American Crime Review: Season Two Episode Three

We have a fascinating plot development on American Crime  with Season 2 Episode 3, and besides some fantastic scenes featuring Felicity Huffman and Lili Taylor, the focus is on Kevin LaCroix and his participation in the events surrounding Taylor’s assault.

On Season 2 Episode 2, Anne went to a reporter out of desperation over no one taking her son’s case seriously. The result is an article in the local newspaper exposing Kevin as being responsible for what happened that night. Kevin’s parents are reeling from the article, and they quickly arrange for him to discuss his involvement with their lawyer. What happens next is completely shocking.

In his confession, Kevin states that he did have sex with someone, but it was a woman. He also reveals that he was drunk the night he had sex and it may or may not have been consensual. The lawyer tells Kevin that he could get arrested for being intoxicated and having sex. Terri is stunned and berates her son for his behavior, but she also calls in a favor to a detective to find out that the assault victim is a boy. The reactions of both his parents over this revelation are vastly different. Terri’s is disbelief.

Terri: Boys don’t get raped. Boys don’t do that to other boys.

His father’s reaction is anger, with yelling and demanding to know if he touched that boy. The answer is no, that he did not, but these reactions tell a lot about each character.

Michael has been the calm and more tolerant parent and reacted with outrage that his son would do something like that. While we still know little about Michael and his motives, we do know that he has a violent streak in him. On the other hand, Terri is a woman who, up until this point, has been very stern and who is fiercely protective of her son. This revelation leaves her shocked to the point that she asks the detective to break his code, and when his response is silence, she uses the same question an employee she fired earlier in the episode asked her.

Terri: Can’t you do anything for us?

The resulting silence and Terri’s deep breath make her realize her mistakes, not only by asking this detective to do something for her because they are people of color, but that her refusal to help out the person she fired was coming from a place of desperation and not a common skin color.

Terri has a lot of internalized racism which needs more exploration, but her realization that entitlement is something she uses and possesses just as much as anyone else is breath-taking. And in some ways, it explains why she is so possessive of where Kevin goes to school, who he dates, and what length’s she will go to protect his future — including but not limited to asking police officers for classified information.

America Crime does such a fantastic job at exploring all aspects of human emotion that the additional exploration of classism within the construct of internalized racism is amazing. It also shows that even though Leslie and Terri are both very entitled, their experiences are different. In the last episode, Leslie insisted that Kevin not be the captain to get suspended.

This latest development shows that Terri is very powerful, and that she has the means and connections to make things tough for Leslie. This tiny plot device will have an enormous impact on future episodes. I’m fully expecting that Leslie and the school will have to respond publicly about Kevin’s involvement now that the article is out.

These plot developments are useful because they connects the characters even more. However, I’m wondering how much more time is going to be spent on the Thurgood Marshall school arc. Given the events surrounding Kevin’s confession, the show seems to be pulling focus on two crimes: one male and one female. The exploration of both crimes should be interesting, and we can only wait to see how Leslie and the rest of the characters react next week.

Other Thoughts:

• Eric remains a mystery regarding his sexuality — and whether or not he is merely putting on a show when it comes to being sexist toward the girls at Leyland.
• Connor Jessup! If I could just hand him an Emmy right now, I would.
• Lili Taylor has an excellent scene in which she tries to prevent domestic abuse from happening in her restaurant. I’d like to see more of her background and if she confronts the man because of what happened to Taylor or something that happened to her character in the past.

Do you agree with the LaCroix’s reactions? What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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America Crime airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.