It’s the penultimate episode of American Crime and there are a lot of loose ends to tie up. Especially with the farm. This season didn’t bring all of the people together in the way the first two seasons did other than it all occurring in the same town. I also want to add that I am really grateful for those of you who have stuck through this show with me. It’s hard to watch, and good to have people to talk about it with. It makes me wonder why no one, including us, is doing anything about these problems.
I was shocked by Shae’s death at the end of episode 6. I really thought she was better off at the webcam farm than she had been in the beginning of the series. As it turns out, she was making slave wages there and just like the farmers she was having to pay for her room and board to a point where she could never leave.
Gabi, Nick and Clair
Gabi who now lives in a spare junk room, is having to squirrel away food. It appears they are not feeding her. Oh God. It is worse than that. Clair is burning her arms and harming her. The butter was for pain relief to her charred forearms.
Nick’s company is basically going belly up. He is basically laying off his partner. He’s a giant asshole about it. Clair and Nick fight about the company later. After they fight there is a very dramatic wordless scene between Clair and Nick where she shields his son from his anger. It would not surprise me if she left that house with the boy and never came back.
Later we see Gabi, who is supposed to be the nanny trying to make her employers bed with one arm. She sits at the end of the bed and cried. Then she packs her shit. She tries everything to crack the safe to get her passport but to no avail. She gets ready to flee and then can’t leave the boy behind, so she takes him with her. They end up at a restaurant because the boy is hungry. She has five dollars and change to pay for his meal. It’s not enough and as she is walking out, police are walking in just when the waitress is chasing her down. They take them both back home and she tries to tell the police that they have her passport and will not let her leave. She has done nothing wrong. Nick tells the cops Gabi was stealing from them. She was trying to break into their safe. Clair said Gabi had issues, she was self-harming. I hate these people.
Nick tells Clair the marriage is over. He gets what is left of the company, she gets “the kid.” The next time we see Gabi she is in a hospital with an IV. She begs the nurse in French to listen to her but she just drugs her up more.
Kimara
Kimara’s boss says she is going to have to lay some people off. This comes after her being asked to falsify documents elsewhere to get more funding. It’s the sad reality of non-profits in small communities. Kimara fabricates her notes from last year to keep the funding. After she gives the falsied information, the guy says he will be coming on board to work at the non-profit.
This sends Kimara for a talk with her ex. He seems to have a very nonchalant attitude about the abuse of the charity. Frankly, most of them are frauds. He says this is the way things are. She says she gets it, if you have no morals you get rewarded. That resonates with me regarding my taxes. I could be on disability, instead, I’m trying really hard to support myself. Between taxes and my health care punishment tax for not having health care, I owed about a third of my tiny revenue to the tax men. Meanwhile, realty folks are making six figures and not paying a dime. I’m looking at you Sheree Whitfield, and you loan out corp scam. Then there is not so subtle reference to Trump cheating on his wife and not paying taxes. Highly unnecessary, Ryan Murphy and extremely alienating to half your audience who need to be aware of these situations. Kimara wants to leave her job. First she will take time off.
Then the guy says, “I think your only problem is…” And I literally say it with him on my couch, “you care too much.” If I had a dollar for every time I told people how hard teaching is and they said that. When you work in education or non-profits it is BECAUSE YOU CARE. It sure ain’t for the special closet you need for all of your Louboutins. You spend most of your time fighting with people who don’t care, who got into it to be administrators so they could then get on the school board and then run for bigger political offices.
Dustin
Dustin is the webcam guy that Shae met at a meeting or something. He is the one that brought Shae into the porn webcam farm. Now that she has been killed and her body thrown in the river, they are not allowed to work for awhile. Everyone is freaking out.
I hate the accents on this show. They are bad and they come and go.
The pimp takes Dustin and another kid to a convenience store. He sends him in and keeps the other kid as collateral that he will come back. After asking someone for help and getting nowhere, Dustin bails out the back door. He gets picked up and they call Kimara. She does the intake.
Jeanette
Jeanette is still sleeping at her sisters. I am wondering if we are ever going to see Luis or the farm again. He sister is getting bitchy about Jeanette not having a job. She came home to a messy kitchen where Jeanette had been teaching the girls to cook. She had to clean up the mess even though she never sees her kids.
The probation office calls to inform Jeanette’s sister that she has an unscheduled drug test that must be done in the next 24hrs. Jeanette is the only one home to get the message. Her sister tells her she is tested by four different agencies, she’s working her ass off to keep the girls. She’s never missed a test. Jeanette feels bad for doubting her like Carson does. Jeanette goes with her for the test. Before she goes in for the test she says the kids will want to stay with Jeanette or maybe it was the neighbor?. Well fuck. I really thought something might be okay on this show. Her sister is taken away in handcuffs.
Jeanette goes to her brother-in-law to ask him to help her get a lawyer for her sister. He says he can’t help her. He is going to do some jail time himself for what happened to the migrant workers who died in a fire. Laurie Ann has talked him into this. He tells Jeanette she has a good life and she needs to pay the cost to live it. She go tells the neighbor who has the girls what happened she let’s Jeanette know the kids have been staying over at her house a lot before she moved in.
Next week: On the finale. Dustin tells the cops about Shae’s murder. And Dustin gets arrested for it. No justice is coming for anyone.
I hate that I’m missing this season because I loved the first two!! I have an overnight flight in a few weeks and I’m hoping I can binge then. The writing and acting on this show blows my mind. I just hate that the older Hispanic man is also part of the HTGAWM cast. It throws me off every time I see him on that show. lol
You are so right about this being hard to watch. Hutton plays a really good asshole. That scene with him looking at Gabi with such contempt was chilling. Why does he seem to hate his son? In that scene or any other, the little boy never utters the word Dad. His wife can’t even get him to say Nicky. Gabi keeps breaking my heart, Jesus I know I rely on too many happy endings but can’t I get even ONE from director John Ridley??? Just 1?? I am guessing not. This show should be retitled How to get away with Murder and other crap. Apologies to Miss Viola Davis. Next week looks equally bleak but I am in now to the apparently bitter end.
American Crime ~ Fix It Jesus. 🙂
I actually, gasped seeing the burns on Gabi’s arm, then watching her try to make the bed with one hand was heartbreaking. Claire is angry at husband, and chose to bring a woman all the way from Haiti just to abuse her. And actually, has the nerve to tell others Gabi self-harms; hence her injuries.
What’s unreal, neither the hospital or the police bothered to find an interpreter; in order to hear why Gabi had taken Nicky and why she tried breaking into the safe. It was clear to those of us who watch this show, Gabi giving her passport to Claire for safekeeping would not end well.
Gabi’s situation is at the perfect intersections: ‘black, woman, immigrant, abused, isolated, no passport, and now criminalized.’ Stats show: “66% of domestic workers who’ve been trafficked report experiencing physical abuse.” I’m wondering how many of that sixty-six percent report their abuse to authorities?! I so want Claire to be held accountable for her abuse towards Gabi.
It was clear Raelyn would have been arrested when she said more than once: “They do make mistakes…sometimes.” Will Jeanette now become the guardian of her sister’s two girls?! So, many questions and one episode left.
Kimara’s heart will break when she finds out about Shae.
I am really looking forward to seeing how the entire reason wraps up for all involved in their specific storylines.
Kudos to John Ridley for keeping his storylines 100.
Thank for the recap, and providing a space to discuss, share our thoughts re this season.
I too wondered about no French interpretor. It makes even more sense now why evil Clair only spoke to Gabi in French. If Gabi knew a modicum of English, she could have explained herself if only a little bit.
I may be incorrect. Wasn’t the plan Claire or some friend of hers would teach Gabi English?
Yes, if Gabi understood English even a little bit she would have been able to explain herself when the police was asking her to stop. I mean she couldn’t even understand the darn menu.
I’m looking to seeing what prompts the investigation into Claire, besides the obvious.
Nope the plan was NEVER to speak English to Gabi, allegedly so the boy could learn French, but the real reason is so she could not tell anyone about Clair.
That makes perfect sense. However since the little boy spoke no French, it would stand to reason Gabi would have picked up some English from him. Not enough I guess. The boy seemed like a deaf mute.
Very true, if Gabi cannot speak English then Claire can and is able to cover up the abuse. Thanks for responding to my question, Tamara.
@Margaret: The fact that Nicky rarely; speak we don’t know as yet if he understands French or not. He was able to let Gabi know he was hungry and she understood (not sure if he spoke English, or French). He also, realized Gabi could not read the menu; hence pointing to the chicken and fries so she can place the order.
I am also, wondering if it’s Nicholas who is abusing Gabi, and Claire is covering for him? He sort-of-looked at Claire with surprise when she was speaking to Gabi having issues.
Nicholas appears not to have anything to do with his son, but when he came downstairs Gabi looked afraid and held a hand out shielding Nicky. I don’t know, these are all thoughts that are running through my mind. lol
It would be a beautiful thing if Nicky is the one who exposes his parents sparking the investigation.
The boy told Gabi he was hungry in French. “j’ai faim”
I am thinking it’s Nicholas doing the physical abuse as well. The camera shot him looking obviously surprised, too obviously. After he and Clair had the fight he held his aggression then walked to see Gabi, I think to take it out physically on her. The Camera shows Clair doing some thinking it looks like as if she suspects it is Nicholas.
I missed the initial point about Nick possibly being the one abusing Gabi.
That’s interesting to think about.
Also, I wonder about why Gabi was really moved out of the lovely guest room that Clair herself set her up in into the junk/sewing room. At first I thought she was punishing her. Perhaps she was moving her either further away from her husband, or closer to their room where she could hear what was going on.
Both Clair and Nick seem to hate Gabi for different reasons. Nick hated her from the beginning because they couldn’t afford a nanny and because he seems a bit racist/xenophobic. Clair liked her at first, and then suddenly could not stand her. Is that because Nick forced himself on her?
Aah, thank you!
Have a good day. 🙂
I may have mentioned this before, but want to again, in response to your question whether anyone is helping these people. In addition to my full time job, being a mom and running (to the extent I feel like it) a farm, I am a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). One of “my” kids is a trafficked girl. This show tragically captures the true awfulness (is that a word?) of what is out there for people who are poor, or alone. Social Workers get paid practically NOTHING (but more than my CASA work does), which is what leads to so much fraud. In a world where we pay reality tv workers millions and pay social workers who go into bug infested, drug dens to remove children practically nothing, it is a sad sad state of affairs. Anyway, if any of you finds a little extra time on your hands, there is a CASA office in most counties/parishes. Please consider volunteering. The kids are our future, and they need you. You can take as many or as few cases as you choose.
CASA is a fantastic way of making a difference. Thanks for reminding us of that. Please remember that these cases can go on for years and the CASA should volunteer with the expectation of living in the area for the next few years.
Thank you for sharing this @bravocueen.
We don’t have CASA in Canada, need to find out if there’s an equivalent. I hear you re Social Workers and their pay scale.
When I attended University I worked part-time as an advocate for Assaulted Women, and Children; which at times was rewarding and others heartbreaking. Now, I am a full-time psychotherapist (has its own challenges) and teach yoga part-time for balance/my own mental health.
Hmm, if Nick did force himself on Gabi then it would make perfect sense Claire suddenly; disliking her and moving her out of the guest room.
Yes, it was clear from the beginning Nick didn’t care for Gabi as a person, and with his financial challenges thought of her as a added burden.
My initial point re Nick abusing Gabi was: the surprised look on his face when Claire was telling police Gabi self-harms and has issues; his look led me to thinking he is the one causing Gabi’s injuries and Claire is covering for him?!?!
I’m excited anout Sunday, and I’m not. *sigh*
Oh gawd more awful theories in a show with so much despair. It seems to make some sense of the Clair, Nick, and Gabi triangle. I love and hate this show for obvious reasons.
Copy that. 😉