Mexican Gothic

Noemí tries to escape the next day, but the gloom and Virgil stop her. Virgil further humiliates her by forcing her to bathe in front of him to clean the mud from her escape. During the bath, Virgil reveals that what Noemí thought was a dream—the one in which she was forced to have sex with Virgil—was real and mediated by the gloom. Virgil begins assaulting Noemí again, but this attack ends when Dr. Cummins comes in to give Noemí a clean bill of health. The Doyles finally leave Noemí alone with Francis, and two begin plotting in Spanish.

Francis is no longer willing to be complicit in the Doyles’ schemes, so he tells Noemí that she can escape the influence of the gloom by taking some of Catalina’s tincture, which (like light and cigarette smoke) irritates the gloom and loosens its hold. She can then escape while the Doyles and the gloom are distracted by Howard’s death and transmigration to Virgil’s body. Until then, Francis advises that she should appear to cooperate with Howard, Florence, and Virgil’s plan to marry her off to Francis and have children with him.

That night Ruth tells Noemí in a gloom dream that Noemí has to kill Howard to ensure escape.