, but in a very awkward way. Is she considered a failure? She's smart enough to work as a doctor, and trusted to take care of these pregnant humans. So is she a success, just not quite where they want her to be?

Why did she bother to reveal herself to Troy when she'd been masked up beforehand. Is it because he's going to die? She doesn't have four arms, that we can tell, but Troy's baby does. So are all the hybrids all different, and different in random ways?

The questions keep piling up as "American Horror Story: Double Feature" continues every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.