Does American Gothic have a Jack problem? It hasn't been so obvious in the last couple of episodes because Jack hasn't been part of the main plot, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that the writers, like the hassled Hawthorne family, don't know what to do with the budding psychopath.
And psychopath he is. It's fairly obvious at this point that Jack is one pool cover away from committing murder just to see what happens.
Jack works better when he's more of a symbol of the Hawthorne family legacy than an actual character. He's the manifestation of the ticking time bomb they believe is in their blood. It may be easy to pave over Mitchell's maybe murderous past with a somewhat sketchy reference to John Wilkes Booth, but it's a lot harder to keep thinking of your family as perfect when one kid is trying to murder the others. Madeline is always ready to fix things for her family, whether it be slapping some sense (at least, what she thinks is sense) into Alison or remind Garrett not to screw everything up, but we haven't seen her give her full attention to the Jack problem. His particular brand of chaos may be the one thing that ruins her orderly machinations.
Tessa hasn't been the most well-used character in the past, but tying Jack's murderous tendencies to her surprise pregnancy was a clever move by the writers. For her as well, Jack is more a Ghost of Future Yet to Come than a person, but it gives us insight into Tessa's character when she reacts to her pregnancy with a mixture of happiness and horror (the point becomes kind of lost, however, when you realize that the twins have turned out relatively fine. Maybe.)
So Jack as a force, symbol, or reminder, may work, but Jack as an actual character doesn't. The writers want to have their cake and eat it too. They want Jack to be the funny, creepy precocious child, but they also want him to be a serial killer in training. The scene where Garrett shows Jack down to the morgue is almost played for laughs. It's shown as an actual bonding moment for the two. Viewers may see it as something else - Garrett unwisely indulging his nephew's obsession with death in order to gain some points with a member of the family. As Madeline's and Christina's visits show, Garrett doesn't have a lot of allies, but showing Jack his first dead body probably wasn't the way to gain more.
Aside from Jack's descent into darkness, this episode seemed like it was spinning its wheels more than anything else. Cam falls into temptation, gets yelled at by a family member, and vows to get clean. Sophie leads Cam into temptation, yells at him for listening to his family, and storms out. Alison struggles with her feelings for Naomi. Tom struggles with Alison's feelings for Naomi. Naomi struggles with Alison's feelings for Naomi. Madeline schemes. These plot points could be used to describe the last handful of episodes. There's something to be said about showing how people keep falling back into old cycles of anxiety, but it's not very interesting to watch on TV.
In fact, the only character who makes forward momentum is Brady. I feel like this entire review should be about Brady's investigation and the rest of the plotlines could be relegated to a Meanwhile... this week in the Hawthorne Family section.
Whoever decided that Brady's partner should stop being such a curmudgeon has my undying thanks. The second she decided she was going to be Scully to his Mulder, the show suddenly swerved into a different, funnier genre. It was so refreshing to see the two of them work together and do some actual detecting. It's almost enough to make up for all that evidence tampering earlier. American Gothic can only sustain so much soapiness before it ends (it is a limited series after all) but I would be game for a Boston PD spinoff at this point.
This review may make it sound like I didn't enjoy the episode, but what makes some of the rote storylines so frustrating is that much of it was really entertaining. American Gothic really does excel at gallows humor. Between the Focus Group and the Silver Bells Enthusiast, it was the funniest episode yet. The writers just need to realize what they want to do with Jack before the series wraps up.
No Meanwhile... this week in Brady because Brady was a superstar.
For the record, according to that focus group, the list of crimes in order of severity: being a serial killer, defacing certain national monuments, being related to a serial killer, bestiality, defacing other national monuments. Wonder where they stand on trying to drown your cousin.
Top Suspects of the Week:
Madeline: Madeline may be evil and my top suspect for who drove Mitchell to the murder, but telling Garrett, "She stabbed you. It's not the height of romance," retroactively made the spooky woods storyline bearable.
Tessa: The main reason for Tessa's drop in the rankings is that she acts scared and nervous even when no one else is in the room. Unless she psyched herself into that panic attack, she seems genuine. On the other hand, maybe Mitchell and Tessa did a little light murder before the hot air balloon ride.
Random Boston Citizen: One of the main takeaways from this episode is that most everyone in Boston seems kind of messed up. Considering the average level of stability of the supporting characters, I'm perfectly willing to believe it's someone we haven't met yet.
Caramel Watch: no Caramel this week. The Caramel Medal for Magical Mystery-Solving Pet goes to that hero dog that saved his owner from being Silver Belled.
What did you think of this episode? Did that John Wilkes Booth comparison win you over? Would you vote for Alison? How do you rank crime? Let me know in the comments!
