The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Recap: Season 2, Episode 7, “Ascent”
One highlight of this Ryan Murphy-produced take on the criminal drama surrounding the death of famed fashion designer Gianni Versace has been one Ms Penélope Cruz. It’s been a delight to see the Spanish actress intermittently show up as Donatella Versace with her striking platinum hair and outfits to match. In this latest episode, which still mostly centers on Andrew Cunanan’s backstory, we get to see how Gianni’s brush with death has him planning for a day when he won’t be at the helm of the business anymore. He’s encouraged his sister to work closely with him in an upcoming collection though he explodes when he sees she’s not really pushing herself as a designer. Not only were we glad to see Penélope and Édgar Ramírez back at it tenderly sniping at each other as the Versace siblings but seeing the two recreate the infamous bondage dress they showcased at Vogue’s 100th Anniversary Party was just divine. Mostly because Cruz looked amazing strutting her stuff in the leather, belted dress.
Talking to InStyle about the show’s wardrobe and their work with Cruz, costume designer Allison Leach noted how precise the actress wanted to be when it came to playing Donatella. And with the fashion house adamantly uninvolved with the series and actual Versace pieces going for the thousands on eBay, Leach and her fellow designer Lou Eyrich knew they had to get creative. Thankfully, it sounds like Cruz was very involved in the process. “She also really wanted to project the gravitas of the situation, so she did wear a lot of black, which Donatella did,” Leach told InStyle. “So then the silhouette becomes even more important, and the details, like the perfect Versace belt. Those details really sell it. Penélope likes to wear Versace in her own life and has tremendous respect for the brand, so whenever we’d find some gem, she would get so excited and say, ‘Can I keep this?!‘”
As we begin nearing the end of this season of American Crime Story we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give Ms Cruz and the show’s costume designers their due. With that in mind, we hereby offer a wholly subjective ranking of the many outfits the Oscar-winning actress has donned as Donatella Versace so far in the show. Spoiler alert: she looks stunning in pretty much every single one of them, surprising no one.
7. Down To Business Suit
Even when dressed down to talk business—she wore this when deciding to scrap the idea of making Versace a publicly-traded company, a lifelong dream of Gianni’s—Donatella exudes confidence with the perfect golden flourish. Still, though, compared to everything else Cruz got to wear, this was rather boring.
6. Mourning in Turtleneck
In contrast to the popping colors of Miami, and fitting her grief over her recent loss, this black turtleneck/jacket combo is as understated as Donatella gets. Knowing that she’d need to confront Gianni’s “companion” (played by Ricky Martin), the harsh silhouette and combative fabric (doesn’t get more confrontational than shoulder-padded leather) make sense as she tries to assert herself in her brother’s old home.
5. The Bondage Dress In The Making
Arguably the highlight of this episode (and of the show’s fashion) is seeing how Gianni and Donatella ended up working together to craft the infamous dress that she ended up wearing to the Vogue’s 100th Anniversary Party back in 1993. Using belts as structural accessories? Genius.
4. Work It, In Denim
You start noticing a lot about Cruz’s Donatella when you put her outfits together like this: there’s a simplicity to her style that nevertheless gets its understated elegance from pieces that would otherwise be needlessly garish on anyone else or paired with some other outfit. Take those golden buttons, that bold belt and that bracelet. They’re both too much and just enough at the same time. A perfect outfit for making the rounds of your fashion empire.
3. A Mournful Bride
That is really what she looks like here, no? The veil, the embroidery, the classic and decidedly Italian elegance make Donatella look like she’s a bride in mourning, ready to let out her grief in agonizing wails.
2. That Pink Dress
Listen, if you told us this was a picture of Cruz taken at an awards after-party, we’d be inclined to believe you. Sure, we prefer the Spanish actress in her natural dark brown hair, but she’s been known to wow people on the red carpet time and time again, and this dress (which barely got seen in the actual episode) is a stunner. Fit for a fashion queen.
1. The Pink Jacket
Donatella serving you bubblegum female executive realness in this gorgeous over-the-top jacket is everything. The rolled-up sleeves say “I’m ready for anything” but the jewelry, which includes golden bracelets, earrings, and a coin/pendant necklace truly remind you that Gianni’s sister was (and still is) a fashion icon who’d never be caught dead without the perfect accessories.
For the past several weeks, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) has taken center stage on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. As the story increasingly became one about the ways in which internal and external homophobia affect and even ruin lives, it made sense for creator Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith to zero in on the spree killer and his many victims. Aside from an appearance in episode five, the Versaces themselves have been absent from the story bearing their name.
Wednesday’s installment of the FX miniseries, however, brought both Gianni (Edgar Ramirez) and especially Donatella (Penelope Cruz) back to the fore. Yes, there was plenty of Andrew, as we saw him attempting to make ends meet as an escort, flirting with rich older men at an opera, and even meeting and charming his eventual second victim, David Madsen (Cody Fern). But much of this episode is spent watching Gianni become increasingly stricken by illness, and seeing Donatella step up to take charge of the House of Versace.
The siblings start the episode with a fight, as Donatella presents an idea for a new dress to Gianni: fashion as weaponry. Gianni grows angry with her, because she used other people’s sketches for her ideas instead of sketching on her own. He’s angry with his illness and takes it out on her.
Soon enough, though, they come back together to design a winner: a black dress made partially of leather straps. It’s BDSM-inspired, just kinky enough to raise eyebrows but still appropriate for a function — where, at Gianni’s behest, Donatella is the one to wear it. The dress draws gasps and excited headlines, not just for Gianni, but for his sister as well. It’s a display of strength from the sister of the House, a show that she is a formidable and powerful woman.
This episode is called “Ascent,” and while that certainly could be applied to the social-climbing Andrew, I think it’s far more relevant for Donatella. So far this series, she’s been a supporting character, a shadow who appears briefly in every other installment or so. When she does, no matter how iconic she looks, she always feels like part of someone else’s story. “Ascent” is her narrative, her coming out.
That show of strength comes at just the right time, however, as Gianni unfortunately grows even sicker. Suddenly, Donatella must take up the reins of the company, a responsibility that clearly terrifies her. She’s a star — we know this because we know her contemporarily, but it’s also absurdly obvious as she shows off her and Gianni’s dress. But she doesn’t quite know it yet.
And so as she addresses the employees of the House of Versace at episode’s end, we see Donatella slowly becoming more comfortable with herself. She starts off hesitant: “So my brother is sick. You all know this. Gianni is suffering a rare form of ear cancer. He decided to go to Miami and rest. While he is recovering, I will be taking care of the day-to-day operations.”
She says the last part with a level of doubt in her ability to do so, much less that she’s actually going to do it. But then, when she shares her assurance that her brother will beat his illness, her own confidence grows. “My brother is stubborn; don’t forget that,” she says with a chuckle. “He’s stubborn about life. And he will beat this sickness. He loves every one of you. He loves his work. He loves this place. So I’ve no doubt my brother will be back. In the meantime, I am honored and humbled to take the reins of this company while he recovers.”
Donatella says those last lines through the start of her tears. Cruz’s performance is remarkable here, as she restrains the emotion and powers through it. There’s an old saying that watching someone on the verge of tears is always more powerful than watching them actually cry. Cruz proves why that’s so true by powering through them, then taking things back to business.
“Our last runway show was our most talked-about to date,” Donatella says, rallying not just the troops but herself. “We must be talked about, or we are nothing. And now that Gianni’s away, we have to be even more bold, not less. We have to show that we are strong, daring — that we are relevant. And that this House will survive. No matter what, it will.”
It’s a hell of a scene, and encapsulates why Cruz’s performance is so damn indelible. We know what happens to Versace — we know the House survives — but if we were feeling any doubt, Donatella would assuage our fears. She’s a titan learning she’s a titan, with a phenomenal career ahead of her. In that final line, as she declares the House will live on, you can feel Donatella believe in her future, too.
The two intertwined plotlines on this week’s American Crime Story involve future serial killer Andrew Cunanan and future fashion designer Donatella Versace both coming into their own, in very different ways.
Andrew has yet to fully blossom into the master con-man we know he is. Instead, he’s working a dead-end job at a pharmacy. He’s miserable with his life, and while he likes to tell lies – he brags that he’s finishing up his PhD, which isn’t even close to true – he hasn’t quite caught on to the fact that he can talk his way into a comfortable life. Instead, he pines for it. And he returns home to his fragile, emotionally unstable mother and grows furious when he sees she’s purchased non-brand ice cream instead of Häagen-Dazs.
“Why do you have to get so upset?” his mother asks.
“Because I want the best!” Andrew yells.
Donatella, meanwhile, is trying to come with the terms that Versace could die from his ear cancer. She’s not ready for the company to be left in her hands; not ready to lose her brother so soon. It seems her instinct is to ignore things and hope it will all work out, but Versace clearly doesn’t agree. He’s all but accepted that he’s going to die, and he wants Donatella to prepare for his death, and to prepare for her future in the spotlight. The tragedy is, of course, that later Versace will beat the cancer, but die anyway.
For now, though, he’s alive, and he’s not in the best of moods. Dealing with his illness is affecting him emotionally, which leads him to fly off the handle and berate Donatella for having others sketch her dress designs instead of doing it herself.
“What do you want from me?” Donatella asks.
“I want everything,” Versace yells.
If They Could See Me Now
From these two setups springs the events of the episode. Donatella learns to find confidence in her dress designs, going so far as to model the dress herself at a gala. Andrew, in turn, learns to use his own unique brand of confidence to “sell himself.”
At one point, Andrew ends up at an escort service, but the cold woman who runs it doesn’t seem very impressed. When he says he’s Asian American, the escort service owner quickly replies: “Gay men don’t want Asians.” No matter what Andrew says, the escort service owner remains nonplussed. Undeterred, Andrew goes out on the hunt.
His journey takes him to a play, where he meets three older gay men: Norman, Lincoln and Gallow. We know from last week’s episode that Andrew will eventually end up with Norman, but first he strikes up a (paid) relationship with Lincoln. Andrew will basically be on-call to Lincoln for a weekly allowance.
This is, in theory, what Andrew wanted – disposable income for no real work. Yet Andrew doesn’t have the mindset to be a kept-man, and before long, he’s discovered David at a fancy restaurant. Andrew is clearly taken with this young, shy man, but we know from previous episodes that it’s merely an infatuation rather than actual romantic feelings, and we also know it will end tragically, with David shot dead in the tall grass by the side of a river.
For now, though, David is alive, and appears to be taken with Andrew. He opens up, and tells Andrew a story about unpopular girl he was friends with in high school. David told this girl that one day, he would be a successful architect and build a house they could live in together. Later, when he finally told her he was gay, she was so upset she never spoke to him again.
Andrew’s wooing of David backfires: when Lincoln learns Andrew is spending his weekly allowance on other men, he cuts Andrew off. Looking for new companionship, Lincoln cruises a gay bar and picks up a strange, twitchy young man named Kevin. Kevin insists that he’s not gay, that he merely goes to the gay bar so that men will buy him drinks. Yet he agrees to come home with Lincoln, which leads to a shocking act of violence. Seemingly unprovoked in any real way, Kevin brutally bludgeons Lincoln to death – just as Andrew is coming through the door.
After witnessing the murder, Andrew is shaken, yet he also tells Kevin, “You should run.” Perhaps here, the seed has been planted in Andrew’s mind. Here is the impetus of Andrew’s future murder-spree; the germ of the idea. It’s like an infestation suddenly in his brain, festering until the day he finally decided to murder Jeff Trail.
The other thing Andrew learns from this event: the murder of gay men isn’t a top priority for law enforcement. Later, talking with Norman, the two discuss how blase the cops are about investigating Lincoln’s murder. Here, too, perhaps is the realization that colors Andrew’s future actions. He can kill other gay men if need be, and possibly get away with it, simply because the police won’t really care.
His meal ticket dead, Andrew decides to charm Norman into the same deal he had with Lincoln. And here, we see the first signs of the Andrew we’ve come to know from the future. He turns on the charm, and repurposes David’s childhood story about the unpopular girl to win over Norman.
It works.
Soon, Andrew is leaving his frantic mother behind – after “accidentally” fracturing her shoulder blade in a tussle – and moving into a huge, seaside home with Norman.
At the big, new house Andrew and Norman are moving into, Andrew stands on the terrace overlooking the ocean and says, “If they could see me now.”
“Who?” Norman asks.
“Everyone.”
Donatella, meanwhile, has learned to embrace the spotlight. Wearing the dress she designed has increased attention in the Versace brand, and she gathers her staff around to tell them about Versace’s illness, and how she’ll be taking over the company in his absence. We can almost hear her think, “If they could see me now…”
Ascent
I hate to say this, especially since I’ve enjoyed so much of the season, but American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace is spinning its wheels at this point. I continue to think the backwards-moving narrative was a mistake, and it’s cost the show some serious momentum.
Yes, it’s interesting to learn more about Andrew in reverse. And yes, the way the show has flipped the narrative from being about a murder to rather being about how the murder (or rather, murders) happened is clever. But the side-effect of this approach is a show slowly running out of steam.
This week’s episode gave Penélope Cruz a chance to step back into the spotlight, and Cruz does good work here, but Donatella, and even Versace himself, both seem almost out-of-place at this point. We’ve spent so much time with Andrew that when the Versace storyline pops up, it unbalances things a bit.
Darren Criss remains the show’s MVP, and the actor has a lot of fun this week discovering who Andrew is, or rather, who Andrew is turning into. I also really enjoy Michael Nouri‘s performance as the sophisticated, calm Norman, who clearly knows Andrew is trouble but is willing to take a chance on getting involved with him anyway.
Next week, we’ll go even further back in time and learn about Andrew’s destructive, emotionally manipulative father. These events won’t exonerate Andrew, but they will go a long way towards explaining who he is.
The second installment of FX’s American Crime Story, The Murder of Gianni Versace, is absolutely everything it’s been hyped up to be: glitz, glam, and an over-loading of gay culture circa 1997. However, one particular scene has already launched as a staple in gay culture circa now. “Gianni, it’s me, your sister.“ A new gay tagline that will most likely last all the way through pride month – or the Versace Fall collection.
We either have Ryan Murphy to thank for writing that line, or the fabulous Key West performer and local celebrity Queen Elle Taylor for delivering it. We at DSD couldn’t help but reach out to see how such a small little scene became an early highlight of the show, and who was the queen that landed the Drag Donatella role.
Drag Star Diva: How did this part come about?
Elle Taylor: Well. I was on my way back home from Tampa, and as I was driving down the Keys, I received a call from Kimball, the owner of Aqua nightclub (the bar I work at) saying I should call Glenn – the agent looking to fill the roll for the casting department. Once I got off the phone with him I gave Glenn a call and he was ever-excited to possibly have found someone. After talking to him we agreed that first thing in the morning I’d film my audition at my home and send it in. A few hours I got a call saying I got the roll.
DSD: What were thoughts about playing “The Queen” Donatella?
ET: I was incredibly honored.
DSD: How many other queens auditioned for the part?
ET: At first I thought they only were searching in Miami, but I came to find out from one of the producers and directors that they were looking worldwide to try and fill the roll.
DSD: Was there a buzz in the Queendom about this part?
ET: I’ve gotten mixed feelings from queens some and some jealous.
DSD:Your part unfortunately is only mere minute or so (We wished it went on and on). Why do you think it was such a highlight of episode 3?
ET: I think it was an important part because it showed how humble Gianni actually was. He wasn’t a stranger to going to drag shows or having drag queens over at his house.
DSD: What do you think it is about Donatella that people seem to live for?
ET: She is so strong, and such a resilient woman.
DSD: We noticed your tattoos, but didn’t notice them on the show. Where did they all go?
ET: I hate to cover them but for the show I had to. I have a process of covering my tatoos with different makeup that I have used over the years, but while I was on set, they were using a makeup palette from Jordane Cosmetics called the Total Tattoo Coverage palette on Ricky Martin. It is by far one of the best tattoo coverage makeups, and it’s nontransferable to clothes and water resistant.
[…]
DSD:Back to the show… Will we see any more of drag Donatella?
ET: Sadly no, though the scene that I did shoot was much lengthier, but do to editing it got cut down a lot. But who knows, as you can all tell from the series, Ryan Murphy is known for his flashbacks.
I wasn’t into “Ascent” the first time I watched it. Like the first two episodes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, this one felt unfocused and overcrowded. The timeline was confusing: Am I crazy, or do we see Andrew Cunanan hanging out with Jeff Trail long before episode five has them meeting? There were too many characters, too many settings (San Diego, San Francisco, Milan, New York), too many moods. Writer Tom Rob Smith was trying to establish too many relationships too quickly. The juxtaposition of Cunanan’s life with Versace’s still felt forced.
On my second viewing, though, what had looked like a sloppy mess started to reveal its surprisingly purposeful structure.
The scenes in Versace’s studio, where an ailing Gianni attacks Donatella for her lack of ambition, then patiently collaborates on her first dress, then throws a tantrum when she asks him to tone down his designs to attract customers, are fairly simple. We watch her become a celebrity, as the garment they made together draws a crowd of photographers at Vogue’s 100th anniversary gala in 1993. (As you can see here, the real dress, with its sheer bodice, was even more risqué than it looked on the episode. And the Times article that compared “the Versace woman” to a dominatrix actually came out before the event.) In the end, when Gianni is sick again and Donatella takes the reins of the company, she’s not only confident, but loyal to her brother’s outré vision. This is the myth of how Gianni created Donatella in his own image.
Cunanan’s story is creation myth, too—and the fragmented way in which it’s told subtly elucidates the differences between him and his final victim. Versace is the same person all the time: moody, stubborn, arrogant, defensive, but also brilliant, hard-working, nurturing, and inspiring. As we see in “Ascent,” which finally provides some insight into what he was like before he became violently unhinged, Cunanan adopts a different persona for everyone he meets. “What are you?” asks the woman at the escort agency. This is a crass query about his race and ethnicity, but when applied to Cunanan’s personality and behavior, it’s also one of the show’s central questions.
For his mother, he’s an angel and a monster and her only hope in the world, the golden child who promises to take her “sky high, where they all look down on us” but fractures her shoulder when she tries to hold him to it. For Lincoln Aston (more on him later), an older man with voracious appetites, he’s a charismatic connector. For Norman Blachford, a quieter friend of Aston’s, he’s the dream of a person to call home again, after the death of his longtime partner. But Cunanan steals that idyllic vision from David Madson after their first night together.
We get to see Cunanan both lovestruck and as the beloved. He lets Aston and Blachford fight over him the night he snares them at the opera. They woo him with money, luxurious homes, and their adoration. Then he turns around and does the same with Madson when they meet—buying him a drink, inviting him to sit with his impressive friends, taking him back to a suite Aston paid for in the Mandarin Oriental. Even when he’s falling for someone, as he appears to be for Madson, Cunanan sees romance as transactional. If he can dazzle Madson with the smoke and mirrors of his lifestyle, maybe they can live happily ever after. As a result, we see Madson becoming entranced with the hotel room rather than the man who brought him there.
This depiction of their relationship tracks with the impression Maureen Orth gives in Vulgar Favors, the book upon which The Assassination of Gianni Versace is based: Madson was reportedly attracted by Cunanan’s lavish spending. He accepted expensive gifts from his future killer despite his confusion about where all that wealth came from and his ambivalence towards his long-distance boyfriend. Orth judges Madson a bit harshly for this; she’s frustratingly tough on Cunanan’s gay friends and lovers throughout the book, framing them as fame whores, drug addicts, perverts, and, at best, materialistic, superficial flakes. It’s worth wondering whether money would play such a central role in her story if the couples in question were heterosexual. Still, the way the show (which does substantially moderate Orth’s judgmental tone) draws important parallels between Cunanan’s simultaneous romances without smacking us in the face with them is really skillful.
Anyway, this isn’t a big episode for fact-checking—as I mentioned, the structure makes it hard to tell exactly how long a period it’s supposed to cover, but its representation of the characters and their relationships with Cunanan is solid. There is one character who deserves to be explored in greater depth, though…
Lincoln Aston
Aston’s death, in the same episode where he’s introduced, might have come as a shock to anyone who thought the murder portion of this program had ended weeks ago. But it’s a true—well, mostly true—story, down to the name of the killer, Kevin Bond. And there’s more to it.
As Orth reports, Cunanan met Aston sometime after Cunanan left San Francisco and returned to his mother’s house in 1991. The heir to an oil fortune, Aston had once been married and was now enjoying a second youth as a gay man in his 60s. Like Madson, he was an architect. While he patronized the arts and hosted classy soirées for an elite circle of older men, Aston also had ties to a wilder group who threw parties with “pool boys” and escorts. He and other men in his clique were often spotted out with Cunanan in San Diego’s gay neighborhood, Hillcrest, though Orth heard conflicting reports as to whether Cunanan was blatantly exchanging sex for money.
One of Orth’s sources claims Aston was trying to free himself from Cunanan’s clutches around the time he was murdered, on May 19, 1995. Although the scene where Aston calls Cunanan out on his San Francisco tryst is fiction—Cunanan actually met Madson for the first time about six months after Aston’s death—mutual acquaintances did confirm to Orth that Aston had caught onto his young companion’s lies before the end of their relationship.
So, what was going on in that bizarre scene where Cunanan quietly lets himself into Aston’s house, watches Kevin Bond kill Aston, and then advises the killer to run? Could Cunanan possibly have had anything to do with that crime?
Apparently not. Orth writes that, “Because Andrew bragged to people that he had been with Lincoln the night of his death and had found the body, many in Hillcrest still believe that he had something to do with his murder.” But when San Diego police reopened the case, after Cunanan had become a fugitive, they couldn’t find any evidence to connect him to it.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t have quite as bleak an ending as Blachford and Cunanan’s conversation towards the end of the episode suggests. Although they predict that gay panic will be sufficient to get the confessed killer off the hook, after pleading guilty to the crime, Bond was convicted of second-degree murder and received a sentence of 15 years to life.
Also? In case you didn’t catch it in the episode, when Cunanan convinced Blachford to relocate from Phoenix to San Diego, the hilltop mansion Blachford bought was Aston’s former home.
After several mostly Versace-less weeks of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, we finally revisited the fashion haus in last night’s episode, titled “Ascent.” However, it wasn’t about the titular Gianni. Last night gave us a glimpse at his iconic sister, Donatella.
It’s a long-awaited showcase for actress Penelope Cruz, and it’s an interesting time to follow her character. We see her struggling to assume more responsibility of the Versace empire back in Milan, 1992. This not the oft-parodied Italian party monster we’re used to. Instead, this is Donatella struggling to step into her brother’s luxury loafers at the leader of Versace while his health is on the decline.
Donatella lacks the confidence (if not maybe the vision) to lead the company in the shadow of her brother. His staggering genius is something that’s hung over everyone around him in this series, including his sister, his lover and, of course, his eventual killer. Donatella sheepishly tries to share designs, but can’t quite assert herself.
Gianni’s answer is tough love. He’s shouting at her to be more than an assistant, to find her place in the company. He knows he is not well, and he seems desperate to comfortably situate her as his successor. He offers to design a dress with her.
It’s her idea to create “a dress as a weapon,” something Gianni manifests as a leather-accented black dress, complete with belts and harnesses. It’s something Adam Rippon would have loved to wear. He insists she wears it to the Vogue 100th Anniversary Gala, and it is a complete smash. The paparazzi eat it up, encouraging Gianni to step away to Donatella could (literally and figuratively) take center stage.
The dress is a hit, and it lights up Donatella’s confidence. The bold design earns heaps of attention (not all of it good, but you know what they say about no such as bad publicity … ).
Unfortunately, all of that attention hasn’t translated to sales. Women want to see the dress, but it’s not something they could wear in their everyday life. Donatella suggests Gianni make a simpler version — a ready-to-wear, if you will — but he hates the idea. In a fit of frustration, he takes scissors to the dress, hacking off some of the harsher elements.
It’s only mostly about the dress. As his fit reaches its crescendo, he realizes he’s gone deaf. He’s scared, and his health is failing.
Meanwhile, Andrew Cunanan is preparing for his own ascent. (Truly, these shows don’t make you work too hard to unpack metaphor … ) Given the series’ backward storytelling technique, a lot of what we witness in Andrew’s story feels like a bit of a rehash. Many of these contextual details have been doled out over the course of previous episodes to fuel the reverse chronology engine. The scenes were still compelling, thanks to the dependably excellent performances, but hardly anything felt particularly revelatory.
We see his humble beginnings working at a local pharmacy where he’s telling handsome young men that he’s working on his PhD. We see him slam a tub of store-brand ice cream on the ground, because his mother bought it instead of Haagen-Dazs. We see him hit the gay bar with Jeffrey Trail, only to find himself alone at the end of the night, because he fears rejection. (Been there, gurl.)
Despite the fantastical tales he spins and all his wealth of knowledge, he can’t fake the fact he’s broke, as one older gentleman reminds him at closing time. He heads home drunk, reassuring his worried mother that they are moving on up, and he’s taking her with him.
His plan is to begin his escort career. He goes to an agency where, despite his intelligence and allegedly large junk, he’s told clients don’t want Asians. Frustrated, he vows to sell himself.
Andrew stalks the local the press for arts and philanthropy patrons. He meets a target at the La Jolla Playhouse, smoothly deploying all his research on the mark, Norman Blachford (whom we met as the host of Andrew’s party). He impresses Norman and his friends, earning an invite to join them for dinner. He regales them with tales we’ve grown accustomed to hearing Andrew spin.
It’s not Norman that wins the prize to stay with Andrew that night; it’s his friend Lincoln. Cunanan becomes Lincoln’s kept man, living off an expense account and taking trips to San Francisco. That’s where we see him meet David and play out their wild, over-the-top stay at the Mandarin Oriental.
Lincoln is not thrilled that Andrew lavished all this attention on David in SF while on Lincoln’s dime. He ends it. Lincoln hits the gay bar to pick up some new trade, choosing to take home a jittery “straight guy” he found in a bar. The man ends up murdering Lincoln for getting a little too close (which actually happened). Andrew witnesses the killing (which likely didn’t actually happen), but the man runs off, eventually turning himself in and using the “gay panic” defense.
At Lincoln’s funeral, Andrew makes the connection with Norman. They share a too-real discussion about how no one cares when they’re murdered, how no one cares they’re dying in the AIDS epidemic. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s their truth; maybe the most true thing Andrew has said.
He convinces Norman to relocate full-time from Phoenix to start a life with him. First, he needs to tell his mother he’s leaving, giving her the explanation that he’s leaving with Versace to work at opera houses around the globe. She’s so excited for him, but also so excited for herself. He promised he would take her with him on his ascent, but now bringing her along would risk exposing all of his lies.
Andrew flips out, shoving his mother, leading to a fractured shoulder blade. In the hospital, his mother refuses to turn him in, telling the doctors what a good boy he is.
The episode ends with Andrew and Norman walking through their gorgeous new home. Andrew steps onto the balcony and remarks, “If they could see me now.” When Norman asks to whom Andrew is referring, he tells him, “Everybody.”
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