The Cutprice Guignol

You know, when I realized that this was going to be the Christopher Jacot episode of this season of Slasher, I was both excited and a little gutted (poor choice of words, my respects to the horny groundsman).

Because these feature episodes are a double-edged wood-chipper, really – one part a gift that means that we get to see a little more of the actors who make this show just what it is, and then, they get a fire poker through the head and that’s the last we see of them. Christopher Jacot has been putting in The Work for Slasher since day one, playing a major part in three of the four seasons so far and just always bringing something interesting to his roles. He’s got these great big brown eyes that can either express every emotion in the book at once, or be totally devoid of all of them at once, and his ability deploy both make this feature episode for Seamus so special.

Exploring his sexuality and his relationship with his father, In Truth is a pretty sad episode, as episodes of Slasher go. Okay, well, it’s still that very fun part of the season where everyone is pointing a quivering finger at one another and accusing them of being the killer, where a cackling artist feeds a doctor into a wood-chipper, where David Croenenberg intones in sonorous seriousness “did you come inside of her?”, so it’s not getting needlessly serious around here.

But there’s no doubt that Seamus, for all his cruelty and callousness, was scarred by a failed relationship with his father, and that’s an interesting place for the show to go this early on. I’m honestly appreciative of any show that actually bothers to delve into the back stories of their less sympathetic characters, to humanize rather than excuse, and double-especially when they deal with the impact that sexuality can have on personal development under certain circumstances.

Slasher, once again being the most unlikely-ly progressive show on TV, explores Seamus’ apparent bisexuality with it’s usual care and respect, and the disappointment it drew from his father – all those jabs about his indecisiveness and inability to do what needs to be done make more sense in the context of the elder Calloway’s disdain for his personal relationships, including that with the illegitimate daughter, Viv, he conceived with a member of staff. There’s often a temptation to turn queer people into martyrs for the sake of “good” LGBTQ representation, but instead of taking all that bad and turning it into some gay, holy good, Seamus grows hardened, angry, lashes out. There are glimmers of the man he clearly wishes he could be – emotionally available, kind, loving, capable of accepting help, especially with his adopted daughter – but mostly not. Cold, convinced nobody could care for him unless he was providing some practical, quantifiable return, he cuts off people who could help and retreats into the bitter, familiar parts of himself. The man his father wanted him to be.

So I suppose it’s somewhat of a happy ending to his story, in a way, that the last thing he hears is that his wife actually does care for him, as himself, not just as what he can provide to her. I mean, hard to see it that way, given the immediate poker to the eye he receives afterwards, but still. He knows he’s loved as he goes.

There’s a glimmer of hope at the end of his quite thankless story, even if that glimmer is just the light bouncing off a metal spike about to plunge through your eye socket. This is a great episode for Christoper Jacot and for Slasher; I’m sad to see him go so soon, but damn, it’s a great episode to go out on.

(header image Via AITP)