American Horror Story 1984: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Montana

Billie Lourd returns to season 9 of American Horror Story as Montana Duke, an extroverted, aerobics loving woman with bleach blonde hair and eccentric style. Montana accompanies her friends to Camp Redwood in the hopes of teaching aerobics for the summer.

On the surface, Montana is friendly, independent, and charismatic. She is confident in her sexuality and fully embraces the sexual revolution of the ’80s. Montana’s fashion choices include heavy makeup and animal print clothing. Although on the surface Montana seems like a typical ’80s punk rocker, she hides dark and foreboding secrets from everyone. There’s probably also a lot that fans don’t know about Montana.

10 She Wanted To Be The Greatest Aerobics Competitor Of All Time

Montana takes aerobics incredibly seriously, teaching classes and attending the aerobics studio for two years. When she first meets Brooke, she tells her that her dream is to be the greatest aerobics competitor of all time.

Unfortunately, this is a goal she was never able to meet considering she died at Camp Redwood. It’s an easy to overlook line.

9 She Briefly Dated Xavier After Hitting His Car

In the first episode of 1984, Montana introduces Brooke to her group of male friends. Ray then explains that the friend group “collected each other over the last couple of years.”

He states that Montana and Xavier “met in traffic” which Xavier clarifies to mean that Montana rear-ended him. The pair also dated briefly, a fact that’s easy to forget throughout the season.

8 Her Sexual Identity Is Never Explicitly Stated

Although some online forums describe Montana as bisexual, her sexuality is never explicitly stated. However, it does seem unlikely that Montana is an LGBT character. All of Montana’s sexual and romantic partners throughout the season are men. She also tells Brooke in the first episode, “I’m not a lez.”

There is a moment at Camp Redwood when Montana kisses Brooke. However, some fans have proposed that she did this so that Brooke would leave the cabin and be an easier target for the Night Stalker. It doesn’t quite make sense that Montana would be truly sexually attracted to Brooke considering she hated her and was plotting her death.

7 There’s a Theory That Montana Is Mallory’s Mother

American Horror Story is known for its different themes and characters sometimes intersecting throughout the series. For this reason, there is a somewhat wild theory that Montana could be the mother of Mallory from Apocalypse.

This theory is based on the fact that Billie Lourd portrays both characters and the opening title sequence in 1984. Although this theory is unlikely to be true, you can read more about it here.

6 She Fulfills The “Cheerleader” Archetype

This might sound strange initially, considering Montana is far from a cheerleader. However, this archetypal character often seen in classic horror films is not necessarily an actual cheerleader.

The “cheerleader” is pretty, popular, and often times promiscuous. She is confident and outgoing, usually to her own downfall. Montana certainly fits into this role.

5 She Shares Her Surname With A Character From Heathers 

Montana Duke shares her surname with Heather Duke, one of the main characters from the ’80s dark comedy film, Heathers. Although the shared name could just be a coincidence, Montana and Heather do have some traits in common.

They both hide the ability to be much more sinister characters than they seem. Montana secretly plots murder and Heather holds deep-seated envy and ability for cruelty. Montana and Heather’s stories are also both set in the ’80s.

4 She Only Killed People After She Became A Ghost

A major plot twist in AHS 1984 is Montana’s twisted motivations to kill Brooke. Despite this, Montana never actually kills anyone while she is alive. She is unsuccessful in murdering Brooke and although Ramirez kills a man at her aerobics studio for her, she wasn’t really involved in the murder.

Montana didn’t begin her killing spree until after she died and became a ghost. She stated that killing was the only thing that made her feel anything in the afterlife.

3 Her Mom Sent Her To Fat Camp

In the episode “Mr. Jingles” Montana comforts a traumatized Brooke still recovering from being attacked by the Night Stalker. She then relays a story about her mother sending her to a fat camp when she was six.

Attempting to make an analogy to Brooke’s current paranoia, Montana tells her that while she was scared at camp “every sound was the Boogeyman.” Montana also implies that she learned bulimic tendencies while at the fat camp.

2 She Is The Third Character In The Series Portrayed By Billie Lourd

Billie Lourd has recently become a recurring actress on American Horror Story. Montana Duke is the third character she has portrayed on the series, following Winter Anderson in Cult and Mallory in Apocalypse.

It has also been announced that Lourd will be returning to American Horror Story as an unknown character for season 10.

1 Brooke Probably Didn’t Sleep With Her Brother

In the episode “True Killers” it is revealed that Montana enlisted Ramirez to kill Brooke because Brooke’s fiance killed Montana’s brother Sam. He did this thinking that Brooke had cheated on him with Sam. However, it seems unlikely that she actually cheated. Brooke’s fiance never had proof that anything shady happened. He only stated that he saw Sam go into Brooke’s house and not leave until morning. Brooke explains that Sam did this because she was scared and didn’t want her fiance to see her the night before the wedding.

Brooke also seems like a pretty honest person. She openly admits to killing Montana, so why would she continue to lie about cheating? Brooke even tells Ray after they have sex that he was her “first time.” It seems unlikely that she would bring this up if it wasn’t true. For these reasons, Brooke probably never slept with Montana’s brother, making Montana’s hatred of her completely nonsensical.

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