American Crime Episode 6: No Good Options

Between the joys of Easter, and the despair of paying my taxes today, I am terribly behind in recapping. I am excited to watch this episode though. We only have two left after this and there is a lot to wrap up!

Jeanette

Jeanette’s husband, Carson, called her sister and she told him she had not heard from her even though Jeanette is living with her now. Jeanette is of course basically taking care of her sister now. She’s not particularly good at taking care of herself it seems. Jeanette realizes it is only a matter of time before her sister rolls over on her. She thinks Carson is a great guy.

Jeanette tries to get a job. They send her out to work at a waitressing job. Later, when Jeanette talks to her sister she faces some truths for most of the population. A decent paying job is hard to find. He sister says,  “Where you been? Or you think I don’t get paid nothin’ ‘cause I like not gettin’ paid nothin’?” Jeanette doesn’t know how easy she had it being married and not having the anxiety of how she is going to eat every month. Especially older women. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Jaelyn gives Jeanette another dose of truth when she says, “You know why minimum wage is so low around here? They buried stuff about it in that transgender bathroom bill. Even if somebody wanted to pay more, they can’t. They made people scared and got ‘em to vote against themeslves. Things are hard because some people are stupid.”

Raelyn wonders why the hell Jeanette doesn’t just go home and accept being supported by her husband. Jeanette says she is just overwhelmed. Raelyn points out she has to kids to raise. She doesn’t have time to be overwhelmed. And also, the unspoken context is FUCK YOU Jeanette. You had a husband paying your way and you are being fucking ridiculous.

Gabi the Nanny and her abusive employers, Clair and Nick

Because I DVR so much on Sunday night some things are clipped a bit. My recording begins with Clair and Gabi. Gabi writes letters to her son who she has lost contact with. When Clair asks why she still writes letters to him, she says she is writing them to God. And…here we go with depressing truths we try to avoid.

Clearly, Clair is a horrible person. I’m worried for Gabi. I am hoping Nick is not as despicable. We shall see. Oh, I see how this is. Nick is the southern gentleman who has never left the south and is more than a little xenophobic. When he and Clair go out to shoot pool at an upscale joint where it’s called billiards, he mocks Gabi for not speaking English. Since I have recently become more likely to venture into the world, I really need to work on my pool game again. I used to be able to hold my own. Clair tells the female part of the other couple that Nick is a crappy husband.

Clair moves Gabi out of the comfortable guest room into the cluttered, tiny sewing room because she wants to make Gabi’s room an office. I really can’t wait for this show to end. It’s just dreadful. I know I technically could stop watching but I am hoping a lot of the oppressors die in a fire or something at the end. I need some sort of uplifting justification for all this abuse. I know I am likely not going to get it, but I want to be hopeful for two more episodes. I get why Nick is such a grumpy old man. And maybe it is because Nick is played by Timothy Hutton, but I want him to survive this. Clair, not so much. Later we see Gabi washing blood from deep scratches on her hand off in the sink. I assume Clair did that.

Clair’s friend that she was trash talking Nick to at the bar comes to visit. She immediately tells her to only speak to Gabi in English, which of course Gabi doesn’t understand. The friend sees the deep wounds on Gabi’s hand but Clair send her away before she can ask about it in French. Clair says that Gabi is self-abusing and basically she hired a lemon. Later, Claire bandages Gabi’s hand and tells her she needs to try harder to fit into the family and stop self harming. Oh and they love her. SIGH.

My French was not good enough to understand what Clair said to Helen at the bar about Nick. Apparently she told him that it was Nick’s fault that they could not conceive.  I am not sure if I believe that. But that is what Clair is telling Nick she said. Clair is such a cunt. She says she had to use someone else’s sperm because he couldn’t do what a man is supposed to do and that is why she hates their boy.

Later, Gabi can’t sleep and gets up to ice her hand. She mails the letters to her son.

Shae and Kimara

Shae is developing some unusual relationships with her customers at her online porn gig. While it’s still business, there is a part friend, part life coach, part prostitute sort of thing happening. Her clients are paying a lot, but the online pimp takes the large majority of her income and admonishes her for not doing enough chores around the house. She is starting to realize she cannot pay for the baby. She is also not getting medical care. Speaking of medical care, I had to pay the government today for not being able to afford medical care. Thanks Obama. And Trump, who promised to fix that first thing.

In other complicated situations, Kimara is put in a position by Abby to either lie about how many people she has referred to the shelter so they can get private funds and go to work for them with a raise, or tell the truth and stay at her shit job and have the shelter not get the funding. Wow, what a complex mess. Telling the truth leads to the shelter not receiving the money to care for more women in need.  Not telling the truth means they can afford to hire her and help more lost girls. What the hell sort of decision is that?

Shae wants to go back to Billy, her pimp. Between the pimp and Dustin’s recruitment cut she is make no money. Dustin suggests she stop being so picky about her clients and asking Tracy for some of her leftovers. Shae wonders if now that she has disappeared, Billy may have been released. Dustin says even if he is, he is going to be pissed with her for even thinking about testifying. The other online girls tell her she needs to stay away from him as well.

I’m having a hard day and this show is not helping. I regret choosing it to recap over Feud.

Shae tries to hack into Tracy’s account to steal her clients. Tracy finds here in her room and starts beating on her. Tracy stabs her in the neck with a nail file. Shae dies. Since she has no one, They just remove all traces of her stuff and throw her in the river. That river must be full of prostitutes and illegal aliens by now. I hate  this show.

It just gets worse next week.