American Gothic Trivia Quiz

Answer: A belt

The bridge was built by the Hawthornes' construction company led by patriarch Mitch. The collapse exposes possible negligence on the part of the Hawthornes but even more troublesome is the discovery of a belt that had been hidden in the bridge. The belt is the murder weapon that was used to kill the final victim of the Silver Bells Killer, a notorious and still unknown serial killer who murdered members of Boston's wealthiest families fourteen years prior. No Hawthorne was ever a victim of the Silver Bells Killer but the discovery of the belt connects the Hawthornes to the serial killer.

Answer: Gunther, the gardener

Tessa (Megan Ketch), Alison and Garrett (Antony Starr) discover a box of silver bells (which SBK left behind at crime scenes) along with newspaper clippings about the Silver Bells Killer that belonged to their father. Madeline explains to them that Mitch, like many people at the time, tried to play detective and discover who SBK was on their own. She further explains that Mitch became obsessed with finding out who SBK was, that he developed dementia and started to believe he was the killer. No one is convinced by her story.

Madeline goes a step further and tries to frame the family gardener Gunther. Gunther is soon found dead via suicide with a note that says "I'm sorry". However, Gunther is just as quickly proved innocent as he was in the hospital at the time of one of the killings. It soon comes to light that Gunther was dying and Madeline paid Gunther to commit suicide under remorse for the killings in order to provide for his wife after his death.

Answer: Cam

Cam (Justin Chatwin) is a recovering drug addict who is in a heated custody battle with fellow addict and ex Sophie (Stephanie Leonidas) over their young son Jack. Jack is very clearly mentally disturbed and is obsessed with killings, death and dead bodies.

When he was a teenager, Cam saw a therapist to help with some problems he was having. Although the content of these meetings is not immediately known, it is later revealed that Cam had witnessed a dead body being dragged down the stairs in the Hawthorne home. Cam's visions become more and more disturbing to the point where he believed he could have been SBK.

These sessions with the therapist were recorded and Cam is nearly arrested when he breaks into the office to steal them.

Answer: One of SBK's alleged victims was actually still alive

Brady's investigation causes tension with Tessa. Tessa feels betrayed by Brady because he is investigating her family and she believes he refuses to consider a nonHawthorne as SBK. Brady secretly collects a DNA sample of Mitch Hawthorne to match against the DNA on the belt. However, Tessa had switched the sample so it came back as no match. On retesting, however, DNA on the belt matched an unknown Hawthorne.

Brady found his brother-in-law Garrett suspicious. Garrett was an older teen at the time of the SBK killings and disappeared shortly after the final victim was killed. He only reunited with his family fourteen years later when Mitch was dying. Brady followed Garrett on several occasions and one of these encounters led to him seeing Garrett dig up a body in the woods.

Police at the time of the killings managed to obtain surveillance video from the one of the killings. Although no one's face was visible, it is clear to Brady there must have been two people present at the scene, meaning SBK had an accomplice. SBK was seen entering the passenger side of a vehicle that immediately took off, meaning the accomplice was the driver.

Answer: Her affair with Naomi

Alison is married to her husband Tom and they have twin girls together. However, Tom is something of a jerk and Alison has fallen out of love with him. She begins an affair her female campaign manager Naomi. The two women are blackmailed by a campaign staffer. Tom eventually figures it out and forces Alison to choose between him and her children and Naomi. Naomi decides its best for Alison if she (Naomi) leaves town and her campaign.

However, Naomi returns several episodes later to help pull some political strings to get Alison elected mayor.

At about the same time, Tom disappears without explanation.

Answer: Garrett

One night, the Silver Bells Killer entered the Hawthorne home at night to murder either Mitch or Madeline. However, Tessa (who at the time was a very young girl) was sick and awake. She saw SBK and pushed him down the stairs when she became frightened. Mitch and Madeline convinced Garrett (who was an older teen at the time) to take the presumed dead body of SBK and bury him the woods in order to protect the young Tessa. Garrett was particularly close to Tessa so he agreed to do so because he did not want her to have to deal the pressure that would follow had they called the police.

However, SBK did not die from the push down the stairs. He was only unconscious and woke up when Garrett was digging the hole. He attacked Garrett who was forced to kill him in self defense.

Answer: He knew his parents had murdered someone

After the incident where Garrett killed the Silver Bells Killer and buried him, he assumed that would be an end to the killings and the world would never know SBK's identity. However, another murder occurred shortly afterward with a silver bell found next to his body. The victim was a tax attorney named Morales who was investigating Mitch and Madeline. He was strangled to death with the belt that was found in the bridge collapse. Morales was a friend of the Hawthornes so he gave Mitch and Madeline the opportunity to confess and/or right their wrongs. However when it became clear Morales would not hide their crimes, Mitch and Madeline killed him and set up the scene to make it look like it was the Silver Bells Killer's doing.

Garrett, fully aware that SBK was dead at this point, realized his parents had tricked him into hiding the body, not for Tessa's good, but so they could masquerade as SBK and kill Morales without anyone else knowing SBK was actually dead. Disgusted, Garrett left his luxurious life in Boston behind and moved into a cabin in the Maine woods.

Answer: Cam's ex, Sophie

The Silver Bells Killer was Sophie's father, John. Sophie's mother had been in desperate need of medical attention but the hospital ignored her because her family did not have much money. Priority went to the patients from wealthy families who received a specially colored blanket so the staff would know to treat them first. Sophie's mother wound up dying and she and her father sought revenge on Boston's wealthy. They began killing members from wealthy families who donated to the hospital as indicated on a plaque in the hospital lobby.

Sophie would aide her father by helping him break into homes (a skill she demonstrated several times over the course of the miniseries) while he would do the killings. Sophie remained in the car while her father broke into the Hawthorne house but he never came out and was never seen again. Sophie knew he had been killed by one of the Hawthornes so she devised a plan to get even with them. She started dating Cam when they were teenagers but she legitimately fell in love with him and put her past behind her.

However, the Hawthornes, especially Madeline, never really accepted Sophie even after her and Cam's son was born. Years later, Cam and Sophie split and were engaged in a nasty custody battle over Jack. This brought back her old feelings of animosity toward the Hawthornes. After the SBK case was reopened, Sophie was forced to cover her and her father's tracks and clear up any loose ends they left behind.

Answer: Cherry blossoms

After Brady finds Garrett digging up SBK's body, he takes the corpse for identification purposes and discovers SBK had a wife, who is deceased, and a daughter, who seemingly has fallen off the face of the Earth. Brady visit's the wife's grave and sees Japanese cherry blossoms nearby her grave.

This means little initially but Brady sees a drawing of Japanese cherry blossoms that Sophie drew and Sophie has a tattoo of the flowers on her arm. This leads Brady to conclude that Sophie must be the accomplice because there is no other person who matches the description of SBK's daughter (a woman in her late 20s/early 30s who changed her name at some point and must have a connection to the Hawthornes).

Answer: Madeline

During the final days of the campaign for mayor, Alison is locked in a tight contest and is distracted from focusing on her campaign by family issues. She stops by Sophie's apartment to look for Cam and realizes Sophie is the accomplice when she sees one of the drawings. Alison then hires Sophie to kill her mother Madeline as payback for all she put the family through for her own selfish needs. Sophie strangles Madeline and then escapes without being caught. Alison does not tell her siblings this but they all appear peaceful having put their dark pasts behind them.