This week’s episode rewound once again, this time to May 1997 to the killing of Lee Miglin. As Andrew Cunanan crosses the country on a murder spree, Miglin was victim three of five and the second murder we see.
As far back as episode one, a subtle theme of the series is the masks we all wear. Beyond the fashion, there is our persona and how we present ourselves to the world.
Lee Miglin’s wife Marilyn (the impeccable Judith Light) wore a literal mask of makeup. During a Home Shopping Network broadcast for her perfume brand and while introducing her husband at a political fundraiser, Marilyn exuded confidence and power. You could tell by looking at her she was all about getting shit done. She brags about her epic romance with her husband, but behind closed doors, you could feel a strain between them.
As Marilyn takes off her mask by slathering on the cold cream, she lets her guard down and she is vulnerable and yearning for something her husband isn’t giving her. After her husband’s murder, she lets her façade crack so very briefly to show her grief, but then it’s back to literal business at HSN. It’s all about keeping up appearances for her and sticking by her statement “It was a random killing.” No one must know the truth, especially Marilyn. Is is sadder that she lies to herself or to society?
Miglin’s (Mike Farrell) mask was more metaphorical than his wife’s. On the surface, he seemed like a typical Chicago millionaire, a doting husband who helped his wife with her business, a religious man who kept a prayer altar in his basement. The show portrayed him to be racked with guilt at his infidelity and at odds between his Catholicism and gayness. “I tried,” he pleads in prayer.
It seems like a punishment worse than death when Cunanan sets out to not only murder Miglin, but expose him to the world as he wraps him in one of his signature tape helmets, changes him into women’s underwear and scatters the crime scene with gay porn magazines. Miglin can no longer hide and he knows this will expose him to Marilyn and to the world. What is the worse fate for him – to be dead or disgraced?
Finally, there’s Cunanan. He seems to wear a different mask all the time and his motives still are not clear. The writers and producers of the show told Vanity Fair that Cunanan loathed successful people like Miglin who only magnified his supposed failures, but that didn’t come through clearly except with Cunanan getting annoyed with Miglin’s plans for a Chicago skyscraper.
Otherwise, three episodes in and we still don’t know who the real Cunanan is. Clearly, he’s a monster, but what broke and how? Did anyone get a chance to see behind his mask? Or is it uglier than we can even imagine?
Next week, we’ll see Cunanan’s first and second victims and get an insight into his homelife, which will hopefully answer some of these questions!
Dailybreak.com
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