Everyone is still reeling from the shock of Mitch’s death on American Gothic’s “Jack-in-the-Pulpit,” but as they prepare for the funeral, more secrets come out. Madeline tells the family that Mitch had dementia, while Brady searches for the owner of the belt they found in the cement.
Is Madeline Telling The Truth?
American Gothic’s “Jack-in-the-Pulpit” begins with Cam at his group therapy session and admitting that he fell off the wagon. Some guy forces him to delete his dealer’s number from his phone, but when he turns his phone on he finds tons of texts about his dad. Everyone else is back home freaking out. Garrett though, left and had gone for a walk and was gone for hours.
When Cam finally comes home, Tessa immediately blames him for lying about him visiting Mitch at the hospital. Alison, meanwhile, is determined to plan the funeral and then calls Tessa out for not crying. “I can’t bury our dad until I have some answers,” she says. She wants to know about the silver bells killer. She wants to show Brady one of the bells, but Alison completely disagrees. The problem? The bells are gone. Madeline took them!
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Madeline explains that Mitch was obsessed with true crime stories. Lately, though, Mitch started “slipping.” He had dementia, but he hid it. About a week ago, Madeline found Mitch in the shed. He was disoriented and called her his sister Mary. He said, “Mary, I think I’m a bad guy” and showed her the box and all the stuff he’d collected about the silver bells killer. He started thinking that he was the killer because he was losing his mind. Cam asks Madeline if she is sure Mitch wasn’t the killer. “I won’t even dignify that with a response,” she says. Madeline had some guy named Gunther take the stuff away and Alison says they need to keep this all a secret. But is Madeline telling the truth?
Later, Tessa sits with Gunther (who I guess works for them) and looks at photos. Gunther said he and Mitch played chess every Thursday and Mitch seemed completely sharp.
Who Will Speak At The Funeral?
So, the Hawthornes plan the funeral. Alison says that she wants to speak. Of course, that’s when Garrett shows up and says he wants to speak because he has “something to say.” Alison wants to speak for the whole family, but Garrett’s not backing down. Meanwhile, that cat lady neighbor shows up again and questions them about her cat’s tail, but Madeline slams the door in her face. Madeline also gets a call from the hospital. The woman says there were irregularities in the machine tracking Mitch’s vitals.
Alison and Garrett speak privately and Alison confronts him about what her daughter heard. Violet had heard Garrett tell Mitch, “I’m gonna tell them it was you.” She wants to know what his motives are and tells him that he’s not wanted there. So, he promises to leave after he says his “special memories” and “favorite quotes” at the funeral. Alison finds Garrett’s quotes, which basically accuse Mitch of something terrible and goes to Madeline. Alison thinks Garrett did something horrible and that the box was his and now he’s blaming Mitch for it. They can’t let him speak.
As they plan the funeral, Jack continues to act like a morbid weirdo. He and Cam go to talk to Garrett, who also acts like a weirdo and talks about eating squirrels. Garrett then says, “Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree does it, Cam?” implying that Cam might have some issues of his own. Cam explains to Jack that he can’t continue rambling about Mitch’s corpse because they’re all so sad.
Meanwhile, Alison and her campaign manager plan on how to keep Garrett from speaking at the funeral and ruining her big moment. She winds up getting him arrested.
The funeral’s about to start, but Cam finds one of the caterers, who’s clearly high, and asks to buy some drugs from him. Garrett, meanwhile, gets pulled over with an expired license while he’s on his way to the funeral.
Will Madeline Get Caught?
Madeline goes to visit the hospital. They say they would understand if she sued them because of the machine malfunction. They want to get the body back and do an autopsy. She agrees, but then she makes a call and tells someone that they’re having a closed casket service and will need to cremate the body.
Brady Takes The Case
Turns out, Brady’s on the silver bells case now. His co-worker isn’t too happy and thinks he got special treatment because he’s Alison’s brother-in-law. He goes over the case and says that they believe the belt they found in the cement belongs to a man named Morales and they’re going to follow that lead now.
Brady’s co-worker redoes the suspect to include Mitch’s name. She wants his DNA at the end of the day even though Mitch is dead. So now he has to find a way to get it without upsetting an entire grieving family.
So Brady goes sneaking around the house to steal something with Mitch’s DNA on it, but he can’t find anything. While he’s there, he notices Gunther sneaking things around outside. He then goes to check on Tessa. He tells her that Mitch’s stuff is disappearing fast, but she says that Madeline does that to get rid of the painful reminders. She did the same thing when their dog died.
Brady then says he’s going to the church early. He wants to get something off of Mitch’s body, but it’s been sent to be cremated. He gets to the crematorium, but he’s too late. Mitch already went in the oven. “He was dead right?” the man at the desk asks. Detective Cutter, Brady’s co-worker, calls, though, and tells him that Garrett’s just been arrested. He says to let him go.
Brady later gets a call from Detective Cutter. The belt didn’t belong to Morales. It was a fancy belt too, so the suspect was probably rich. At the reception, Brady looks at old family photos and sees one photo where Cam is wearing the belt!
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The Funeral
The family finally arrives and learns that Mitch has been cremated. Then, of course, Sophie shows up. She’s really upset and says she loved Mitch and the fact that Mitch was Jack’s grandpa, she deserves to be there.
While everyone’s arriving, Tessa asks Madeline what’s going on. She doesn’t believe her about the dementia. Madeline is furious that she thinks she’s lying. She says there were times Mitch asked her to help him die. But she clearly is lying, right?
Garrett finally gets to the funeral from jail and Alison’s shocked. “Nice try,” he tells her. He then goes to talk to a very emotional and overwhelmed Tessa. She admits that she stopped taking her anxiety medication because she’s trying to get pregnant and now she’s really anxious and had a terrible fight with their mom. He tells her she’s going to be okay. She says Garrett was the only one who could calm her down when she had nightmares as a kid.
That seems to be his motivation to go up and speak. Alison and Madeline are shocked. Garrett then says, “I hated my father. He’s the reason I left my family behind 14 years ago.” Mitch had said his anger would fade one day, he’d come home and they’d pick up where they left off, but he lied and time ran out. That’s it. He decides not to reveal anything huge.
Alison then gives her speech. She says she used to be afraid of monsters, but she’d have her dad close the closet and wind up the music box.
Cam and Sophie, meanwhile, meet in the bathroom. Cam wants to get high, but Sophie won’t let him. She got high when her dad died, but the pain will always find out and it gets worse the longer you wait. So, they have sex instead.
Then Jack gets up to speak, which is a horrible idea. Cam and Sophie hear him in the bathroom. Jack says it’s sad that he can’t see, talk to, or hug Mitch or ask for his advice. It’s also sad that Mitch was cremated so he couldn’t see his decomposing body. They leave and Sophie agrees to throw away Cam’s drugs for him. Of course, she takes them for herself.
Everyone then meets for a reception back home. Alison’s husband gives her a music box. Her campaign manager watches them kiss and gets jealous, which Madeline notices.
Madeline then goes to Cam and tells him that Jack needs therapy. She saw the neighbor’s cat. Cam went to therapy as a teenager. Jack’s only nine, but he needs serious help.
Finally, Madeline goes to Garrett and thanks him for “keeping your mouth shut.” He says he didn’t do it for her. Then she says she thinks he should leave “because you’re a grenade.” “Then maybe you should handle me carefully,” he says.
American Gothic airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
