Pepper Gayheart
“
Play with me!
„
~ Pepper’s first words on-screen.
Pepper is a microcephalic woman that has been committed to Briarcliff Manor. She is a supporting character in the American Horror Story franchise portrayed by Naomi Grossman.
She appears first in American Horror Story: Asylum, and earlier in life in American Horror Story: Freak Show.
Story
Freak Show
Pepper is originally a part of Elsa Mars’ freak show. Elsa eventually reveals to Desiree that Pepper was her first freak. Pepper was abandoned by her sister at an orphanage, and later adopted by Elsa. Elsa noticed she wanted to have a family, so she brought Ma Petite and Salty to fill the roles of a child and husband, respectively. However, Pepper becomes distraught when Salty dies of an apparent stroke. Elsa decides that she must find her a new home where she can be loved. In order to make her happy after Salty dies, Elsa takes her back to her sister, who reluctantly takes her in.
Ten years later, her sister has a deformed baby, who Pepper takes care of. However, her brother-in-law is sick of the freaks and violently murders the baby and frames Pepper. Pepper is then committed to the Briarcliff Manor asylum, where she meets and “befriends” Sister Mary Eunice, and becomes her personal project in redemption.
Asylum
When Lana Winters first arrives at Briarcliff, Pepper hands her a flower, saying “Play with me!” Sister Mary Eunice asks Pepper to leave Lana alone, but Lana insists that Pepper is just trying to make friends. Mary informs Lana that she is anything but harmless, explaining how she had drowned her sister’s baby and cut off his ears. During movie night, Pepper leaves the common room in a hurry to pee. She doesn’t return in time to prevent Sister Jude from mistaking her for one of the three escapees.
Pepper was actually abducted by the aliens and was granted augmented intelligence, and she is assigned to be the caretaker of a pregnant Grace Bertrand. Pepper is seen alongside Grace when Oliver Thredson comes into the common room. Pepper defends her charge and tells Thredson that she knows what he is really up to. Thredson tells the orderlies in the room to take Pepper in for hydrotherapy.
Over time, Pepper and the now incarcerated Sister Jude become friends and look out for each other after Kit and Lana leave Briarcliff. Two years later, Jude has forgotten most of what happened and is informed that Pepper had passed away in the Winter of 1966.
