I’m back! After taking a mental health break (those are good for you), yours truly is here to cover this week’s chilling episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Before I get started, a million thanks are due to Clare Sidoti for covering last week’s heartbreaking episode for me.
We all need a mental health break every now and then, and perhaps if Andrew Cunanan had taken one, maybe he wouldn’t have become the murdering psychopath that he was. Who am I kidding though? The man was totally born that way, and a lot of people figured that out quickly while some did not and by the time they did, it was too late for them.
I am, of course, referring to Jeff Trail, who met an untimely death last week. This week’s episode focused on his backstory, which mirrored a bit of Gianni’s life at roughly the same time as far as the events and things that mattered to them both goes.
Gather ’round and let’s discuss “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
A Brave Choice: Gianni Versace is still alive in this episode (thanks flashbacks), and as always, he was arguing with Donatella about his decision to do an interview with Advocate magazine in which he will openly say that he’s gay. But Donatella is against him and fears a backlash since homophobia is still very much a thing. They compare Versace to Perry Ellis, the designer who walked his final runway show weakened by what was believed to be AIDS shortly before succumbing to the disease; Gianni sees it as the most important show of his career, Donatella as the moment people stopped buying his clothes sadly. Antonio also wants openness and shares his thoughts about the whole situation: For 13 years he’s been mistaken for Gianni’s assistant, and he wants their relationship to be public, which Donatella hates . She sees Antonio as a climber and a leech; the family business should concern only family.
A Man Obsessed: As for our serial killer, Cunanan has having his own crisis, albeit a less glamorous one: He’s on the phone with American Express, asking them if they can expand his credit so he can book a flight to Minneapolis. He has two friends there, he explains, and they owe him money, which will help pay off the card and its new limit, he claims. After getting his yes, Cunanan injects heroin between his toes, and we’re afforded a wider view into his private life: a miserable, bleak apartment, a closet full of well-pressed clothes and a collage of Gianni Versace, including that inevitable Advocate interview. Life isn’t going so well for the unhinged killer as it seems.
Back From The Dead: Shortly after, Cunanan is met at the airport by both David and Gulf War Navy veteran Jeffrey Trail as the series of events in this episode happened before their tragic deaths. Trail explains his leaving the Navy as his choice but there was something else going on with his discharge, and as soon as he links up with David in the airport he makes his feelings for Cunanan clear. “Everything he’s told you about his life is a lie,” Trail says. David feels sorry for him, but Trail has nothing but anger and a debt to pay. Cunanan had “accidentally” tried to out Trail to his father with a postcard signed, “Love, Drew, kiss kiss,” but Trail says he still owes Cunanan, at least enough to let him use his apartment for the weekend so long as they don’t have to interact. Big mistake.
A Surprising Proposal: When Cunanan comes home with David, David finally sees what Trails sees in Cunanan, which is nothing good. Then Cunanan pulls a fast one on David and proposes to him with a $10,000 watch, mind you. Unfortunately for Cunanan, David reacts with shame and pity and humiliation for both of them, which Cunanan ignores and tells him to think about. David does give him an answer later when they meet up with Linda (the same woman who will find Trail’s body, and who will tell the police about Cunanan). David says he’ll never marry him, that their relationship isn’t real. “It’s just another story,” he says, giving the watch back. Cunanan heads back to Trail’s apparent and ends viewing a tape of Trail giving some kind of interview about gays in the military.
Jeff’s Story: We are then taken back to two years earlier to see Trail in the Navy, and witness firsthand the incident he spoke about in the interview, where he saved a gay sailor’s life and it cost him his anonymity as someone mentioned to him about being able to identify gay men by tattoos. Sadly Trail tries, in a panic, to take a knife to the ink on his kneecap. With seemingly no way out, he begins to hang himself in the bathroom, until he changes his mind, gasping for breath, and goes another way: to a gay bar, where he meets Andrew Cunanan. The two become close, close enough that Cunanan tries to talk Trail out of doing the anonymous interview with CBS. But Trail knows: It’s just something he has to do. It’s the same sentiment echoed by Versace: a shared, quiet bravery that makes their deaths all the more aching.
A Tragic End: On the day of his murder, Trail finally has it out with Cunanan. He sees Cunanan for what he is: a selfish fraud. Cunanan tries to say he did a lot of him and gave him his life meaning. “Everything you gave me,” he says, “It means nothing. You have no honor.” Cunanan says he saved him. “You destroyed me!” Trail fires back. Cunanan tells him he loves him, and Trail answers, “No one wants your love.” From there, everything that happened in the previous episode and the events leading up to it add up. Cunanan brings Trail’s gun to David’s house and tells Trail to come and get it. While David goes downstairs to let Trail up to the apartment, Cunanan grabs a hammer. The episode ends with Trail’s sister and her parents leaving a message for him, not knowing that no one will get it.
Quote of the Night:
“You’ve never believed in anyone but yourself.” Trail
American Crime Story: Versace Recap: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Gives Life To One Man And Death To Another
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