Your dog.
It scared the hell out of my partner, when you came by before. Growling and snarling like that.
If you can’t control it, it should be leashed.
Gareth is Charity's partner, and mark. She invited him back to Penda's Slake explicitly so that he could be hunted and killed.
| ATTENTION: SPOILERS AHEAD! Beyond this point, major plot spoilers are expected. Continue at your own risk. |
Personality[]
Gareth is broadly self-absorbed and self-important in the short time we know him. He shows a tendency to make assumptions, and then to refuse to listen to others.[1] If we are being generous, then it can be seen more of a result of being in Marcel's Crossing, which is a frankly miserable little town which was just coming of the back of a quintuple murder[2], and being at the haunt of a god, both potentially throwing his nerve a little.
Charity states that "he liked it when I forgot my glasses, it gave him a reason to be firm with me", which inspires very little empathy for him as a character.[1]
He disregard's Carpenter's warnings about the presence of a god twice, the first, when he goes to check the map for the presence of an illegal god, and the second, when he ignores her to walk into the chapel of The God of Penda's Slake. In the transcript he is described as "attempting to take charge. He isn't very good at it."[1]
Episode Appearances[]
| Chapters | Synopsis |
|---|---|
| Chapter 4: Of Lovers, Gods, and Beasts | Gareth is lured to Penda's Slake by Charity. They bump into Carpenter while she tries to sacrifice him to her god. Carpenter attempts to warn him, but he is too arrogant to listen. He is hallowed into a Saint and killed. |
Transfiguration and Death[]
Warning: Contains graphic bodily harm description.
Gareth walks into the chapel and begins to read the prayer marks of the God of Penda's Slake, eventually being compelled to repeat the line, there's them that lead and them that chase. He has a brief moment of coming back into himself, raising a hand to Carpenter and Charity, before he turns, messily, into a skeletal elk. His skin goes red and purple with blood, screaming, as he develops hooves protruding out of his hands, antlers out of his cheeks, and the skull out of his mouth, effectively sloughing the skin on his face. He seems to be still able to move his hands, and it's implied the eyes of the elk are a transformed version of his own. There is a question of how much of himself remains, as Stanton's monologue proves that saints do experience a form of consciousness. He turns into the Elk of Birch and Bone.
He is then subsequently attacked and killed by the Snare-Dogs, and then his bones turn into a birch tree and ivy grows from his blood.[1]
Connections[]
- Charity is Gareth's girlfriend. They haven't been dating long. He doesn't know it, but she has brought him to Penda's Slake specifically to be hallowed and killed.[1]