American Crime SE 2 EP 9
With the finale of American Crime coming next week, episode nine saw Taylor being resigned to a life in jail. We also saw Graham’s fortunes take a turn, while Coach Sullivan tries to will his family back to normal.
Taylor wants his mom to give up on him so she isn’t dragged down with him. Of course Anne is never going to do that and is determined to show the world that her son is not just a nut who decided all of a sudden to shoot another kid.
Super hacker Sebastian is busy uncovering the ugly truths left on Leyland’s servers. He is about to make the esteemed school very sorry for the comments made about Taylor in back in forth emails.
Sebastian shows his little daughter what he’s doing, “See, that. That’s justice.”
I admire what this guy’s doing. Illegal or not, this is the only justice offered to Taylor so far. It’s not going to keep him from being convicted of murder however. If he uncovers some texts from the now dead Wes talking about the beating the team put on Taylor, that could help somewhat. Especially if combined with the fact Wes did tell Taylor he would kill him moments before Wes was shot.
Kevin acts shocked that his team beat Taylor up. It seemed clear to me that he told them what to do without actually giving them a direct order. A Code Red for sure.
An exit package from Leyland is the best Dr. Graham can hope for according to her lawyer. She still never shows any concern for the damage done to any of the students. Her job is her sole focus and how she is being treated.
We had the expected fight at basketball practice and Eric gets the “gay boy” blast when he tries to step in. Sullivan makes an effort to talk to Eric, but the boy sees the entire school as a show where no one means what they say. The coach believes he’s being sincere, but his words ring hollow to Eric now. None of these leaders are living the mantras they’ve preached.
I was about giddy when Dr. Graham learned of the server attacks. I couldn’t wait for the squirming to begin. Although she appeared unscathed by the leaks so far.
The quote of the show came from Kevin’s mother. “We need him to start talking to us,” referring to her son. Parents can talk til they’re blue in the face, but having their kids open up is so crucial. Communication doesn’t work very well when it’s just going one way. That’s easier said than done of course, with teens and parents seemingly from different planets.
Principal Chris Dixon finds out he is going to get ripped at the meeting about how he handled the fight between the two Mexican kids and the black kid who was harassing Evy. Dixon bends as suggested, but it matters not. He gets blindsided with questions about Taylor. The school board lays the blame at his feet for not doing something about Taylor once he arrived at Marshall High.
Amazingly Dr. Graham uses the hacking as a chance to dissolve the board at Leyland. She took great pleasure in this, making sure Rhys Bashir knows how stupid he and the others were to make such comments in email exchanges.
Surely Sebastian isn’t done with her. Cell phones are too convenient for her not to have sent a text saying something derogatory about one of the kids involved in this case.
Sebastian is a good hacker, but not great with people. He runs off his date with talk of illegal activities online. Hacking 101: remain in the shadows my man!
The lawyer lets Anne know these hacked emails don’t really help Taylor’s case at all. It’s gonna take more digging by Sebastian, but Anne is crazy if she thinks a text message or two is going to give her boy a get out of jail free card.
But once again Coach Sullivan’s wife Steph shows just how dumb she is by first visiting Anne, them spilling the beans about her daughter trying to be the Nino Brown of Leyland. Taylor would have never ratted on the girl and her mom just handed over the info! She does try to scare Anne by saying her daughter could tell a jury that she sold Taylor drugs the night he claims he was raped. This just shows that no matter how much people try to say how they want to do the right thing, the human always comes out of people when pushed to the wall. Coach Sullivan shows that he’s just as self-serving as Graham and his wife is proving the same when it comes to protecting their daughter. I think nearly all parents would be doing the same, but when you watch it as an outsider you get see how much damage that can sometimes do when you protect your kids wrongdoing.
The best scene of the night came when Eric’s mom had to bring Peter back to his dad when she ran out of money. The talk between Eric and her was hard to watch. He tells her, “You were supposed to be here with us.” Â She says she was just trying to save her one son she had left.
A damn crushing blow to any young man to hear their mother think of them as no longer her kid. Her pulling back as he tried to hug her said it all. This lady let other things pull her away from what should have been one of the most important people in her life. His basketball coach stood by him more than she did.
Joey Pollari did an excellent job as Eric in this scene.
Evy visits Taylor for what looks to be the last time, and talks about getting paid by Leyland to hush up. She is proud of it actually. Taylor still insists he was raped and she tells him he has to believe in himself.
The LaCroix family tells their investigator about Kevin’s possible role in the beating, and Sebastian begins talking to the journalist covering the case. Meanwhile Graham takes the vote that officially dissolves the board of directors at Leyland.
I look for next week’s finale to give some kind of punishment to Graham, although I’m prepared for a Game of Thrones type deal where evil wins over good.
I don’t think the finale will give us the answers to what happened between Taylor and Eric. Taylor let it be known when Evy asks him directly that Eric did rape him though. This season has been about how the authorities handle such situations more than the actual event. We’ll wait and see what happens though….