I’m beginning to think this show isn’t really about Versace. Yes, he appeared in Cunanan’s drug-fueled dream tonight, but he’s barely been in the last four episodes as we travel back in the timeline to a year before the murders. To be honest, I can’t say I really mind. Versace’s story seems rather one-dimensional. He and Donatella clash while managing their fashion empire and Donatella hates Versace’s partner, Antonio. Every appearance by these three seems like a repeat of that storyline. OK, we get it.
The portrait of Cunanan, a pathologically lying psychopath wrapped in self-loathing and designer clothes, has been much more compelling. I think a lot of that is owed to Darren Criss for laying on the charisma thick like honey. Finn Wittrock and Cody Fern have also sparkled as two of Cunanan’s friends-turned-murder victims, Jeff Trail and David Madson.
In this episode, we finally discover how Trail and Madson met, which has been bugging me for the last two episodes. They were introduced at Cunanan’s birthday party, thrown by his sugar daddy, Norman Blanchford. There were no murders this week and all these fringe characters converged at one party, including his friend Lizzie (Annaleigh Ashford), Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell), Trail and Madson. There is no indication this actually happened (the party did, but Trail is the only one confirmed to have been in attendance), but knowing what we know now, it was a thrilling assembly of personalities. I also quite enjoyed the super b*tchy interactions between Cunanan and one of Blanchford’s friends, who was clearly onto his trickery.
From day one, I understood that a lot of this show’s plot was invented for dramatic effect. I’m starting to grasp that maybe 75 percent of the show is made up. Investigators that know Cunanan did certain things at certain times (like that L.A. hotel stay was totally real). But almost every conversation is fictional. That seems crazy to me, because if someone told such tall tales, was flashy with money and had so many friends, you’d think people would know more about him and remember talking to him. That, or the other people in the conversation are dead. This is frustrating, but leaves a blank canvas that gives the writers a lot to work with.
Once again, Cunanan was portrayed as pathetic in this episode. He’s trying desperately to make Madson love him and he shows off hard. The rejection only makes him plummet further into drugs, lies and sorrow. Now it makes sense why he gets so pissed when Madson eventually rejects his proposal. The same goes for the sneaky postcard he sent Trail’s father – this is why Trail is so unhappy to pick him up at the airport. This rejection and the jealousy Cunanan feels when he thinks Madson and Trail are a couple is a clear motive for murder. Case closed.
What about Versace, though? It’s beginning to seem that it was not personal at all. It wasn’t an affair gone wrong or anything juicy. Versace was just an obsession; a symbol of all Cunanan wasn’t. He got caught in the crossfire of Cunanan’s twisted mind.
I loved the interaction between Cunanan and his mother this week. Finally, we see where this guy actually came from and from her dingy apartment to her frumpy housecoat, it’s not what you would expect. You think that Mama is going to talk some sense into her child, but no. She seems delusional in her own way, obsessed with how much everyone else has and how much she lacks. This is where he gets it from – she isn’t going to save him or do anything to prevent the awful things about to happen. It finally makes sense…a little.
Luckily, we get more of Mrs. Cunanan and her unhelpful wisdom next week, along with more on how Cunanan met Norman Blanchford. This oughtta be good.
Tag: recap
Recapping ‘Versace’: Episode 6, ‘Descent’
As we enter the back half of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” it’s becoming clear that this is the Andrew Cunanan story. The show is less an examination of how the fashion designer was murdered but why he was murdered, putting the spotlight on his killer, marvelously portrayed by the dynamic Darren Criss. This is another week where we don’t see the Versace crew, including Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez (Ramirez’s Gianni does appear in one scene but as a figment of Andrew’s imagination) and Ricky Martin.
In the sixth episode of the season “Descent,” directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton and written by Tom Rob Smith, the show travels further back in time – a year before Andrew went on his cross-country murdering spree. The episode opens with Andrew celebrating his birthday in San Diego where he’s living with an older, wealthy man named Norman (Michael Nouri) in a fabulous seaside house. But it’s all a show, an attempt to woo and impress David Madson (Cody Fern). Andrew explains to his best friend Elizabeth Cote (the wonderful Annaleigh Ashford), that he’s staying with Norma “curating” his home and designing its decor. Andrew goes on to say he sees a “future” with David and that he’s trying to be “someone he can love.”
Also at the birthday party is Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock), dressed in blue jeans and sneakers. Andrew hands Jeff a pair of fancy loafers to wear for the party. Jeff has brought a gift for Andrew, but Andrew gives him another gift to pass him in its place.
“I want [David] to see I have really good friends,” Andrew tells Jeff. “…I need you to look the part.”
“What does a good friend look like?” Jeff asks. “How is this going to help?”
“I need him to know [that you love me],” Andrew says.
Jeff finally agrees but before Andrew tells him that he told David he is still serving in the Navy. He reluctantly agrees.
As the episode goes on, it continues to dig into Andrew’s compulsive lying as well as his drug addiction. Not only does he lead David to believe Norman’s house is actually his, but he tells him he used to design clothes with Gianni Versace. Later in the episode, we see Andrew doing hard drugs.
“We’ll have a house like this one day. Maybe this very one,” he tells David. Shortly after, Jeff hands Andrew the gift Andrew gave him, which turn out to be a pair of Ferragamo shoes.
That’s when Jeff and David meet for the first time – and seemingly make a connection, upsetting Andrew.
“Descent” also features one of the few characters in the series who acts as a direct foil to Andrew. One of Norman’s friends, played by “Saturday Night Live” alum Terry Sweeney, is fully aware of Andrew’s lies and act, giving him a hard time throughout the episode, letting Andrew know he’s on to him.
“I have a birthday present for you, it’s a piece of advice. You think Norman is the lucky one. You’re wrong, you’re the lucky one,” he tells Andrew. “Norman is a conservative old queer… most men would make it clear you’re an employee, but he wants you to feel like you’re an equal. But you’re not an equal.”
He goes on to say Norman was vulnerable when he met Andrew and that his partner died of AIDS, suggesting Andrew preyed on his friend during a difficult time.
“What a mix you are,” he tells Andrew. “Too lazy to work, too proud to be kept.”
“I need to get back to my party that room is full of people who love me,” Andrew says.
“Then that room is full of people who don’t know you,” Norman’s friend responds.
As the party continues, Andrew grows more concerned about Jeff and David getting closer and he attempts to balance out his lies. Later on, Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell) shows up at the party, adding to the episode’s fever dream quality – like at the end of “Alice in Wonderland,” where Alice confronts all the characters she’s met throughout her bizarre journey.
After the party, Norman confronts Andrew about his lies, his past, and his current behavior. He says he won’t be taken for a fool, and if Andrew can’t share his life with him then he has to leave Norman’s multi-million-dollar home. This upsets Andrew, who smashes Norman’s glass table with a chair and announces he’s leaving but “expect[s Norman] to call me.”
Andrew indeed leaves, moving into a crummy studio apartment. Jeff then visits Andrew, and the two fight about Andrew sending Jeff’s father a postcard that suggested Jeff is gay. During their argument, Jeff tells Andrew he’s moving because he’s unhappy, and Andrew contributed to that unhappiness.
Andrew then invites David to Los Angeles, where he arranges a five-star hotel stay, rents a sports car and wines and dines David, continuing his unhealthy, lying lifestyle. Despite all his attempts to impress David, which includes buying him a new suit, David still isn’t connecting with Andrew and tells him so.
A desperate Andrew tries to impress David even more but it doesn’t work and David says the two can’t take the next step in their relationship. He says he wants to get to know the real Andrew and get to the truth. But Andrew can’t help himself and he continues to lie about his family, saying his dad was a wealthy stockbroker and his mother ran a successful publishing house. David, however, sees through Andrew’s lies; an excellent Cody Fern plays the moment so well you can see David’s face drooping in disappointment.
“David, I’m a good person, who wants to be good to you,” Andrew says.
“One day you’re going to make someone very happy. I know you will,” David responds.
After things dissolve with David, Andrew is left feeling helpless and spiraling out of control. Parts of “The Assassination of Versace” have had a dreamlike quality, as writer Tom Rob Smith had to create a number of moments. “Descent” features one of the most vibrant and creepy scenes in the series, where a drugged-out Andrew envisions himself meeting Gianni Versace; the scene is cloaked in a crimson red glow as Andrew debates with Gianni about the life he should have had and that Gianni stole it from him.
“People have taken from me and taken from me… now I’m spent,” he tells Gianni, as he measures him for a suit. “This world has wasted me while it has turned you, Mr. Versace, into a star.”
“You think you’re better than me? You’re not better than me. We’re the same – the only difference is you got lucky,” Andrew adds.
“It’s not the only difference, sir,” Gianni says.
“What else you got?” Andrew asks.
“I have love,” the designer responds.
After the nightmare, Andrew, disheveled, high and desperate, tries to break into Norman’s house late at night, pleading with him to take him back. Of course, Norman doesn’t and threatens to call the police.
The next morning, Andrew goes to his mother’s home, who lives in a sad one-bedroom apartment. The end of “Decent” is completely devastating, as it’s the first time we see Mary Ann Cunanan (Joanna P. Adler), who is a sad and unhinged woman.
“I’m unhappy,” Andrew tells his mother, who ignores him and launches into a story about how she ran into a friend and bragged about Andrew working with Versace, traveling the world – of course, none of this is true and only adds to Andrew’s self-hate in the moment.
“I wish you could stay with me,” Andrew’s mother says, holding her son. “But I have to share you with the world.”
As Andrew leaves, he tells his mother he is going to visit Minneapolis – where David lives and where Jeff eventually moves.
“Descent” gives more context to Andrew and why he is the way he is, but it’s only scratching the surface of what’s to come.
‘American Crime Story’ Recap: Andrew Cunanan’s Life Spirals Out Of Control
American Crime Story is taking a look back at the year before Andrew Cunanan decided to kill Gianni Versace, William Reese, Lee Miglin,David Madson, and Jeff Trail on a murder spree. In 1996, Andrew is living large with the wealthy and older Norman Blachford. Andrew is basking in a life of luxury — sometimes completely naked — that he hasn’t worked a single minute for. Norman’s friends understandably don’t approve of Andrew and believe he’s taking advantage of Norman. Andrew throws a lavish birthday party for himself, and it’s all about getting David Madson to truly notice him. Andrew swears to David that there’s nothing sexual going on with Norman, but with the life Andrew is living with Norman, it’s hard for David to see otherwise. With Norman, Andrew just sees opportunity. With David, Andrew sees a future.
But Andrew refuses to let David see the true Andrew Cunanan. When Jeff arrives at the party, Andrew gives him a gift to give back. It’s all part of impressing David. “I need him to see that I’m loved,” Andrew says. David arrives at the party, and Andrew’s world stops. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the world does. Norman’s friend tells Andrew off big time. Andrew is not Norman’s equal and never will be. Andrew spots Jeff and David talking at the party. His concentration is interrupted by none other than Lee Miglin, who is desperate to get Andrew’s attention. Meanwhile, Andrew is desperate to get rid of Lee so he can get back to David.
Later, Andrew makes multiple outrageous demands to Norman. Norman finally sticks up for himself and calls out Andrew’s lies. Norman is well aware that Andrew comes from absolutely nothing and is in no position to make these over the top demands. He wants Andrew to finish his degree and work hard for once in his life. Andrew doesn’t want that “ordinary” life. Norman refuses to meet Andrew’s demands, so Andrew leaves.
Jeff’s father gets the postcard from Andrew that implies his son is gay, which is probably payback for chatting up with David. Jeff confronts Andrew about it, but Andrew refuses to take the blame. Jeff reveals he’s moving to Minneapolis, and Andrew warns him to stay away from David. Andrew immediately invites David to a secret getaway. After an extravagant time out, David tells Andrew that he’s not the one for him. “You are the only one I have ever truly loved,” Andrew says. David wants Andrew to be real with him, but Andrew can’t break down those lies.
Andrew quickly runs out of money and turns to hard drugs for relief. He hallucinates an entire conversation with Versace. “This world has wasted me,” Andrew says. “While it has turned you, Mr. Versace, into a star.” Andrew truly believes that people like Versace just got lucky in this world. He couldn’t be more wrong. Andrew’s downward spiral continues. When he’s desperate for money, Andrew goes to Norman’s place, but he’s shut out completely. He made his bed, and now he’s got to lie in it. With nowhere to go, Andrew returns home to his mother. Andrew wallows in his own pity, while his mom continues to feed the lies that Andrew’s told. The episode ends with Andrew heading to Minneapolis, where his crime spree began.
‘American Crime Story’ Recap: Andrew Cunanan’s Life Spirals Out Of Control
Behind Andrew Cunanan’s Breakdown On ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ [RECAP] – Towleroad
After a brief hiatus, we’re back with another installment of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story delving further back into the unraveling of Andrew Cunanan. Perhaps more than ever before, ACS has provided an exact breaking point from when Cunanan went from merely a huckster to a full-blown threat.
Before we get into last night’s episode, we need to talk about what went down two weeks ago. The episode aired the same evening as the horrific tragedy in Parkland, Florida, and I just couldn’t bring myself to devote this much brainspace to such a violent story. However, the episode was particularly relevant to this season’s (and this website’s) thesis.
Focusing on the parallel coming out stories of Jeffrey Trail and Gianni Versace, the episode tackled visibility and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell with visceral storytelling punches. We witnessed Trail’s uneasy coming out while serving in the Navy, including rescuing a fellow officer suspected of being gay, attempting to cut out his own tattoo to avoid being identified from random hookups and culminating in an “anonymous” TV news interview.
At seemingly the same time, Versace sat down with The Advocate for a tell-all about living as a gay man with his partner, Antonio (Ricky Martin). Even with the contrast between the buttoned-up military world and the creative fashion world, both men share a struggle. Donatella tries to warn Gianni against doing the interview at all.
It’s a neat narrative bow that encapsulates this season’s theme. Not only did the shame, secrecy and stigma around both men’s sexualities create an enormous burden on both of their lives, but they likely played a significant role in their deaths.
From a storytelling perspective, it’s almost too neat a bow. I’ve griped before about how all the unknowns in these men’s stories have led to writers taking too many liberties. Sometimes it feels too salacious, while other times it comes off cheesy (like the ending of a Grey’s Anatomy episode). For example, the previous episode ended with Jeffrey’s answering machine playing messages from his family announcing the birth of his niece, unaware he was already murdered. In reality, Jeffrey’s sister gave birth before he was killed. It’s a small gripe, but it cheapens the overall product in a way The People v. OJ Simpson avoided.
On to this week, it feels as if we’re journeying further into speculative fiction.
It begins with Andrew returning home to a gorgeous oceanside home, fully appointed with outstanding views, gorgeous swimming pool, all the finest things. It’s not his, of course. It belongs to the older man, Norman, and Andrew is working for him as a live-in interior designer. It’s a year before any of the murders, and Andrew is preparing for a lavish birthday party.
His straight lady friend is there, curious (as are all of us) about the nature of his relationship with Norman, his feelings for David and how Andrew labels himself. To hear Andrew tell it, Norman is strictly professional, David (whom he recently shared a wonderful time in San Fran) is the love of his life and he doesn’t like labels.
He’s playing a dangerous game at this party. With so many people from different facets of his life all together in one place, the lies are bound to catch up with him, so Andrew is forced to shuffle around the party, making sure no one is left alone too long to start putting pieces together.
One person who already has Andrew figured out is Norman’s quippy friend. He mocks Andrew, telling him he’s “too lazy to work, too proud to be kept.” He also is quick to remind him that if that party, a mix of Andrew’s “friends” and Norman’s, is truly a room full of people that loves Andrew, “then that room is full of people that don’t know you.”
When Jeffrey arrives, Andrew immediately has some notes for him. First, here is a bigger, nicer gift to present to Andrew in front of David so David knows how loved he is. Also, here are nicer shoes. Oh, and one more thing, please lie to David about still being in the Navy because that sounds so much better.
By the time David makes his grand entrance, Andrew’s eyeballs might as well be full heart emojis. Andrew rushes over, so excited David made the trip from Minneapolis. He shows him around, but starts to get a little uneasy about how friendly David and Jeffrey are. Also, hey, look! It’s Lee Miglin! Let’s all take a group photo, Andrew!
After the party, Andrew confronts Norman about their relationship. Maybe it was seeing David that made Andrew realize what he was missing out on, but whatever the reason, Andrew wants to renegotiate the terms of their arrangement. He wants a larger allowance, first-class travel arrangements and to be the sole heir in his will. Norman ain’t having it.
He’ll up the living allowance, but there’s no way he’s budging on the rest. He’s no dummy. He already investigated Andrew and knows he’s not Andrew DeSilva. He knows all about Andrew’s real identity and past. He’s willing to provide for Andrew, but he’s not willing to play the fool.
This is not a good enough answer for Andrew. He picks up a chair and smashes it through the glass table on the patio before making a dramatic exit.
In a tiny, unglamorous apartment, Andrew gets a visit from Jeffrey. Apparently, Andrew “accidentally” sent a flirty little postcard to Jeff’s dad, essentially outing him. It’s definitely a threat, as Andrew gets more and more threatened by Jeffrey’s relationship with David. Speaking of which, Jeffrey wants to tell him that he’s found a job. In Minneapolis. Thanks to David.
Taking that news about as well as you’d expect, Andrew reacts by inviting David to Los Angeles for a lavish weekend. He’s booked a fancy hotel, fancy meals, fancy shopping, all under the auspices of working on a Hollywood set. The entire set up makes David profoundly uncomfortable. It’s obvious Andrew has feelings for him, and he shows David how much he cares the only way he knows how: Treating him like a kept man.
Back at the hotel, David can barely choke down his lobster dinner. In an attempt to forge an authentic connection with Andrew, David tries to get him to cast aside all these affectations and share something truthful. Even now, Andrew can’t do it. He’s still the heir to a pineapple fortune. He still had the master bedroom as a child. His mother still brought him lobster to school. David’s not buying it. He’s done.
Rejected and alone, Andrew hits the bar. He regales the bartender with tales of his romantic weekend and how David wants to spend the rest of his life with him. After giving the barkeep a hefty tip, he sidles up to the drug dealer/close-up magician who demonstrates how much more powerful his latest offering is compared to Andrew’s current fix using a big ol’ flame.
He’s not kidding. Andrew shoots the stuff and hallucinates (I think?) a meeting with Gianni Versace. Waking up back in his messy apartment, Andrew is desperate for another fix.
Back at the bar, a visibly strung-out Andrew can barely keep his lies straight. He tells the bartender that he and David were going to Paris! To see the Vatican! No, Rome! Rome! Because they’re saving Paris for the honeymoon! The bartender wants none of this mess. Andrew tries to get another hit from the dealer, but the time has come for him to pay his tab.
Andrew tries going back to Norman’s place, but in the state he’s in, Norman calls the cops.
Andrew has nowhere left to turn. He’s alienated Norman, Jeffrey, his drug dealer, the bartender. So he heads home. Actual home.
His mother welcomes him with open arms. She takes him to the bath and scrubs him clean, working hard to get him to smell like himself again, whatever that means. She’s proud of the life she thinks he’s made for himself. It’s heartbreaking to hear her recount how good it felt to tell another mother, someone who was much better off than their family, how successful Andrew had become.
As he leaves, he tells his mom he’s on his way to Minneapolis. “They have an opera house in Minneapolis?” she asks, wondering how his work assisting Versace with opera costumes will lead him to the Midwest.
“No, mom, I don’t think they do.”
This is the closest we’ve seen to Andrew being a sympathetic character. Though, watching this story in reverse, is it possible to view him in any kind of humanizing light after the horrors we’ve seen him commit? The strange stylistic choices continue to muddy the message of Versace. I’m starting to get very concerned about how this season will end. It’s looking more and more like a typical Murphy, American Horror Story-esque, heavy-handed finale.
What do you think of this season?
Behind Andrew Cunanan’s Breakdown On ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ [RECAP] – Towleroad
https://ia601500.us.archive.org/8/items/swv2340923452/_Descent_%20with%20Gwyneth%20Horder-Payton%20%28online-audio-converter.com%29.mp3?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
https://acsversace-news.tumblr.com/post/171413190174/audio_player_iframe/acsversace-news/tumblr_p4wz3ayW3E1wcyxsb?audio_file=https%3A%2F%2Fia601500.us.archive.org%2F8%2Fitems%2Fswv2340923452%2F_Descent_%2520with%2520Gwyneth%2520Horder-Payton%2520%2528online-audio-converter.com%2529.mp3
Joanna Robinson and Richard Lawson discuss “Descent,” the sixth episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, tracking Andrew Cunanan deeper back in time. This week’s featured interview is director of this week’s and next week’s episodes of American Crime Story, frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator Gwyneth Horder-Payton.
“ACS: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace” Episode 6 Recap: “Descent”
Darren Criss’ butt! American Crime Story knew this heavy season was getting me down and brought me back to life with Darren Criss’ butt. The former Glee actor has been very generous with his rear end, and this is actually the second time we’ve seen it naked in a mere six episodes.
ACS also nurtured me this week by having people who knew Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) read his (less literal) ass to filth. At the beginning of the episode, we learn that Cunanan has been living as a kept man with his older partner, Norman (Michael Nouri), in San Diego. We find out that Cunanan met Norman right after he’d lost his partner to an AIDS-related illness, which fits with Cunanan’s pattern of preying on the desperate but highly successful. I think Norman’s friend said it all when he dragged Cunanan and said he’s “too lazy to work, and too proud to be kept.”
In fact, the sassy gay friend is right about everything. Normally, I’d take issue with him being a trope, but the truth is this is a bigger story with multiple nuanced characters, so it’s not immediately time to sound the think-piece alarms. He played the role of almost an omniscient god character, which is intensified by the fact that Cunanan is forced to spar with him immediately after doing “coke.“
The party is risky because it brings all of Cunanan’s lies and personas out into the open, and it’s clear he’s been a lot of different versions of himself to different people. We glimpse his internal conflict and possible shame when his friend asks him, “Are you officially gay now?,” and he awkwardly replies, “You know I don’t like labels.” His reluctance to tell his female friend he is sleeping with the older man is translucently thin, and she reads his ass more gently when she asks him, “Who are you trying to be?”
It’s depressing because you know Cunanan’s tricks of making his life seem impressive did work, or at least they worked on David Madson (Cody Fern) at first. Norman seemed less naive, and when he finally has his moment to call Cunanan on his bullshit, he doesn’t hold back, but he’s also not especially cruel. When he and Cunanan are arguing on the patio, it’s so much like a father and son fight. It’s not because Norman is weird, but because Cunanan is such a petulant child. When he yelled, “It’s ordinary!” at a man offering to pay for his college, I was infuriated.
Cunanan thinks he’s keeping all these secrets so well, but time and time again people know exactly what he’s up to. When he says, “Do you know that I probably lost the love of my life by living with you?,” Norman answers right away that he knows he’s talking about Madson. I thought it was painful how Cunanan’s friends, Trails and Madson immediately liked each other, which should make Andrew more sympathetic, but NO ONE GETS TO MURDER ANYONE, NO MATTER HOW HEARTBROKEN THEY ARE.
We get to see Cunanan’s temper and lack of self-control flare up a lot in this episode. I was shocked when he broke Norman’s glass table. The older gentleman owes Cunanan nothing and offers him a good deal. I can’t help but think Cunanan wildly overestimates his market value, even Jeff Trails says, “You had a good thing there.”
“ACS: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace” Episode 6 Recap: “Descent”
American Crime Story Review: “Descent” Is About Love, and Even More So Its Absence
Data point: Full-blown personality disorders such as sociopathy, psychopathy, narcissism and borderline disorder tend to occur co-morbidly; meaning if you have one, you probably have at least two. (Narcissist/sociopath is a common constellation, as is borderline/histrionic).
Related data point: Most experts in matters of the human psyche agree that personality disorders are not congenital. They are forged, probably built in early childhood by repeated, systematic destabilization of the child’s developing ego. This fact could almost make you feel sorry for a person with a full-blown personality disorder, except that they are so effing destructive that feeling sorry for them is somewhere between insane in its own right and impossible. There are a few moments in The Assassination of Gianni Versace where the temptation to feel pity for whatever happened to create the freakish empty husk that is Andrew Cunanan is relatively strong. Several such moments occur in tonight’s episode, “Descent.” Then you’re inevitably visited by a character he’s killed in a previous episode, and all you can do is feel sorry for the whole damned world.
1996. La Jolla, Calif. Fancy car pulls up to opulent beachside mansion. Cunanan (the increasingly chilling Darren Criss) swaggers out of the car and into the house, cold and arrogant, swinging glossy shopping bags from Ferragamo, then strips naked and dives into a swimming pool. (Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” has never been used to more perfect effect.) He rubs leftover coke residue on his gums in giant walk-in closet, carefully wraps a gift, and gets dressed. Andrew is definitely living large, his creepy grandiosity in full flow. A situation you’d think he probably wants to maintain.
It is one year before the murders of David Madson, Jeff Trail, Lee Miglin, William Reese and Gianni Versace.
So, it’s Andrew’s birthday, and the wealthy older man he lives with is throwing him a lavish party. We’re not yet clear on how he scored this, um, gig, but Norman’s got some protective friends who don’t love Andrew, and when Andrew’s friend Lizzie (Annaleigh Ashford, whom we met in the season premiere) sits down with him, Andrew explains that the whole party is designed to attract David (Cody Fern) and he needs her to help make it look like Norman (Michael Nouri) is not a rich man he’s preying on in exchange for sex. He needs David. Loves David. “He’s a house,” Andrew says. “A home. A yard. Picking kids up from school… he’s a future. I’ve only ever dated the past.”
“Who are you trying to be?” Lizzie asks, plaintively. She cares. For a second, you almost care, too. You wonder what happened in his house, his home, his school-kid days, his past. Something creepy, no doubt.
“Someone he can love,” Andrew replies.
Wrong answer.
Data point: Sociopaths and psychopaths are very similar. But not the same. Both have unstable egos, a shifting and uncertain sense of self that can explode into abrupt displays of grandiosity, excessive risk-taking behaviors, wild tapestries of lies, or rages. Some people with these disorders are aware that they have them, aware that they do not experience normative human emotions; some are not. But a sociopath is highly unlikely to murder you; serious physical violence is in the deck with psychopaths.
I think if I could magically enter this narrative and save only one person from Andrew Cunanan, it would probably be Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock), who at this point has left the Navy with very mixed feelings, still sees Andrew as a friend (and obviously has utilized him as a procurer) and shows up at the party with a hiking trail guide as a gift, only to be dragged into the bedroom and told to put on one pair of designer loafers and make sure David sees him giving Andrew the other. “I need him to see that I’m loved.”
“I do love you, buddy.”
“I need him to see that.”
Adding insult to injury, he tells Jeff that as far as David knows, Jeff’s a naval officer. “You want me to impersonate an officer?” The look of pain and confusion on Trail’s face as it seems to dawn on him that he has tied his coming out to someone who doesn’t remotely understand what it took for him to leave the military and now wants him to pretend to be the person he was when he had to pretend he wasn’t gay—wow, that is a stone with a wide, wide ripple effect. He’s so freaking honorable and good. You’d want to jump into the scene and get him the hell away from Cunanan even if you didn’t know his cranium had a blind date with a hammer coming in a year.
David shows up. As an architect, of course, he’s blown away by the sleek, capacious, glass-walled house, the lawns and clusters of banana trees sweeping toward the ocean—he’s wondering how Andrew’s pulled this off. Then, never one to disobey an order, Jeff “gives” Andrew the shoes, Andrew makes a humiliating fuss about them, and for some reason, with all his attention to detail, it has not occurred to Andrew that Jeff and David, two attractive, honest, non-desperate men, will hit it off instantly.
And it all starts to unravel.
Norman’s bitchy friend corners Andrew and lets him know he’s wise to his shtick. Jeff and David are enjoying each other’s company way too much. Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell) shows up and Andrew makes a big display of not recognizing him. (Lee’s faintly desperate to be alone with Andrew; it’s also hard to watch, knowing what’s coming). Lizzie snaps a picture of all of them, Jeff and David with their arms already around each other and rage beginning to simmer in Andrew’s eyes.
After the party, Andrew sandbags Norman with a list of demands. Norman coolly responds that you don’t become as wealthy as he is without doing “due diligence,” and proceeds to out Andrew—he knows Andrew’s real name is Cunanan, not DaSilva; he knows he’s lied about his past and his family; he knows that Andrew targeted him, that they didn’t meet by accident. Norman’s composure and self-assurance in this scene are outstanding; he even offers to pay for Andrew to go back to college. “I’ll allow you all the lies you want,” he says, “except one: that I’m a fool.”
Andrew does not get his list of demands, smashes a glass table, and leaves in a seething rage.
Jeff Trail gets a phone call from his dad. Apparently someone named Andrew has sent him a weird postcard, suggesting that they’re lovers. Jeff confronts Andrew, saying the suggestive postcard felt “like a threat”: He grabs Andrew by the shoulders and yells, “Stay away from my family!”
Andrew’s amazing response: “I never realized you were capable of violence.”
Jeff tells Andrew he’s moving to Minneapolis—though it’s not for David, he says. He wants to be closer to home and he’s tired of the heartbreak of seeing naval ships in port. Andrew of course takes it in a spirit of goodwill and equanimity. Actually, no, he doesn’t. He sneers and acts betrayed and screams at Jeff to stay away from David.
Then he calls David and manipulates him into coming to Los Angeles, stages a credit-card-killing weekend at a five-star hotel with lobsters and a rented Mercedes convertible. He takes David shopping, buying him a wildly expensive suit. Over an extravagant dinner, David tries to let Andrew down gently. He says he believes Andrew doesn’t make a lot of positive connections and that he’s glad they’d had one great night together, but that they can’t just keep reliving their first date. In an attempt to see if they can take things to the next level, David asks for the “truth” about Andrew’s parents. Andrew gives a lot of sketchy answers. David says, “One day, you’re going to make someone very happy.”
Andrew goes back to the fleabag motel he’s been camping in since he left Norman. His failed attempt to seduce David has cost him almost $30,000.
In a bar, Andrew tells the bartender that David agreed to spend the rest of his life with him, then finds a drug dealer in the corner, asking him for “something stronger.” In the remarkable hallucinatory high that follows, he sees himself in a fitting with Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez). “I am the most generous man in the world,” he tells Versace, who obsequiously goes about the fitting while Andrew rails about how he has given people everything and been left with nothing. “This world has wasted me. While it has turned you into a star.”
“Was it the world, sir?” Versace replies placidly.
Andrew seethes: “We’re the same, you and me. The only difference is you got lucky.”
Gianni Versace puts the tape measure around Andrew’s neck. “Not the only difference, sir. I’m loved.”Even high out of his mind on meth, Andrew Cunanan finds himself not measuring up.
And now the drug dealer wants money Andrew doesn’t have. So he goes back to Norman’s house. But he can’t get in. He screams at Norman through the locked glass doors while Norman calmly picks up the phone to call the police. There’s only one place left to go.
At least his mom (Joanna P. Adler) is happy to see him. She’s a little mentally unstable, but she’s glad to see him. She bathes him and sings an Italian lullaby, says he doesn’t smell like himself any more, and attempts to wash the not-him smell off. She tells Andrew how other moms are jealous because her son is touring the world with Gianni Versace, designing for operas. She is overwhelmed with pride over the things her son has done. Andrew becomes more and more visibly miserable. She doesn’t notice.
In the morning a seriously frayed and unstable Andrew Cunanan drives away, saying he’s going to Minneapolis.
One of the things that makes someone’s personality “disordered” versus “eccentric” is whether or not they are capable of internal validation. Narcissists, for example, have to constantly seek reflections of themselves in other people because they fundamentally do not know who they are; they lack a stable ego. Of course, there are lots of people who don’t have personality disorders who struggle with internal validation at least sometimes—hell, maybe it’s 100% of us. And probably everyone has had the experience of feeling rejected, unloved or unlovable. Maybe especially if you find yourself in any kind of demographic category that isn’t always accepted by others.
This episode is about love. Sometimes when people can’t locate any within themselves they have a hard time finding it in others. Occasionally, someone is driven actually insane by this, and might even do something unspeakable. We already know what’s going to happen to Andrew Cunanan. I wonder if he does.
American Crime Story Review: “Descent” Is About Love, and Even More So Its Absence
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: A Crystal Ball
Editor’s Rating: ★★★★☆
As we learn more about Andrew Cunanan in this episode, I have a very serious question: Is it considered skinny dipping if he’s still wearing goggles? I find it very curious that Andrew swans around this big, expensive home in La Jolla, a wealthy suburb of San Diego, and dives into the pool overlooking the ocean in his birthday suit, but takes time out to put on some reflective goggles that make him look like a figure in a David Hockney painting as he emerges from the water.
All joking aside, we all knew this wasn’t Andrew’s house. Instead, it belongs to a wealthy older gay gentleman named Norman. Not only is Norman rich and willing to keep Andrew in the manner in which he’s become accustomed, he’s also rather handsome. And he also hasn’t made Andrew put out in three months, either. This is the easiest salary a rent boy like Andrew has ever drawn.
It’s the day of Andrew’s big birthday party and we learn a number of things very quickly. First of all, he is deeply disliked by Norman’s friends, a set of old queens with the vicious tongues right out of Boys in the Band (now back on Broadway!) because they think that Andrew is only interested in Norman for his money. Gil even reminds Andrew that he is nothing more than Norman’s employee, something that his fragile ego can hardly bear to grapple with.
The other thing we learn is that he’s willing to enlist his closest friends in his lies. He tells his friend Lizzie that she has to help him convince David, who is coming from Minneapolis just for the party, that he can afford this grand house all on his own. When Jeff shows up for the party, seemingly one of Andrew’s only actual friends, Andrew forces him to wear fancier shoes, lie about his job, and even gives him a fake present to pretend be brought. He wants David to think that he has really great friends, even if he has to say, “Versace doesn’t make shoes,” under his breath when Jeff hands him the box. (Wrapped in Tiffany blue, of course.)
Yes, this whole party is just to impress David. Andrew even blows off Lee Miglin, who could have been another giant source of income if he were really sick of Norman, but instead he’s trying to chase his love for David. “He’s a home,” Andrew tells Lizzie about him. “He’s a yard and a family and picking kids up from school. He’s a future and up until now I’ve only dated the past.” The problem is that, as soon as David shows up at the party, he’s giving off major “I’m just not that into you” vibes. He’s flirting with Jeff right in front of Andrew, wondering where he’s going to sleep in the house (because he obviously won’t be sleeping with Andrew), and just generally treating him the way he would any friend.
The funny thing about Andrew is that he doesn’t see how flimsy his lies really are. They’re like a pointillistic painting: From far away it all makes sense, but when you give it even the slightest bit of scrutiny, you realize how it doesn’t all quite fit together. Everyone knows it, including Jeff, Lizzie, David, and certainly Norman. I don’t think Norman really needed to hire an investigator to find out that Andrew isn’t who he says he is, but he did anyway. He finds out that Andrew is poor and lived in a shitty condo, that he dropped out of state school after only one year, and he used to work in a drug store.
What’s amazing is that these people are always trying to save Andrew. Just as David did in Minneapolis, Norman also offers to help him. Andrew approaches Norman and tells him that since he cost him the love of David, he wants more money, a fancy car, and to be written into the will as Norman’s sole heir. Norman says that he will do that, but only if Andrew treats their relationship like a real partnership, not like he’s doing Norman some huge favor. He also offers to keep paying Andrew, set him up at a university, and pay for his degree. It’s a generous offer, but Andrew would rather continue living in his privileged fantasy than actually have to work hard.
Norman asks specifically about that aversion to hard work and earning the luxurious life that he craves. “It’s just so ordinary,” Andrew whines, before smashing the table, walking out on Norman, and going to live in a seedy condo that looks like it’s somewhere very close to the airport. (Why are all the worst places to live always near the airport?)
While he’s there, we learn that Andrew sent a postcard to Jeff’s father trying to out him as some kind of threat. I never entirely understood what this gambit was all about. Is he trying to extort Jeff by saying he’ll out him to his parents? Jeff doesn’t have any money. During this exchange, we also learn that Jeff is moving to Minneapolis, possible to be closer to David.
Andrew freaks out and invites David on a last-minute vacation to Los Angeles, where he says he’s hard at work on a movie. But David sees right through all of Andrew’s lies because Andrew doesn’t behave like an actual rich person. Real rich people never talk about “five-star hotels,” they just go and stay in them. A real rich person would never throw his keys at the valet. That’s just something that people do in movies, like running into the street and shouting, “Taxi!” Andrew is always projecting what he really is, an insecure kid playing rich.
When David shows up, he’s uncomfortable with all of Andrew’s very staged displays of wealth and says he’s not interested in that world. Not only are Andrew’s attempts transparently fake, they’re also not the right way to impress someone like David. He gets one final chance to be authentic when David takes off his jacket and clears the table and asks Andrew to tell him about his real life. Instead, Andrew just manufactures more lies about his parents and his mother bringing him lobster dinners at boarding school. You can see David resign himself to the fact that Andrew will never change. “We had a great time in San Francisco,” David tells Andrew, blowing him off. “One great night. Maybe there was a chance, but … I have a feeling you don’t have many great nights with people. So when you do, it feels life changing.” Even when trying to let him down gently, David is still trying to help. Andrew really does prey on the nicest guys.
After that failure, Andrew gets into injecting crystal and we see how life altering it is. He imagines himself with Versace, but even then Versace doesn’t behave like a real person, he’s just a receptacle for Andrew’s bitching. He says that he’s the most generous person in the world and he’s given everything to the people he loves, but he doesn’t do it out of generosity. He does it so that he’ll have love and acceptance. Andrew never realizes it’s something he can’t buy.
Quickly, we find out where all of his pathology comes from. When Andrew hits rock bottom and runs out of money thanks to his crystal habit, he goes to see his mother in her shabby apartment and she gives him a sponge bath, which is really, really weird. It’s like Bates Motel weird. As his mother launches into a story about running into a woman in the supermarket, we realize that Andrew is just like his mother. She says that family is everything, that she gave it all up for him, that she just wants him to be something great so that she can share in his glory.
In a rare vulnerable moment, Andrew says that he’s unhappy. He wants to be honest with the one person who truly understands him and where he comes from. But his mother doesn’t want to hear it. She wants to believe in the lie that she created. She wants her son to be extraordinary, even if it’s fake. With that, she seals her son’s fate. He gets in his car and heads off to Minneapolis, starting a spree that will eventually lead to the murder we’ve been working backwards from all season.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Episode 6 Review: Descent
With episodes three through six, The Assassination of Gianni Versace has placed the lives of Cunanan’s victims front and center. They are used as a lens to explore Andrew, but they are also shown to be people in their own right, with their own lives and motivation before Cunanan was through. Listing the names at the opening of this episode was a stark reminder of the stakes of the series.
There’s been a certain amount of criticism over how little the series has focused on Gianni Versace. Certainly, given the title, the viewer is entitled to be annoyed. But from an ethical standpoint, honoring three of the other four victims is a worthwhile pursuit, and it has made for excellent television.
However, it’s the absence of an episode devoted to victim number four, cemetary caretake William Reese, that exposes the show’s intentions more clearly: he is the only victim who (undisputedly) had absolutely nothing to do with Andrew Cunanan. It’s purely a situation of the wrong place at the wrong time, which means there’s little his death (or life) can do to shed life on who Andrew Cunanan was, or why he became a spree killer.
Therein lies the rub of true crime: even when it endeavors to honor the victims of a particular crime, it’s almost always in service to more exposure for, and a better understanding of, the perpetrator of the crime, rather than their victims.
The presence of Lee Miglin at Andrew’s birthday party, and in a picture alongside Andrew, David, Jeff, and Andrew’s paramour of the week, is startling. For one thing, a picture of Andrew with three of his five victims would be a big deal on it’s own. Second, Miglin’s family disputes to this day that the two ever met. Futhermore, to show a photo being taken is a bold assertion in anything based on a true story, since it insinuates that the photo actually exists. I couldn’t find any such photo online, nor any mention of it in discussions about whether Miglin and Cunanan knew each other. To portray it here feels like an overstep of the contract that true stories make with their audience, since it would be reasonable to assume the photo was real based on this episode, and I have yet to hear about even a purported existence of such an image.
Andrew’s host is an interesting figure, as is his friend who clearly has Andrew’s number. Andrew clearly isn’t fooling anyone; his older lover has no delusions about their situation. Yet he is firm when Andrew tries to overstep with his extravagant requests, and the incentive to value the older man more dead than alive. “If you want to live this life, you have to work for it. Or you can share it with me. There is no third way.” Much of Andrew’s actions could be seen as looking for that third way. More troubling still, is the fact that in spite of his taste for the good life, he clearly didn’t kill for it. So what, then?
The Andrew Cunanan of “Descent” is fittingly desperate and sad. He’s modeling his life around the kind of person he thinks David could love, which is heartbreak to watch when it’s played so well, but Ryan Murphy and Darren Criss won’t let us forget what’s to follow, even for a second. Andrew is transparent in his attempts to thwart David and Jeff’s chemistry upon meeting, doing everything he can to keep them apart, appear single to David without alienating any of his older patrons too much, and scrambling to project the kind of life that he mistakenly thinks will appeal to David.
This episode, more than any other, demonstrates the warning signs of Andrew’s earlier abusive behaviors. Obviously the physical violence is the most extreme, but there’s more to learn from how he acted before he escalated to such extreme violence. It’s important to state clearly here that Cunanan’s victims are not to blame for not noticing the signs or not speaking up. However, it’s worthwhile to point out abusive behavior whenever it occurs, in the hopes that it helps to keep more people safe.
Much of Andrew’s behavior comes from the classic power and control wheel of the world of intimate partner violence and sexual assault – I’m thinking here of the way he plays the victim when Jeff gets physical in response to Andrew sending the postcard to Jeff’s father to out him, which is itself an act of abuse. Andrew tries to gaslight Jeff and whatever audience he may have, real or imagined, into thinking that Jeff’s actions were more aggressive and threatening than they really were. Andrew effectively flips the conversation so that instead of answering for his betrayal, Jeff has to answer for his reaction to it.
There’s an interesting dynamic at play here that’s not often discussed on mainstream media, that of abuse between members of the LGBTQ community. Andrew’s reaction to Jeff plays up the idea that Jeff is larger and more masculine, making himself seem more vulnerable. Further, so many of the red flags that David, Jeff, and others noticed about Andrew’s behavior would have been easily dismissed due to myths related to intimate partner violence. For example, Andrew lacked a physical advantage, one that is often credited with so much of the imbalance in heterosexual power dynamics. In earlier episodes, Jeff and David shrugged Andrew off as harmless though annoying, or even cruel.
Unfortunately, the downplaying of emotional and verbal abuse is all too common, and it allows more intimate partner violence to flourish. Andrew’s ability to manipulate myths and assumptions around homosexuality and intimate partner violence helped him fly under the radar and ultimately hurt more people.
★★★★☆
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Episode 6 Review: Descent
Andrew spirals out of control in a compelling American Crime Story
“Descent” B+
“Descent” is a lonely and isolating episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which is sometimes even heightened when Andrew is seen with other people. At the same time, it also remains unforgiving; there are instances where you almost want to feel sorry for him (the ending comes to mind) or when it offers hints to partially explain his actions, but the episode smartly never commits fully to these ideas. It’s these scenes where the effectiveness of the backwards timeline (which ended up growing on me) is most on display: you can’t ever feel truly sorry for Andrew because we’ve seen the vicious, brutal murders.
What “Descent” is most concerned with is depicting Andrew’s, well, descent as he spirals further into drugs, sadness, and desperation, becoming more unhinged with every moment. It also wants to simply shed more light on Andrew’s character in general—again, I presume, with a blend of fact and fiction. “Descent,” which jumps back a year before the murders, begins at Andrew’s birthday party while he’s on a mission to do one thing: win over David.
The only thing that’s bigger than Andrew’s current obsession with David is his forever obsession with being seen as someone much better than who he actually is. Andrew struggles to control other people’s perception of him, as if trying to craft his own narrative. He even wants to have two birthday parties: one for Norman’s friends, and one for Andrew’s—even though he’s ostensibly living off Norman (vaguely as a kept boy), he doesn’t want his peers to know that he’s shacked up with an older man. He wants them to think he’s available, he’s rich, he’s successful, and he’s in control. He especially wants David to see this.
It’s hard to parse how much of Andrew’s infatuation with David is real—or maybe he just thinks it’s real?—vs. how much he just thinks the two of them will look good together to outside people. But there seems to be some truth to Andrew’s infatuation (and the hope that the two of them can build something together) as he describes his feelings to a friend: “[David’s] a home. He’s a yard and a family, and picking kids up from school. He’s a future.” (Also of note: He says all this while still not being able to fully admit that he’s gay.) But despite Andrew’s efforts to impress—which includes a reluctant Jeff ordered to give Andrew a particular gift that Andrew himself picked out, and also lying to say he’s still a Naval Officer—David’s eyes are elsewhere. It’s David and Jeff who hit it off, not David and Andrew who nervously watches the two chat before slipping away for some confidence-boosting drugs. You can see Andrew start to unravel during this party, full of nervous and paranoid energy, and increasingly upset that he’s not in control.
Control is such a recurring theme in this episode: personal control, control over people, control over relationships, losing control to drugs and madness, relinquishing control to a familiar family figure. Reeling from the party not going his way, Andrew hands Norman a list—an ultimatum, really—about what he wants in order to stay. But Norman isn’t as foggy as Andrew assumed; turns out, Norman already investigated Andrew and found out all about his lies. Among them? Saying his parents are New York City billionaires, that was he was disowned when they learned of Norman, and that he has a PhD. Andrew’s a mix of frustrating contradictions: The notion of going back to school is “insulting” because it’s “ordinary”—Andrew’s biggest fear, it seems, is to be a normal, ordinary, forgettable person—yet he still puts enough importance on being educated that he lies about having a doctorate.
Andrew loses the control he thought he had over Norman, and both David and Jeff are next. A glossed-over element from “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”—the postcard that Andrew “accidentally” sent to Jeff’s father—occurs in this episode, and Andrew plays dumb (“Why would I do that?” and “Your parents always assume”) but now it’s clearer that this move to force Jeff out is another way Andrew attempted to exert control over the men in his life, especially when they weren’t catering to his will. With Jeff moving to Minneapolis for a propane job—not for David, he emphasizes, but that’s surely a part of it—Andrew see this as two men he brought together, one of whom he “loves,” leaving him on the outside.
Andrew tries to regain control through David, surprising him with a ticket to Los Angeles and a free stay in a fancy-as-hell hotel, treating him to big meals and new clothes (“Dress for the man you’re going to be,” he advises). He tries to woo David by sort-of speaking honestly, per David’s request, and does sprinkle in some real details (his parents’, and especially his mother’s, spoiling him to a bizarre extent) with some toned-down lies. But that doesn’t work either. Andrew is left alone, now controlling the fictional narrative in his head, telling a bartender about his engagement and honeymoon.
In a drugged-up fantasy sequence where Andrew, high on crystal, imagines Versace as his tailor, Assassination once again tries to draw parallels between murderer and victim—while astutely showing Andrew’s warped self-perception. Andrew is sort of right in believing that he’s given a lot to people but that’s different from believing the world has “taken” from him. And his generosity isn’t about being generous at all: it’s about buying people’s affecting, forcing people into trips, manipulation and control through material items. “The world has wasted me,” Andrew says, even though it’s turned Versace “into a star.” In a searing exchange, Andrew wonders aloud about the difference between them and ultimate chalks it up to luck; imagined-Versace chalks it up to being loved.
Stray observations
- “Descent” shows the rock bottom Andrew hit before going on the killing spree—though I’m not sure how much of a span this episode covers: weeks? Months?—eventually begging Norman to let him in, and then retreating back home where his mother bathes him. (Also eerie: “This is not your smell.”
- Choice line from Norman: “Being smart is useless unless it’s in the service or something.”
- Lee Miglin was at the party! Which feels a little too much like tying a neat little bow on connecting the men (Lee, David, Jeff, and Andrew all in one photo), but it was quick enough.
- “Who are you trying to be?” “Someone he can love.”
Andrew spirals out of control in a compelling American Crime Story
ACS news 