The Gothicism of American Gothic: "Strong Arm of the Law"

[For the previous entry, click here.]

The eighth episode of American Gothic opens with Caleb and his sidekick Boone sneaking up onto a porch at night to catch glimpse of a naked woman.  The would-be voyeurs, though, are shocked to discover no bathing beauty but rather a group of pig-masked figures busy drowning a man in a tub.

Will Hawkins, the victim, had recently endorsed a rival candidate for the position of town sheriff, leading Deputy Ben to doubt that Hawkins's death was a mere accident.  Further suspicion falls on Lucas Buck when a band of lawless brothers arrive in Trinity and begin shaking down local business owners (under the flimsy pretense that they are collecting for charities such as the "Sheriff's Retirement Home").  But Buck is not responsible for the presence of the criminal quartet, who have chosen the wrong Southern town to stir up trouble in.  The Sheriff's qualities as a Gothic hero-villain are never more evident than when he first smooth-talks the brothers (leading them to believe that he approves of their misbehavior), and then methodically takes vengeance against them.  Justice is is chillingly dispensed: one brother, in Poe-esque fashion, ends up buried alive alongside Will Hawkins in the latter's coffin.  And the episode's climax offers a scenario that prefigures the traps of the Saw films: Buck handcuffs two of the brothers together (one has been trapped inside a wrecked, overturned car), sticks a burning road flare inside the gas tank, then tosses the captives a knife and proposes that they try to free themselves by cutting off a hand at the wrist.

An exploding gas tank soon decides the matter for the hoodlums.  Prior to meeting this grisly fate, the brothers had also run afoul of Caleb.  Midway through the episode, they sneak into Caleb's room in the boarding house, accosting him for making off with their suitcase full of stolen goods.  The tables are turned, though, and Caleb ends up putting a scare into his visitors by unleashing a beastly roar.  Caleb credits his (unseen) sister Merlyn with the supernatural assistance, but one can't help but wonder if the boy (dubbed a "demon child" by one of the spooked brothers) is really infused with Buck's ungodly powers.