American Gothic’s “The Oxbow” shows the aftermath of Garrett’s arrest and explains what he’d been doing in the woods all those years. So is Garrett really the Silver Bells Killer’s accomplice?
Is Garrett Really The Accomplice?
American Gothic’s “The Oxbow” starts with Brady interrogating Garrett. Innocent people freak out when they’re arrested and guilty people go to sleep. Garrett stayed perfectly still but was awake all night. Brady has all the evidence that Garrett was involved now that he has Garrett’s knife, but he thinks Garrett didn’t do most of the killing. He needs Garrett to come clean.
Madeline visits him in prison and tells him not to say anything. She’s hired him a lawyer, but he doesn’t want her to. “It’s over. All of this was inevitable. We just postponed it 14 years. That’s all. It was nice, though. It was, being back in the fold, being part of the family again,” he says. Madeline suggests that Garrett say that Mitch gave him the knife, but he’s not playing along.
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Garrett winds up meeting with the lawyer and she’s completely confident she’ll win, especially since Mitch gave him the knife. “If evil is inevitable, how are the wicked accountable?” Garrett quotes. He always expected to wind up here. The lawyer says that Garrett shouldn’t say anything and asks if he’s sleeping okay. He can sleep anywhere.
Cam later calls Garrett and they talk about prison and rehab. Garrett apologizes to Cam. He feels bad because Cam got his drugs when he went to talk to Christina for Garrett, but Cam says it’s not his fault. Then Garrett tells him he’s proud of him for staying true to himself.
Alison goes to visit Garrett in prison too and says that she doesn’t buy Garrett being Mitch’s accomplice. “I’m on your side,” she says.
Tessa starts having doubts too. She tells Brady she thinks that the knife was planted. The DNA didn’t even match. Brady gets frustrated though and tells her to ask Garrett herself, but she thinks he’s trying to get her to do his bidding.
Eventually, Tessa does go to visit Garrett. They talk about the baby before she asks about the knife. He refuses to answer though. She needs him to say he never killed anyone. “I can’t do that,” he says.
What Happened In Garrett’s Past?
So what happened? Throughout the episode, American Gothic flashes back to a younger Garrett. The first time, it flashes back to Garrett covered in blood and Madeline asking what he did.
Later, Garrett leaves Tessa a present while she sleeps. She opens it after he’s left. It’s a picture of them.
So it flashes back to Garrett waking up on a couch he’s been crashing on. The family comes home and he runs out and makes his way through the woods just as they get in. A man winds up catching him trying to break into his cabin and tells him to go back to Boston. Garrett refuses because he “couldn’t take the people.”
Garrett winds up running through the woods and hunting with that knife. Eventually, the man takes pity on him and invites him in and offers to help him. He even says that a man with no friends or family just died and nobody will come to claim his cabin. Now Garrett has a home. He starts planting and hunting with the man and builds a whole new life for himself and he and the man stay friends for years. The man asks if Garrett went hunting with his dad. “A few times,” he says.
The man notices how attached Garrett is to his knife. He also brings up Garrett’s family. Garrett says he was only close with his little sister Tessa. The man had a niece named Julie. He was only close with her, but she died in a car accident. The man’s whole family died and he can’t see them or Julie again, so he hints that Garrett should see Tessa again.
Eventually, Garrett starts keeping tabs on his family. He watches their house in the woods to see if they ever go camping there and he watches them on their trips from afar. He even sneaks in one night and leaves Tessa a note with his phone number. She calls him and they tell each other they miss each other. Tessa asks why he left and when he’s coming home and all these other questions about his life, so he says he has to go.
Garrett tells the man about spying on his family. So much has changed. He’s an uncle now. He always thought he’d get married and have kids first, but that’s not possible now. Meanwhile, the man’s illness has been getting progressively worse. He has congestive heart failure.
In the end, Garrett finds the man on the ground having a heat attack. The man says he came back to the cabin to die. He wants Garrett to help him die. “I can’t,” Garrett says. Eventually Garrett suffocates him with a pillow while he cries. Then he watches from the woods as the police take the man’s body away. So Garrett lives alone until he finds out his dad is in the hospital and decides to go home.
Brady and Tessa Work Together
After talking with Garrett, Tessa tells Brady she’s been naïve. She believes Garrett was the accomplice. So she shows Brady the photo Garrett gave her of them and tells him to show it to people to jog their memories. Brady shows it to Garrett, and he just tells him that he’s happy Tessa married him. Brady says that Tessa was his last supporter and he needs to make a deal. They’re re-canvassing with this photo now.
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Is Garrett Going To Be A Dad?
Even Jack goes to visit Garrett in prison and brings him some creepy presents. He mentions that he saw Christina the other day when Tessa went to get an ultrasound. But Christina wasn’t there as a doctor; she was a patient. Turns out, she’s pregnant.
Garrett calls Christina and then his lawyer. He tells his lawyer that he needs to get out now. He’s going to be a father.
So the lawyer goes to the police department and points out that a cufflink from the David Morales case disappeared. This is evidence that the police have been mishandling the case. Meanwhile, Garrett asks Alison to help get him out too. He also asks her to tell Tessa he needs a chance to explain. Obviously, when Garrett said he couldn’t say he never killed anyone, he meant his friend but Tessa doesn’t know that. Why didn’t he explain this before?
Will Jennifer Windham Crack The Case?
Alison goes to Jennifer Windham and blackmails her into helping her take the mayor down because her campaign is struggling.
Jennifer follows the mayor until she finds out that Detective Cutter has been secretly meeting with the mayor.
In the end, Jennifer makes an exclusive report on the Silver Bells case. Instead, she’s held hostage and reads a statement. The statement is someone confessing to being the accomplice and saying to leave them alone or more people will die. Then the accomplice kills Jennifer and leaves a silver bell. Clearly, it’s not Garrett. Who could it be then? The mayor?
The final flashback shows Garrett covered in blood holding the knife again. Madeline asks Garrett what he did. “He tried to kill me,” he says. Okay. So it’s a “he” or it was his dad that tried to kill him.
American Gothic airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on CBS
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
