Dante , the Gothic , the Abject , and the Grotesque in Mathieu Missoffe ’ s Thriller-Crime Drama Black Spot
is shot to death by her deputy Camille , who has been given the task of eliminating both Marion and Laurene , possibly to cover for the mayor and his father ’ s nefarious schemes . With the murder of a sheriff devoted to fighting the “ falling ... darkness ” that threatens the area , the demonic Wendigo fully emerges , possibly in response to Laurene ’ s murder and signifying the termination of any semblance of law and order in the Villefranche region . Laurene ’ s death and the creature ’ s emergence reinforce the dread that a catastrophe of monstrous proportions , a clear manifestation of the “ falling ... darkness ” that Gerald Steiner referred to , awaits the town of Villefranche and , possibly by extension , the Western world for which the village is both caricature and microcosm .
III . DANTE , THE ABJECT AND THE GROTESQUE
To sustain the sense of terror and dread , Missoffe inserts into his script the series ’ key analogy according to which Villefranche , as a microcosm of the contemporary Western world , has become a version of Dante ’ s Inferno . In the first episode , district attorney Frank Siriano observes to Laurene and Teddy Bear that Villefranche reminds him of Dante ’ s seventh circle of Hell , where the souls of those who committed suicide are condemned to spend eternity imprisoned in gigantic trees . The second , perhaps more significant allusion comes later in episode one . In this scene , Laurene finds Frank seated at a table at the Eldorado bar , his nose buried in Dante ’ s Divine Comedy . Curious , Laurene reaches across the table , grabs the book , and looks over what Frank has been reading . In response Frank quotes directly from the first Canto of Inferno : “ When I had journeyed half of life ’ s way / I found myself within a shadowed forest / for I had lost that path that does not stray ” ( ll . 1-3 ). The passage certainly applies to Frank , who has lost his way professionally�he has
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