The Gothicism of American Gothic: "Ring of Fire"

[For the previous entry, click here.]

The title of this episode might echo that of a Johnny Cash song, but on American Gothic Sheriff Lucas Buck is the ultimate Man in Black.

"Ring of Fire" (which never aired during the series' single-season run) focuses on Gail's quest to solve the mystery surrounding her parents' deaths years earlier in a fire at their newspaper office.  Suspecting none other than Lucas Buck (whom Gail's parents had been investigating at the time) to be the fatal firebug, Gail breaks into the sheriff's home.  Hoping to dig up some dirt, she finds a remarkably clean and modernly furnished residence, albeit one with some bits of macabre decor thrown into into the mix: a gargoyle squatting over the front doorway, a dark stone statue in the foyer, a stuffed raven and an occult tome on a table.

As Gail grows more preoccupied by her search for answers, she suffers a nightmare that makes the shocking final scene from Carrie seem tame by comparison.  She envisions herself visiting her parents' grave site on a bright, sunny day, only to have the pair of mouldering corpses suddenly rip through the ground and demand that she avenge their murder.

Effusing his trademark seductive charm, Lucas offers to lead Gail to the truth (provided that she agree to welcome his future sexual advances).  Gail grudgingly agrees, and quickly regrets the decision.  The sheriff forewarned her that "no one's exactly who they appear to be," but Gail learns that lesson the hard way.  She discovers (via Lucas-facilitated flashbacks) that the childhood she recalls as idyllic was actually anything but.  Her father was guilty of both spousal abuse and sadistic violence towards his own daughter (apparently Gail had repressed the memory of how she got that burn mark on her arm).  Even more sordid details emerge: at the time of her death Gail's mother was pregnant with a child conceived during an extramarital affair with Gage Temple (father of Gail's cousin Caleb!).  Gage was also the arsonist who ended up killing both Christine and Peter Emory (not realizing that his lover was still inside the office with her wretch of a husband when he set fire to it).

At the start of "Ring of Fire," a librarian tells Gail that "the secret history of the South is hidden in blood.  Genealogy.  Family."  It's a distinctly Faulknerian sentiment, one that bookends with a comment Lucas makes later in the episode.  In absolute echo of Absalom, Absalom!, Lucas observes: "The past isn't dead.  Hell, it isn't even the past."  His words strike at one of the most central themes of the Gothic: the haunting and harrying impingement of prior history on the present moment.