Pepper

Pepper
"Play with me!"
Portrayed by	Naomi Grossman
Details
Species	Human
Occupation	Performer in Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities (formerly)
Cause of death	Pulmonary fibrosis contracted whilst at Briarcliff Manor (Winter 1966)
Relationships	Rita Gayheart (abusive sister) Larry Gayheart (abusive brother-in-law) Lucas Gayheart (nephew) Grace Bertrand (ward) Salty ("husband") Sister Mary Eunice (helper) Ma Petite ("daughter") Extraterrestrials (purported abductors) Arthur Arden (dislike) Elsa Mars (adoptive mother, employer/savior) Sister Jude (friend)
Appearances	Welcome to Briarcliff Tricks and Treats Nor'easter The Coat Hanger The Name Game Spilt Milk Continuum Monsters Among Us Massacres and Matinees Edward Mordrake: Part 1 Edward Mordrake: Part 2 Pink Cupcakes Bullseye Test of Strength Blood Bath Tupperware Party Massacre Orphans Drink the Kool-Aid

Pepper is a microcephalic woman and former performer with Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities who has been committed to Briarcliff Manor. She is a character in American Horror Story portrayed by Naomi Grossman. She appears first in Asylum, and earlier in life in Freak Show.

Background

Pepper was abandoned by her family into the inept care of an orphanage when she was born. When she was eighteen years old, she was rescued by Elsa Mars, thereby becoming the first member of Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities. As the troupe grew, she would form a maternal relationship with the dwarf Ma Petite and an innocent romance with fellow "pinhead" Salty, to whom she was informally married in a mock ceremony.

Personality and Appearance

Despite her alleged history of infanticide, she is innocently playful. She usually wears a flowery muumuu and a girlish bow in the topknot adorning her misshapen mostly bald head.

Story

Pepper's role as a performer is a sort of clown act with Salty, providing amusement through innocent dance and play. Her extended role is as an attendant to "Miss Elsa", providing manicures and delivering messages. During a visit from Edward Mordrake on Halloween, she is deemed innocent by the ghost's demon face and she is passed over for "collection".

Upon the death of Salty, she became despondent and unwilling to perform, so Elsa took her to live with her sister, Rita Gayheart. There she is treated with disdain by her sister and brother-in-law, Larry. She is tasked with serving cocktails to her sister and caring for her disfigured and equally unwanted infant nephew, Lucas. With his wife's complicity, Larry kills the child and frames Pepper for the crime. She was convicted of murder and consigned to the asylum at Briarcliff Manor, where she was admitted by Sister Mary Eunice. The nun took her on as a rehabilitation project and entrusted Pepper with custodial duties in the manor's library.

Pepper spent most of her years at the asylum a model inmate, only guilty of pestering visitors to play and hoarding food in her cell. On the night of a massive storm, Pepper excuses herself from the movie night to pee and doesn't return. Sister Jude mistakenly assumes that she is a casualty of the failed escape of Lana, Grace, and Kit.

In reality, she was abducted by extraterrestrials who performed genetic alterations that upgraded her subnormal intelligence to genius level. She is returned to the asylum to act as guardian to pregnant and resurrected fellow abductee, Grace. She tried to carry out this charge bravely against Oliver Thredson, but the effort was futile as he had her taken away by orderlies. Pepper died of pulmonary fibrosis in 1966, but lived on in the deluded mind of a defrocked and committed Sister Jude.

Quotes

• To Lana Winters: "Play with me!"
  
• To Elsa Mars: "Stay!"
  
• Pepper: "Meatloaf!"
  

• To Dr. Arden: "Knock, knock. Who's there? Arden. Arden who? Arden you the quack who'd make a better duck? Hahaha!"
  
• Pepper: "No one takes a pinhead seriously."
  
• To Dr. Arden: "When my sister's husband drowned her baby and sliced his ears off, he told everyone I did it. They tied me up and paraded me in front of a judge. He took one look at the shape of my head, and I was locked up for good. That's how it works for us freaks. We get blamed for everything."
  
• To Dr. Arden: "Why don't you go to your whore nun and have her soothe your deflated ego?"
  

Notes

• Pepper is the first character to be featured in more than one season along with Sister Mary Eunice and Arthur Arden before crossovers started to become a recurring event.
  • Pepper was first featured in Asylum and returned in Freak Show; although she died in Asylum, Freak Show is a prequel.
  • It was confirmed conclusively in "Orphans" that Pepper was the same character in each season.
• Despite each story was perceived to be in a discrete universe up until Coven, befitting an anthology series, Freak Show changed the cards on the table. Ryan Murphy stated that they are a shared universe, per 31 October 2014 reports: "This is the first year where we begin to tell you that season two is connected to season four which is connected to season one."
• Pepper's augmentation in "The Coat Hanger" is similar to scenarios in Flowers for Algernon and other works.
• In "The Name Game", Pepper states "that's what happens to us freaks" - a subtle nod to her former life during the events of Freak Show, which reveals her tragic backstory relating to Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities before she was committed to Briarcliff Manor.
• Pepper appears in the Cult episode "Drink the Kool-Aid" in the cover of Twisty's comic book that Ally gives Oz, alongside Jimmy Darling and Meep.

Associated Characters

Rita Gayheart

Rita Gayheart
"I told myself, Rita, you will never meet a man and have a children if I have to look after a dim-witted sister."
Portrayed by	Mare Winningham
Species	Human
Relationships	Pepper (sister, dislike) Lucas Gayheart (son) Larry Gayheart (husband)
Appearances	Orphans

Rita Gayheart is the sister of Pepper. Despondent after the loss of Salty and no longer willing to perform, Pepper was taken by Elsa to live with Rita. Rita made excuses that her husband would not allow it but Elsa convinced her to stand up to him and do the right thing by family. Unwilling to admit her own reluctance, Rita agreed. After Rita gave birth to a deformed child, she treated Pepper as a house slave whose duties were making her cocktails and caring for her otherwise unloved baby. She and her husband, wanting to return to a life of leisure, hatched a plan to get rid of both of them by killing the baby and blaming Pepper.

Notes

• Rita is the second character portrayed by Mare Winningham. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.
  

Gallery

Pepper's cameo in Cult episode, Drink the Kool-Aid

References

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