Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men

The Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men is a fictional location featured in the FX Network television series American Horror Story. It appeared in the eighth season of the show, which carried the subtitle of "Apocalypse". This location is also known as Outpost Three, and first appeared as such in the season premiere, "The End". It first appeared as the Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men in flashback in the fourth episode of the season, "Could It Be... Satan?".

School for Warlocks
The Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men was a private education academy located somewhere in the United States. It was run by a group of warlocks, who recruited young men who possessed the potential to become strong warlocks themselves. The school was run by a grand chancellor, whose name was Ariel Augustus. Other high ranking instructors at the school included John Henry Moore and Behold Chablis.

The Hawthorne School served as a rival as well as male equivalent to Miss Robichaux's Academy, which was a witches school based out of New Orleans. In 2014, a witch named Cordelia Goode became the Supreme of the witch assembly and publicly opened the doors of the school to other witches, thus revealing the existence of witches to the world. When this happened, young witches turned against their male counterparts, and they became regarded as second class citizens.

The warlock counterpart to a Supreme was called an Alpha, but by 2016, the Hawthorne School did not have an Alpha. Ariel Augustus discovered a young man named Michael Landon, who demonstrated strong mystical potential. He wanted to recruit Langdon to the school, but John Henry Moore, advised against it, citing the boy's power was too malevolent and uncontrollable.

Ariel overruled Moore's opposition and broke Michael Langdon out of prison and brought him back to the school. The administrators ran him through a battery of tests, and he surpassed every one. They discovered that even though he was an untrained warlock, he was far more powerful than any of the others at the school, including the staff. Ariel believed that Michael Langdon could have the potential to become an Alpha, but to do so, he had to undergo the write of the Seven Wonders.

Ariel called together an emergency council session of both the Hawthorne administrators as well as Cordelia Goode of the Robicheaux school. Cordelia came to the school with Myrtle Snow and Zoe Benson, whereupon Ariel told her about Michael and asked her to put him through the Seven Wonders ritual. Goode adamantly refused this request, calling to mind how she had lost one of her own, Misty Day, to the Seven Wonders ritual. The meeting adjoined with no resolution, and the witches departed the premises.

Outpost Three
At some point following this event, an organization known as The Cooperative took control of the property. Suspecting that the world might soon erupt into World War III, they converted the underground areas of the school into a fallout shelter, which they named Outpost Three. The wealthiest citizens of the country, as well as those genetically compatible to survive a nuclear Winter were selected for admittance into the shelter.

A woman named Ms. Wilhelmina Venable was placed in charge of Outpost Three. She considered herself the strong right arm of the Cooperative, though she also managed to incorporate her own rigid guidelines into how the place was run. Michael Langdon was also a high level officer of the Cooperative and out-ranked Ms. Venable. Venable's top lieutenant was Miriam Mead, who was actually a robotic facsimile of a woman who helped to raise Michael Langdon. There was a large female enforcer who was known as The Fist.

Occupants of Outpost Three were placed into three categories: Administration, the Greys, and the Purples. Administration clearly oversaw the facility, including resource allocation, decontamination, and enforcement of regulations. The Purples were the chosen elite, who were considered the most fit to survive. The Greys were the working class, and functioned as servants and laborers.

In 2019, the United States suffered a massive attack when nuclear ICBMs struck several major cities. A small group of survivors were either taken from their homes, or somehow managed to make their way to Outpost Three. Among the Purples that were given shelter included Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, her hair-stylist Mister Gallant, Gallant's grandmother Evie Gallant, Andre Stevens and his lover, Stu, talk show host Dinah Stevens, college student Timothy Campbell, and a black girl named Emily. Coco's personal assistant, Mallory was relegated to a Grey classification.

For the following eighteen months, the survivors existed under Ms. Venable's leadership and strict adherence to the house rules. Dinner was served promptly every evening, in which the Purples were expected to wear formal attire. Dinner consisted of gelatinous nutrient cubes rather than actual food. In addition to being forbidden from ever going outside, Ms. Venable strictly enforced a prohibition against Purples engaging in sexual activity.

One evening during dinner, Ms. Venable alerted the assembly that the outpost's perimeter alarm went off, indicating that somebody had left the building. Miriam Mead scanned each of the Purple's in turn, and noted that Mister Gallant and Stu were exhibiting high rad levels. They were forcibly taken to a decontamination room and scrubbed down. Afterward, they were scanned again. Mister Gallant came up clean, but Stu stilled showed signs of radiation. In truth, Miriam Mead had adjusted the sensitivity setting on her Geiger counter to give off a false read. She then shot Stu in the head in front of Mister Gallant. This was done as a deterrent against anyone breaking the rules. Mead then had Stu chopped up into meat and served as a special stew that was fed to the dinner guests. When asked where the food came from, Venable said they maintained a limited ration of food stuffs for special occasions. Andre Stevens found a finger bone in his stew and immediately concluded that they had been eating his lover. The others were immediately repulsed at their acts of unintended cannibalism except for Evie Gallant, who didn't seem to mind that she was eating a person who had been sitting three seats down from her.

Some eighteen months later, Michael Langdon came to the outpost. He assumed authority from Ms. Venable, which resulted in a clash of personalities between the two. Langdon informed the Purples that all of the other Cooperative outposts had been overrun by mutants and monsters, and that it was only a matter of time before Outpost Three would fall as well. He then told them about a secret sanctuary that he said was impregnable and stocked with enough food and resources to last a decade. However, only a chosen few among the Purples would be selected to go to the Sanctuary, and their selection would be based upon an interview process that Langdon would conduct himself. For those who were not chosen, they would be offered suicide pills as an alternative to being slaughtered by invading monsters. Mister Gallant volunteered to be the first person interviewed.

As time went on, resources became more scarce, and Ms. Venable cut their food rations down to one meal a day. Evie Gallant found Mister Gallant violating Venable's rule about sexual conduct when she caught him having gay sex with someone wearing the Rubber Man suit. She revealed this information to Ms. Venable, fully expecting her grandson to be executed, thereby increasing her odds of being chosen to go to the sanctuary. Mister Gallant encountered the Rubber Man a second time, but intended on killing him, believing him to be Langdon. He stabbed him multiple times in the chest with a pair of scissors, but as it turned out, the Rubber Man was but an illusion generated by Michael Langdon, and Gallant had actually stabbed his grandmother Evie to death.

School staff

 * Ariel Augustus
 * Baldwin
 * Behold Chablis
 * John Henry Moore

School students

 * Michael Langdon

Outpost Three staff

 * Fist, The
 * Michael Langdon
 * Miriam Mead
 * Wilhelmina Venable

The Greys

 * Mallory

The Purples

 * Andre Stevens
 * Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt
 * Dinah Stevens
 * Emily
 * Evie Gallant
 * Mister Gallant
 * Stu
 * Timothy Campbell

Appearances

 * 1) American Horror Story: The End
 * 2) American Horror Story: The Morning After
 * 3) American Horror Story: Forbidden Fruit
 * 4) American Horror Story: Could It Be... Satan?