Tate Langdon

"I'm tired of hurting people..."

- Tate Langdon

Tate Langdon is one of the main characters and the true main antagonist in the first season of the anthology TV series, American Horror Story.

However, his actions as a character have led many to be conflicted with his true alignment as a character, as he is portrayed as an Anti Hero of some sort.

He is portrayed by Evan Peters, who also portrayed Kit Walker in Season 2, Kyle Spencer in Season 3, and Jimmy Darling in Season 4.

Personality and Appearance
Tate has a very grunge-like appearance, having been a teenager in the early 1990s. He likes Nirvana, which is shown at one point when he asks Violet Harmon if she "had any Kurt Cobain". His disposition is primarily solemn and weary, with perpetual bags under his eyes, maybe due to his drug abuse. There is tension between him and his mother, Constance Langdon. He has even admitted to her that he hates her. His hatred for his mother was born out of her negligent parenting and the verbal abuse she constantly dealt him as a child in her drunken alcoholic rages. Despite her disapproval of his behavior, Constance frequently makes excuses for him, saying he is a sensitive boy. This appears to be true, as Tate appears to be apathetic at first, but he can quickly become enraged when someone or something he cares about is threatened. Tate pretends he is oblivious to his current state of existence to those unfamiliar with his past. In truth, he is aware that he is a ghost. He kept this a secret, fearing Violet would leave him if she knew.

As a ghost, Tate primarily dons a BDSM fetish coverall to become (what is popularly referred to as) the Rubber Man whenever he commits violent acts. In this persona, he killed Chad Warwick and Patrick in a particularly brutal fashion. He beat Chad, nearly drowned him to death, only to then kill him with a bullet to the chest. He went on to beat Patrick and sodomize him with a fire poker as he was dying. Tate appears to be super-humanly strong as a ghost, as he was capable of overwhelming Patrick and Ben in separate fights. In his earlier treatments by Ben, Tate often fantasized about murdering his classmates (though seemingly unaware such "fantasies" are actually memories of true events) and took pleasure in mocking Ben about his sexual desires and infidelity with his past student, Hayden McClaine. Tate would also like to hint to Ben about the lustful desires he had for Violet.

As his relationship with Violet and treatments with Ben continued, Tate seemed to become softer and friendlier. He often speaks highly of Ben as a father, telling Violet he wished he had a father like him while growing up. He also expressed the sentiment to Hayden that he was getting tired of hurting people. However, he continues to be unwilling to let Violet move out of the House, to the point where he attacked both Ben and Vivien as the Rubber Man (this was because he was trying to prevent Violet from finding out she was dead, as he was afraid of how she would react). Tate would later tell Ben that he really did feel like his treatments were helping him get better. He also broke down in tears and admitted to the suffering he'd caused, though Ben did not believe he was really remorseful.