The Gothicism of American Gothic: "Strangler"

[For the previous entry, click here.]


"Strangler," an episode that was never aired during American Gothic's single-season run, opens with a scene set in an autumnal cemetery (as Caleb visits Gage Temple's grave) and gets progressively darker from there.

Determined to rid himself once and for all of Merlyn and her meddling ways, Sheriff Lucas Buck summons the ghostly figure of legendary serial killer Albert DeSalvo (a.k.a The Boston Strangler).  Albert might no longer be haunting Beantown, but he has no problem living up to the latter part of his notorious moniker.  He warms up for his eventual assault on Merlyn by fatally throttling a pair of pretty nurses from Trinity hospital and by nearly dispatching Lucas's paramour, Gail Emory.

The eponymous Strangler is a chilling bogeyman, and a quintessentially Gothic figure rife with duplicity.  Handsome Albert oozes spurious charm; "politeness gets you in anywhere," he confides to Lucas during their initial meeting.  Accordingly, he conducts his grim business by posing as a friendly refrigerator repairman, a deliveryman, and a handyman.  Postmortem existence also makes the Strangler that much more dangerous, since he no longer needs to work his way past locked doors in order to get at his victims.  The scene in which Albert attacks Gail is especially frightening, as the back-from-the-dead predator keeps pouncing on the distressed damsel from different angles no matter how many times she tries to throw him off and flee.

This episode, I must admit, is marred by some stilted dialogue (Lucas down on his knees in the cemetery chanting "Send forth the One!") and hokey actions (Merlyn--who has somehow evolved into a supernaturally-empowered angel--shooting pulses of light at Albert).  But its climax broaches a bit of dark irony that also shines a light on a central conflict.  When Merlyn is about to sacrifice herself to the Strangler in order to protect Caleb, the boy uses his nascent powers (his infernal inheritance form Lucas) to immolate Albert.  Such intervention, though, makes for a more ominous than joyous ending: sure, Merlyn acknowledges, Caleb has saved her soul, but only by drawing on the force that is bound to destroy his own.