The apple never seems to fall far from the tree, and now we finally have answers as to why Andrew Cunanan is such a lying, delusional, narcissistic sociopath: his dad basically groomed him to be that way.
Modesto Cunanan favors his son over his other children, brags about how successful he is even though he can barely hold a job and eventually flees the country with stolen money and most of his family’s savings. He tells Andrew he’s special, that his dreams will come true if he just imagines them and to appreciate the best things in life. These are not terrible things to teach your children, but Modesto lays it on so thick that Andrew begins to live in Modesto’s fantasy world. Once Modesto flees and Andrew’s vision of him is shattered, it doesn’t seem to shake Andrew out of his privileged fantasy. He just doubles down and picks up the trail of lies where his Dad left off.
This is all in stark contrast to Versace. The scenes between him and his Mother are incredibly brief, but his mom is supportive of him at a young age (instead of in denial about who he really is) and when Versace balks at challenging work, his mother urges him to continue. It would have been nice to see even more of Versace’s childhood, but as we’ve slowly discovered, this show isn’t really about Versace.
I’ve been wondering since this series started who Andrew really was and how he got to be so awful. As we set up for the final showdown next week – when Andrew’s time on the run will finally be over – I feel like I finally know who this man is. The backwards timeline took a long time to figure out, but now part of me wants to go back and watch it again. In hindsight, it would be so much easier to understand the progression of this spoiled little boy who turned into cold-hearted killer.
It makes us feel better to know how someone became capable of so much evil. The reasoning separates us from them, because we don’t dare dream that there’s only a thin line separating those who snap and those who don’t. It feels good to know Cunanan had a violent, delusional upbringing and there was total justification for what he did, right?
The truth is, there are a lot of crappy parents out there, but not every child grows up to go on a murder spree. Cunanan’s parents were definitely one of the secret ingredients that led to his downfall as a human being, but there had to be something else. That, I think, is the unknowable thing about Andrew Cunanan. He had friends, and at times he had money. But he still decided to do terrible things. We’ll never know the specific reasons for his horrible choices because we were only able to skim the surface of his story, but at least Cunanan is no longer a blank canvas. We know he was loved, he had his heart broken and he was somebody’s best friend. This show humanized a man who was previously just a headline to me. It does not make me feel sympathetic for him, though. If anything, it just adds to the list of tragedies surrounding him.
Next week, we jump back to the ending and follow the events immediately following Versace’s murder. We know there will be closure on Cunanan’s side, and hopefully the Versace and Donatella arc will feel just as satisfying.
Dailybreak.com
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