‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ finale recap: A bug in a jar

We gave it a B+

It’s finally back to the beginning, the titular assassination. Remember Andrew Cunanan in a red baseball cap? Remember Gianni Versace bleeding out on his stairs, flanked by doves?

The second time, the assassination is shot almost like a music video: quickly paced, and in tempo. It’s more like a dance than a murder. The same is true of Cunanan’s breaking and entering of a Miami houseboat, where he pops champagne for himself and begins watching news coverage (focused on him, of course) on bigger and bigger screens until it’s finally projected onto the wall. It’s all almost choreographed — a perfect encapsulation of Ryan Murphy’s overly stylized style. A man on television remarks how he saw Versace’s head blown off just as the cap pops off the champagne. Cunanan descends into giggling hysterics. “Oh my god,” Cunanan says to himself when he hears his name on the news. He swings a massive silk scarf around his neck like a movie star, and lounges on a balcony chair. He looks like he’s pretending to be famous.

Lee Miglan’s wife, Marilyn, is informed that Versace was also killed by the suspect in her husband’s murder. “When will this end?” she says. “How many more are going to die?” Barely restraining her fury, she makes the most pointed case of the show: The police had months to find Cunanan, and they didn’t.

Ronnie makes the same point when he’s brought in for questioning. “Hiding? He wasn’t hiding. He was partying. The other cops: They weren’t searching so hard, were they? Why is that? Because he killed a bunch of nobody gays?” Ronnie finally gives the show’s thesis: “Andrew is not hiding. He’s trying to be seen.”

And now that the victim is famous, the police hunt has tightened. Cunanan can’t get out of the city with checkpoints set up to catch him. And so he flings his car keys into the ocean and screams — he’s famous, finally, but he’s also completely important. He is the bug trapped under a glass.

Cunanan sneaks onto a boat and eats stolen tortillas, barricading himself in the bedroom when a woman hears him onboard, and running away when he hears her tell someone to call the cops. He watches them arrive from his houseboat hiding spot, where he also watches Lizzie on TV talking about him, imploring him to end the standoff and give himself in. “The Andrew Cunanan I know is not a violent person. I know that the most important thing in the world is what others think of you.”

Cunanan’s mother watches television from under a blanket and lets the police in through a latched door. “Have you killed my son?” she says, voice soft as a ghost.

Starving, living on nothing but cable news and garbage, Cunanan succumbs to eating dog food. “Dad, I’m in trouble,” he cries on the phone to his father. His dad promises to fly in and come and get him.

“Twenty-four hours,” his dad says. “I will find you, and I will hug you, and I will hold you in my arms, and it will all be okay.” He promises again to come, and tells him to pack some clothes and be ready to leave as soon as he arrives.

And then Cunanan sees his father on television, talking about Cunanan’s innocence, telling them that they talked on the phone — to discuss movie rights to his life. Cunanan shoots the screen. He is fully alone.

Meanwhile, Antonio learns that the homes on Lake Cuomo where Versace told him he could stay are actually owned by the company, not Gianni. Donatella tells him he can take some time to stay there after the funeral. “And after that?” he asks. She tells him that it’s time for them to start a new life.

Eyes wide, Cunanan watches Princess Diana and Elton John parade into Versace’s lavish funeral. He sings along in falsetto with the church choir, eyes to heaven. He shaves his head, kneeling before the mirror.

Eventually, the police surround the houseboat and completely cut Cunanan off. Cunanan grabs his gun and hides in his bedroom, quietly sitting next to the childhood version of himself, and then, alone again. The police cut the power and deploy smoke bombs. They force their way in.

Cunanan takes off his glasses, cocks his gun, and shoots himself in the mouth after looking at himself in the mirror one last time.

Finally, we see the end of his interaction onstage with Versace — a polite rejection, a fundamental difference of understanding on the nature of art. Cunanan’s act, his charm, didn’t work on Versace. “Another night,” Versace says. “Another stage.”

Gianni’s remains are at a Lake Cuomo altar, gilded, surrounded by candles. Cunanan gets an anonymous block in an endless mausoleum. The final shot speeds away, his final resting place disappearing into anonymity.

The show was ambitious, beautiful, and impossible to look away from. Its conversations on the nature of fame and ego and homosexuality in the early 90’s were far more interesting in Cunanan’s story than in Versace’s — the latter’s plotlines were far thinner. But Andrew Cunanan is one of television’s most terrifying and memorable villains, a fully unique character equal parts tragic and despicable.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ cast reveals most difficult scenes to film

Emmy nominations may be four months away, but the campaign season kicked off on Monday night, when the cast and producers of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story reunited for a For Your Consideration event at the Directors Guild of America theater in Los Angeles.

After a screening of the season finale, “Alone” (March 21 at 10 p.m. ET on FX), stars Darren Criss, Edgar Ramirez, Ricky Martin, Cody Fern, Max Greenfield, Judith Light, and Jon Jon Briones, as well as executive producer Brad Simpson, EP/writer Tom Rob Smith, and Vulgar Favors author Maureen Orth, talked openly about the challenges of bringing the story of Andrew Cunanan and his victims to the screen, the most difficult scenes to film, and, of course, which wardrobe pieces they really wanted to steal.

Here are a few highlights from the event:

Playing Versace’s partner was ‘very painful’ for Ricky Martin

To portray Antonio D’Amico, Gianni Versace’s longtime partner, Martin had to revisit a time in his own life when he was not yet publicly out as a gay man, and the actor told the crowd that dredging up those memories was “very painful, to be quite honest.” Martin added that shooting episode 5, when Versace talks openly to a reporter about his sexuality for the first time, was particularly moving. “When I was in the closet, I unfortunately made a lot of my partners lie. So I was reliving that,” he explained. “I’ll always be so thankful to [executive producer Ryan Murphy] for allowing me to tell this story with everyone on this panel, because it’s been so therapeutic for me.”

The hardest scene Darren Criss had to film did not involve murder

Though he murders four people onscreen as killer Andrew Cunanan, Criss said the most difficult scene for him to film was the intense encounter in episode 3 between Andrew and his third victim, Chicago real estate mogul Lee Miglin (played by M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell). “People always ask me what the hardest thing to shoot was, and I think they want to hear the violence, the aggression — but those are simple things,” said Criss. “Violence is a base act from a very accessible place — it’s easy to get angry. But what is truly twisted and heartbreaking is looking into Mike Farrell’s eyes [as he’s] playing this deeply closeted man who loves his wife, and is truly a good man who is fighting a demon he can’t escape — and then me having to drive the car as somebody waging psychological warfare on this person. When I would leave those scenes, I’d feel like, Ugghhh,” the actor continued. “I think people on set maybe thought it was because I was getting intimate with Mike Farrell — it wasn’t that, it was having to, like, penetrate a man’s soul who was trying so desperately to keep it together.”

Jon Jon Briones might actually be the hardest working actor in Hollywood

Veteran stage actor Briones gives a star-making performance as Andrew’s father, Modesto “Pete” Cunanan, a fast-talking, truth-stretching Filipino immigrant who had big dreams for his favorite son. Maureen Orth, who wrote the book this season of Crime Story is based on, marveled at the accuracy of Briones’s portrayal. “I interviewed Pete Cunanan,” said the author. “And when I saw Jon Jon, I thought I was watching [Pete] on the screen.”

Briones’s performance is all the more impressive considering that during production on Crime Story, he was also working another job — all the way across the country. “While we shot that episode, Jon Jon was performing in Miss Saigon as the lead on Broadway in New York,” said exec producer Brad Simpson. “So often he would shoot with us, take a red eye, then arrive in New York and do a matinee and evening performance.”

Fortunately for the actor, he had a very supportive director: American Horror Story star Matt Bomer, who made his directorial debut with “Creator/Destroyer,” Briones’ breakout episode. “I would recommend it to every actor — on your first big break, get another actor to direct you,” Briones said with a laugh. “Because [actors] are the most insecure people in the world. And every single take we’d cut, and he’d come to me and go, ‘That was amazing. Let’s do another one.’ He kept telling me during filming, ‘You know, if you don’t succeed, I don’t succeed.’”

Everyone loved the wardrobe…

Naturally, a show about renowned fashion designer Gianni Versace is replete with beautiful costumes — and naturally, the cast and creators coveted some of those exquisite pieces. Exec producer Brad Simpson recalled how Ryan Murphy was so enamored of the long, flowing pink robe Versace wears in episode one, costume designer Lou Eyrich had a replica specially made for him to own. Ramirez told the crowd that he still has the keychain bearing Versace’s Medusa head emblem, which his character wore in the premiere, while Martin admitted that he considered sneaking off with another actor’s costume: “I wanted the wings on the male escort that was dancing at the club.” As for Andrew’s pink Speedo, which made its debut in episode 2, Criss joked, “I’m wearing it right now.”

…with one key exception

Martin, who talked with his real-life counterpart during production, said that Antonio D’Amico took issue with a “shocking green” shirt Martin wore during a scene where Antonio and Versace are walking on the beach. “I talked to Antonio, and he goes, [in thick Italian accent] ‘But Reeeky, Reeeky, you have to understand I would never wear a green shirt in my life! I wear black.’”

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ cast reveals most difficult scenes to film

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’: Matt Bomer on directing that pivotal origin episode

Tonight’s episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is notable for giving viewers the origin story of Andrew Cunanan’s childhood and family, particularly his abusive father, Modesto (a terrifying Jon Jon Briones). But it also marks the directorial debut of actor Matt Bomer.

The star, who’s worked with executive producer Ryan Murphy previously on Glee, American Horror Story, and The Normal Heart, talked to EW about being assigned this pivotal hour and his future directing hopes.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did this happen? Did you mention this to Ryan?
MATT BOMER: I’d worked with Ryan obviously multiple times before. He knew I always came in with excessive reams of research and homework and overly fastidious preparation. He mentioned to me that I should direct at some point, and I didn’t think much of it at the time. I think he knew I needed to be creatively re-inspired and reinvigorated. He called me in December and said, “Hey, I want you to direct!” I was thinking maybe it will be American Horror Story: Cult. When he said, “I want you to direct on Versace,” I promptly fell out, passed out, and when I regained consciousness I was not sane enough to say no, I said yes. It was really the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.

It was like a four-and-a-half-month process for me. I read over 3,000 pages of books on directing. I did an intensive at the DGA. I shadowed two of the directors on the show and met with every film and episodic director friend of mine I could to just be a sponge. I met with editors. I knew the level of work that was going to be going on, and I wanted to be able to come and really be able to play on that level.

Did you get to pick your episode?
No, I was shadowing and kind of waiting in the wings. There was a time when it was going to be maybe the Miglin episode, and then there was a time it was going to be the episode that aired this week. I’m grateful I got the episode I did. It’s such a psychological episode, and we wanted to do it in a Sidney Lumet-esque style. There are some fancy camera moves in it, but it’s really mostly about these relationships and these character dynamics. And this great central question of what makes one person a creator and one person a killer? The answer being hard work. Andrew is someone who’s been told by his family that he’s special and exceptional, and you’d think he’d be the one to rise and succeed. Gianni is being bullied in school and has a loving mother who says you have to work to make your dreams come true. Her work ethic that she instilled in him, plus his art, is really what created the label of Versace.

You played Darren Criss’ brother on Glee. How was it working with him in this regard?
I knew Darren was a tremendous artist and had lots of stories inside of him. I was lucky enough to be in the front row, eating popcorn, watching this performance from very early on. I was watching this performance really since they got to L.A. From the first frame I saw him, I was like, “Whoa. This guy has tapped into something that is electric and spontaneous.” There are moments where Darren is so good, he can be silly and then they’re calling “rolling” and he’s right there. I would look at his face and it was like he had been possessed by this soul. It was really creepy to see and amazing to watch and inspiring.

It’s not a traditional narrative structure. It must have been hard to tell this story backwards.
I had been on set and so immersed in the story for so long that it wasn’t something I had to put a ton of thought into just because I was so entrenched in the story already. I was lucky to get this episode because it’s almost a standalone. So much of this was can we get the audience to sympathize with a monster and understand that he was this child who was inured to violence very early. He had this snake oil salesman of a father who was teaching him that it’s not enough to be smart, you have to fit in. You’re special! Here’s the master bedroom. He basically had this family hostage emotionally, physically, sexually. So we got to watch that all play out on him and then meet him when he’s in high school.

I wanted it all to build up to that great Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now kind of confrontation that they have at the very end. That was kind of our inspiration for that. We wanted to have that final confrontation where you got the feeling if he just lashed out at his dad or punched him or killed him, he wouldn’t have killed anybody else. But because of that moment he turned inward, it later gets expressed outward for other people. We’re all responsible for the choices we make and the actions we take, but Andrew was a victim. We wanted the people to say, “Can I on some level sympathize with a monster?”

Was that in Maureen Orth’s book, that Andrew went to Manila to see his dad?
He did go to Manila and he did see his father one last time. Some of the dialogue and circumstances are imagined, but that’s what makes [Versace writer] Tom Rob Smith so brilliant, and they had all kinds of research going on outside the novel.

Jon Jon Briones as Modesto Cunanan is incredible. Did you have input in casting him?
Yes, it’s owed to a lot of people. I had been asked to direct before on things I was acting in, but I didn’t want that half-assed first experience directing. I wanted the whole experience. I wanted to be in every casting session I could. I wanted to be on location scouts, design meetings. It’s a real testament to Ryan Murphy, but Jon Jon had been brought to my intention very early on by Darren and Tom Rob Smith, who had both seen him in as the Engineer on Broadway in Miss Saigon. So I immediately reached out to Ryan and the producers and said, “We have to make sure we get this guy on tape.” He gave a kick-ass audition. This is a guy who has been doing mostly Miss Saigon for mostly the last 20-something years, but who was ready for this opportunity. Ryan is willing to take risks on people in order to serve the story. He’s done it for me in the past. This was that moment. My favorite part of this experience was getting to work with Jon Jon and getting to see somebody rise to the occasion.

In lesser hands, that performance would be broad and not so gray. But it’s so shaded.
I saw him as Willy Loman. This is somebody who comes from the rural Philippines and has to pull himself up by the bootstraps. He really had to make his own way. It’s that middle-class thing of you work and work to make to that higher class. What do you sacrifice in the process in terms of your morals and your ethics? It’s a very American, human, relatable story.

Where did Darren’s dance come from at the high school party? Was that improvised?
It was largely improvised. They also had a dance instructor there. We were so excited about that moment and that reveal. It was Ryan’s idea to have “Whip It,” which is such a specific beat and not the easiest thing to dance to. Darren just had a ball with it. In my original cut, it ended with him and Annaleigh Ashford on the dance floor and her falling into a full split.

We shot three different endings to this episode, and one of them was the two of them. But one of my favorite scenes to shoot was them by that fire, and you see that fire of their initial romance and coming together.

What do you want people to take away from your episode?
I think we discover in this episode that Andrew was also a victim. Like I said, we’re responsible for the choices we make and the actions we take. But he at one point was an impressionable, open child who was inured to violence at a young age, and messaging that’s not healthy for anyone to have. The things his father says to him and does to him both as a child and when he’s older that he internalizes were a big part of getting the full, holistic picture of who he was by the time we’re in the final episode with him in Miami.

Will we see more “Directed by Matt Bomer” credits?
I would love that! I had such a great time doing it. I was also really blessed because when you’re working with Ryan Murphy, you have the best people in the business around you. I know that I’m going to get to another job at some point and it’s going to be like the Real Deal Holyfield and it’s not all my friends that I’m working with. But I just loved it. It was a huge episode. The first cut was 90 minutes long. I think half the battle is just knowing, oh my gosh, I can do this. I can be given this massive script and do it on time and get it done. Hopefully there will be more stuff, but it’s got to be something that moves me.

Tell me about doing The Boys in the Band on Broadway!
We start rehearsals on Good Friday. I’m so excited. Just to get to share the stage with those guys and work with Joe Mantello as a director and watch and learn. So much of my understanding of our history starts with Larry Kramer and Torch Song Trilogy. To go back another generation and understand what pre-Stonewall life was like and the fact that these guys are all cooped up in this house together because if they’re dancing in public they’ll be arrested! The stakes are so high! Society has told them that they are “other,” “less than,” and “shameful.” So there are all these misdirected emotions coming at each other in different ways, and what they really want to say is “I love you” and “We’re the same!”

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’: Matt Bomer on directing that pivotal origin episode

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Brideshead Regurgitated

We gave it a B

I assume this is as far back as the flashbacks are going to take us. Unless Andrew Cunanan had some truly formative experiences as a toddler, ACS: Versace’s eighth episode, “Creator/Destroyer” provides our final, and most intimate, look into Cunanan’s past.

It’s a series of gradually more unsettling vignettes, watching Cunanan’s childhood and seeing the original seeds of truth in his lies: His dad did work for Merrill Lynch, talking his way into a highly coveted job with his professed work ethic and track record of upward mobility. His dad did give him the master bedroom — not as an indulgence, but as a somber reminder of his special status. Even though Cunanan has two older siblings, he is beyond the favorite: His father gives him a car before he’s able to drive, he reads him etiquette books in bed, he reminds him constantly that he’s better than other people.

Cunanan gets into a prestigious private school, where he’s voted “most likely to be remembered.” He happily stands out with a flamboyant flair for attention-seeking behavior. He meets Lizzie at a house party while spinning on the dance floor in a red, leather one-piece jumpsuit. Even by high school, he was dating older men (in this case, a married man who refused to come into the party with him) and dazzling people with his confidence. But he wasn’t a liar yet. He wasn’t a child who skinned squirrels or bullied others. Instead, he read Brideshead Revisited (a massive poster on his bedroom makes sure the audience doesn’t miss the symbolism there) and acts like a manic charmer, seducing people around him with his refusal to fit in.

We get one glimpse of Gianni Versace’s childhood, mostly as a means to contrast Cunanan’s: When Versace is sketching, and called a “pansy” in school, his mother comforts him and promises to teach him. “You must do what you love, Gianni,” she says. When young Andrew Cunanan tells his father he dreams of being a writer, his dad — borderline abusive to his wife and other children — reminds him that writing isn’t an effective way to make obscene amounts of money.

We flash forward to see Modesto “Pete” Cunanan working not at Merrill Lynch, but in a depressing cubicle, scamming the elderly out of their money. That’s how his downfall comes about: called into the boss’s office, who reminds him that he was thrown out of Merrill Lynch under mysterious circumstances, that his track record is spotty at best, that when the FBI comes for him, they’ll give up all of their information. And the FBI comes sooner than anyone might have expected: They’re there at the office, barely giving Modesto enough time to escape home, pry out some cash from underneath floorboards, and exit through a backdoor (agents already made it to the front) before flying away to Manila and leaving his family with nothing.

They’re losing the house, but Cunanan, still loyal to his father, tells his mother that he left money for them — of course his special, genius father would have left money for them. Cunanan’s mother cries, usually so ready to believe pretty lies, but not this one. Cunanan packs his case and leaves her to go to Manila alone to find his father, where he confronts him for his crimes. “Weak, like your mother,” Modesto spits at his special son when Cunanan makes it to the shack where he has been living. “You’re not upset that I stole; you’re upset that I stopped.” And then Modesto spits in his son’s face.

When Cunanan returns home and gets a job at the pharmacy where we saw him at the beginning of last week’s episode, he’s resigned and miserable. His answers in the interview are curt and sad. But then, like a light switch, Cunanan tastes his first lie. He can will a universe into existence where his father owns pineapple plantations. He can build his own future. His yearbook quote was in French: “After me, destruction.” He said he liked how it sounded, but it was prophecy — no matter what personas Cunanan builds for himself, his only talent is in bringing ruin.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Brideshead Regurgitated

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Cunanan finds a sugar daddy

We gave it a B+

Two people are struggling with very different problems: Andrew Cunanan, working at a pharmacy, has delusions of grandeur; and Donatella Versace is crumbling under the creative pressure of having to fill her big brother’s shoes as his illness progresses. The common theme is a fear that one’s talent doesn’t match up to one’s ambitions.

Donatella has Gianni in her corner: Even as her sketch becomes instantly sidelined in a meeting with designers (either out of its ineptitude or her own insecurity), when she retreats to her brother, he fights for her. He knows she wants more and that she will have to become more in order to keep the brand afloat after he’s gone. “This dress is not my legacy,” he says to her, when the two begin collaborating on a piece. “You are.”

The closest Cunanan comes to fashion is flipping through Vogue at the counter where he works, before it’s snatched away by his boss. We get an early glimpse at how easily young Cunanan lies (“I’m actually finishing my PhD at UCSD,” he preens to a customer) and a glimpse inside his psychology when he faces his limited identity. “Being told no is like being told I don’t exist.” That line should be tattooed on his forehead — Cunanan wants power and relevance. He wants every door open for him. He wants to exist.

Flirting at a bar, he doesn’t do as well with the younger, hotter gay crowd as Jeffrey does, and it’s an older man who sidles up next to him at the bar. “Either there’s money in your wallet, or there isn’t,” the man says. Money is harder to lie about than a PhD, Andrew realizes. We don’t know (although we can guess) what happens with the man, but when Cunanan returns home, his mom is worried about why he’s been out so late.

Cunanan’s mother is the unexplored tragic figure in this show so far, so painfully pathetic and willing to indulge all of her son’s narcissism for the fantasy that he might achieve the better life he dreams of. When Cunanan slams a quart of ice cream on the floor because his mother bought the cheaper brand, not Haagan-Dazs, she scoops a bowl up and praises his intelligence. She is Cunanan’s perfect, willing audience.

We get the first glimpse of Cunanan’s Filipino heritage when he arrives at an escort agency in a suit that looks like “he’s going to church.” The woman there inspects him like a show pony, but gay men, as it turns out, unlike straight men, do not want Asian Americans, “even with a big dick.” Cunanan can lie, he can pretend to be Portuguese, but the woman says she can’t sell him. And so Cunanan will sell himself.

Meanwhile, Gianni is dressing Donatella, almost erotically, in the dress they designed, a dress that will finally allow her to take center stage. And when it’s finally revealed, on the red carpet of the 1996 Met Gala, it does: the black, bondage-collared dress means all eyes are on her, the star for the first time, posing with dozens of cameras surrounding her.

Cunanan said he was hardworking in the escort agency, and he proves that he was (for once) telling the truth. Like Norman alluded to in a previous episode, Cunanan researched him like a mark, showing up at a French play in La Jolla because he knew he’d be there. When Norman meets Cunanan, he’s a young, charming theater lover with a Portuguese last name. So what if he ends up staying overnight with one of Norman’s friends? He achieved what he wanted: a stipend and an expense account.

The money is good enough that Cunanan can go back to his friends like a king, treating them all to dinner and drinks and then acting every part of the philanthropic millionaire to a young David, alone at the bar. This is the night they met: David was charmed by a Cunanan at the height of his newfound power, both experiencing money for the first time, one of them better at acting unimpressed.

A heartbreaking scene shows Cunanan back at his mother’s place, packing to leave, pretending that he’s going with Gianni Versace to tour the world’s opera houses. His mother pleads to come with him until Cunanan shoves her into a wall. The doctor reports that her shoulder blade was fractured. She tells the doctor it was an accident.

Donatella and Gianni’s victory over their dress and red carpet walk is short lived; the dress is too outrageous for women to wear off a runway, and the look hasn’t sold. Donatella sheepishly suggests a second dress, and Gianni is furious. He snips off the harness. “Is it normal enough?” he snaps. But their fight ends with mysterious, panicked hearing loss. Gianni has ear cancer. He has to leave Versace to recover in Miami, and Donatella has to take over the day-to-day operations of the company, ready or not.

Cunanan’s sugar daddy Lincoln is paying his hotel expenses, which means he sees the midnight bottles of champagne Cunanan bought on David. Lincoln breaks up with him, but when Cunanan comes to his home to protest in person, he sees he already brought someone else home — a boy from the gay bar who claimed to be straight. When Lincoln reaches to reclaim the drink from the man’s hand, the man lunges and beats Lincoln to death with a nearby statue. The killer sees Cunanan. “He tried to kiss me!” the guy sputters. “I know,” Cunanan answers comfortably. The man runs. And Cunanan learns something: People kill gay men, and no one cares. The police caught him, but if that old man was trying to kiss him, who blames him?

He reunites with Norman, honoring Lincoln’s memory. Using a story David told him about wanting to build a home for his bullied friend in high school, Cunanan promises Norman he will build him a beautiful home where they can live together and be happy. (Cunanan’s version of the story is, predictably, more dramatic.)

The episode ends with Cunanan standing on the balcony of the new house he had Norman buy.

“If they could see me now,” Cunanan sighs.

“Who?” asks Norman.

“Everyone.”

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Cunanan finds a sugar daddy

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Three is a party

We gave it an A

We reunite with Andrew Cunanan in a beautiful beach home, arms laden with shopping bags, wearing sunglasses, and diving naked into a pool. It’s the the closest he’s come to the first morning we saw Gianni Versace experience in the pilot: Cunanan found a way to live that rich and famous life — the only difference is he never earned it.

Cunanan meticulously wraps a gift in Tiffany-blue wrapping paper and carefully selects an outfit from a closet curated like a department store. He wipes some cocaine on his gum. This little scene — we’re reminded — takes place one year before the murders began. And so what, we must ask, caused this man who seems to be so on top of the world to completely snap?

Cunanan is having a birthday party, and we get a glimpse of the wonderful Annaleigh Ashford again as a pre-murder spree friend, Lizzie, interrogating him about his new gay lifestyle and questionable relationship with a much older man, Norman (in whose beautiful home he’s been staying). “I…curate his art,” Cunanan answers, when Lizzie asks what he’s been doing at the house of the older man. But even though he’s a live-in boyfriend, Cunanan only wants David.

Jeffrey arrives first, wearing a suburban dad’s uniform of bad jeans and a button-down shirt, and Cunanan tries to manipulate the scene a little better for David’s benefit, so Cunanan looks more “loved.” He buys Jeffrey a new pair of shoes and asks him to corroborate the white lie he told about Jeffrey still being in the Navy. “But Jeff — being an officer in the Navy just sounds so impressive!” Oh how innocent his manipulations began.

David finally arrives, all the way from Minneapolis, and Cunanan kisses him on the lips. It’s obvious that David is impressed, and also impressed when Jeffrey presents Cunanan with his self-bought gift, right on cue. But the chemistry between Jeffrey and David is also immediate, and sends Cunanan into the bathroom for another line of coke.

It’s one of the older Norman’s friends who puts Cunanan in his place, attempting to protect his friend: “Too lazy to work, too proud to be kept,” he sneers at Cunanan. “That room is full of people who love me,” Cunanan said, gesturing to the party. “That room is full of people who don’t know you,” the man replies.

Cunanan is desperate to interrupt David and Jeffrey’s immediate report, but he’s thwarted by a familiar face: Lee Miglin, who came all the way from Chicago, clearly crazy about Cunanan even though Cunanan is embarrassed by him. Cunanan is surrounded by all of his future victims in a group photo—the next scene shows he’s scratched out all of their faces but David’s.

Cunanan presents requests to Norman in order to stay together: an increased living allowance, a car, and his entire inheritance. But Norman is a savvy businessman, and he fires back with the one thing Cunanan hates the most: the truth about who he is. Norman knows Cunanan’s real name. He knows that he had been working minimum wage and living with his mother. Norman presents the facts and Cunanan walks away, silenced. Norman is too generous with Cunanan — he offers to increase his living allowance and pay for his college (“I already have a PhD!” Cunanan shouts). He sees through the lies and still wants to help him. “You can have this life, if you work for it, but if you won’t, you must share it with me,” Norman says. He refuses Cunanan his list, and after throwing a chair through a glass table, the boy sulks off like a petulant child. “I’m leaving. I expect you to call.”

Cunanan’s real home is a miserable oatmeal apartment with a bare mattress, and we see his first act of vindictive revenge: the postcard attempting to out Jeffrey to his father, for the sin of Jeffrey hitting it off with David at the party. Jeffrey confronts Cunanan and holds Cunanan against the wall. He tells Cunanan he got a new job — in Minneapolis. Where David lives. “I’m leaving,” he says. “I thought you should know.” Jeffrey gives Cunanan a filthy look as he leaves.

Cunanan now does what he has to to win back David: offering a fully funded trip to Los Angeles, the desperation in his voice only slightly audible. One can only imagine the credit card debt he’s racking up. David has come, but it’s obvious he’s uneasy, especially when Cunanan makes it clear he imagines them sharing a future. Cunanan drowns him in expensive gifts and fancy food — more desperation.

And David feels guilty. “Andrew, I’m not the one,” he says, after offering to pay for half of everything. “I’m sorry.” The truth of the situation’s weirdness comes out — they had one great night together in San Fransisco. Just one. And Cunanan is trying to recreate their perfect meeting.

“So know me! Get to know me!” Cunanan cries. David, it turns out, just wants to know the real Cunanan. The two of them gleefully peel off their jackets and sit across from each other. David asks about Cunanan’s parents, but his eyes go dull as Cunanan continues to spew lies about his extravagant upbringing.

Cuannan goes back to his apartment alone, with no messages on his answering machine and a massive credit card bill. In the story he tells to the bartender that night, he proposed to David and David said yes. In his meth-fueled dream, Versace is tailoring his suit. “We’re the same!” Cunanan says to Versace’s cold arrogance. “The only difference is you got lucky!” Versace says that that isn’t the only difference. “Oh yeah?” Cunanan says. “What else you got?” Dream-Versace doesn’t even smile. “I am loved,” he says.

Now Cunanan is twitchy and strung out. His stories to the bartender don’t make sense. He doesn’t have money to pay his meth dealer. And so he returns to the house where he had so recently hosted a birthday party. He pleads on his hands and knees for Norman to let him in, barking Norman’s name, while Norman lifts a phone to call the police.

Cunanan has nowhere to go but his mother’s house. She believed his lies, she brags about him to her friends, and she comforts him, bathing him in a tub like an infant. And then he’s sent on his way — off to do all of the great things she thinks he’s doing.

What city is next, she asks.

“Minneapolis.”

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Three is a party

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’: Cody Fern talks playing David Madson

It’s quite possible you had never seen Cody Fern before. The young Australian actor has only a few credits to his name. But Fern is unforgettable on FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as Andrew Cunanan’s second victim and good friend, David Madson. Viewers saw David’s murder in episode 4, but due to Versace’s backward structure are now able to see the beginnings of the relationship.

EW talked to Fern, who was recently cast on the final season of House of Cards, about landing this major break and acting in this true-crime saga.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you get this Versace role?
CODY FERN: I was actually in London at the time because I was working on a feature film that I was writing and directing. So I was in London because I went to work on the script with my writing partner. I was in a little bit of a rut in terms of where I was as an actor. I was always up for big roles, and it was always between me and one other. I was really selective about the work I wanted to do. I was frustrated because I wasn’t getting the gig. It always came down to star name, this that and the other. So I actually decided I was going to take a year off from acting and just focus on writing and directing. I had jokingly said the only thing that was going to put this production on hold would be if Ryan Murphy, HBO, or David Fincher called. So it’s funny now.

You grew up in Australia. Were you aware of the Versace murder?
Being from Australia is isolation from this story in once sense, but I also think it’s a generational divide. I knew there was Gianni Versace, but I didn’t even know Versace had been murdered. So I was new to the story as a whole. Before I started filming, I read Vulgar Favors. So I came to know everything as I was actually in the story, and that was phenomenal. I think it’s something the series does so brilliantly in the kind of switch-and-bait of we think we’re entering the world of one killing, but we’re actually entering into this story that hadn’t been told: There are four other victims that nobody knows about.

Was there any thought to reaching out to David’s family?
I considered reaching out to the Madson family. First and foremost, we have Maureen Orth’s book. Second, you have Tom Rob Smith, who’s phenomenal as a writer. There was some discussion whether it or not it was appropriate for the actors to reach out to the families because it’s really dredging something up. I think everyone had a sense of wanting to protect the families from that kind of exposure. There are survivors of this tragedy and they are the family members, and it will be up to them as to whether or not they watch the series, so I think we wanted to keep it as their decision. I didn’t approach the Madson family out of respect. But when you have Tom Rob Smith’s writing and Maureen’s research, you’re in a good place.

Tell me about episode 4, which was the most intense for your role. The entire hour is a building sense of dread, ending with David’s death. How was that shoot?
Emotionally, it was incredibly fraught. It was a huge upheaval. It was something I couldn’t separate being on set and taking the work home. It really affected me psychologically. It was so dark. At the same time, I felt so supported and so free to explore and to take risks and to really go there. So in one way it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done because Ryan works in a particular way where he selects every single person he’s working with. Being on set, it runs like a family so you feel very protected and very safe and nurtured. But then, of course, emotionally it’s one of the most taxing things because not only are you dealing with the literal things David is going through, but he’s also going through an incredible amount of shame that has built up since he had conscious thoughts. I think that was something that was also a layer we wanted to bring to the show, in dealing with homophobia and internalized gay shame. So that was the hardest thing to deal with.

The murder of Jeff Trail and the hostage situation that ensues was its own particular beast, but I had Darren [Criss] to act opposite. He’s so unhinged and so brilliant. I never knew what he was going to do or what choice he was going to make. It was a wonderful experience, but it was also incredibly difficult.

The way the show is structured, you basically have to create your character backward. Like we meet David at the breaking point of his relationship with Andrew, and in tonight’s episode we see the beginning. That must have been a great challenge as an actor?
I actually preferred it in a strange way because what we see of David is somebody who’s at the end of his rope in his friendship with Andrew. Pretty soon on, Jeff is killed, so you have a character that is thrown into complete emotional disarray. So you get to explore the extremes of what David is feeling, the end of what he is as a human being. It was easier to find the crystal of who David was and what he was willing to fight for. Episode 4 really explores the arc of shame and his feelings of complicity in this murder, and he has been in the closet for so long and thought it was a sickness that brought this about. At the very core, David is fighting for what is right and what is good. Finally, fighting for his life in a way that says, “I’m not going to go down for this thing just because you say I am.” It meant that working backwards, I knew the very essence of who David was as a person. Then you get to form chemistry as actors, between Darren and myself. We became such good friends. We went through such extreme things together.

It was just announced you’re joining House of Cards.
I’m over the moon. I’m thrilled. House of Cards I’ve watched since the first day. I was shaking the first day meeting Robin [Wright] because she’s such a powerful figure to me in the course of who I’ve become as an actor. It’s thrilling.

Can you tease anything about your character?
There have been rumors about who my character was. I read an announcement saying I was the lover of Kevin Spacey’s character, which is completely inaccurate and false. That’s not the case. But I can also tell you I’m NOT a good guy.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’: Cody Fern talks playing David Madson

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ star Finn Wittrock on his heartbreaking role as Cunanan victim Jeff Trail

Finn Wittrock is well-known to fans of Ryan Murphy’s work from his performances HBO’s The Normal Heart and three seasons of American Horror Story, most notably his role as Dandy Mott in Freak Show.

But he’s never been as heartbreaking as he is on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Wittrock plays the first victim (and former friend) to Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Trail was also in the Navy during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era and was one of the first people to speak out about life as a closeted gay man in the military.

EW talked to Wittrock about the role and whether he’ll return to the world of AHS anytime soon.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you want to play this part?
FINN WITTROCK: Well it was sorta kinda a story that kept opening up for me, I would say. At first I was intrigued by the way Ryan was telling the story and the way Tom Rob Smith structured the narrative. I didn’t know much about Cunanan and his downward spiral.

But then I just really became enamored with Jeff and the kind of guy he was and what kind of upstanding American and true Patriot he was. He loved his country and loved being in the military and just had this secret — he knew who he was and was trying to make himself at peace with that and find some self but also it wasn’t compatible with the life he was living at that time. I was just really, really intrigued by that dichotomy of a guy who’s just really all-American, does everything right but the fact that he was gay he couldn’t ever really overcome that because he was stuck living two lives. And how amazing and sad that it was not that long ago? It’s not like we were talking about the ‘50s — it was like 1996.

The final relevant thing for me was it was right around when Trump did the transgender people in the military ban. When I was reading it at first, I was like, “Well this is a good story but it’s a little dated.” Then, that happened I was like, “F—! This is not dated at all. It’s more relevant than ever.”

Did you reach out to Jeff’s family? Or what kind of research did you do?
I didn’t. I felt weird about that. We had some really good Navy help on set in terms of getting the technicalities right. And then there is that real interview he did. It really does exist. His face is in shadow but it’s like a 20-minute interview about him coming out amidst Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Often as an actor, you have one thing as your anchor. That was it for me. I kept that video on me at all times. It’s an amazing introspection and a really brave thing for him to do at that time. Then, we had Maureen Orth’s book.

What was it like shooting this because you start with your murder and it goes backwards? It must have been challenging as an actor.
Yeah, and the nature of the shoot was already out of sequence because of the schedule. We were shooting different episodes one day to the next so I sometimes lost track of sometimes which episode I was actually in.

What I did when I first got the script was, I just tore them apart and put them in chronological order. I had to kind of do that because the structure is really fascinating to read but as an actor I had to kind of re-adjust my internal compass. The nature of his and Andrew’s relationship erodes over a few years so to really kind of be specific and map that was a challenge and was a kind of on-going conversation, like, Where are we right now? What’s happened?

I spoke to Edgar Ramirez about this, but is it more emotional to shoot a death scene when it’s a real person?
It can be haunting. I find you tread more carefully, if that makes sense. It’s more precious. Like when we’re doing Horror Story, it can be really dark and torturous. But it’s also like we’re just letting our imaginations run rampant and just running loose. This you feel a little more obliged to take things carefully and watch your steps and realize the preciousness of the story you’re telling.

Did Jeff actually attempt to cut off his tattoo?
It’s a bit of dramatic interpretation. I know everything Rob wrote in that is from real accounts of guys who were gay in the military. It’s not all his necessarily but it’s based on factual stuff. There’s a lot actually we don’t know about Jeff.

What was it that drew Jeff to Andrew in your opinion? Was it that he was so open and charismatic?
It is still a mystery. He seemed like such an upstanding guy who really believed in a moral right and standing up for what you believe in and all these admirable values. Then it’s like, How did you become involved with this guy who was so obviously a sociopath? But that’s the thing about them is, they know exactly what to do to make you trust them.

I think there was something in Andrew’s freedom and letting himself loose that really appealed to Jeff at that time. We’ve all maybe had friends who at certain times of your life came in and were just what you needed and you had a great, fun time. Then, you kind of grow out of that and you kind of move on and they don’t but the level of the friendship is so strong that you can’t just disown them so you’re caught with this person sort of hanging on you. I think that was part of the downfall — Andrew did not like getting shaken off.

How was that final fight between Jeff and Andrew to shoot? How was it working with Darren?
I remember that being a hefty day. It was a lot of dialogue and a lot of heated stuff. We kind of played with the temperature of how much is it an all-out battle. He’s a very easy partner to dance with. He likes to explore it and try different ways and try one way hotter and one way colder. It was a fun conversation in that way. It’s really interesting to watch him work. He was kind of playful on set and I know from playing some f—ed up people it can be a survival mechanism to kind of stay light when you’re not in it because otherwise it can kind of eat you.

What do you want people to take away from Jeff’s story?
It’s sort of a warning about what happens when you don’t share your real self with the people you love. It’s also a warning about our society not letting people be who they are and the dark road that can lead people down.

Is there any chance you can return to American Horror Story?
I don’t know. I would love to. I am committed to staying in the Ryan Murphy universe as long as he will have me.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ star Finn Wittrock on his heartbreaking role as Cunanan victim Jeff Trail

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Two gay men speak out publicly

We gave in an A

The core of this episode is two interviews about being gay: One interview is extremely public; the other is hidden, both literally and figuratively.

Since we’re moving backward through the story, Gianni Versace is still alive, 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 does publicity for the brand and knows the world still isn’t kind to openly gay men. 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.

Antonio also has a perspective: For 13 years he’s been mistaken for Gianni’s assistant, and he wants their relationship to be public, which makes Donatella even more prickly. She sees Antonio as a climber and a leech; the family business should concern only family.

Cunanan has his own argument across the country, 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. If only he can get to Minneapolis, all of his money issues will be solved and he’ll be able to pay his credit card bills. The voice on the phone sighs and seems to reluctantly answer in the affirmative. 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 then behind the clothes: a collage of Gianni Versace, including that inevitable Advocate interview.

Cunanan is met at the airport by both David and Gulf War Navy veteran Jeffrey Trail — two of Cunanan’s victims, back from the dead thanks to the show’s backward timeline. Trail is equal parts savvy and prickly; his repeated “I made the decision” to a co-worker about leaving the Navy implies 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 is more sympathetic to Cunanan — he feels sorry for him, but Trail has nothing but teeth-clenching 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.

Cunanan comes home with David, who slowly seems to be coming to the same conclusions that Trail already reached. When Cunanan proposes, with a $10,000 watch, David reacts with shame and pity and humiliation for both of them. Cunanan, with his typical dissociated bounciness, tells him to think about it.

David gives him his answer at a polka club that night, where he and Cunanan have come to meet David’s co-worker, 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, thrusting back the watch. Later, Cunanan will watch David bring another man back to the apartment.

Since he has the keys, Cunanan heads to Trail’s home and begins picking through the man’s belongings. He puts on his Navy hat and peels his uniform out of its box, revealing a VHS tape hidden underneath. He watches the video: a news report about gays in the military in which an anonymous man — presumably Trail — talks about his experience, his face shrouded in shadow. Cunanan also steals Trail’s gun and points it at the screen in what we in the television recapping industry like to call foreshadowing.

We flash back to two years earlier to see Jeffrey 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. First, he broke up a fight between several sailors attacking one man, and then later, he rescued the man again when he was tied to his bed and beaten, inches from death. Trail comforts the sailor in the bathroom; someone sees him, and that’s all it takes.

Someone makes a sneering remark about identifying gay sailors by their tattoos and 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.

Cunanan is charming and flirty, exactly the type of man someone like Trail would have wanted to run into on his first night attempting to experience life as a gay man. 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.

On the day of Jeffrey Trail’s murder, Cunanan eats the most sinister bowl of Froot Loops since Get Out, while Trail returns home, infuriated that Cunanan touched his uniform. He sees Cunanan for what he is: a selfish fraud, a stark contrast to a soldier who’s willing to sacrifice himself for something. “You’ve never believed in anyone but yourself.”

Cunanan protests, asking Trail to remember everything that he gave him, but Trail just spits back bile. “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, we know how the events play out. 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. Trail’s sister went into labor, and she and her parents call, over and over, to tell him to come to the hospital. Their voices are recorded on the answering machine, playing out to an empty apartment.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ recap: Two gay men speak out publicly

My plea to Ryan Murphy: Please ditch ‘Horror Story’ for ‘Crime Story’

In Vulgar Favors: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, author Maureen Orth recounts a brief memory from Howard Madson — father of Andrew Cunanan’s second victim, David Madson — about the time he took his son duck hunting. “We shot this duck, and he cried so bad I finally hid the thing over by the tree,” he recalled. “David was just beside himself.” This week’s fourth episode of American Crime Story takes this tiny, poignant detail from the book and expands on it artfully, creating a scene that might be even more heartbreaking than Jack’s death on This is Us.

The episode tells the story of David Madson (Australian actor Cody Fern, in a star-making performance), who is forced to go on the run with Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Shortly after a flashback to David’s hunting trip with his dad, he tries to flee during an argument with Andrew by a secluded lake. Cunanan shoots him in the back, and as he’s dying, David has a dream-like vision: He escapes into an abandoned trailer home nearby, where he finds his father, dressed in his camo hunting vest, patiently waiting to share a cup of coffee with his son.

The moment is absolutely gutting, and it exemplifies why true crime is such a perfect genre for American Crime Story megaproducer/mastermind Ryan Murphy. Adapting true stories allows Murphy to create the vivid characters and captivating, socially-relevant narratives he and his team are so known for — but the iron framework of facts surrounding true-to-life subjects forces Murphy to apply a discipline to his storytelling.

In contrast, American Horror Story plays to Team Murphy’s worst instincts – the temptation to shock, terrify and titillate (usually all at once) at the expense of story, and the need to go bigger and more “bats**t” each successive season. And so a legless, syphilis-ridden Chloe Sevigny crawling out of school stairwell in season 2 leads to a frightened Gabourey Sidibe masturbating in front of a minotaur in Season 3… which leads to Max Greenfield getting raped by a drill-bit dildo in season 5… which leads to Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett being force-fed the flesh of Adina Porter’s leg in season 6… need I go on? (Maybe not, but I will: Season 7 featured a masked clown murderer with three penis noses.)

Both seasons of American Crime Story, though, have brimmed with humanity. The People vs. OJ Simpson completely rehabbed the public image of Marcia Clark — a woman who had been maligned, mocked, and sentenced to punch line status by the court of public opinion. By taking the time to tell Clark’s story through the lens of the challenges she faced as a working single mom, People vs. OJ (and Sarah Paulson’s Emmy-winning performance) gave a voice to a woman, and a population, that is more often silenced than heard. And with Versace, Murphy and his writers have pulled back the layers of a sensational crime to show us the lives and loves of the men who were overlooked: Cunanan’s first four victims, Jeffrey Trail, David Madson, Lee Miglin, and William Reese. The show uses the stories of Trail, a gay former Marine, and Madson to illuminate the very real, very relatable fear many young gay men and women still face. “I’m playing over everything the police are gonna find out about me,” muses Madson, before his forced road-trip with Cunanan comes to a violent end. “And I realize, I’ve been doing this my whole life — playing over and over the moment people find out about me.”

Moving away from the Horror franchise would allow Team Murphy to free up time and creative energy for their myriad of other — less nihilistic — projects, which range from anthologies (Emmy magnets Crime and Feud) to a prequel (Netflix’s Ratched, starring Sarah Paulson) to a groundbreaking dance musical (Pose) to what may just be the best gay fever dream ever conceived (the Barbra Streisand, Gwyneth Paltrow-starring The Politician). As Murphy himself has proven again and again, TV is a medium that can move, delight, and scare us immensely — and you really don’t need a killer clown to do it.

My plea to Ryan Murphy: Please ditch ‘Horror Story’ for ‘Crime Story’