American Crime Season 2 Episode 2 recap
I can’t wait to see the ratings overall for season two of “American Crime.” It will be interesting to see how many folks stick with it considering the content isn’t for the mainstream crowd who is used to shows like…..I’m reaching for an example since I don’t usually bother with ABC, NBC, or CBS shows.
Episode two is all about capturing the horrors of being a rape victim shown this time through the eyes of a guy. A young guy who doesn’t want justice, he just wants the whole thing to go away.
His mom Anne has a tough time navigating the system as she has to go from one authority figure to the next. She wants justice for her son, but at every turn Taylor is being painted as the one at fault.
There’s more friction between the classes this episode with a town hall debate over Leyland’s plans for expansion. The parents of the public school kids see no reason the city should give the rich folks any breaks at all. The feeling is understandable. However, if these parents think keeping more money for the government to run the public schools more efficiently is going to improve public education, they are in for a big let down.
The education system in America is badly broken and can’t keep pace with the fast-changing economy due to slow moving government in charge of teaching our kids. Children get very little real world training at public schools. While they learn how to be a cog in a giant machine, they should be taught how to think for themselves and given an updated gameplan to navigate adult life.
There is more from Headmistress Graham that shows she is basically interested in showing the school to have been proactive in the rape case. Behind closed doors, she just wants it to go away, like Taylor.
I can’t imagine what women go through with these rape kits. Guys hear the term all the time on TV crime dramas, but the view from Taylor getting checked out showed it from a whole new angle. The rape of his spirit is continuing long after the captains’ party ended.
Something that will come into play soon is Kevin’s mom being in tight with the police force. She puts a “hit” out on a dude that she nearly ran into with her car. Her cop buddy is more than willing to make sure this guy never messes with her again.
That same police force is going to be helpful to her kid soon.
Eric is going to be the fall guy for the school as he is forced to sit out one ball game. Kevin tells him to stop being a little bitch and “after this, it’s done.” This punishment is the idea of Graham and is for show only, yet it’s still more than the coach wants to do about the incident. He refuses to believe anything close to a rape happened. The headmistress doesn’t really want to believe it and is focused on crisis control only.
The public school board debate was much different than any we have seen from the leaders at Leyland. While Graham and the board of directors discuss multi-million dollar fundraisers, the public board is debating at what time the free breakfast should start for the poor kids.
The meanest person on the show? Kevin’s mom. Making her kid take back the $900 bracelet he gave his girl after their little fight….cold blooded son! The kid does what she says too. Knows better. Mom would have went upside that head harder than his GF after she handed over the bling.
If you’re super rich and reading this. You may be unaware you can have your name on a private school building. For a mere million bucks you can scrawl your name on a place of higher, richer learning. Just scratch a check like Mercedes Benz to put their name on NFL stadiums. Graham makes this pitch to some millionaire son of a politician.
She’s not much on investigating assaults at her precious school, but she’s relentless in the pursuit of donors. I think her husband dislikes her. He for sure hates her school.
More awkwardness between Coach Sullivan and his daughter as they shop for his wife. He wants to protect her from the dangers of sex, but she knows it all. After all, her generation has had porn freely available their entire lives. Dad isn’t impressed by her idea of porn being a worthy tutorial on intimate relationships.
We don’t have to use much of our imagination to know what Sullivan would have done to his precious players had his daughter been the one who ended up on the web passed out drunk.
Evy and Taylor are seen together, but Taylor is as far away from being comfortable with her as he is with himself. The kid is damaged, and the only one fighting for him is having a hell of a time doing it without his cooperation or sympathy from the authorities.
Anne finally makes it to a real investigator, but this detective isn’t interested in finding fault with anyone except Taylor. Anne’s answers don’t satisfy the man, but she tells him it’s his job to figure out the details.
“You need to do something,” she angrily tells this man who is sworn to protect and serve.
Anne’s last resort is to call in a journalist. I would have thought the 911 call would be the last resort, but damn, it didn’t help at all.
The journalist makes it clear that Taylor’s name will eventually get linked to the story even while she leaves his name out. Should this call be Taylor’s maybe? He is under 18, but it will be his life that is further rocked by a news story of him being raped by a basketball team.
These are the things suicides are made of and unimaginable unless we have been under that kind of negative focus. In a perfect society, everyone would rally around Taylor when his victimization is revealed. In the jacked up society, we are actually in, he is going to be mocked, called a liar, and further humiliated.
He’s the victim and is headed for more abuse.
During episode two we get a peek into Eric’s life when he is seen with an older dude in a fast car. The two guys have a makeout session, but Eric isn’t willing to go too far….I guess unless he’s raping someone, allegedly.
The preview for episode three looked like things are escalating fast as Kevin is seen in jail. Stay tuned….