“AHS” vet Seth Gabel shares why he was initially ‘terrified’ of that Dahmer scene with “Monster” star Evan Peters

Nick RomanoFri, October 2, 2026 at 5:31 AM UTC

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Seth Gabel as Jeffrey Dahmer on ‘American Horror Story: 13’Credit: Eric Liebowitz/FX

Warning: This article contains spoilers from American Horror Story: 13, episode 6, “The Return of Devil’s Night.”

It sounds like the setup for a twisted joke: Two Jeffrey Dahmers browse Grindr in the back of a Waymo. And yet that is very much the opening scene to the sixth episode of American Horror Story: 13.

After 10 years away from the horror anthology series, actor Seth Gabel reprises the Dahmer role he first played on AHS:Hotel, beginning with a scene involving another Dahmer actor, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story star Evan Peters, who returns as Mr. March from that same season. (Peters already portrayed his Murder House and Cult personas in earlier episodes.)

“I was terrified because I played the satire version; he played the very real version that deserved an Emmy,” Gabel tells Entertainment Weekly about the anticipation of this moment. (Peters was nominated for Monster, though his Dahmer performance won a Golden Globe.) “I didn’t know if he was gonna be maybe territorial going into it. So I kind of approached cautiously, not knowing. ‘Is this gonna be a measuring contest of some kind?’ And he made it immediately clear that time has come and gone for him, and this Dahmer is my Dahmer, and he has nothing to do with it other than just wanting to be fully supportive as a scene partner and actor.”

Gabel, also known inside the Ryan Murphy-verse for The Watcher and American Horror Stories, remembers the first time the series creator mentioned the scene with him and Peters. It was during a costume fitting. Since it had been a decade, Gabel needed new everything. (“I kinda missed the old glasses,” the actor admits as an aside. “They actually had a real prescription. I liked being able to put them on and become a different person. I can kind of became someone else through the blurred vision.”)

That was trying on his fresh but familiar outfit when Murphy walked in to mention, “Two Jeffrey Dahmers in a Waymo.” That’s the kind of thing that makes Gabel love American Horror Story. “You just put the most insane things together,” he says. “You can put a hat on a hat and have it still be stylish.”

Evan Peters as Mr. March on ‘AHS: Hotel’Credit: FX

What Gabel remembers most about working with Peters is how they both were present in the moment and “let impulses fly.” It led to some spur-of-the-moment additions.

The poking and tasting of the dead bird on the side of the road wasn’t scripted, Gabel says. “I was like, ‘Well, it’s Jeffrey Dahmer. He can’t see something dead and not wonder what it tastes like.’” So he added that in, not before episode director Crystle Roberson Dorsey double-checked the prop and liquid effects weren’t poisonous.

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Gabel admits “it’s incredibly dark and creepy to play a role like Jeffrey Dahmer.” He researched the history of the serial killer ahead of his Hotel season to understand his psychology. He did not want to do that again for season 13. “It’s just kind of too much,” he explains. “I just trusted that once I put the costume on and the glasses on again and felt the shoes on my feet that I could find that rhythm that we had 10 years earlier.”

He was right. That familiarity was the reason Gabel added certain flourishes to the backseat Waymo scene with Peters. He knew Dahmer was an alcoholic in real life and would want some from Mr. March’s flask.

“I just grabbed his flask and took a sip and immediately started coughing,” Gabel recalls. Unbeknownst to him, Peters has a trick for playing scenes involving alcohol: He put apple cider vinegar in the flask instead. “It gives you that kick, which I think is a pretty brilliant tactic for not actually drinking but getting that kind of burning sensation in your throat,” Gabel continues. “But at the same time, it threw me way off, and I was definitely coughing a lot.”

Seth Gabel as Jeffrey Dahmer in ‘AHS: 13’Credit: Eric Liebowitz/FX

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Gabel remembers another addition he brought to Dahmer, this one for the cliffhanger ending to the episode. The serial killers from the Hotel season wage war against the witches of the coven. Mr. March leads Dahmer, the Zodiac Killer (Michael Worden), and Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa) to attack Miss Robichaux’s Academy, each brandishing their own weapon.

The props team initially planned to give Gabel a knife, but he wanted an electric power drill. Dahmer, he reasoned, would drill holes in people’s heads. “It’s kind of a signature thing,” he remarks.

The episode tees up something wicked to come after Mr. March plants his sickle in the back of Cordelia’s (Sarah Paulson) head. “It gets really crazy,” Gabel prefaces of episode 7. “We’re doing stunts with weapons and magic, which brings in a lot of special effects. It gets three-dimensional in terms of people flying in the air and all kinds of elements being used against each other.”

American Horror Story: 13 returns with two episodes (7 and 8) Thursday, Oct. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FX and Hulu.

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