Because of the backwards narrative style, the entire second season of American Crime Story has been one big origin story for Andrew Cunanan, his relationships, and the motives that eventually led to his string of murders. The seventh episode, titled “Ascent”, was the episode that we’ve been leading up to all along to fully get a changing point in Andrew’s life.
Last week’s episode (titled “Descent”, in parallels that were evident throughout) was about Andrew losing everything he built for himself. This week we get a peek into how he started putting it together…
Episode 7: “Ascent”
1992, Milan. The episode opens with Donatella Versace, which is always a welcome change. The the further we go back in time, the more the Versace appearances are more thematic tie-ins to Andrew’s journey than a look into their personal lives. But Penelope Cruz in a platinum blonde wig is always a vision to behold.
Donatella is anxious that she can’t seem to design a dress by himself. Gianni can see the potential and talent in his younger sister, and decides to guide her; he proposes they design a dress together. He will show her the ropes. Learning to adapt to your environment will be a big theme of the episode.
We then go to a San Diego pharmacy, where Andrew is working as a cashier. Every week, we see Andrew being stripped more and more of the egocentric, glamorized monster of the first episodes. He’s slightly less delusional, less hurt, less polished; somehow more human, which is reinforces the weird moral statement the show is making out about a murderer.
The Andrew we meet this week is an Andrew that is fueled by dreams. This is something that has always pushed him forward (and what eventually pushed him over the edge), but here we see someone who has yet to accomplish what he set out to do. He’s just a cashier reading a Vogue magazine.
We also see more of the relationship with his mother, who was first introduced last week. In real life, this woman was severely mentally ill, which the show hints at in small, hardly overt ways. We see a tremendous dependency she has not only on her son, but on her son’s success. His value under her eyes is measured on how much he can accomplish.
“You can tell lies, but you either have money or you don’t”, a man at his regular dive bar tells Andrew, perhaps pulling the final trigger inside him to activate him and make him go pursue his dream life. For Andrew, this naturally means to join an escort service. After all, he is well-versed, can carry a conversation, and older guys are keen on him.
The following scene, where Andrew interviews for an escort position, is the only scene so far in the series in which Andrew’s Asian-American identity takes a hard toll on him. “I can’t sell a smartass Filipino,” the escort manager tells him, after she’s asked him to put himself in every box the potential clients might check. “Then I will sell myself.” The idea of not being desired or wanted is something that will chase him for life.
Andrew insinuates himself into the life of Lincoln Ascot, an older millionaire, by charming him and his group of wealthy gays in an opera playhouse. Soon, they have reached an arrangement; he will get monthly allowances, expense credits, and travel benefits, in exchange for redecorating Lincoln’s house and social life. A bargain that benefits both of them.
And then we finally witness the fated encounter between Andrew and David Madson in San Francisco; the night that has been hinted to since David’s introduction in episode four, and that would define the rest of their lives. What starts as Andrew buying a drink for the lonely blond gentlemen at the bar, ends as one of those nights; a night of endless conversation and opening yourself completely. Andrew is hooked. The way Cody Fern portrays David as a wide-eyed dreamer, talking endlessly about his goals, is so much painful and traffic knowing his end. The show has been very effective in highlighting the theme of hope and lost dreams via the backwards narrative.
But Lincoln is not pleased with Andrew taking in new lovers, and breaks off the arrangement. That very same night, he picks up a straight-identified man at a bar, perhaps for the sake of company and drowning his sorrows. But this man, terrified of Lincoln but more terrified at himself, freaks out at the slight touch of Lincoln’s hand, bashes his head, and brutally murders him. “An act of self-defense.” Andrew witnesses this from afar.
While this murder actually took place in reality (and the man later confessed to it to committing it out of gay panic), there is no evidence of Andrew ever being there, but his placement in the room makes for an interesting addition. It allowed Andrew to be a passive bystander for something that he would later commit himself more than once. He would also use this to underline the fatality of not being able to speak up as a gay man against a crime. We all had it coming; it’s always our fault.
Andrew mourns Lincoln with Norman, one of his closest friends and (because we’ve seen last week’s episode), the next man he will be kept under. As they work through their grief on a beach, Andrew offers Norman what he had with Lincoln. A dream that he can build for them.
But he’s not telling his mom he’s become a kept boy. He’s telling her that he’s going after a bigger dream; he’s travelling the world with Gianni Versace as his costuming assistant. His mother assumes that she’s coming along with them. But Andrew has to shed everything from his previous identity, including her. In what has now become the peak trope for selfish behavior, he ends up hurting his own mother, pushing her away and making her fracture her shoulder blade. But she still thinks he’s such a good boy. Andrew cries at this. He will never be a good boy again.
In between Andrew’s titular ascent, segments of the Versaces are peppered throughout. Donatella takes the red carpet spotlight for the first time and becomes a public face for the company. Gianni goes deeper into an illness he will never be cured off, and eventually has to leave Milan for Miami, and Donatella takes over the day-to-day operations. “If we are not talked about, we are nothing,” she says to her new employees after Gianni’s departure. This is another reminder that the Versace’s presence has mostly been used for thematic underlining.
There are two episodes of this season left. According to early critical coverage, next week’s episode we will go back in time one last time, to fully understand Andrew’s life motivation to social climb his way towards murder. And as much as I’ve enjoyed the backwards narrative and the emotional places it takes the audience, I hope the finale puts us back where the premiere left off, with Andrew after the last murder. There needs to be a conclusion to Andrew’s life, as he ended it shortly after.
It’s been a bittersweet journey to explore the lives of people whose fates we already know. I’m enjoying the deep exploration of their characters, but also question them. I get the necessity (and, in a way, the debt) to humanize the victims that have become footnotes in a larger story. I get the necessity of painting the world of prejudice around them, and the decisions that led them to meet and need this man. I thank that we’ve gotten to explores the themes of isolation, longing for connection, and community in the gay sphere that still permeate today. It’s almost a pity, though, that in the way we are also getting a human, almost relatable portrait of a killer. But I guess if there was a way to do it, taking all factors around it into consideration was the way to go.
Tag: recap
The 5 best moments from The Assassination of Versace 2×07
Oh, how we love a dose of the Versace family! This week we watched Donatella on the path to fame after creating the dream dress for red carpets and having to take over her brother’s business after finding out he has a rare form of cancer. Donatella has been in the background of this show up until now, and it was nice to see her centre stage.
Here are the 5 best moments of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Versace 2×07:
The dream dress that nobody wanted
This episode shows Donatella trying to be a part of the Versace team, designing her own clothes, however she doesn’t seem to have an artistic streak and doubts her ability to take over the company if anything was to happen to Gianni. Gianni confronts Donatella about how unartistic he also is and the pair create the most magnificent leather, belted, bondage dress that soon enough catches the attention of everybody at the 1992 Vogue’s 100th Anniversary party. Donatella refused to wear the dress herself at first and believed it belonged on model’s, however, Gianni convinces her that she is to become a star and when they both appear on the red carpet, Gianni helps his sister find her confidence and she shines immaculately, with every reporter and photographer begging for her to pose for them.
Although the newly designed dress seemed to be a huge success on the carpet, it seems that is all the dress is made for, as sales became increasingly low due to it’s high extravagance. Gianni is outraged by the public not purchasing the dress and appreciating his sister’s dedication and hard work. Donatella suggests creating a similar dress, but more low, which doesn’t bode well with Gianni, as he reaches for his scissors and cuts away the belts, leaving a simple LBD in it’s place.
Gianni’s Illness
After Gianni’s outburst over people not purchasing his sister’s dress, he freaks out because he is unable to hear his sister and his partner. Later on, Donatella tells the staff of Versace HQ that their boss has a rare form of ear cancer and that she will take charge of the business until her brother’s return.
Andrew’s sugar daddies
Andrew has always dreamed of a rich and extravagant lifestyle… So what’s the best first stop in that direction? An escort agency. Although Andrew has all of the qualities to be a successful escort, the fact that he is an Asian-American leaves him facing rejection, as no man ever requests for an Asian.
Andrew takes being an escort in to his own hands and tries to sell himself. He sets himself on high society rich man Norman, who he purposely bumps in to at an Opera House, setting the motion of what will be a disastrous relationship in the future. Norman introduces Andrew to his other two highly successful friends, Lincoln Aston and David Gallo, finding himself invited to dinner later with the three. Andrew finds himself alone with Lincoln, offering to be his sugar baby – however, after focusing more of his attention on his new found crush, David, Lincoln heads back out to the gay bars.
Lincoln meets Kevin Bond, a man who introduces himself as a straight man, but always finds himself at a gay bar. Kevin goes back to Lincoln’s place, however the night ends abruptly when Andrew witnesses Kevin brutally beating Lincoln to death after swiftly going in to panic defence because he thought Lincoln was trying to kiss him.
Later on, Andrew and Norman form a bond over their mutual fear of being a public gay man. Andrew convinces Norman to let him create his dream home, where Andrew later holds this against him when Norman ever tries to kick him out or not give him what he wants.
Norman Bates round 2
Andrew promises his mother that he will take her all over the world and out of the small home they live in now, however, he breaks that promises when he decides to live alone with Norman. This was heartbreaking to watch, as Mary consistently tried to convince Andrew to let her go with him, even offering to do everything for him when they begun their journey. Andrew didn’t like how forward his mother was being and there was somewhat a moment of physical abuse, when he throws her in to a wall.
While checking on Mary’s injuries, the nurses seem quite wary of Andrew and try to silently hint at Mary to tell the truth about how she really got her injury – however, she continues to tell them that she slipped and Andrew called for an ambulance because he’s a good boy.
Andrew and David’s First Meeting
We was finally introduced to how Andrew and David came to meet – and it was all down to one drink Andrew requests to be sent to David whilst he sits alone at a bar. David goes over to Andrew and his friends to thank him for the gesture and he joins them for the rest of the night to celebrate Andrew’s friends birthday. The first night spent together that we heard of from David in episode 4 beings to pan out in front of us – the intensity of their connection and romance would allow you to believe that this could be a true love story, but, as this show is going backwards, we already know this is a love story that would definitely make for one sick and twisted romance novel.
https://ia601506.us.archive.org/18/items/asdgswdert345/PVRM_ACS_S2E7.mp3?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio
https://acsversace-news.tumblr.com/post/171756583679/audio_player_iframe/acsversace-news/tumblr_p5fdb66XmZ1wcyxsb?audio_file=https%3A%2F%2Fia601506.us.archive.org%2F18%2Fitems%2Fasdgswdert345%2FPVRM_ACS_S2E7.mp3
The People … have mixed feelings on the latest episode of ACS: Versace. We’re nearing the end of American Crime Story, and this week left us feeling …“meh”. Natalie and Maren discuss Gianni’s ear cancer, Donatella’s iconic Vogue Gala dress, Andrew’s Häagen-Dazs fit, and as always – read your comments! | 11 March 2018
Dailybreak.com
Are you doing everything you can to live up to your fullest potential? Andrew Cunanan thought he was. Instead of putting in the hours at Rite Aid or staying in school, Cunanan connives and schemes, moving his way up through a ladder of sugar daddies.
Meanwhile, Donatella is afraid. She has the opportunity to be her brother’s successor, but she doesn’t have the confidence to shine. She holds herself back by passing off someone else’s work as her own.
Luckily, realizing Versace’s ailing health, Donatella knows it’s time and steps out on the red carpet wearing a collaboration by her and Gianni, an iconic bondage-inspired black leather dress. The photographers eat it up and Donatella is firmly in the spotlight. But, she clashes again with Versace. She suggests a more wearable version of the dress to sell and Gianni, ill and angry, flips out. But she’s not wrong. He can’t have it both ways – if she is truly the future of the brand, he’s got to let go.
Donatella’s struggle is so relatable – we might not be working on one of the biggest high-fashion brands, but do we always seize every opportunity with gusto? When we try to step up to the next level, especially as women, is it always welcomed? Donatella is going to have to fight for her place, even if both she and Versace know it has to happen.
Then there’s Andrew, who lives in his dreamland, believing his best gifts are his charm and his impeccable taste. He is clearly very smart and can hold his own in a crowd, but he’s got no substance, no work ethic and resents those who have a lot, no matter how hard they have worked. As he moves from rich guy to rich guy, Cunanan becomes a professional leech. He makes good arm candy and all he requires are the finest things in life.
When Cunanan’s rejected by Sugar Daddy #1, Lincoln Aston, he seems genuinely shocked. It’s a pattern that we saw last week with Sugar Daddy #2, Norman Blanchford, friend of Aston’s. All Cunanan did was use Aston’s money to romance another guy in an expensive hotel room. What’s the problem, he wonders? He feels entitled to a hefty allowance he can use however he wishes because he’s so alluring.
Am I being too hard on Cunanan? After all, he’s just using the gifts that come naturally to him. I think I judge because I know he’s clearly capable of so much more. Whereas Donatella might be lacking some of the talent of Versace, she still tries. Cunanan settles for hustling because he’s either too lazy or too vain to do anything but flirt. What a waste of a life, in so many ways.
This doesn’t seem shocking, knowing all the bad things Cunanan is capable of, that he didn’t have anything to do with Aston’s murder, especially knowing he just got dumped by Aston. Drifter Kevin Bond confessed and served time, but it’s veeeeerrrrry suspicious. It seems that no matter where Cunanan goes, blood follows.
Sex, Lies, And A Disturbing Bludgeoning In ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ (Ep. 7)
Both Episode 6 and 7 of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace were directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton. The two episodes, titled “Descent” and “Ascent,” form a neat diptych depicting the imagined suffering of Cunanan, whose inability to seperate fact from fiction led him into increasingly dangerous proclivities. To what extent he is the product of pure evil or a series of misfortunes is a question begged by the show.
Episode 7 starts in Milan, Italy in 1992. Donatella appears to have taken a creative lead in the design process as Gianni’s health deteriorates (amidst denials of his condition). The siblings argue over the future of the company — can Donatella handle the pressure of their line after Gianni’s imminent demise?
This marks the return of the eponymous family to the series, who had been conspicuously absent for much of the show — considering the program’s title.
In San Diego at the same time: Cunanan is working in a convenience store. He continues telling lies to customers about his future prospects as a PhD candidate. He lives with his mother, embroiled in a constant, semi-incestuous battle with her.
Later, Andrew and Trail head to a gay bar where Cunanan continues to create elaborate lies about his past, his family, his income. An older gentleman approaches him with his phone number, implying that his needs could be taken care of.
The next day, as if inspired by the events of the night before, Cunanan finds himself interviewing at an escort service. Despite his superior wit, the interviewer is unimpressed with his racial identity and demeanor. He decides to sell himself.
Back to the Versaces. Gianni and Donatella are working on a masterpiece together. Gianni thinks Donatella should be the model for his piece de resistance in his next collection. Donatella demures at first, but gives in. The cameras eat up their fetish-y design.
Meanwhile, Cunanan begins tracking high-profile charity events and operas in order to scope out potential older suitors. He zones in on one gentleman, Norman Blachford, and immediately begins seducing him (and his friends), saying “Let’s discuss your wants and my terms.”
Donatella is met with celebration at her studio — but despite the publicity, sales are down. Donatella conceives of designing a more ready-to-wear version of her bondage look. Gianni is furious, feeling like his artistic integrity is being compromised. His health is obviously deteriorating — he suddenly goes deaf.
Andrew shows off his newfound wealth with friends. He buys a drink for an attractive young blonde at the bar: it’s Madson.
Smitten, Madson returns to Cunanan’s hotel room. The two bond over stories of lost love, coming out, past melancholies.
Cunanan’s patron, Lincoln Aston, sees the itemized bill from the night and cuts him off.
The next night, Cunanan bizarrely witnesses Aston murdered by someone he was attempting to seduce — specifically, bludgeoned to death in a shockingly graphic scene. Cunanan lets the killer slip by without calling the police. The next day, Andrew meets with his older suitor and explains that police let the murderer go on a gay panic defense.
“I’ve been living through this my whole life. We fall sick, it’s our fault. We’re murdered, it’s our fault,” says the suitor.
“You can rob us, you can beat us, you can kill us — and get away with it,” replies Andrew.
The next day, Andrew recounts one of Madson’s stories to Norman — as if the events had happened to him.
Andrew announces to his mother that he’ll be traveling the world (with Versace — another lie). His mother begs Andrew to let her come with him. Andrew refuses before their argument gets physical. He pushes her into a wall and breaks her shoulder blade. She lies to doctors about what happened.
Donatella tells the Versace employees that Gianni is suffering from a rare form of ear cancer. She announces she will be taking over the operations of the business.
Andrew and Norman purchase a house together.
“If they could see me now…” muses Andrew.
“Who?” asks Norman.
“Everyone.” replies Andrew.
The show’s writer, Tom Rob Smith, has discussed his portrayal of Andrew in this duo of episodes.
“I think it’s wrong to think of him as the ‘Talented Mr. Ripley,’” said Smith to Vanity Fair. “Mr. Ripley is someone who is always hustling and is aware that he’s angling things… . I think Andrew thought he was a husband or a partner in his own right. I don’t think he understood that he was a hustler, otherwise he would’ve been happy with his lot.”
Andrew’s deception in the face of a particularly cruel social milieu has become the show’s central throughline: but the extent to which Andrew was deceiving himself remains a large, perhaps unanswerable question. By juxtaposing Andrew with his most famous victim, Murphy’s team appears to be commenting, once again, on the lies queer people need(ed) to be legible to society. Blachland’s resignation in the face of his friend’s murder shows the necessity of those lies, which are used like armor to protect from the indifference of the straight world.
Sex, Lies, And A Disturbing Bludgeoning In ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ (Ep. 7)
ACS: Versace Recap: “Ascent” Puts The Spotlight On Donatella
After last week’s episode, Andrew Cunanan’s motive for being the way he is was hinted at but this week, we finally saw real truth as we delved even further back into Cunanan’s backstory and went back another year.
We also got the return of Gianni as he and Donatella shared quite the moment as his illness was making it difficult for him to work, and she was in a state of panic at trying to imagine a future without her big brother.
Gather ’round and let’s discuss “Ascent”.
Two Worlds, Same Struggle: Cunanan and Donatella are both struggling in their own ways. Cunanan is working at a dead end job in a pharmacy while Donatella is struggling to become the new face of Versace with her brother’s illness starting to take over. Donatella has Gianni in her corner: Even as her sketch becomes instantly sidelined in a meeting with designers, 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.
As for Cunanan, we get an early glimpse at how easily young Cunanan lies while at his job. Later on, while 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. Cunanan ends up going home with the man, which worries his mother when he finally returns to her.
A Mother’s Mercy: 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. He, in turn, treats her like garbage and even abuses her over some ice cream, which she accepts.
Sex For Money: Cunanan later takes it upon himself to try to become an escort, which fails at first for him. The woman in charge of the agency told him that people wouldn’t want to sleep with him because he’s Asian. Cunanan was shocked by that, which ultimately resulted him going out on his own and bagging his own clients.
All Eyes On House Versace: 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, all eyes are on her, the star for the first time. 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, which leads to a fight between them. 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.
The Ultimate Goal: 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. Cunanan gets what he wants out of Norman and other clients in the end: 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 the philanthropic millionaire to a young David Madson, alone at the bar. Cunanan only returns home to get his things, with his mother begging to go with him, which leads him to hurt her.
A Life Changing Moment: Cunanan does end messing up though as his current sugar daddy Lincoln breaks up with him over catching him with David, but when Cunanan comes to his home to protest in person, he sees he has 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.
This leads him to reuniting 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.
Quote of the night:
“This dress is not my legacy. You are.” – Gianni
ACS: Versace Recap: “Ascent” Puts The Spotlight On Donatella
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: ‘Ascent’
The Assassination of Gianni Versace continues to tell its story in a backward fashion, taking us further back in time to tell Andrew Cunanan’s story. As the audience is now aware, the series is meant to focus on Cunanan’s journey to killing Versace–rather than Versace himself. While the title may be misleading, it is genius. The assassination of Gianni Versace didn’t just happen, a series of events, moments, and breakdowns led to that very tragic moment on Versace’s doorsteps. That is the purpose of the season and while admittedly slow at times, the series is intriguing and alluring based on this fact alone.
This week’s episode takes us back just a tad bit further to the moments where Andrew meets Norman and David. But before that, we see Andrew working at a local pharmacy flipping through the pages of a Vogue magazine. This is our first look at the ease with which Andrew lies to a customer about going to college and completing his P.h.D. Meanwhile, we finally see some more of Versace this episode circa 1992 as he grooms Donatella to be a big part of his business. He pushes her to embrace her talent because she is his legacy.
While at a gay bar, Andrew realizes that his talent for attracting older, gay men is far more superior than his ability to connect with men his own age. And that is the demographic he must target if he is to live the life he has always dreamed of. However, he still lives with his lonely mother, who clings onto Andrew every time he is home. We begin to understand more of Cunanan’s mindset because of how he treats his mother–with very little respect. She is his number one fan and builds him up even though he has achieved very little.
Andrew decides his way in with the elderly crowd is to become an escort. However, the lady at the agency doesn’t approve of his background and tells him that it won’t please the crowd of men they service. Now it is up to Cunanan to make it happen. Cue, Norman. Andrew goes to a French play after specifically researching who would be in attendance. His target? Norman.
After a night out with Norman and his friends, he finds his way into Norman’s life, but not before spending a night with one of Norman’s friends first, through whom he gets an allowance and expense account. Andrew uses this money to take out his friends and live a lavish life that he claims is a result of his own hard work. On a night out with friends, Andrew sees David at the bar for the first time and falls head over heels for him instantly. They share an intimate night together–but we all know where that leads.
Versace continues to persuade Donatella to step into the spotlight and own it. During the 1996 Met Gala, Donatella decides to wear the dress her and Versace designed together, with the world’s eyes on her. While the dress is an overnight hit, it is deemed too risque for the general population to wear. Versace is angered by the resistance the dress has met and begins to break down, but a moment of anger transforms into a moment of panic as Gianni claims he can’t hear anything. This leads us to the moment we learn he has ear cancer. Due to this, Donatella takes over the Italian operations and Gianni heads to Miami to recuperate.
There is a very sad moment in this episode between Cunanan and his mother. He tells her he is off to travel to the world’s operas alongside Gianni Versace. Overjoyed by her son’s “success”, she assumes she will join him on the adventure. When Andrew tells her no, she has an intense emotional reaction which is cut short by Andrew shoving her back and fracturing her shoulder blade.
Remember Andrew’s elderly sugar daddy, Lincoln? Well, while Andrew is off splurging his money, he is beginning to take notice–and he is not happy. Lincoln tells him their relationship is over, meaning the money is no longer his to use. When Andrew goes to Lincoln’s home, he realizes he is there with another man. However, this man does not seem ready to embrace his homosexuality and reacts violently when Lincoln tries to be intimate with him.
He kills Lincoln by bashing his head in with a statue, to which Andrew becomes a witness to. There is a hidden societal lesson embedded in this moment. In the 90’s homosexuality was so taboo that any crime against a gay individual would not be given much attention because it was “their fault”. This is something Andrew picks up on very quickly and clings onto (as we are all very aware of).
These series of events brings Andrew closer to Norman, who he convinces to move to San Diego from Phoenix, promising to help him build a home beyond his wildest dreams. In the last moments of the episode, Cunanan and Norman head out to the balcony of Norman’s new home. Cunanan takes in the moment and states, “If they could see me now.” When Norman asks who, Andrew responds by saying, “Everyone.”
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Episode 7 Recap: Donatella’s Strength
For the past several weeks, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) has taken center stage on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. As the story increasingly became one about the ways in which internal and external homophobia affect and even ruin lives, it made sense for creator Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith to zero in on the spree killer and his many victims. Aside from an appearance in episode five, the Versaces themselves have been absent from the story bearing their name.
Wednesday’s installment of the FX miniseries, however, brought both Gianni (Edgar Ramirez) and especially Donatella (Penelope Cruz) back to the fore. Yes, there was plenty of Andrew, as we saw him attempting to make ends meet as an escort, flirting with rich older men at an opera, and even meeting and charming his eventual second victim, David Madsen (Cody Fern). But much of this episode is spent watching Gianni become increasingly stricken by illness, and seeing Donatella step up to take charge of the House of Versace.
The siblings start the episode with a fight, as Donatella presents an idea for a new dress to Gianni: fashion as weaponry. Gianni grows angry with her, because she used other people’s sketches for her ideas instead of sketching on her own. He’s angry with his illness and takes it out on her.
Soon enough, though, they come back together to design a winner: a black dress made partially of leather straps. It’s BDSM-inspired, just kinky enough to raise eyebrows but still appropriate for a function — where, at Gianni’s behest, Donatella is the one to wear it. The dress draws gasps and excited headlines, not just for Gianni, but for his sister as well. It’s a display of strength from the sister of the House, a show that she is a formidable and powerful woman.
This episode is called “Ascent,” and while that certainly could be applied to the social-climbing Andrew, I think it’s far more relevant for Donatella. So far this series, she’s been a supporting character, a shadow who appears briefly in every other installment or so. When she does, no matter how iconic she looks, she always feels like part of someone else’s story. “Ascent” is her narrative, her coming out.
That show of strength comes at just the right time, however, as Gianni unfortunately grows even sicker. Suddenly, Donatella must take up the reins of the company, a responsibility that clearly terrifies her. She’s a star — we know this because we know her contemporarily, but it’s also absurdly obvious as she shows off her and Gianni’s dress. But she doesn’t quite know it yet.
And so as she addresses the employees of the House of Versace at episode’s end, we see Donatella slowly becoming more comfortable with herself. She starts off hesitant: “So my brother is sick. You all know this. Gianni is suffering a rare form of ear cancer. He decided to go to Miami and rest. While he is recovering, I will be taking care of the day-to-day operations.”
She says the last part with a level of doubt in her ability to do so, much less that she’s actually going to do it. But then, when she shares her assurance that her brother will beat his illness, her own confidence grows. “My brother is stubborn; don’t forget that,” she says with a chuckle. “He’s stubborn about life. And he will beat this sickness. He loves every one of you. He loves his work. He loves this place. So I’ve no doubt my brother will be back. In the meantime, I am honored and humbled to take the reins of this company while he recovers.”
Donatella says those last lines through the start of her tears. Cruz’s performance is remarkable here, as she restrains the emotion and powers through it. There’s an old saying that watching someone on the verge of tears is always more powerful than watching them actually cry. Cruz proves why that’s so true by powering through them, then taking things back to business.
“Our last runway show was our most talked-about to date,” Donatella says, rallying not just the troops but herself. “We must be talked about, or we are nothing. And now that Gianni’s away, we have to be even more bold, not less. We have to show that we are strong, daring — that we are relevant. And that this House will survive. No matter what, it will.”
It’s a hell of a scene, and encapsulates why Cruz’s performance is so damn indelible. We know what happens to Versace — we know the House survives — but if we were feeling any doubt, Donatella would assuage our fears. She’s a titan learning she’s a titan, with a phenomenal career ahead of her. In that final line, as she declares the House will live on, you can feel Donatella believe in her future, too.
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Episode 7 Recap: Donatella’s Strength
‘American Crime Story’ Review: ‘Ascent’ Marks the Beginning of the End
1992
The two intertwined plotlines on this week’s American Crime Story involve future serial killer Andrew Cunanan and future fashion designer Donatella Versace both coming into their own, in very different ways.
Andrew has yet to fully blossom into the master con-man we know he is. Instead, he’s working a dead-end job at a pharmacy. He’s miserable with his life, and while he likes to tell lies – he brags that he’s finishing up his PhD, which isn’t even close to true – he hasn’t quite caught on to the fact that he can talk his way into a comfortable life. Instead, he pines for it. And he returns home to his fragile, emotionally unstable mother and grows furious when he sees she’s purchased non-brand ice cream instead of Häagen-Dazs.
“Why do you have to get so upset?” his mother asks.
“Because I want the best!” Andrew yells.
Donatella, meanwhile, is trying to come with the terms that Versace could die from his ear cancer. She’s not ready for the company to be left in her hands; not ready to lose her brother so soon. It seems her instinct is to ignore things and hope it will all work out, but Versace clearly doesn’t agree. He’s all but accepted that he’s going to die, and he wants Donatella to prepare for his death, and to prepare for her future in the spotlight. The tragedy is, of course, that later Versace will beat the cancer, but die anyway.
For now, though, he’s alive, and he’s not in the best of moods. Dealing with his illness is affecting him emotionally, which leads him to fly off the handle and berate Donatella for having others sketch her dress designs instead of doing it herself.
“What do you want from me?” Donatella asks.
“I want everything,” Versace yells.
If They Could See Me Now
From these two setups springs the events of the episode. Donatella learns to find confidence in her dress designs, going so far as to model the dress herself at a gala. Andrew, in turn, learns to use his own unique brand of confidence to “sell himself.”
At one point, Andrew ends up at an escort service, but the cold woman who runs it doesn’t seem very impressed. When he says he’s Asian American, the escort service owner quickly replies: “Gay men don’t want Asians.” No matter what Andrew says, the escort service owner remains nonplussed. Undeterred, Andrew goes out on the hunt.
His journey takes him to a play, where he meets three older gay men: Norman, Lincoln and Gallow. We know from last week’s episode that Andrew will eventually end up with Norman, but first he strikes up a (paid) relationship with Lincoln. Andrew will basically be on-call to Lincoln for a weekly allowance.
This is, in theory, what Andrew wanted – disposable income for no real work. Yet Andrew doesn’t have the mindset to be a kept-man, and before long, he’s discovered David at a fancy restaurant. Andrew is clearly taken with this young, shy man, but we know from previous episodes that it’s merely an infatuation rather than actual romantic feelings, and we also know it will end tragically, with David shot dead in the tall grass by the side of a river.
For now, though, David is alive, and appears to be taken with Andrew. He opens up, and tells Andrew a story about unpopular girl he was friends with in high school. David told this girl that one day, he would be a successful architect and build a house they could live in together. Later, when he finally told her he was gay, she was so upset she never spoke to him again.
Andrew’s wooing of David backfires: when Lincoln learns Andrew is spending his weekly allowance on other men, he cuts Andrew off. Looking for new companionship, Lincoln cruises a gay bar and picks up a strange, twitchy young man named Kevin. Kevin insists that he’s not gay, that he merely goes to the gay bar so that men will buy him drinks. Yet he agrees to come home with Lincoln, which leads to a shocking act of violence. Seemingly unprovoked in any real way, Kevin brutally bludgeons Lincoln to death – just as Andrew is coming through the door.
After witnessing the murder, Andrew is shaken, yet he also tells Kevin, “You should run.” Perhaps here, the seed has been planted in Andrew’s mind. Here is the impetus of Andrew’s future murder-spree; the germ of the idea. It’s like an infestation suddenly in his brain, festering until the day he finally decided to murder Jeff Trail.
The other thing Andrew learns from this event: the murder of gay men isn’t a top priority for law enforcement. Later, talking with Norman, the two discuss how blase the cops are about investigating Lincoln’s murder. Here, too, perhaps is the realization that colors Andrew’s future actions. He can kill other gay men if need be, and possibly get away with it, simply because the police won’t really care.
His meal ticket dead, Andrew decides to charm Norman into the same deal he had with Lincoln. And here, we see the first signs of the Andrew we’ve come to know from the future. He turns on the charm, and repurposes David’s childhood story about the unpopular girl to win over Norman.
It works.
Soon, Andrew is leaving his frantic mother behind – after “accidentally” fracturing her shoulder blade in a tussle – and moving into a huge, seaside home with Norman.
At the big, new house Andrew and Norman are moving into, Andrew stands on the terrace overlooking the ocean and says, “If they could see me now.”
“Who?” Norman asks.
“Everyone.”
Donatella, meanwhile, has learned to embrace the spotlight. Wearing the dress she designed has increased attention in the Versace brand, and she gathers her staff around to tell them about Versace’s illness, and how she’ll be taking over the company in his absence. We can almost hear her think, “If they could see me now…”
Ascent
I hate to say this, especially since I’ve enjoyed so much of the season, but American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace is spinning its wheels at this point. I continue to think the backwards-moving narrative was a mistake, and it’s cost the show some serious momentum.
Yes, it’s interesting to learn more about Andrew in reverse. And yes, the way the show has flipped the narrative from being about a murder to rather being about how the murder (or rather, murders) happened is clever. But the side-effect of this approach is a show slowly running out of steam.
This week’s episode gave Penélope Cruz a chance to step back into the spotlight, and Cruz does good work here, but Donatella, and even Versace himself, both seem almost out-of-place at this point. We’ve spent so much time with Andrew that when the Versace storyline pops up, it unbalances things a bit.
Darren Criss remains the show’s MVP, and the actor has a lot of fun this week discovering who Andrew is, or rather, who Andrew is turning into. I also really enjoy Michael Nouri‘s performance as the sophisticated, calm Norman, who clearly knows Andrew is trouble but is willing to take a chance on getting involved with him anyway.
Next week, we’ll go even further back in time and learn about Andrew’s destructive, emotionally manipulative father. These events won’t exonerate Andrew, but they will go a long way towards explaining who he is.
‘American Crime Story’ Review: ‘Ascent’ Marks the Beginning of the End
Episode Seven of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Is a Creation Myth
I wasn’t into “Ascent” the first time I watched it. Like the first two episodes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, this one felt unfocused and overcrowded. The timeline was confusing: Am I crazy, or do we see Andrew Cunanan hanging out with Jeff Trail long before episode five has them meeting? There were too many characters, too many settings (San Diego, San Francisco, Milan, New York), too many moods. Writer Tom Rob Smith was trying to establish too many relationships too quickly. The juxtaposition of Cunanan’s life with Versace’s still felt forced.
On my second viewing, though, what had looked like a sloppy mess started to reveal its surprisingly purposeful structure.
The scenes in Versace’s studio, where an ailing Gianni attacks Donatella for her lack of ambition, then patiently collaborates on her first dress, then throws a tantrum when she asks him to tone down his designs to attract customers, are fairly simple. We watch her become a celebrity, as the garment they made together draws a crowd of photographers at Vogue’s 100th anniversary gala in 1993. (As you can see here, the real dress, with its sheer bodice, was even more risqué than it looked on the episode. And the Times article that compared “the Versace woman” to a dominatrix actually came out before the event.) In the end, when Gianni is sick again and Donatella takes the reins of the company, she’s not only confident, but loyal to her brother’s outré vision. This is the myth of how Gianni created Donatella in his own image.
Cunanan’s story is creation myth, too—and the fragmented way in which it’s told subtly elucidates the differences between him and his final victim. Versace is the same person all the time: moody, stubborn, arrogant, defensive, but also brilliant, hard-working, nurturing, and inspiring. As we see in “Ascent,” which finally provides some insight into what he was like before he became violently unhinged, Cunanan adopts a different persona for everyone he meets. “What are you?” asks the woman at the escort agency. This is a crass query about his race and ethnicity, but when applied to Cunanan’s personality and behavior, it’s also one of the show’s central questions.
For his mother, he’s an angel and a monster and her only hope in the world, the golden child who promises to take her “sky high, where they all look down on us” but fractures her shoulder when she tries to hold him to it. For Lincoln Aston (more on him later), an older man with voracious appetites, he’s a charismatic connector. For Norman Blachford, a quieter friend of Aston’s, he’s the dream of a person to call home again, after the death of his longtime partner. But Cunanan steals that idyllic vision from David Madson after their first night together.
We get to see Cunanan both lovestruck and as the beloved. He lets Aston and Blachford fight over him the night he snares them at the opera. They woo him with money, luxurious homes, and their adoration. Then he turns around and does the same with Madson when they meet—buying him a drink, inviting him to sit with his impressive friends, taking him back to a suite Aston paid for in the Mandarin Oriental. Even when he’s falling for someone, as he appears to be for Madson, Cunanan sees romance as transactional. If he can dazzle Madson with the smoke and mirrors of his lifestyle, maybe they can live happily ever after. As a result, we see Madson becoming entranced with the hotel room rather than the man who brought him there.
This depiction of their relationship tracks with the impression Maureen Orth gives in Vulgar Favors, the book upon which The Assassination of Gianni Versace is based: Madson was reportedly attracted by Cunanan’s lavish spending. He accepted expensive gifts from his future killer despite his confusion about where all that wealth came from and his ambivalence towards his long-distance boyfriend. Orth judges Madson a bit harshly for this; she’s frustratingly tough on Cunanan’s gay friends and lovers throughout the book, framing them as fame whores, drug addicts, perverts, and, at best, materialistic, superficial flakes. It’s worth wondering whether money would play such a central role in her story if the couples in question were heterosexual. Still, the way the show (which does substantially moderate Orth’s judgmental tone) draws important parallels between Cunanan’s simultaneous romances without smacking us in the face with them is really skillful.
Anyway, this isn’t a big episode for fact-checking—as I mentioned, the structure makes it hard to tell exactly how long a period it’s supposed to cover, but its representation of the characters and their relationships with Cunanan is solid. There is one character who deserves to be explored in greater depth, though…
Lincoln Aston
Aston’s death, in the same episode where he’s introduced, might have come as a shock to anyone who thought the murder portion of this program had ended weeks ago. But it’s a true—well, mostly true—story, down to the name of the killer, Kevin Bond. And there’s more to it.
As Orth reports, Cunanan met Aston sometime after Cunanan left San Francisco and returned to his mother’s house in 1991. The heir to an oil fortune, Aston had once been married and was now enjoying a second youth as a gay man in his 60s. Like Madson, he was an architect. While he patronized the arts and hosted classy soirées for an elite circle of older men, Aston also had ties to a wilder group who threw parties with “pool boys” and escorts. He and other men in his clique were often spotted out with Cunanan in San Diego’s gay neighborhood, Hillcrest, though Orth heard conflicting reports as to whether Cunanan was blatantly exchanging sex for money.
One of Orth’s sources claims Aston was trying to free himself from Cunanan’s clutches around the time he was murdered, on May 19, 1995. Although the scene where Aston calls Cunanan out on his San Francisco tryst is fiction—Cunanan actually met Madson for the first time about six months after Aston’s death—mutual acquaintances did confirm to Orth that Aston had caught onto his young companion’s lies before the end of their relationship.
So, what was going on in that bizarre scene where Cunanan quietly lets himself into Aston’s house, watches Kevin Bond kill Aston, and then advises the killer to run? Could Cunanan possibly have had anything to do with that crime?
Apparently not. Orth writes that, “Because Andrew bragged to people that he had been with Lincoln the night of his death and had found the body, many in Hillcrest still believe that he had something to do with his murder.” But when San Diego police reopened the case, after Cunanan had become a fugitive, they couldn’t find any evidence to connect him to it.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t have quite as bleak an ending as Blachford and Cunanan’s conversation towards the end of the episode suggests. Although they predict that gay panic will be sufficient to get the confessed killer off the hook, after pleading guilty to the crime, Bond was convicted of second-degree murder and received a sentence of 15 years to life.
Also? In case you didn’t catch it in the episode, when Cunanan convinced Blachford to relocate from Phoenix to San Diego, the hilltop mansion Blachford bought was Aston’s former home.
Episode Seven of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Is a Creation Myth
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