American Gothic’s “The Gross Clinic” deals with the aftermath of Mitch being named the Silver Bells Killer. Of course, things can’t be that easy. Mitch may have had an accomplice. So who could it have been?
Why did Garrett Leave Boston?
American Gothic’s “The Gross Clinic” begins with Christina talking to the police about her history with Garrett, but she finds out Mitch was really the killer. Then Garrett wakes up in the hospital to find Detective Cutter waiting to interrogate him. The whole family is at the hospital watching the news about Mitch. They then get to see Garrett, who tells them that he found rope and bells in his dad’s stuff. He thought there was an explanation, but the next day David Morales died. He confronted his dad, who got really defensive. Garret knew it was him. He left Boston after telling his dad he’d come back and expose him if there was another murder. There wasn’t another murder, which seemed to prove it was Mitch. Tessa was pretty pissed he left them with a killer. They all leave, but not before Garrett tells Cam he needs a favor.
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Later, Madeline says that she was worried what Garrett would say but he was “smart.” He says he told his story so people would stop asking questions. “Don’t second guess this. It’s best to let your father take the fall for everything,” she says. So is Mitch not the killer? Did they work together?
Will Alison Choose Tom Or Naomi?
Alison confides in Naomi over how terrible it will be to live in her father’s shadow. She considers ending the campaign, but Naomi wants to run some focus groups. Tom comes home and things get awkward, so Naomi leaves. Then, Tom goes to the guest room.
Things get worse the next day. Tom’s company is losing clients. This will affect their whole lives if they don’t work together. Tom wants Naomi out of the picture. He admits he deleted Naomi’s text earlier. She tells him to go sleep with someone else too, but he says the campaign’s over and Naomi’s only extending it to stay in her life. They need to end it.
Alison later sees the results from her focus group and things do not look good for her campaign, so she tells Naomi to schedule a press conference so she can drop out.
Naomi says she’s willing to stay in Boston for Alison. She admits that Tom confronted her about their relationship. She thinks they’re more than just a hookup, but now the ball’s in Alison’s court.
Tom then flirts with some woman just before the press conference. Meanwhile, Alison tells Madeline she’s ending her campaign, but she tries to change her mind. She even slaps Alison.
So Alison gives her press conferences. She says she sympathizes with the victims’ families. She wishes she knew who her father was so she could have stopped him, but she didn’t kill anyone. Her great grandfather loved his theater program signed by the actor Edwin Booth. He loved it, despite the actor’s brother murdering the president. She shouldn’t be punished for her father’s crime, so she isn’t quitting the race.
Brady’s Investigation Continues
Tessa blames Brady for Garrett’s stabbing. He says he wants to take some time off for them to work on their relationship. She changes the subject and talks about how obsessed she used to be about hot air balloon rides and says her dad took her once for her 10th birthday. That was the same day he killed his first victim, so Tessa smashes her souvenir from that day. She questions everything about her dad. So Brady suggests that Tessa should go back on her medication.
Brady, Detective Cutter and the police then start filing things away from the case, but Brady notices a file and sneaks away with it.
Brady winds up speeding through the city and times himself, but Detective Cutter follows him. Brady realizes that Mitch couldn’t have killed his first victim and make it home in time for Tessa’s birthday hot air balloon ride. Detective Cutter demands to work with him to figure this out.
Brady and Detective Cutter go to meet the new homeowner of the first victim’s house. He loves true crime stories, so he was all into the investigation. They reenact the murder to see if the timing fits.
They try six times and the timeline works, but just barely. Then the homeowner mentions that a bandit moved some stuff around at the house across the street before the first murder. He made it so that one chair was separate from the others. They think that was the killer’s first attempt, but a dog’s barking interrupted him. Then the homeowner happens to say that the lawn gnome outside had a camera, which may have caught the break in.
Tessa Loses It
Tessa starts to have a serious panic attack at her house. She calls her doctor and makes an appointment for the next day. She gets another call, though, from her principal. And it doesn’t sound like good news.
Will Cam Fall Off The Wagon?
So Garrett sent Cam to see Christina. He tells her that Garrett wants to see her and explain himself. “He’s insane. You’re insane. You’re family’s insane. It must be in your blood. Don’t ever come near me again,” she says. On his way back to his car, Cam then gets tempted by a drug dealer.
Later, Cam’s about to get high with Sophie when Tessa and Jack walk in. Tessa tells him to go to rehab or he’ll lose his son.
So Cam decides to go to rehab. He wants Jack to stay with Tessa instead of Sophie and Sophie’s furious. Tessa threatens to call child protective services, so Sophie storms out.
Tessa and Jack then go to visit Garrett and Tessa tells him that Cam’s in rehab, but he made it to Christina first. She’s still pissed about him not telling them about Mitch and he gets emotional about thinking about everything he missed in her life. He thought he was doing the right thing, though.
Tessa goes to her appointment and leaves Jack with Garrett. Jack’s as creepy as ever and wants to see some dead bodies, so Garrett takes him.
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Jack Goes Too Far
Jack takes the stuffed animal that Garrett gave him and throws it over the covered pool. The twins want to play with it, so he tells them that if they to play with it, they need to go in to get it.
Meanwhile, Tom hooks up with that woman.
Back at the homestead, one of the twins falls into the pool and Tom, Alison and Tessa run out to help. Tessa was apparently supposed to be watching them. Tom and Alison leave with the twins while Jack explains he wanted to see how oxygen deprivation affected the twin’s brain for science. “What is wrong with you?” Tessa screams.
Tessa tells Cam he should send Jack to a facility in Maine. “What the hell’s in our genes, Tess?” he asks. Meanwhile, Tom, Alison and the twins all promise to stick together. Alison even ends things with Naomi the next day and Naomi does not take it well. Back at the house, Tessa also gets a voicemail from her doctor. She’s pregnant.
What Is Garrett Hiding?
Christina winds up visiting Garrett in the hospital. He says he felt guilty for what his father did and he wanted to check up on her. So he followed her. He even purposefully cut his hand. He didn’t think she’d wind up meaning something to him, though, and he says what they had was real. But she doesn’t believe him. His pulse keeps going up when he’s lying. She asks him what he’s hiding, but he doesn’t answer, so she leaves and he punches the machine.
Later, Garrett tells Madeline he’s “done” and that he “can’t keep staring people I love in the eye and lying to them.” He asks what she’d do if he wanted to tell the truth. “Is that what happened with dad? He wanted to tell the truth and you killed him?” he asks. Madeline says he won’t get Christina back if he comes clean. He’d just wind up losing everything.
It’s too late, though, Brady and Detective Cutter find the footage from the gnome. They see someone getting into the passenger’s side of the car. Someone was with the killer. Could it have been Madeline? Or Garrett?
American Gothic airs on Wednesday nights at 10pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV