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This Villain was Headlined on September, 2016.

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The world is a filthy place; It's a filthy goddamn horror show. There's so much pain, you know? There's so much. There is something about all that blood; I drown in it. The Indians believed that blood holds all the bad spirits, and once a month in ceremonies they would cut themselves to let the spirits go free. Now, there is something smart about that, very smart. I like that. You think I'm crazy?
~ Tate during his therapy sessions.
In 1994, I set my mom's boyfriend on fire, and then I shot and killed fifteen kids at Westfield High. I murdered the gay couple who lived here before you, and I raped your wife.
~ Tate remorsefully taking responsibility for all of his crimes to Ben.

Tate Langdon, also known as the Rubber Man, is a major antagonist in the American Horror Story franchise.

Tate is the son of Constance Langdon and brother of Adelaide, Beauregard, and at least one other sibling. His ghost befriends and becomes the boyfriend of Violet Harmon. He is the "biological" father of Michael Langdon, the Anti-Christ who was conceived after he dressed as the Rubber Man and raped Vivien Harmon, Violet's mother. This eventually ended their friendship, and a remorseful Tate vowed to atone his sins and wait until Violet to forgive him, even if she might never forgive him for an eternity. It's later revealed that Satan was actually influencing Tate and using him as a pawn to create the Anti-Christ. He redeems himself by saving Vivien from Michael, and Violet forgives him and takes him back. However, his redemption is ultimately erased due to time travel, leaving him back in the same place he was at the end of Murder House.

He was portrayed by Evan Peters, who also played three other villains in later AHS seasons: James Patrick March in Hotel, Kai Anderson in Cult, and Austin Sommers in Double Feature, as well as Jeffrey Dahmer in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

History[]

Background[]

Tate1

Born in 1977, Tate is the son of Hugo and Constance Langdon, with three other siblings. Even as the only one of his siblings to not have any mental or physical issue, he mind is still not well, due to the lack of a father figure and his mother neglecting him. Although Constance had killed his father due to his unfaithfulness, Tate still regards that he simply ran off, possibly due to his mother telling him that. Finding the specter of Nora Montgomery as a motherly figure due to her real son Infantata attempting to hurt the boy, he eventually went insane, setting his mother's boyfriend ablaze for the murder of Beauregard and then went on a rampage at a local high-school, killing 15 people. He then went back home and stayed there until he was snuffed out by a SWAT team, his phantom now calling the Murder House his home.

Murder House[]

Tate first appears in the pilot as one of Violet's psychologist father Ben's new patients. While in session, he describes an ongoing dream in which he kills other people at his high school. It is then revealed in "Halloween: Part 2" that Tate was allegedly responsible for a school shooting that took the lives of fifteen of his classmates. During Halloween night (the first time he had left the house since his death as ghosts are only able to leave the house during Halloween), he and Violet are visited by the ghosts of his last five victims. He was killed at home when SWAT-team members shot him 17 times for attempting to pull out a gun.

It is implied by Constance that Tate's violent and unstable behavior is the result of the house's influence, while he is also shown using meth on the morning of the shooting. This is further supported by a teacher at the school, who said it seemed out of character for him. As a ghost, he has murdered numerous people in the house, often while dressed in a latex fetish suit. He also rapes and impregnates Vivien, Ben's wife and Violet's mother, causing her to give birth to a devious Anti-Christ: Michael Langdon.

Tate claims to know nothing about the murders he committed, both while being alive and after his death, but it is revealed in the season one finale that Tate was aware but was simply in denial/unable to take responsibility for his actions. Upon discovering that Tate had raped her mother, and was therefore responsible for her death, Violet breaks up with him and banishes him from contact with her. Tate promises to wait for her to forgive him, even if it means waiting forever.

Apocalypse[]

Later it's confirmed that Tate's vile and malicious behavior was being influenced by the dark force inhabiting the Murder House, which turned out to be none other than the Devil itself, having twisted Tate into a psychopathic pawn before and after his death in its plan to create the Anti-Christ.

He later meets his "son" Michael, who was conceived from Tate's rape of Vivien while being used as a conduit/vessel by Michael's true father, Satan. He rejects Michael as his son due to the circumstances of his conception and the fact that Michael has killed more people than Tate ever did. He later saves Vivien from being burned and ceasing to exist at the hands of Michael, which Violet finds out causing her to finally forgive Tate for his enforced actions and the pair resume their relationship.

However, his redemption is tragically erased when Mallory goes back in time and kills Michael before ever entering the Murder House.

American Horror Stories[]

Tate's "Rubber Man" persona appears throughout the first two episodes, first killing Scarlett Winslow's therapist and later attacking her parents, while seemingly egging on Scarlett's sadistic impulses while wearing the suit. However, it's left ambiguous as to whether it's actually Tate wearing the suit or something else entirely.

Appearance and personality[]

Ben: You're a psychopath, Tate. It's a mental disorder, and therapy can't cure it.

Tate: So that's your diagnosis? I'm a psychopath?
Ben: Yep, and the worst kind.

~ Ben Harmon antagonising Tate.

Tate has a very grunge-like appearance, having been a teenager in the early 1990s. He likes Nirvana and in one episode asked Violet if she had any 'Kurt Cobain'. His disposition is primarily solemn and weary, with perpetual bags under his eyes. There is tension between him and his mother, Constance. He has even admitted to her that he hates her. His hatred for his mother was born out of her negligent parenting and the verbal abuse she constantly dealt him as a child in her drunken alcoholic rages. Despite her disapproval of his behavior, Constance frequently makes excuses for him, saying that he is a sensitive boy. This appears to be true, as Tate appears to be apathetic and indifferent at first, but he can quickly become enraged when someone or something he cares about is threatened. Tate pretends that he is oblivious to his current state of existence to those unfamiliar with his past. In truth, he is aware that he is a mysterious ghost. He kept this a secret, fearing Violet would leave him if she knew.

Rubberman

The Rubber Man

As a ghost, Tate primarily dons a BDSM fetish Gimp coverall to become (what is popularly referred to as) the Rubber Man whenever he commits violent acts. In this persona, he killed Chad Warwick and Patrick in a particularly brutal fashion. He beat Chad and drowned him to death, and went on to beat Patrick and sodomize him with a fire poker as he was dying. Tate appears to be super-humanly strong as a ghost, as he was capable of overwhelming Patrick and Ben in separate fights. In his earlier treatments by Ben, Tate often fantasized about murdering his classmates (though seemingly unaware such "fantasies" are actually memories of true events) and took pleasure in mocking Ben about his sexual desires and infidelity with his past student, Hayden McClaine. Tate has also hinted to Ben about the lustful desires Tate had for Violet.

As his relationship with Violet and treatments with Ben continued, Tate seemed to become softer and friendlier. He often speaks highly of Ben as a father, telling Violet he wished he had a father like him while growing up. He also expressed the sentiment to Hayden that he was getting tired of hurting people. However, he continues to be unwilling to let Violet move out of the House, to the point where he attacked both Ben and Vivien as the Rubber Man, though at the end of Smoldering Children, it is revealed that this was because he was trying to prevent Violet from finding out she was dead, as he was afraid of how she would react. Tate would later tell Ben that he really did feel like his treatments were helping him get better. He also broke down in tears and admitted to the suffering he'd caused, though Ben did not believe he was really remorseful at first before Tate finally admits to all the bad things he did before Ben opens up to him again even offering therapy sessions daily for years.

Although, he clearly unwell still seemed to care deeply for Violet and seemed madly in love with her to the point of not wanting her to leave him as shown in Smoldering Children where after Violet admits she cannot forgive him and says she won't be with him he breaks down in tears and desperately begs for her to stay with him saying "You're all I want. You're all I Have!".

The violent and malicious aspects of his personality were later revealed to be influenced by the Murder House's malevolent influence, which was none other than Satan himself. Satan was likely able to get a hold of Tate due to his troubled and traumatic childhood, his physically and mentally challenged brother Beau being chained and locked up in their attic, his sister having a closed room reserved for "punishment" their psychotic mother would put her in when she deemed "necessary", and the final straw was when Constance had Larry smother Beau to prevent Child Protective Services from taking him and Constance tried playing it off as natural causes. His mother's constant denial of her abuse, role in Beau's murder, and constant enablement while falsely believing herself to be in the right, drove Tate to madness and made him the perfect pawn for Satan's plan. In other words, Constance the one who "lit the fuse" to the "explosion" that was Tate's atrocities.

Victims[]

First-Hand[]

  1. 15 High School students (Firearms)
  2. Himself (Provoked SWAT into the shooting by pulling out a pistol)
  3. Chad Warwick (Nearly drowned, neck snapped, killed by a pistol to chest)
  4. Patrick (Beaten to death whilst sodomized with a fire-poker)
  5. Bianca Forest (Chopped in half by an axe; only kill that was likely to have been of his own accord)
  6. Unnamed Bug Exterminator (Stabbed to death)

Second-Hand[]

  1. Vivien Harmon (Rape victim, died in pregnancy)

Assault[]

  1. Larry Harvey (Set on fire)
  2. Leah (Psychological abuse and assault)
  3. Vivien Harmon (Psychological abuse and assault)
  4. Ben Harmon (Beaten and chloroformed)
  5. Gabriel (Attempted murder with a knife)

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • He is the first character in American Horror Story to be portrayed by Evan Peter
  • Tate mentions that he likes Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in the same year that Tate committed the murders and was killed. Tate's grunge clothing style also seems to be inspired by Cobain as well.
  • In his school shooting fantasies, Tate's skull makeup is a replica of the intricate body tattoos of real life model and sideshow act Rick Genest, aka Rico Zombie. The show was sued due to this.
  • The name Tate is a reference to Sharon Tate, just like Charles, Montgomery and Bianca refer to either victims or perpetrators of the infamous Mansion Family murders. The original description of the Tate character was "Charles Manson dangerous". (Evan Peters said that to prepare he read a lot of books about psychopaths like Charles Manson because he was charming as well as terrifying, like Tate.)
  • The name Tate also apparently means either He who brings happiness or Cheerful. Ironically, Tate is the source of most of the despair of the Harmons, especially Violet.
  • "Norman Bates, Jr." is a nickname given by Chad to Tate.
  • Tate ran track at Westfield High.
  • According to the school librarian, Tate mostly read books on birds and Byron. Tate is very much the archetypal byronic hero.
  • "The Devil is real. And he's not a little red man with horns and a tail. He can be beautiful. Because he's a fallen angel, and he used to be God's favourite." (A quote from the episode "Piggy Piggy" references the fact that Satan is the true monster of the show who was essentially possessing Tate's youthful and more attractive form.)
  • Even if Tate is undead, his villainy still extends with no ending point, for he is the one who is responsible for the birth of a horrid Anti-Christ. Although with the revelation that his actions were being influenced by Satan, it's unclear where the line between Tate's insanity ends and Satan's manipulation begins.
  • On August 28, 2018, Ryan Murphy made an Instagram post showing Evan Peters from the set of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, this time showing Peters holding up his Murder House character's iconic sweatshirt. "Tate. Happy to be home," Murphy wrote.
  • Tate's situation with having his actions controlled by Satan is an example of the Descartes concept of the "Evil Demon". It refers to a powerful malevolent being pulling the strings and constantly interfering and antagonizing mortal beings to seemingly no end, but no matter how much the "Demon" takes from those mortal beings they still possess their own free will and sense of reason even if it gets malformed to a degree.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           Ecran Titre d'American Horror Story Villains

Murder House
Langdon Family (Tate Langdon | Constance Langdon | Michael Langdon) | Larry Harvey | Hayden McClaine | Moira O'Hara | Charles Montgomery | Infantata | Bianca Forest | R. Franklin | Fiona | The Devil

Asylum
Sister Jude | Bloody Face (Dr. Oliver Thredson | Johnny Morgan | Imposters) | The Devil | Dr. Arthur Arden | Timothy Howard | Leigh Emerson | Jenny Reynolds | Aliens

Coven
Fiona Goode | Marie Laveau | Madison Montgomery | Delphine LaLaurie | The Axeman | Hank Foxx | Spalding | Papa Legba | Minotaur | Joan Ramsey | Archie Brener | Alicia Spencer

Freak Show
Elsa Mars | Bette and Dot Tattler | Dandy Mott | Stanley | Maggie Esmerelda | Dell Toledo | Twisty the Clown | Chester Creb | Edward Mordrake | Rita Gayheart | Larry Gayheart | Hans Gruper | Penny's Father

Hotel
The Countess | James Patrick March | Ten Commandments Killer | Sally McKenna | Hazel Evers | Ramona Royale | Addiction Demon | Richard Ramirez | Jeffrey Dahmer | Aileen Wuornos | John Wayne Gacy | Charles Montgomery

Roanoke
Shelby Miller | The Butcher | Polk Family | Agnes Mary Winstead | Scáthach

Cult
Ally Mayfair-Richards | FIT (Kai Anderson | Ivy Mayfair-Richards | Beverly Hope | Harrison Wilton | Meadow Wilton | Gary Longstreet | Jack Samuels) | Winter Anderson | Babe Babbitt | Twisty the Clown

Apocalypse
Cooperative (Michael Langdon | Miriam Mead | Dinah Stevens | Wilhemina Venable | Jeff Pfister | Mutt Nutter | The Devil) | Langdon Family (Tate Langdon | Constance Langdon) | Madison Montgomery | Ariel Augustus | James Patrick March | Moira O'Hara | Papa Legba | Delphine LaLaurie | Marie Laveau

1984
Mr. Jingles | Margaret Booth | Richard Ramirez | Montana Duke | Donna Chambers | Bruce | Lavinia Richter | The Devil

Double Feature
Part 1: Red Tide
The Chemist | Ursula Khan | Belle Noir | Austin Sommers | Alma Gardener | Lark Feldman | Flesh Phantom

Part 2: Death Valley
Aliens (Theta | Valiant Thor)

NYC
Big Daddy | Mr. Whitely | Sam


American Horror Stories
Season 1
Rubber (Wo)man: Scarlett Winslow | Ruby McDaniel | Maya | Adam | Tony Peterson | Infantata
Drive In: Verna | Larry Bitterman
The Naughty List: Santa
Ba'al: Ba'al| Matt Webb| Bernadette
Feral: Ferals
Game Over: Scarlett Winslow | Ruby McDaniel
Season 2
Dollhouse: Mr. Van Wirt | Spalding
Aura: Bryce Taylor
Drive: Marci | Chaz
Milkmaids: Pastor Walter | Thomas Browne
Bloody Mary: Bloody Mary | Elise | Mami Wata
Facelift: Dr. Enid Perle | Cassie Brooks
Necro: Sam | Charlie
Lake: Jeffrey Prescott | Wrede Prescott

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