Where Did Ryan Murphy Get This Idea?

Drama will ensue when American Horror Story regular Angela Bassett returns to the series, this time as the supposedly prideful three-breasted woman in Season 4, AHS: Freak Show. Desperate for work and running from the law, she and her strong-man husband, Dell Toledo, show up at Elsa Mars' freak show because all of their other freak shows have been shut down. Freak shows often feature the worlds' strongest men, bearded ladies, two-headed women and other oddities of the sort, but how often do they see a three-breasted woman? So far, Murphy has given no indication that Bassett's character was inspired by anyone real (and Jasmine Tridevil certainly couldn't have been the starting point, since she just came into internet notoriety).

That leads me to one logical conclusion: The promiscuous and egotistical three-breasted woman Desiree Dupre must be modeled after the 1990 and 2012 versions of Total Recall.

One of the most iconic scenes in Total Recall happens when Arnold Schwarzenegger meets a mutant named Mary, a sexy three-breasted prostitute who got a lot of attention in the world of sci-fi. Lycia Naff, who played Mary in the original film, told Vulture she still has "horny sci-fi fanboys" to deal with. To do "right" by the iconic (albeit objectifying) Total Recall character, you can bet Angela Bassett's costume will draw equally sophomoric reactions from "horny sci-fi fanboys." But Bassett is a talented actress; she's here to do a job, not worry about what immature fans might do:

When co-creator Ryan Murphy announced the premise of the show, we all knew the characters would be something extraordinary, but Bassett told Vulture she assumed she would be the bearded lady — one of the most common freak show characters. But when Murphy told her no, that Bassett's character was even more special, Bassett told Vulture her mind immediately went to the conjoined twins. Because what else is there, really? Dancing bears and creepy-ass clowns? Wrong: In Ryan Murphy's freak show, there is a three-breasted woman. And that woman is Angela Bassett.

Of course, now that Bassett has gotten into her three-breasted prosthesis that covers her whole chest, co-star Sarah Paulson tells EW that Bassett's happy to show it off — Bassett apparently flashes the AHS cast pretty often.

So who will Desiree Dupre be when the show starts? She is technically a freak, yes. But she actually looks to be pretty full of herself for someone carrying that derogatory term around. It also appears that like the Total Recall character that I'm convinced inspired her, Desiree has a certain hold on men. And Desiree's strong man husband will battle for power under freak show manager Elsa Mars, according to EW, and possibly bring them into a position as a power couple. Which would be pretty cool.

After all, that'd certainly be a new take on the hyper-sexualized three-breasted woman we've now seen twice on the big screen.

Images: FX; Giphy(2)