American Horror Story: Ranking Sarah Paulson's Characters From Worst To Best

When it was first revealed that American Horror Story was set to go back to both Murder House and Coven for its Apocalypse-themed season, it's pretty safe to assume that fans everywhere rejoiced at the thought of Paulson revisiting her characters from those respective seasons. Paulson did end up stealing the show, but not as Billie Dean or Cordelia (not at first anyway), but rather as Wilhemina Venable, who proved to be yet another compelling character.

The authoritarian leader of the post-apocalyptic outpost was something quite different for Paulson, and Venable proved to be someone we could both simultaneously love and hate. With the exception of the complicated Sally McKenna in Hotel, Paulson had primarily played good-hearted characters on the show, so Venable gave the actress an opportunity to showcase her darker side, and the end result was pretty spectacular.

Venable was out for herself, and used her authority to manipulate those that she professed to care about, which is what ultimately resulted in her death. It's a tragic story made much stronger by Paulson's performance and had we had more time with the character, she might well have been higher up this list.