The Gothicism of American Gothic: "Dead to the World"

[For the previous entry, click here.]

The fifth episode of the series presents three different storylines.  First, Caleb prepares to enter an archery competition at a local carnival.  As always, Sheriff Buck insinuates himself in Caleb's affairs, buying him a state-of-the-art bow & arrow and instructing him about the use of psychological warfare.  "It's not who you are, it's who people think you are," the sheriff tells the boy.  He's lecturing about having swagger, but Buck also sounds the American Gothic theme of duplicity--the gap between appearance and reality, public persona and inner character.  Meanwhile, Buck's lover Selena prevents Boone Mackenzie (Caleb's best friend and chief rival in the competition) from practicing his archery by keeping him after school under the pretense that he needs to work on his penmanship.  You know matters have really gotten sordid when even your gradeschool teacher has a hidden agenda.

In the second storyline, Deputy Ben deals with some domestic strife involving his ex-wife and young son.  Barbara Joy is physically abused by her current husband Waylon Flood, who also bullies his stepson.  Ben tries to deal with the tyrant man-to-man, but Sheriff Buck tilts the playing field by using his powers to force the cabinet maker to fall onto his own table saw.

The main thrust of the episode, though, comes from Gail's investigation of the seeming murder of her former childhood friend Holly Gallagher by Buck.  The flashback scene opening the episode shows Buck deliberately driving Holly's car off a bridge after she threatens to expose his "dirty little secret"--the fact that he is Caleb's real father (Holly works at the hospital where Caleb's mom died, and she assists her boyfriend Buck by stealing the file containing Caleb's birth record).  But as Gail digs up the ten-year-old dirt (and literally has Holly's rusted vehicle dredged up from the riverbottom), she discovers that Holly didn't die in the accident.  Having suffered brain damage from oxygen deprivation when the car went underwater, Holly has been hidden away in a sanitarium for the past decade.  Her mother Janice, a cosmetics saleswoman, has quite a gift for concealment.  Unwilling to accept that her "perfect little girl" is now an invalid, Janice (with Buck's help) leads the townspeople of Trinity to believe that Holly died tragically.  Talk about dirty little secrets...