American Gothic: Difference between revisions

Opposing Buck is young Caleb Temple (played by Lucas Black), an orphan who [[Dead Person Conversation|talks regularly]] to his [[Spirit Advisor|dead sister Merlyn]] and who has powers of his own--and who may or may not be Buck's son. Buck wants Caleb to follow him; Merlyn wants Caleb to resist; and the rest of Trinity gets caught in the crossfire, so to speak. [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]?

 

 

Unsurprisingly, the show is darkly Gothic and twisted, displaying many horror, suspense, and mystery tropes--although there is a delicious amount of black comedy as well.

Not to be confused with Grant Wood's [[American Gothic Couple|famous painting]].

 

 

* [[Achilles Heel]] - Sheriff Lucas Buck's vulnerability is {{spoiler|his third eye--if stabbed there, he could be killed}}.

* [[Aesop]] - Rarely.

** [[Broken Aesop]] - Quite often.

* [[Affably Evil]] - Buck didn't get a sterling reputation in Trinity for nothing.

* [[Arc Words]]/[[Catch Phrase]]: "Someone's at the door."

* [[Chickification]] - Sadly, this happened to [[Plucky Girl|Gail Emory]]. At the start of the show, while not exactly an [[Action Girl]], she was certainly a female [[Determinator]] who, as an [[Intrepid Reporter]], was determined to find out the truth of her parents' deaths and bring their murderer to justice. But as soon as she learned her parents were not {{spoiler|[[Broken Pedestal|the paragons of virtue she thought them to be]]}}, her [[Belated Backstory]] was dropped and she seemed to flounder about with nothing to do. By the end of the series, she's morphed almost completely into a [[Distressed Damsel]], having to rely on Buck himself for protection, and in her last scene is left in a hospital bed, crying piteously over the baby she's lost--even though she didn't want it in the first place, seeing as it was the son of Satan (as depicted graphically via ultrasound--or maybe not). At least some of this may be due to [[Executive Meddling]] in order to pair up the major male and female leads, or a result of the show being [[Screwed By the Network]] so that Shaun Cassidy had to wrap everything up far too quickly and nonsensically. But some surely isn't.

* [[Children Are Innocent]] - Played Straight and then disturbingly averted. [[Moral Event Horizon|Buck is proven to be absolutely evil]] by <s>murdering</s> [[Mercy Kill|mercy-killing]] Merlyn in the first episode, and most of the first half to three-quarters of the series is devoted to protecting the innocent Caleb from the sheriff's vile influence. But then, as Caleb [[Start of Darkness|gradually falls deeper and deeper under his father's thrall]], starts taking lessons from him, and even absorbs some of his powers, he becomes more disturbingly amoral, wicked, and heartless. By the end of the series, Caleb is practically a carbon copy of ''[[The Omen]]'' and it is {{spoiler|Buck}} who must actually {{spoiler|save Trinity from ''him''}}. All the more chilling because of how artfully it is done.

* [[Cool Big Sis]] - Or, in this case, cousin.

* [[Corrupt Hick]] - Buck.

* [[Good Is Impotent]] - No matter how hard Dr. Crower and Gail fight for Caleb's rights, and no matter how much Merlyn uses her angelic powers to protect him, Caleb is inexorably drawn into Buck's orbit and everyone seems helpless to prevent it, or even expose Buck's evil. It doesn't help that the sheriff is a [[Villain With Good Publicity]] and that both Matt and Gail are hardly immune to mind games or [[Evil Is Sexy|temptation]], but even Merlyn is made out to be decidedly weaker than her adversary--and gaining more power to face him [[Not So Different|almost pushes her too far]].

* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]] - [[Femme Fatale|Selena Coombs]] certainly seems to be riding one of these, or perhaps a seesaw. Aside from the moments when we see the weakening of her evil resolve and the good heart shining through (particularly the episode "Potato Boy"), the last several episodes of the series involve her repeatedly switching sides based on opportunism, a [[Gambit Roulette]], or acting out of character depending on your interpretation. It's hard to tell exactly who she's lying to at any given moment--Buck, Dr. Peele, or Caleb.

* [[High Heel Face Turn]]: played with and then spectacularly avoided with {{spoiler|Billy and Selena}}.

* [[Hot for Student]] - Although never outright stated, the very fact that the [[Beware the Nice Ones|supposedly sweet]], [[The Ingenue|seemingly wholesome]] Selena Coombs is in fact a [[Femme Fatale]], [[Hot Librarian]], and [[Evil Teacher]] all rolled into one makes speculation about this trope inevitable. There are certainly more than a few moments where seeing this ravishing, suggestively dressed, beautiful woman speaking to her class of gradeschoolers in that sultry Southern drawl left this editor feeling...[[Squick|uncomfortable]]. It doesn't help that the actress in question almost seemed aware of this fact, since she almost always focused her attention on the young boys in her classroom. Somewhat justified in Caleb's case, since Buck wanted her to keep an eye on his 'son'...but even there, considering [[Sex Is Evil|what one of the best ways to corrupt Caleb would be]], scenes of closeness between the two [[Freud Was Right|appear to have a deeper meaning]]...

** One lost episode, however, does offer an aversion of this. In "The Potato Boy", Ms. Coombs invites Caleb to her house, all alone, for 'special tutoring' ...but once there, {{spoiler|she ends up confessing her [[Backstory|tragic past]], crying in Caleb's lap, and taking comfort from him in a purely platonic, if unexpected way, almost doing a [[Heel Face Turn]] because of it.}} Actually a very touching, surprising bit of [[Character Development]]. (Which was then [[Kudzu Plot|promptly forgotten about]] [[Snap Back|for the rest of the series]].)

* [[If I Can't Have You]] - Buck is more than a little possessive of the women he beds. So when Selena leaves him for Dr. Peele, Buck gets irritated.

* [[In the Blood]] - One of the main sources of dramatic tension is the question of Caleb's parentage--not just whether he really is Buck's son, but whether he can actively resist becoming corrupt and evil just like his father. And it seems he and Merlyn are right to worry, since {{spoiler|the more time he spends with Buck, and the more he learns from him, the more cruel, amoral, callous, and sadistic he becomes}}. Of course this is likely helped along by his near-death experience, Buck's powers, and {{spoiler|being possessed by Buck}} but the simple fact is after ten or so years of showing no signs of evil, once he learns of his (possible) heritage, {{spoiler|Caleb's fall into darkness}} is somehow inevitable.

* [[Karma Houdini]] - Unsurprisingly, [[Satan|Sheriff Buck]] is a [[Karma Houdini]] for the entire run of the series. Among the most notable things he gets away with are: killing Merlyn Temple ''in the very first episode'' and blackmailing his failed [[Bastard Understudy]] Ben Healy to keep quiet about it; imprisoning, torturing, and eventually causing the death by neglect of an out-of-town reporter (complete with {{spoiler|removing from his belongings the evidence that might convict Buck of various crimes}}, [[Good Is Impotent|all while Dr. Matt and Gail look on helplessly]]); tormenting Dr. Matt about his alcoholism, nearly getting him expelled at the hospital due to his tragic past, and eventually {{spoiler|setting him up to look like an insane vigilante so he could be locked up in a mental ward}}; manipulating Gage Temple into {{spoiler|killing Gail's parents (from which he escapes only by [[Broken Pedestal|revealing to her how awful her parents really were]]}}); and summoning the spirit of the Boston Strangler to kill Merlyn ([[Idiot Ball|only to have him go after Gail as well]]). He even seems to win at the end of the series. This would be enough to constitute a [[Downer Ending]] and a reason to wash your hands of the show, if not for the suitably vague ending, [[The End or Is It|which implies the victory might not be all it seems]], and how deliciously this [[Magnificent Bastard]] pulls most of this off.

* [[Kudzu Plot]] - We never know in the end whether Buck will ever be stopped, whether Caleb {{spoiler|will go evil}}, whose side {{spoiler|Selena}} is really on, and so forth. But there a few genuine moments where an element was introduced, then never revisited again, leaving for some major head-scratchings. Examples: Was Sutpen of "Damned If You Don't" {{spoiler|really a ghost/spiritual summoning of Buck's, or not?}} Did Buck {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide|drive his girlfriend to suicide]], or not?}} Whatever happened to the fellow Merlyn was romancing when she came back to life? Will Dr. Matt ever {{spoiler|get free of the sanitarium?}} Whatever happened to Selena's father, and will he and she ever reconcile? (This last one is particularly distressing since, thanks to the episode in question [[Executive Meddling|never being aired]], very few people even know it exists.)

* [[Life or Limb Decision]] - Performed by (who else?) [[Magnificent Bastard|Buck]].

* [[Madness Mantra]] - Merlyn's Madness Mantra was "Someone's at the door". {{spoiler|These were her last words as a sane individual. Someone ''was'' at the door, and when he came in, he raped Merlyn's mother in front of her.}}

** This same mantra is then used many times over as a [[Catch Phrase]] for the series, but is especially delicious when employed by Merlyn's ghost to haunt the coroner who lies about her cause of death to protect his family from Buck (complete with {{spoiler|the disturbing tape-recording that alternates between extremely fast and high-pitched, and [[Demonic Possession|extremely slow and garbled]]}}), and later to taunt Buck himself.

* [[Magical Negro]] - Although Mrs. Holt is certainly mysterious, wise, and spiritual enough to be a Magical Negro, the extent of her 'magic spell' to help sway the judge in Caleb's custody hearing is...a nice big bowl of homemade chicken soup. Aside from some hints at African tribalism in her ancestry, a bit of voodoo, and some understanding of how the Afterlife works, she dispenses only common sense advice.

** By the end of the show, though, she has indeed been ditched from the plot, and without even really serving a real purpose other than to give Caleb her halfway house to stay in. We can only speculate whether her role was cut due to [[Executive Meddling]], or if it might have been expanded had the show not been [[Cut Short]].

* [[Neck Snap]] - How Lucas kills Merlyn.

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] - Usually when Merlyn is wandering around. Also, ''O Fortuna'' was used during the series finale.

* [[Outside Context Villain]]: The ghost of the Boston Strangler suddenly appears with no warning in one episode.

* [[Seeking Sanctuary]] - Subverted with a vengeance in the episode "Inhumanitas," Caleb believes he will be safe from Buck's evil influence by taking shelter in the church, but the sheriff not only has no issues whatsoever stepping into the sanctuary and relentlessly pursuing his attempts to corrupt the boy, but he is even able to {{spoiler|exert [[Demonic Possession]] on him}}, proving [[Good Is Impotent|how little the forces of holiness can touch him]]...until Merlyn [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|lays a delicious smackdown on him]]. Of course, the fact that the parish priest had [[Deal With the Devil|sold his soul]] and was attempting to break free of the deal may have had something to do with why Buck was first untouchable, then vulnerable.

* [[See You in Hell]]

* [[Shame If Something Happened]] - The episode "Damned If You Don't" inverts this trope: when Buck comes to collect on a debt, and mentions him having "a lovely daughter...how old is she now, fifteen?" Carter believes (helped along by the sheriff's smarmy turn from [[Affably Evil]] to [[Squick|downright pedophilic]]) that this is a blatant threat to his daughter's life if he turns Buck down--but all the sheriff is doing is innocently offering her a job at the precinct. Of course, when Carter ''does'' turn him down and opts for a different means of paying the debt, the daughter, his wife, and his entire livelihood are indeed threatened...with tragic consequences.

* [[Spirit Advisor]] - [[Our Angels Are Different|Merlyn]]. While Caleb is not the only person who can see and speak to her, she does appear for the most part only as a ghost who advises her brother on how to stay on the straight and narrow. The others who catch sight of her or even interact with her (apart from her brief stint as a mortal in "Rebirth") are Buck (who even aside from being the [[Big Bad]] has [[Psychic Powers|a lot more powers]] [[Satan|at his disposal]] than the average resident of Trinity) and Ben Healy. In the latter's case, this is only because Merlyn herself chooses to appear to him and haunt his dreams, since [[Blackmail|he knows the truth about how she died]] and she's trying to appeal to his conscience so he can [[Manipulative Bastard|break free of Buck's influence]]. No one else, like Gail (who is her cousin as well as Caleb's) or [[Magical Negro|Mrs. Holt]], ever sees her.

* [[Town With a Dark Secret]] - Subversion: Trinity, SC, is a town whose dark secret is that its sheriff is the Devil Incarnate. But no one knows this fact at all (except [[Spirit Advisor|Merlyn]], it seems), while only the few who run afoul of Buck's wrath, dare to cross him, or refuse to obey him ever even discover what a [[Magnificent Bastard]] he truly is. On the other hand, there are quite a lot of people in town keeping their own secrets: Dr. Crower, Gail, the coroner, the priest, Ben, Selena...

* [[Villain With Good Publicity]] - Sheriff Lucas Buck. Men tip their hats and women hand him flowers, little old men and women thank him for the charity work that has enabled them to afford their medicines, children smile and wave, and so on. No one in Trinity could possibly believe good ol' boy Buck could have a mean bone in his body.

** Dr. Crower ends up becoming one of these in "Doctor Death Takes a Holiday", and this is the ostensible justification for Buck [[Put On a Bus|sending him out of town to the loony bin]]. On the one hand, [[Room Full of Crazy|plastering the walls of your room with newspaper clippings, death threats, photos, and a big red gun-sight target]] would definitely suggest someone is a danger to himself and others. On the other hand, considering Buck is the Devil Incarnate, being an extremist, well-intentioned or not, [[I Did What I Had to Do|may be the only way]] ''[[I Did What I Had to Do|to]]'' [[I Did What I Had to Do|get rid of him]]. Which, [[Gambit Roulette|since the whole thing was orchestrated by Buck anyway]] to get rid of who he thought was his biggest obstacle to claiming Caleb, really underscores how in Trinity, [[Good Is Impotent]].

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]

 

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