Death By Lightning season 1 episode 4 brings us to the end of the story. In just three short months of becoming President of the United States, James Garfield is shot in the back and killed. How does it all play out?
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Death By Lightning season 1 episode 4
We know how history plays out. Garfield’s assassination has been written about, but it’s one of the assassinations that isn’t covered in great detail. That’s likely because he was only in office for three months, and like Lucretia says at the end of the episode, he won’t go down in the history books in a huge way.
Conkling is taken out in style in Death By Lightning season 1 episode 4
While we know that Charles Guiteau is the man to kill Garfield, there is still the ongoing issues of Conkling and his followers. The man has a hold on many people, but not for long.
When Lady Sprague shares that she has decided to leave her husband for Conkling, that’s when things take a turn. He doesn’t want to be with her in a legitimate way, and he wants to continue furthering his own politics. While she ends up going to Conkling’s wife, and when there is a huge vote that Conkling was sure to win otherwise, seeing his wife and mistress together watching over the Senators tells him that things are not going to go his way.
And with that, the votes are counted, and Conkling’s hold on the government is no more. As the captions at the end of the series tell us, he ends up resigning from office and he is no longer looked at with the same respect he once had.
Charles Guiteau shoots James Garfield
While Garfield, Blaine, and others are walking into a large meeting, there’s a shot that rings out, and a man’s briefcase has a bullet hole. Then there’s a second shot, as Guiteau shoots Garfield in the back with the pistol he bought in Death By Lightning episode 3.
Blaine rushes out to make sure that Guiteau is arrested, and he even admits to it, making it clear that now Garfield is dead, it means that Chester Arthur can become President. Little does he know that Arthur has no idea who he is, either! But Guiteau is arrested, and the episode turns to focus on Garfield’s final month on Earth.
You see, Garfield wasn’t killed outright. He suffered a harsh death, eventually developing sepsis. There is a moment when a Black doctor, Charles Purvis, shares that the white man, Willard Bliss, working on Garfield doesn’t have sterile equipment and is causing more damage to Garfield. Of course, being black, Bliss is not interested in hearing anything Purvis has to say. He doesn’t care about what the Europeans say about sterile equipment and bacteria, despite Purvis going on to be a renowned doctor and surgeon.
Well, he may have wanted to listen. The only good thing for Garfield is that he gets to spend his last days with his family, but he succumbs to sepsis, and during the autopsy, it’s revealed that the bullet ad migrated to just behind the pancreas, and that wasn’t what killed him. Instead, it was sepsis, as confirmed by the abscesses around his body.
Had Garfield not had consistent treatments to try to get the bullet out, he could have recovered and survived. All eyes are on Bliss, who continued to do the work, as he hangs his head in shame. Guiteau may have fired the shot, but Bliss is the reason the President of the United States has died.
Guiteau will be a minor footnote
While in prison, Charles’s sister, Franny, shows up, but she realizes just how far gone her brother is in terms of insanity. She walks away, never to see her brother again. He does hope that she turns up for his final day when he’s heading to the gallows, but it’s Lucretia instead.
She makes it clear to Charles Guiteau that he will never be remembered. Once those who love him have died, he will be a footnote in history. That’s something that Guiteau fears, as he believes that he should be a man to be remembered.
Sure enough, we know from history that very few people talk of the assassination of James Garfield. Lucretia was right about both her husband and her husband’s killer.
At the end of Death By Lightning season 1 episode 4, Guiteau is taken to the gallows, where he sings an absolutely bonkers song. Yes, this really happened! There’s almost a realization that Lucretia is right when the men in attendance just sit in silence before the hood goes over his head and he is executed for his crime.
With that, the autopsy is done and his brain — which appears just normal — is placed in a jar and forgotten about. That is, until 1969, when it was found again, but it was likely forgotten about again after that.
We end with a few notes about the various people, including Blaine, who ended up running for president and lost, Chester who did become the next president, but then stepped down after that one term (because he never wanted it), and Conkling never held a position in office again.
It’s a solemn ending to Death By Lightning, despite the craziness of the story.
Death By Lightning is available to stream on Netflix.