American Crime - S2E2

Previously on American Crime, ‘Episode 1’

Anne moves forward with pressing charges for Taylor’s assault, while Leslie preps the board for the worst and tries to reel in a big donor for the school. To cover their asses, Leslie pressures Dan into punishing one of the team captains.

Leslie - Leslie is a straight-up politician. First, she tells the board, “Something really terrible might have happened, and I’m not going to tell you what it is, but don’t worry about this terrible thing that probably did happen.” And it worked! They showed approximately 2.3 seconds of concern and left. Then she convinces Dan to throw one of the boys - Eric by default since he’s the other captain who’s not black - under the bus. It doesn’t even matter what happened or who is truly responsible. She doesn’t want to know; she just wants to get ahead of it. I’m having a hard time not liking this character, especially when it seems she does really care about the kids and the school, albeit in her own fucked up way.

Taylor - Connor Jessup turned in another great performance. Taylor doesn’t really want to go through with the police report, but he does because he can see how much his mother needs him to, and he probably knows that it is truly the right thing to do. The camera focused solely on his face as the doctor first explained and then completed the examination. It was heartbreaking.

Eric Tanner - Remember how I said it felt like Taylor was watching basketball practice like someone waiting for their boyfriend/girlfriend? I am now wondering if he either had a secret relationship with Eric, or if Eric was leading him to think they might have one. Instead, Eric lures him to the party where he and his friends drug and sexually assault him. Eric is clearly struggling to accept his sexuality and is prone to lashing out. When his father tries to counsel him on proper hygiene, he bristles at “smelling like a bitch.” Later, Kevin advises him to take his one-game suspension and not be “a little bitch about it.” He has his own misguided ideas of what it means to be masculine. You mix all of that together and I have a feeling that Eric - more than the police report or photos on social media - will be the reason this whole thing explodes.

Terri LaCroix - I am surprised by how many of you (our readers/listeners in our private Facebook group) don’t like her! She clearly has issues with black people - I believe everyone in the group called her bourgie. But I find her fascinating. She has issues with race period. I couldn’t tell if her near traffic accident was her fault, but her reaction (immediately photographing the other driver) was interesting. Then she promptly called a detective friend and pointed out that “of course” the aggressive man was white. What does she expect to be done? And unlike others in our group, I was totally okay with her demanding that Kevin retrieve the $900 watch he bought for his girlfriend. However, I was not okay with the awkward way she tried to school him in the ways of wily teenage girls looking for “rocks.”