American Crime Episode 1 recap

Even from the opening credits of the first episode of ABC’s American Crime, which resembled those of a feature film, you could probably tell you were getting into something unique on broadcast television, something more cinematic and theatrical, more gritty and real. And from there, the style of the direction from creator and executive producer John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), and the intense performances he elicited from his great cast, may have confirmed your belief that you were watching something fantastic (if you weren’t already too engrossed in the story). If there was any drawback, it’s that it is on a broadcast network, and a viewer is periodically snapped out of the world by a commercial break (although, some viewers may have found those breaks helpful, as a momentary rest from the fairly bleak situations of the show).

In American Crime Episode 1, we are immediately thrust into that bleak world, as Russ Skokie (Timothy Hutton) is awakened by a late-night phone call, and hears the news that is every parent’s worst nightmare. His son Matt is a possible murder victim, and Russ must fly to Modesto, Calif., to identify the body. Holding out hope that it may be a mistake, Russ makes the trip and sadly identifies his son in the morgue. It turns out that Matt’s wife, Gwen, has also been assaulted in the home invasion, and is in critical condition in the hospital.

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From there, we delve into the lives of all involved with and affected by the crime, each with their own reactions and motivations, and, for now, the series interestingly brings us into their worlds in sometimes claustrophobic manners of filming — extreme closeups, loud noises, cutoff sentences. Some scenes are almost reminiscent of a nightmare; fitting, considering the nightmare that the Skokies have entered through the death of their son, the nightmare that the Gutiérrez family has entered with the arrest of son Tony (Johnny Ortiz) and the nightmare of drug addiction that Carter Nix (Elvis Nolasco) and Aubry Taylor (Caitlin Gerard) seemingly can’t escape.

As the episode progressed, we unsurprisingly learned that this isn’t necessarily a black-and-white case, and that the murder victim may not have even been as innocent as his parents might think. In keeping with the series separate focus on each character or group of characters, until near the end, when their lives start intersecting, I’ll separately break down what we learned about, and saw from, each of them in Episode 1 of American Crime.

Russ Skokie and Barb Hanlon
After identifying Matt’s body, Russ contacts Barb (Felicity Huffman), Matt’s mother who is now divorced and estranged from Russ. Strangely, one of Barb’s first reactions when she arrives in Modesto is to wonder why the police called Russ first. That seems to really bother her. Russ explains that they happened to find his number in Matt’s home and needed someone for the ID. Barb thinks Russ should call their other son, Mark, and tell him the news, but Russ suggests they make the call together, as they need to be a family right now. Later, we see Barb, alone, calling Mark, telling him she doesn’t think the police are doing much on the case (although we see detectives investigating in other scenes, in Barb’s world she perhaps thinks that if they aren’t solely focused on this case, that “nothing” is happening. That probably would be a natural instinct among many parents in this situation, of course).

felicity-huffman-american-crime-barbWhen Detective Palmer (Brent Anderson) tells the Skokies that a Hispanic may be a suspect in their son’s murder, Barb mutters something about “illegals.” When the Skokies meet with Gwen’s parents later, and they emotionally talk about what it was like visiting their unconscious daughter in the hospital, Barb suggests they all talk to a reporter who wants to know about their story. Gwen’s parents are stunned and aren’t interested in revealing their personal story to the world, but Barb still insists that she and Russ will. During that interview, we learn more about the Skokies’ family situation, including that Matt had been in the military, signing up after 9/11, and Gwen was a local beauty queen.

Some of what Barb tells the reporter is more than Russ would like revealed, it turns out, including the fact that he left his family. Russ noticeably tenses up as Barb talks about how rough Matt had it growing up. We also hear more of Barb’s thoughts on  “illegals,” saying how ironic it was that her son had been fighting in another country, only to be killed in America by someone from another country. Here we start to get a sense of Barb’s bitterness and likely bigotry, not just regarding this crime against their son, but against life as a whole. As we follow the Skokies on a car ride leaving the interview, some of that anger comes to a head. Russ tells Barb that she doesn’t have to reveal everything about their personal lives. Barb insists Russ stop the car and let her out, and on the sidewalk, they have a blow up. Barb brings up how Russ’ gambling problem left the family in debut, and caused her and her children — “OUR children,” Russ reminds her — to live in public housing. To someone like Barb, this must have been the ultimate indignity, and she reminds Russ of how “those people” who also lived there treated them. Whether the time living in public housing among other ethnic groups caused Barb’s bigotry, or exacerbated an existing mindset, perhaps we will find out later.

In one of her more stinging insults to Russ, Barb tells him that he “has it easy” now as a parent when all he has to do is stand up and be sad. Russ reacts angrily, asking her if she really thinks this is “easy” for him. He tells her that he has overcome his gambling addiction and has worked hard over the years to reconnect with his sons, and gain back their trust. He clearly hasn’t earned Barb’s trust back, though, as she storms off down the street after Russ asks her to get back into the car. “Or walk, then,” Russ mutters as she storms off. “I don’t care.”

Matt’s murder, and its resulting mix of anger, sadness, stress and feelings of vengeance, has clearly reopened other old psychological and emotional wounds among the Skokies. But their world, and what they thought they knew of it with certainty, will be thrown for even more of a loop later in the episode, when a detective asks Russ if he knew everything about his son’s life. Russ explains that he and Matt spoke by phone every Sunday about his work, his life, his marriage. The police further explain to Russ that a large number of illegal drugs were found in Matt’s home, safely secured in a manner implying that they were not necessarily for him. Russ is confused, and the detective explains further, asking Russ if he thinks his son could have been a drug dealer. And while this suggestion stuns Russ, as viewers, given what we’ve learned elsewhere in the episode leading up to this point, that seems like a premise worth thinking about.

Hector Tontz
Not long after we learn of Matt’s murder, and the fact that some items were taken from his home, we go to a scene at a store, where a young man, Hector Tontz (Richard Cabral) is using a credit card to purchase some high-end headphones. After checking out, and signing the credit card receipt, the cashier thanks “Mr. Skokie.” So Hector has Matt’s credit card, and that instantly puts him high on our suspect list. Later, Hector is seen visiting a neighborhood dealer with the headphones, and it sounds like he’s a regular who stops by to exchange items for cash or drugs. This time, Hector takes $50 in exchange for the headphones.

american-crime-hector-richard-cabralLater on, Hector is again at a store trying to use Matt’s card, but the shopkeeper is suspicious, and asks Hector to wait a bit. Hector gets nervous and, saying he has to step out and make a phone call, leaves the store and begins hurriedly walking. From a dramatic point of view inside the shop, we see the shopkeeper waving at arriving police cars and pointing out Hector. Still from inside the shop, we witness the police pursuing Hector before finally shooting and wounding him, one bullet cracking the store window, that crack the only sound we hear during the intense scene.

In the hospital, handcuffed to his bed, Hector is grilled by police about Matt’s murder. Throughout the interrogation, we hear Hector frequently ask them, “Why did they have to shoot me?” It’s a familiar question straight from the headlines, but not necessarily one with a simple answer here, no matter where you fall ideologically on the subject of police use of force. Hector was indeed unarmed, but was also fleeing police. Hector reveals to police that while the car he was using was present at the scene the night of the murder (which didn’t even belong to him, but rather to the Gutiérrez auto shop), he had actually dropped off a “black dude” near the address where the killing occurred, and waited. Hector says the man was high on meth, and wanted more, and was “puffed out” about “settling a score” with a white guy who owed him. Later, the black man returned to Hector and the car, with cash cards. Hector says he did not ask what happened, but is able to tell police where to find the man, but not before answering his own persistent question about why the cops shot him: “Because you don’t give a damn about me.”

The Gutiérrez Family
We meet Alonzo Gutiérrez (Benito Martinez) as he comes home to his daughter Jenny (Gleendilys Inoa) and son Tony. Jenny has just been making out with a boy under the pretense of doing “homework,” but Alonzo isn’t falling for that, kicking the boy out. Later, Alonzo asks Tony what Jenny was really doing, and Tony says “homework,” but his hesitant manner shows that he is covering for his sister, and Alonzo doesn’t necessarily buy it. Alonzo reminds his son of that standard parental phrase: “I was a teenager once.” When his father leaves, Tony mutters about how he thinks Alonzo does not let his kids do much of anything.

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We learn that Alonzo runs an auto repair shop, and Tony helps him out there. At an early scene at the shop, we get a sense of  how deeply Alonzo wants to keep his kids on the straight-and-narrow. Some workmen arrive to pick up a car, one of them heavily tattooed. Alonzo tells the other man that he doesn’t want any gang tattoos around his kids, and the workmen quickly leave, after trying to argue that they weren’t gang tats.

Later, we see Tony alone at the garage, when Hector shows up and gives him some cash in exchange for using the car that was among the catalysts and key evidence for what happened to Matt. Hector drives away, and later, back in use of the car, Tony is driving along when police pull him over. After running his driver license, and asking Tony if the car belongs to him (Tony in vain trying to tell the officer that his dad wanted him to drive the car around), more officers show up and Tony is asked to come to the police station to ask questions. If you’ve ever been pulled over by police for any reason, you may have related to the nervousness Tony feels in this scene, but especially given that he probably knows something related to his renting out of the car may be in play here.

It’s also in this scene that we get more a sense of Tony’s naivete. He agrees to go down to the station and answer questions, without a lawyer, although he is not being arrested. Of course, plenty of people might not have the presence of mind to stand up for their rights at this point, especially a young person, and especially a young person of color, who probably is aware of news reports (or reports like yesterday’s Ferguson Report from the Department of Justice) of how wrong things can go wrong if you are perceived as causing trouble or not cooperating. So even though I was hoping Tony wouldn’t go, I can understand why he did.

At the station, detectives begin questioning Tony after telling him that his father is on the way. Tony is understandably nervous, and eventually is father does show up. It comes out that Tony has been renting out the car to Hector in exchange for cash, and Alonzo is dumbfounded and furious. In the opening scene with them at home, it seemed as if Alonzo trusted Tony more than his daughter, but Alonzo’s realization that that trust has been somewhat shattered is clear on his face. Displaying a bit of his own naivete, Alonzo tells his son to tell the police everything, still with no lawyer present and no charges filed. Alonzo’s belief is that since he and his (now-departed, we find out during this scene) wife came to America the “right way” and did everything else the “right way,” that if his son also does things here the “right way,” things will work out, and they can go home and handle the matter as a family. Some of Tony’s earlier frustrations that he muttered to himself come out to his father here, insisting that Alonzo never lets his kids do anything. So this was perhaps an ill-conceived act of rebellion, to some degree, on Tony’s part. He finds out just how ill-conceived it was near the end of the episode, when — in the wake of Hector’s and Carter’s apprehensions — Tony is also asked to put his hands behind him for cuffing. He is being arrested for murder.

Naturally, Alonzo is stunned. This is the payoff for doing things the “right way,” and for all of his years as a hardworking, dedicated father? As his screaming and crying son is taken away in handcuffs, begging for his father, Alonzo is held back by officers, at first trying to be somewhat rational in his explanation of how wrong this is, and eventually erupting into a shouting match with the officers. We don’t hear what he is saying, but we don’t have to. The image of a soundless, frightened father screaming is as if we are seeing it from afar, or in a dream. This scene is one of the excellent moments in this episode that encompasses that nightmarish feeling of being caught up in the system, helplessly, words losing all meaning, and all sights and sounds just becoming an overwhelming blur. We see it with Russ, too, throughout the episode, who gets overwhelmed and also has flashbacks, almost post-traumatic style, to his son’s wedding day. These are two anguished fathers whose nightmare is just beginning.

RELATED: INTERVIEW WITH “AMERICAN CRIME” COSTAR JOHNNY ORTIZ

Carter Nix and Aubry Taylor
By the time Hector tells police about the “black dude” he drove over to the area where Matt’s killing eventually took place, we as viewers likely think he is talking about Carter Nix. When we see Carter and his girlfriend Aubry throughout the episode, it is clear they are incredibly lost — lost in a world of meth, and, in Carter’s case, of world of sometimes uncontrollable anger. John Ridley’s direction during their scenes is very effective in conveying the dark, confused world they inhabit — but also at conveying the perhaps surprising moments of tenderness between them, and how they are almost as addicted to each other as to the drugs. On the walls of their dingy living space are several pages ripped from magazines, advertisements depicting happy couples walking on an exotic beach, and perhaps Aubry and especially Carter, it seems, harbor fantasies of escaping their current lives. But the hold that meth has on them is too strong. For every soft moment, there are also moments of violence.

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We meet the pair at a rave, where Aubry is jumped by two other young women for her drugs. Anxious to get more meth for Aubry, Carter (who, in a weird sense, almost seems to feel he is “providing” for her in the sense of keeping her high and happy, and unable to feel, at least momentarily, the hopelessness of their situation) visits a local dealer, carrying a gun to their meeting. Carter promises the man that Aubry will “do things” for him in exchange for a discount on the drugs, but the man still wants the asking price. Carter, beginning to get desperate, begs the man to just give him the merchandise, before exploding and pummeling the man with his gun and taking the drugs. This is not before, however, tearing out another page from a magazine in the dealer’s home, to add to his and Aubry’s wall of what-might-be. He brings that page, along with the drugs, back home to his woman, both a form of escape.

They light up and smoke, but their brief idyll is interrupted by the police. Hector has pointed them to Carter’s place, and the raid is quick and rough, with both Carter and Aubry hauled away. Later, investigators notice Aubry’s eyes are blackened and bruised. They ask her if Carter did this, and tell her she doesn’t have to protect him anymore. She says nothing, which would not be unusual in a domestic violence case. While we haven’t seen, to this point, Carter abusing Aubry, it’s not out of the realm of possibility, given how prone he is to quick mood swings, as we’ve seen. But it also may have happened during the police raid, as Aubry’s face was jammed down to the floor, and it didn’t appear she was originally has bruised before then, as she is at the episode’s end.

When Russ and Barb are informed that suspects are in custody, Barb’s initial reaction is to worry about how long it may take to get an execution of the suspect. The detective informs her that they still have a long way to go before they might get to that step. Obviously seething for justice and revenge, Barb insists on seeing the suspect, and she eventually watches as Carter is brought, shackled, through holding, and the two of them make extended eye contact, Barb particularly staring daggers at Carter. Two disparate people who likely never would have encountered each other outside of a horrific act.

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Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman photos: ABC/Bill Records

Benito Martinez and Johnny Oritz, Richard Cabral, Elvis Nolasco and Caitlin Gerard photos: ABC/Van Redin