Much of the initial buzz -- and promotional material -- surrounding "American Horror Story: Freak Show" revolved around John Carroll Lynch's nightmare clown Twisty, so imagine the public's surprise when the character was murdered in the series' fourth episode, brutally stabbed then whisked away to spend an eternity wandering with Edward Mordrake's band of misfit freaks.

It was a bit of a shock to see the show's "Big Bad" killed off in the first act -- and I say "a bit" because "Coven" did something similar with The Minotaur last season -- but even more surprising to the show's core audience of horror fans was the emotional impact Twisty created before his demise.

Yep, you heard me -- the "man" who was first introduced to the world doing this:

... Eventually endeared himself to audiences (check the #RIPTwisty hashtag for proof) during the episode "Edward Mordrake, Part 2," by exposing himself as just another sad, suffering soul who lost his way.

All of this came about when Mordrake -- who interviewed each and every "freak" on the show about their origin story, in an attempt to find a new member of his coterie -- found Twisty performing on Halloween. (And by "performing" I obviously mean torturing people.) The Clown took off his mask and told his tale of woe at the mythical, real-life urban legend's insistence, and what came out of his blown-to-smithereens mouth was pretty much the polar opposite of what everybody was expecting.

Basically, Twisty started out as an actual clown. A real, talented, loving clown who loved performing tricks for children.

The only problem was, Twisty was mentally handicapped. And given that he was the number one attraction at the local circus, some cruel and clever freaks spread a career- (and, for Twisty, life-) ruining rumor that he had been molesting the children who came to see his act.

Broke, alone, and newly orphaned, Twisty then tried to sell homemade toys at the local shop where we later saw him murder two men. You probably remember the one:

Of course that also didn't work out given the child-molester rumors, so Twisty tried to kill himself using a shotgun.

That also didn't work out ("I'm so dumb, I can't even kill myself," he sobbed), so the newly mouthless Twisty created his mask and started setting up his own show for "the kids," killing all of the mothers, fathers, and boyfriends who got in his way.

Those parents he murdered in their beds? Yeah, he just wanted to kidnap their son and perform for him on a daily basis. So innocent! And that boyfriend he brutally stabbed in the field? It wasn't a sexual crime. He only kidnapped the girlfriend-half so that the boy would have a "babysitter" to take care of him when Twisty wasn't around.

Basically what I'm saying was, Twisty did it all...

And damn you all for condemning him, because now we have this Mama's Boy, Patti LaBelle-killing monster to deal with:

RIP, Twisty. Gone, but never forgotten.