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Recap

Garrett follows a young woman to the Filly Diner, tracking her movements over a period of time. When he returns home, Madeline notices that he has a photo of a young woman and the Filly Diner coffee cup.

Gunther teaches Jack how to set effective animal traps. Phyllis, the owner of Caramel the cat, confronts them and tries to get Gunther to stop because they are endangering local animals. Gunther refuses.

Brady tells Tessa about the belt found in the concrete matching Cam's belt in the photo. Tessa refuses to believe Cam could be the SBK. Brady asks Tessa to get a DNA sample from Cam in order to clear him of the killings.

Cam, Tessa, and Alison meet with Madeline and they go over Mitchell's will. Madeline explains that the majority of assets were left to her and that she is dissolving the cement company. Alison is aghast and tries to convince her not to do it, but Madeline is uninterested in her arguments. Tessa brings up Cam's belt. Madeline explains that the belt was given to Gunther who was instructed to give it to Goodwill. Tessa refuses to believe that Gunther could be the killer. Alison convinces Cam not to submit to a DNA test. 

The Hawthornes spot Jack outside, setting a cage trap for his cousin Harper using her doll. The family is horrified and Madeline suggests therapy again.

Alison and her husband Tom discuss Jack attempting to trap Harper. Alison brings up Madeline's decision to sell the company. Tom suggests that he buy the company himself, in order to keep it in the family. Alison is against it, explaining that he agreed to support her campaign full time.

Tessa calls Brady to tell him that Cam turned down the DNA test. He tries to convince Tessa to submit a DNA sample instead, so that if her sample comes back negative they can rule out a Hawthorne family member as a suspect. Tessa refuses. At the station, Brady's coworker Dana informs him that it is legal for him to obtain a sample of his wife's DNA without her knowledge.

Sophie and Cam consult with a therapist for Jack, explaining his issues. The therapist, who also treated Cam as a teenager, agrees to meet with Jack, giving them consent forms allowing her to record the sessions, since Jack is a minor. Cam asks whether his own sessions were recorded as a minor. The therapist confirms that they were. Outside of the therapist's office, Cam freaks out, telling Sophie that he was messed up on drugs while in therapy and may have said incriminating things. He tells her about the belt Brady found.

When Tessa leaves to go out for a drink with a friend, Brady takes a piece of her hair from her hairbrush.

Madeline and Tessa see Gunther violently kill a raccoon on the grounds with a shovel and are shocked. Madeline notes that he's been creeping her out recently.

Garrett goes to the diner where he has been following the woman. Another woman, his ex-girlfriend Molly, approaches him. She asks him to explain his sudden disappearance years earlier. He agrees.

Madeline confronts Gunther about the raccoon. He explains that the animal couldn't be saved and that no one should die in a cage. Madeline fires Gunther.

In the diner, Garrett attempts to make small talk with Molly about her life. She refuses to chit chat and instead cuts to the point, asking why he disappeared so suddenly. He tells her that before he left, something happened. He explains that the person everyone thought he was isn't who he was, and so he left. Molly is unsatisfied with that answer. He suggests that they go to get her favorite Chinese food dish, cashew chicken, sometime. She says maybe.

Jack breaks in to Phyllis' house, calling out to Caramel. Simultaneously, Cam breaks into his old therapist's office. Someone in a car snaps photos of him breaking in. Cam watches the videos, breaking one when he hears himself on the video mention that he wants to talk about "the body." 

The next morning, Jack attends his therapy session. Cam is antsy being there after having broken in, thinking he'll get caught. Sophie reassures him and invites him over that night. He declines. The therapist "fires" Jack after he shows her "his own puppet" (which we do not see).

At Alison's donor event at the Hawthorne house, Madeline tells her that she fired Gunther. Gunther lurks around outside ominously, as Alison introduces around her big endorser, a local football legend, to the donors.

Upstairs, Garrett shows Molly around. She remarks on how eerie it is to be in his room, which looks exactly the same as it did fourteen years earlier. She sees that he kept his mementos of her. Garrett kisses her passionately and they nearly have sex, but Garrett roughly pushes Molly away when she questions how he got the scars on his back. She confesses that she went to the diner for three straight days, hoping to run into him there, because Madeline told her that he was back in town and frequented that diner. She leaves, upset and horrified.

Madeline tells Alison that a company out of Moscow has bought Hawthorne Concrete and that her campaign will get an influx of capital from the sale. Mayor Conley, Alison's opponent, crashes Alison's donor event. He privately shows Naomi and Alison his surveillance photos of Cam breaking into the therapist's office. He blackmails Alison, trying to get her to turn the football star's endorsement over to him.

Alison confronts Cam about why he broke in to the medical office. She refuses to give in to Conley's blackmail, telling Cam that he did this to himself. However, when Alison gets up to the podium to introduce her endorser, she instead introduces Conley instead, giving up the endorsement to save Cam. She pivots the discussion, emphasizing the importance of arts education and complimenting her brother the cartoonist.

Alison again privately asks Cam what he was doing at the office but Cam refuses to tell her. She wonders how the Hawthornes can fix him when he keeps screwing up and wonders whether it's just not possible.

Reeling from Alison's words, Cam seeks comfort in Sophie, who assures him that he doesn't need fixing and that his family just doesn't get him. She offers him drugs and he offers to just stay instead.

At the station, Brady sees that Madeline did in fact buy the belt from one of only 5 stores that sold it. Dana the forensics co-worker gives Brady the results of the DNA test and he quickly rushes to the phone.

Cam watches TV and Jack joins him, having been too bored by sleeping. Cam asks why his therapist was upset and refused to continue seeing Jack. Jack explains that it was because of his puppet. He shows Cam the puppet, which is Harper's doll with Phyllis' stolen dentures in the doll's mouth.

Detective Cutter goes to the Hawthorne house to confront Madeline about having bought the belt, in the midst of the fundraiser. Brady rushes to get to the house to stop her and explains to Cutter and Madeline that he tested DNA from the family and that they were not matches to the DNA on the belt. Tessa overhears and realizes what he did. Madeline explains that her former employee, Gunther, also had access to the belt and their house.

Tessa angrily tells Brady that he betrayed her trust and tells him that she'll be remaining at her family's house that night instead of going home with him.

Alison returns home and Tom reveals that he has just returned from Moscow, where he bought Hawthorne Concrete under a shell company, Darcolo Industries, and that he will be running it, despite her attempt to talk him out of it. He tells her that he is done being her lackey.

Alison goes to commiserate with Naomi over wine. Naomi passionately kisses her.

Garrett confronts Madeline over having orchestrated his reunion with Molly. She tells him that she wanted him to see what is good about their life so he won't destroy it. She instructs him to make peace with the past, but he tells her that he's unsure if he can.

Garrett sits in his truck and purposely slices his hand open. He goes to an emergency clinic where the woman that he was stalking earlier stitches him up. He lies and tells her that he cut his hand chopping carrots. The nurse is the daughter of Joel Morales, the Silver Bells Killer's victim.

Madeline and Tessa, alone in the house, hear a crash. They rush to the shed to find Gunther having hanged himself, with a note nearby saying "I'm sorry."

Show:
American Gothic
Season:
Episode Number:
3
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American Gothic Season 1 Episode 3 Quotes

Therapist: Cam? You're shaking.
Teen Cam: I wanna talk about the body.

I don't talk to inanimate objects.

Jack