‘American Horror Story’ Season 4 Spoilers: Stolen ‘Freak Show’ Script Teases Pepper’s ‘Asylum’ Connection

If "American Horror Story" fans thought Twisty the Clown was scary, just wait until they catch wind of this unsettling news: According to reports, an important script for a future “Freak Show” episode was “pilfered” by a sticky-handed thief while the hit FX miniseries was filming in New Orleans last week. Now the culprit is attempting to sell the top-notch spoiler material to any media outlet willing to fork over a pretty penny for the script.

TMZ revealed that the stolen work includes a vital scene that explains how Pepper the pinhead (Naomi Grossman) will end up as a patient in Briarcliff Manor, a former Boston tuberculosis ward that was as a pivotal location in Season 2, “Asylum.”

Prior to the stolen script scandal, Ryan Murphy, co-creator of “AHS,” explained that “Freak Show” acts as a prelude to the show’s frightening second season. “The interesting thing about doing a show like this is every season is incredibly its own story and its own beginning, middle and end. Its own journey,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “But we have always from the very beginning [worked] in the intertwining mythologies and how things connect. This is the first year where we begin to tell you that Season 2 is connected to Season 4, which is connected to Season 1.”

When this news first broke of the installments' connection we put on our theorizing caps on and got to work. Here’s what we know thus far regarding the correlation between the two seasons: “Freak Show” takes place in 1952, which means approximately 12 years pass from when Pepper was performing in Elsa Mars’ (Jessica Lange) freak show to becoming a patient at Briarcliff.

So, how does Pepper end up shackled away in the Massachusetts ward? It was revealed by Lily Rabe’s character Sister Mary Eunice (who will be returning to “Freak Show” in episode 10) during “Asylum” that Pepper was charged with a heinous crime of drowning her sister’s baby and cutting off its ears. (It’s important to note that Elsa revealed it was Pepper’s sister who left her rotting away in the orphanage until the freak show ringmaster saved Pepper and her brother from squalor. Could that have been Pepper's motive?)

Pepper later denied the murderous charges against her as the plot of “Asylum” played out. “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 the 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,” Pepper explained in “Asylum” before reportedly dying in the winter of 1966.

Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) bolstered Pepper’s innocence in “Edward Mordrake (Part 2)” of “Freak Show” when the two-faced demon stated Pepper and her brother Salty (Christopher Neiman) were too guiltless to be taken to hell after he was summoned from beyond the grave. Does this mean Pepper was wrongly accused of murder?

It was theorized that Sister Mary Eunice’s introduction will help tie Seasons 4 and 2 together with a blood-soaked bow. Rabe’s character will make her return during the winter finale of “Freak Show,” set to occur in episode 10 of “AHS.” Will the wholehearted nun witness Pepper do something ghastly during her stint on Season 4? It doesn’t seem likely that the God-fearing woman would drag Pepper away from her home without a just and moral cause.

Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below of how the seasons connect. Don’t forget to tune in to “American Horror Story: Freak Show” on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on FX.