Spoilers: Theory about one of the truths/lie

[Red 89,137]

So, for those who may have missed, Sarah Paulson was asked to give two truths and a lie about this season:

1. Sally is a man.

2. Hotel Cortez doesn't exist.

3. Sally is Mrs. Evan's daughter.

Assuming she really did say two truths, I'd like to give my thoughts on the second "truth', which could be a lie but whatever: the hotel doesn't exist.

In my theory, I think the hotel is pretty much just a abandoned place, it could be an abandoned hotel, perhaps, where addicted people go to use their d--gs and find shelter and they hit bottom rock so hard that they truly believe that they are vampires, ghosts, etc. Addicted people can really go crazy sometimes and think their lives are something completely different from the truth and when all those junkies are together at one place, they could totally believe on other people's trip and enter in some sort of "collective trip". My receipts and speculations are:

- The Countess is some sort of really old woman that is a kind of "alpha female" in this dump of addicts. She strongly believes she has a blood virus and she still looks young and fresh when in reality she is old as the Titanic lady. But she has a mean to explore the other people in the "hotel" such as Sally and Iris, which in their hallucination or collective trip, is translated by killing guest to offer their blood to her. Also, her children are pretty much teenagers who got addicted and in her vision, they are still children who need her shelter. She may have an interest in Lachlan to bring him to their d--gs world maybe. Donovan and Tristan are beautiful men that appeared in the wasteland and became her pupils. 

- Sally was some sort of "minor" d--g dealer in the story, she is the one who brought Donovan to the "hotel". Iris followed them and found her son completely high and almost overdosing in that abandoned place. There she did something bad to Sally but she didn't really kill her as in the hallucination. Iris is probably the only sober person there but she sticks in there because she wants to be around Donovan, he doesn't want to get rid of his addiction so Iris just let him be. Now, Sally and Iris are kept there cause they have some sort of deal with the Countess. But Sally now tries to help the junkies, she does something that soothes them which is represented by her hiding people inside mattresses but these people ultimately become zombies. She might sell them another type of d--gs? Crack or bath salts maybe?

- John Lowe is not investigating anything. The Commandments Killer is just a part of his imagination. In the last episode, it is revealed he has some problems with alcohol and if you guys pay attention, there is a scene in Checking In where the guy that was raped by The Addiction Demos lays on his bed and there is an effect with the camera that looks like the d--g just hit him. Some scenes later, John lays in his bed: same camera effect. Could John also be addicted to heroin? After all, he did have a nightmare with the Addiction Demon in the second episode. My point is, he might have made up the Commandments Killer just to have an excuse to d--g himself in the "hotel".

- The Addiction Demons is some sort of urban legend that spread over the addicted people that "live in the hotel" and every time they have a bad trip, they "see" it.

- The "alternative treatment" Alex is gonna use in some episode + her relationship with the Countess: she might use d--gs as a very very controversial treatment and will need the Countess help somehow.

- I don't really have a solid theory about Liz Taylor but he/she did know that John Lowe was addicted to something to compensate a loss during that elevator scene. 

- Now the tricky parts of this theory that I might need your guy's help are Will Drake and Mr. March. Maybe they are selling the spot the "hotel" is in now and Will is trying to buy it to build something but first he needs to make the "owner" of the place, aka Elizabeth, go? Was that "runway show" just a representation of Will bringing some addicted people to try the Countess d--gs? Could Mr. March be also a really old person like the Countess and he is just tripping that he is young too? He and Elizabeth might have been married in the past or they still are? Or maybe the Hotel was abandoned after his death and his some sort of urban legend personified in their trips?

Reaching mode off.

TL;DR: they all be tripping in an abandoned hotel.

[Dayman 5,925]

The Hotel Cortez doesn't exist in the real world though. She could've  just been sneaky in not giving out spoilers by saying that one. It wouldn't be a lie.

[KyliesChild 16,907]

The Hotel Cortez doesn't exist in the real world though. She could've  just been sneaky in not giving out spoilers by saying that one. It wouldn't be a lie.

If this were to be true, how did the two girls check in in the first episode though?

[Red 89,137]

The Hotel Cortez doesn't exist in the real world though. She could've  just been sneaky in not giving out spoilers by saying that one. It wouldn't be a lie.

That's true but let's pretend she gave spoilers, lol

[Mast 980]

If this were to be true, how did the two girls check in in the first episode though?

No, they meant in the REAL world, the hotel doesn't exist. It's true, Hotel Cortez is not a real place in the real world. Sarah wouldn't be lying by saying the place doesn't exist.

[adamsenigma 9,520]

She meant that the hotel doesn't exist in the real world. Nice theory tho. 

[Radio Ga Ga 5,575]

If this were to be true, how did the two girls check in in the first episode though?

Because they were also addicted to d--gs, remember when Iris said she had to clean them up from their d--gs

[djBuffoon 11,825]

If any of these theories are true, and they could find a way to explain it without contradicting what we've seen, I would be very very surprised/impressed. 

AHS is known for the occasional mind-fück, but at the end of the day, it's pop entertainment. I mean, this would be existentialism approaching Lost/David Lynch territory, and I really don't think that is the case. Anything is possible this early in the series, but we might be overthinking it a bit.