‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Recap: How Did Andrew Ascend to a Lavish Lifestyle?

The backwards arc of Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace continues in the seventh episode, “Ascent.” It’s obviously the inverse of last week’s accurately-titled “Descent” because this time we see Andrew go from a poor pharmacy worker to living in a fancy estate with Norman.

His rise does include a few bumps, including a failed job interview, injuring his mother and witnessing a murder. But really, it’s Andrew’s preference in ice cream that may tell us the most about who he is.

This episode also brings back the Versaces, going back to 1992 to show us Donatella’s own ascent into stardom. At least that means Penelope Cruz is back. Whether you like the structure of this series or not, I hope we can all agree that casting an Oscar-winning actress, then giving her almost nothing to do for four episodes in a row, is not a great decision.

Andrew the Escort

The show goes way back in Andrew’s past to 1992 in San Diego when he was working at a pharmacy and living with his mom. He’s frustrated by his ordinary life, illustrated by his rage over the fact that his mom bought cheap, generic ice cream instead of Haagen-Dazs. Andrew’s lack of self-awareness is startling. He knows the full history of the makers of Haagen-Dazs, admitting that it’s a made-up name designed to sound fancy, and yet he wants it because he believes the corporate lie that it’s something special.

After a bad night at a gay bar, Andrew decides to chase his dreams of wealth by seeking employment at an escort agency. The woman who runs it is impressed with his intelligence, but she turns him down because her clients aren’t interested in arrogant Asians. I know that, like Andrew Cunanan, actor Darren Criss is half-Filipino, but I doubt any of the escort agency’s clients would complain about him being Asian.

Andrew decides to go off on his own, targeting rich old gay men and basically stalking them. He arranges a “coincidental” meeting with Norman at a play to seduce him with his charm. Andrew’s target takes the bait and he gets invited to dinner with Norman and his old pals, Lincoln and Gallo.

At the end of the night, Norman has to go home to Phoenix, but Andrew stays behind with Lincoln, who offers him $100 a night. Andrew counters with a weekly allowance and an expense account, offering to bring over his friends if Lincoln wants more variety.

Andrew and David’s First Date

Now that he has money, Andrew goes out to dinner with his friends and spies a cute blond sitting alone at the bar. It’s David Mdson and Andrew buys him a drink and invites him over. This is the beginning of that first date David talked to Andrew about in last week’s episode.

They go to Andrew’s fancy hotel room and David is intoxicated by the opulence. It’s not long before they share a first kiss while overlooking the San Francisco skyline and having shower sex. Afterwards David shares his simple dreams of a house with a two-car garage and a yard. It seems clear that Andrew is envious, not of David’s pedestrian dreams, but of his happiness and contentment with them.

The End of Lincoln

The date may have gone well, but Andrew ignored Lincoln’s calls and after seeing the bill for the hotel, Lincoln ends his arrangement with him. That proves to be a deadly mistake.

Lincoln goes out looking for another young man and meets a gruff guy named Kevin at the gay bar. Kevin says he’s straight and is very uneasy, but goes back to Lincoln’s place anyway. Lincoln promises he won’t do anything and offers to call him a cab, but when Lincoln takes his drink and their hands briefly touch, Kevin goes nuts and attacks him, bashing Lincoln’s skull in and killing him.

And at that same moment, Andrew comes over to talk to Lincoln and sees the whole thing, a bit of obvious foreshadowing as Andrew will eventually bash in the skulls of Jeff Trail and Lee Miglin. Kevin Andrew, who tells him to run.

Andrew’s New Life

In the aftermath, Andrew and Norman connect over the loss of Lincoln. It turns out the police arrested Kevin, but since he says he lost control when Lincoln tried to kiss him, that qualifies as self-defense back in the early ‘90s.

Andrew suggests that Norman should move to California and they can create a home and a new life together. He wins him over by telling him the same story David told Andrew, taking it as his own.

It works and Andrew is able to leave the apartment he lives in with his mom, telling her that he’s traveling the world assisting Gianni Versace. His mom thinks she’s going with him because he promised to take her away, but that’s obviously not an option. She begs him not to leave her alone and she gets so worked up that Andrew pushes her into the wall, fracturing her shoulder blade.

The House of Versace

In Italy in 1992, Gianni Versace gets into a fight with Donatella, but he’s simply trying to push her to be great. He’s sick and fears he’s dying, so he wants to groom her to take over the company when he’s gone.

At this point, I’m very confused by the timeline because the Versace storyline is infrequent and jumps around. The first episode was based around his death in July 1997. The second episode flashed back to him being diagnosed as HIV-positive in March 1994. Then he disappeared for two episodes and jumped forward to June 1995 in the fifth episode when he publically came out. Then he was gone again, but now we’re back in 1992. At least with Andrew his story is consistently moving backwards, but the Versace scenes are jumping all around and have no cohesive story.

Anyway, the Versaces design a dress together and Gianni convinces her to model it at Vogue’s 100th anniversary gala. She reluctantly does, but then becomes the toast of the town as all of the photographers lose their damn minds over Donatella in the dress. Just like that, Donatella is an overnight sensation.

Everyone may be talking about the dress, but no one is buying it. Donatella proposes the idea of two dresses with the same basic design: one high-end for runway shows and red carpets, but the other is more simplified and comfortable for woman to actually buy and wear. Gianni is furious about the idea, but it may be his growing illness as he melts down because he goes temporarily deaf.

Following this incident, Gianni and Antonio go to Miami, with Donatella claiming that he has a rare form of ear cancer and that she will take over the company in his absence.

Do you find the time-jumping confusing?

‘American Crime Story’ Recap: Gianni Urges Donatella To Take Control

It’s 1992 in Milan. Donatella is busy working on new Versace designs with her designers. “A dress is a weapon to get what she wants,” Donatella says. A new era of fashion is on the horizon. Her workers have been wondering what is wrong with Gianni since he’s been absent so much. When Gianni arrives, he immediately picks a fight with Donatella. He calls her out for taking a step back in designing. She pleads with him to tell her what he wants from her. “I want everything,” Gianni says. Donatella cries that she’s already given all of herself to him and this company. He says it’s not enough.

Antonio tells Gianni to apologize to Donatella for being so cruel. Gianni goes to his sister and tells her that they are going to design a dress together. “Soon it will be just you,” Gianni says, as if seeing the future and knowing he’s not going to be a part of it. “All of this will rest on you.” Donatella replies, “This company is you. It’s not me.”

“You have to make it yours,” Gianni tells her. “You have to take it. You have to own it.” When Gianni’s not around, Donatella will be in charge. She will be the face of Versace. “This dress is not my legacy,” he says to his beloved sister. “You are.”

An Ice Cream Tantrum

In San Diego, Andrew is working at a pharmacy. He comes home and finds a discount ice cream container in the freezer and throws it on the floor. He only wants “the best.” If it’s not Haagen-Dazs, he doesn’t want the ice cream at all. (*Rolls eyes*)

He meets Jeff Trail at a local gay bar. Andrew fears getting rejected by men. He finds himself lying to get attention. In the end, Jeff’s still the one who goes home with a guy at the end of the night. No matter what Andrew does, he’s just never good enough. He dreams of getting far away from San Diego and assures his mother that he’ll take her with him.

Andrew auditions to be an escort. Physical attributes are the only things that matter. “This is about being what people want,” the woman says. Andrew’s not the subject of fantasies. He’s turned away, but he’s not deterred. Andrew targets Norman Blachford, and the man falls right for it, as does Lincoln Aston.

The Dress

Gianni and Donatella design that black leather bondage dress, which sets the fashion label in a new direction. He convinces her to wear the dress to Vogue’s100th anniversary gala. When the brother and sister walk in together, the crowd goes wild. Later, Donatella sees that something is very wrong with her brother when he suddenly can’t hear anything. Gianni suffered from ear cancer before he died.

While out with friends, Andrew spots David Madson for the first time. He orders David a drink and takes him home. Andrew is immediately smitten. Andrew returns to see Lincoln and watches the man get brutally murdered by a stranger. He reconnects with Norman in the wake of Lincoln’s death. Norman welcomes him in with open arms. Andrew tells his mother that he’s going on vacation with Versace, and she freaks when she realizes that she’s not going. He’s really just going to live with Norman. Never trust a guy who doesn’t treat his mother right.

While Gianni recovers, Donatella steps in as head of the company. She easily slides into the role of a leader. Gianni always knew her greatness, and she’s now realizing it, too.

‘American Crime Story’ Recap: Gianni Urges Donatella To Take Control

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 7: Asians With Attitude

Episode 7: ‘Ascent’

Genius has been an underlying theme of this series, the second season of FX’s “American Crime Story” — specifically, the creative genius of Gianni Versace (and to a lesser extent, the young architect David Madson) and the pathological genius of Andrew Cunanan, whose capacity for deceit and violence is rare.

Episode 7 of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” reveals a different side of Versace’s genius — one that enabled him to build an institution and not just a brand. As this week’s episode relates, his genius was grounded in a gift for reading people, based on intuition and perception rather than on flashes of inspired brilliance.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn that Gianni, perhaps with a foretaste of his premature death, has begun to shore up his legacy by encouraging his most loyal helpmate — his sister, Donatella — to rise as his potential successor.

It is a kind of encouragement by tough love. As portrayed by Edgar Ramírez, Gianni has a fiery temperament and is prone to bursts of rage when he believes his exacting standards are not being met. “What are you?” he shouts at Donatella, played by a terrific Penélope Cruz, as he shoves aside a collection of drawings she has assembled for his review. “Are you a designer? No, what are you? Are you a collector of other people’s ideas?”

He fumes at her: “You have the opportunity to be great, and you choose to assist.”

Time is not on their side: Gianni is using a cane, and he is losing his hearing. The series has implied — as does “Vulgar Favors,” the book by the journalist Maureen Orth on which it is based — that Gianni is H.I.V.-positive. (The Versace family has disputed this.) After reconciling, Gianni tells a tearful Donatella that they will design a dress together, “as if it’s the last dress I will ever make.” He adds, with a touch of melodrama: “This dress is not my legacy. You are.”

Later, at the 1992 gala celebration in New York to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Vogue, Donatella unveils that bondage-themed dress, and it is an immediate sensation. The scene in which Gianni gently releases his sister’s hand, letting her inhabit the limelight alone as he moves to the side, is affecting.

It will be a five years until he is murdered in Miami Beach, but it is a premonition of what is to come.

Back in California, we learn more about Cunanan’s career as a rent boy in the years before the 1997 killings. In an unusually amusing scene in this fairly grim series, Andrew, played by Darren Criss, is working behind the counter at a Thrifty drugstore. (He tells a nonplused customer that he is holding down the job while completing a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego; in fact, he is a college dropout.)

Andrew’s boss, a man named Mr. Mercado, is an immigrant from the Philippines (like Andrew’s father, Modesto, whom we have not met), a map of which hangs in his sparsely furnished office. Mercado tells him to stop looking at Vogue while he’s on the clock.

“Does it ever bother you that the customers only know you as ‘That Helpful Man’?” Andrew asks Mercado. Mercado shrugs. Later, back at his mother’s apartment, Andrew reacts violently after discovering that she has bought a tub of Safeway ice cream rather than his preferred brand, Häagen-Dazs. His spite toward anything everyday — what in last week’s episode he derided as “ordinary” — is visceral and explosive. He slams the tub onto the kitchen floor, making a mess.

When his mother asks why it matters, Andrew tells her about Reuben Mattus, the brand’s founder, who made up its Danish-sounding name. It’s a brief but sad moment, one that reveals how consumer abundance, or the illusion of it, has made Andrew so petulant, childish and self-indulgent that he despises his own mother.

In the gay world, we soon learn, Andrew is more Safeway than Häagen-Dazs.

At a gay bar with his handsome friend Jeff, a Navy veteran, Andrew laments that he isn’t approached more by men; Jeff urges him to take the initiative, but Andrew fears rejection in the same way he fears getting his hands dirty. For him, it’s existential. “Being told no is like being told I don’t exist,” he says. “It’s like I’ve disappeared or something.”

People get rejected every day, and we may never truly understand why most move on with their lives while Andrew moved on to become a killer. But we’re learning more about just how pernicious his fear of invisibility is, even at this early stage. When Andrew visits an escort agency, its brusque manager wastes no time in informing Andrew about the customers’ preferences — another rejection. (“My clients never ask for Asians,” she says after asking him to drop his trousers. “And they never ask for Asians with attitude.”) Deciding he doesn’t need help finding a sugar daddy, he browses a local newspaper, studying the arts and philanthropy pages to identify suitable targets.

A target found, he stalks the La Jolla Playhouse for a performance of Marivaux’s 18th-century comic play “The Triumph of Love.” Just as planned, he catches the eye of Norman Blachford, a wealthy entrepreneur whose partner, as we know from last week’s episode, has recently died of AIDS. Andrew ends up becoming the kept man of Lincoln Aston, a friend of Norman’s.

It’s on Lincoln’s dime — purportedly to look into art acquisitions — that Andrew travels to San Francisco and buys a fateful drink for a handsome young man sitting alone at the bar. That man turns out to be David, the Minneapolis architect, who is visiting San Francisco for work. (Frustratingly, we never learn more about the friends with whom Andrew is dining.)

Up in Andrew’s suite, we get an inside look at that passionate night at the Mandarin Oriental — the one which meant so much to Andrew and, fatally, so much less to David. Dressed in their bathrobes after a steamy shower together, David tells Andrew about a childhood friend, Leah, who was tormented at school. He had promised to build her a house where they could escape from bullies. But later, when he told her he was gay, she never spoke to him again. “She must have felt betrayed,” he says.

Andrew looks as if he is ready to cry, and for the first time in this series, one sees traces of real empathy in him — an ability to take seriously the pain of others and to look beyond himself.

It is a fleeting moment. Back in San Diego, Lincoln is outraged to see a hotel bill that includes midnight Champagne. He cuts off the flow of funds.

Sadly, it was an unwise move: Lincoln returns to a gay bar, where he picks up a hustler and takes him home. The encounter does not end well: The man bludgeons Lincoln to death. Andrew, who was inside the apartment, evidently waiting for Lincoln, cowers in fear; the hustler, after a moment’s hesitation, does not attack him. “He tried to kiss me,” he tells Andrew, previewing the “gay panic” defense he will use to justify the attack.

Returning to Norman, Andrew feigns aggrievement over Lincoln’s gruesome death. “We fall sick, it’s our fault,” he says. “We’re murdered, it’s our fault. You can rob us, you can beat us, you can kill us and get away with it.”

But this moment of political awakening — if it can be called that — is short-lived. When Andrew tries to persuade Norman to come live with him in San Diego, it’s obvious he just wants the money. And the pool.

Loose Threads:

• According to Orth’s book, Lincoln Aston was, in fact, a wealthy gay man who was murdered in May 1995, after his relationship with Cunanan had cooled, but there is nothing to suggest that Cunanan was present for the crime. A man named Kevin Bond was convicted of the murder. The case was re-examined after Cunanan’s 1997 serial killings, but the police found no evidence that he was involved.

• Andrew tells his mother, MaryAnn, that he met Versace in San Francisco and now plans to travel the world with him. (We know from an early episode that the first part, at least, is true.) But when she begs Andrew to take her to Paris, she risks exposing his lies and clearly stokes his guilt. He lashes out, shoving her into a wall and fracturing her shoulder blade. It’s an ugly scene, and it reminds us just how dangerous Andrew’s hair-trigger temper is. He has a genius for rage, manipulation and deception, but not for basic human decency.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Episode 7: Asians With Attitude

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: Getting the Belt

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I’ll just say it: This was my least favorite episode of the series so far. First of all, it looks so cheap. Versace’s Milan office looks like it was hastily assembled from a bunch of plywood and a rough coat of paint by four guys named Ted who do all the sets for regional productions of Brigadoon. And the dress that Donatella wears to the Vogue anniversary party? The original dress was dainty, chic, and had just a touch of the S&M about it. The one in “Ascent” looks like it was made out of a bunch of clearance belts that a someone in the wardrobe department scooped up at Marshall’s. This is probably because Gianni later throws a fit and chops it to bits, but also because the production couldn’t get access to the Versace archives. Still, everything that isn’t shot on location looks straight out of a Lifetime movie.

The real reason why this episode is boring is due to the show’s structure of telling the story backwards. Initially, this was a very interesting and original way for the series to play out, but now we’re so deep into it that we’ve intuited everything that we didn’t already know. We already knew that Andrew met David for one great night in San Francisco, took him to his suite at the Mandarin Oriental, and fell in love with him. Does it matter that he met him by calling him over at a fancy restaurant because he thought David was lonely? Not really. Do we need to see them getting busy in the shower? No, but I’m never going to tell attractive people to have less sex and be less naked on my television screen.

We also already knew that Andrew was working in a pharmacy in San Diego and that his mother was crazy and needy. Did we need to know that his mother thought she was going to travel around the world with him as he “assisted Signore Versace?” No. Did we need to know that he insisted she buy Häagen-Dazs and when she bought the cheap generic ice cream that comes in a tub so big that it has its own handle, he threw it on the ground in a fit of pique? Not really, even though it sure is fun to watch.

We also already knew that he stalked his sugar daddy Norman and convinced him to build a life for them both in San Diego. Do we need to know that it was at the La Jolla playhouse? Not really. Do we need to know that he was first with Norman’s friend Lincoln Aston, who was murdered by a piece of trade that he picked up at a local bar for hustlers? Actually, yeah, we do need to know that.

The few bright spots in the episode are the surprising details that we didn’t know at all. Lincoln being beaten to death by someone who had a case of “gay panic” actually happened (here’s a great article about it), but whether or not Andrew witnessed the crime and didn’t report it is up to interpretation. It certainly helps Andrew get what he wants, and it happened through violence and deceit, which seems to be Andrew’s M.O. But while Andrew and Norman say that they can get murdered and people get away with it, Lincoln’s killer went to prison for 15 years, so that seems a little blown out of proportion.

Lincoln’s murder and that conversation do set the tone for the gay community that Andrew was living in at the time. With the rise of AIDS and homophobia at its height, he was living in a time where fear and violence seeped into everything about the gay community, sometimes when they least expect it, like when Lincoln brought that man home. No wonder it managed to warp Andrew into thinking that was the only way he could get ahead. It was almost as if he was taking revenge for the way straight people were treating gay people, except his crimes were against those wouldn’t (or couldn’t) love him the way he wanted.

Another surprising and humiliating moment is when Andrew goes to the escort agency and the madam tells him that she can’t sell an Asian with a bad attitude, “even if he does have a big dick.” We already knew Andrew worked as an escort, but this scene reveals how hard it was for him to be seen as worthy, even as a sex worker. It also shows how he learned to manufacture his own identity and where those details came from — saying he was Portuguese rather than Filipino, for example.

The one bonus of the scene between Andrew and David at the hotel is that David tells Andrew the story of his friend Leah: She was always getting picked on, so David promised to build her a house that they could live in together. Andrew then takes that same story, embellishes and exaggerates the details, and uses it to sell Norman on a move from Phoenix to San Diego. It is a nice glimpse into how Andrew is always connecting the dots, grabbing the things that make him feel emotion and adjusting them to manipulate other people.

But even that’s something we’ve seen plenty of times on this show. As the story starts to come close to its end — or in this case, the beginning — it’s reaching a sort of anti-climax.

So, yeah, I found this chapter of the Versace story dreadfully boring and a total rehash. It also lacked the glamour and opulence of the first episode, when we got to see Gianni lolling around his villa in all of those very expensive fabrics. A lot of people have called for more Versace in this show that bears his name, but cutting their story out of this already bloated episode might have been what it needed to move along more briskly.

It’s just so much of the same. We already knew that Donatella was always going to be in charge of the business after Gianni was gone. We learn that the plans were put in motion before his assassination, but still, the plan was the plan. Maybe some of Dontella’s anger and resentment for her brother and his partner comes from thinking that she’d be in charge. She had that yanked away from her, only to have it return in such a tragic and unexpected way.

The one good thing about knowing the ending before the beginning is that it offers instances of dramatic irony. For instance, the only good part of Gianni and Donatella’s storyline is learning that, at one point, Diego actually stood up for Gianni’s sister. Sure, she would eventually come to despise him (and lock him out of the company), but initially he was her champion.

The ultimate instance of dramatic irony, however, comes at the end. Andrew is furnishing Norman’s house and says to him, like the old Carnival Cruise commercial, “If they could see me now.” Norman asks who “they” are. “Everybody,” Andrew says, thinking that he finally played being rich and sophisticated long enough that he achieved it. He actually faked it until he made it. But he’s staring off of the balcony not into a bright future, but a sad fall into drug addiction, obsession, and death.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: Getting the Belt

Donatella Finally Shines in the Latest Episode of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

Given that Gianni Versace has ended up as a supporting character in the series named after him, it’s perhaps inevitable that Donatella Versace has felt like a guest star at best. But Penelope Cruz finally gets her spotlight moment in tonight’s episode, as Gianni persuades Donatella to model a daring new Versace dress she co-designed. Later, Donatella is forced to take over the company as her brother’s health declines.

Meanwhile, we see more from Andrew Cunanan’s origin story, starting with Cunanan working as a humble drugstore clerk but dreaming of a more glamorous life—one he successfully cons his way into by the end of the episode.

Here are five talking points from Episode 7 of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, “Ascent.”

1) Donatella really did wear that iconic dress in 1993.

Donatella has a vision of “a dress as a weapon”—making literal the idea that women wield fashion in order to get what they want—and she and Gianni create a stunning dress that incorporates steel and harness motifs to reflect this idea. The siblings working together has an extra layer of poignancy, because at this stage, Gianni is very sick, and believes that this dress may be the last one he ever makes.

Determined to push Donatella to grow into more than an assistant role, Gianni insists that she should be the one to debut it at the gala. “This is perfect for Naomi,” she exclaims, referring to supermodel Naomi Campbell. But Gianni insists Donatella wear it, and even though she’s convinced she’ll look absurd, she absolutely kills it at the event. The dramatic moment of her posing in the dress with Gianni generates a huge amount of buzz for the brand and draws attention away from Gianni’s declining health. And even though there’s some snarky coverage, Donatella is thrilled.

2) Versace’s HIV status is once again addressed without being fully addressed.

As was the case in Episode 2, this episode walks a very fine line in its dialogue about Versace’s health. Maureen Orth claims in her book, Vulgar Favors, that Versace was HIV positive, but the Versace family has always vigorously denied that. Here, Gianni is in a foul mood, flying into fits of rage at the drop of a hat, and it soon transpires that he believes he’s dying—and he’s understandably furious. Though his disease is never named, it’s clear it’s something without an easy cure; after he’s been especially vicious to Donatella, Antonio tells him, “You don’t have time to be cruel.” Later in the episode, Gianni struggles to hear anything during a sales meeting. He ends up taking a leave of absence from the company because he’s become so sick, and Donatella explains to her concerned employees that Gianni has developed a rare form of ear cancer (which was also referred to in Episode 2).

3) Long before he’d had a taste of the high life, Andrew Cunanan was obsessed with getting the best of everything.

Andrew is still living at home at this point, and his poor, unstable mother makes the mistake of buying store-brand vanilla ice cream instead of the Häagen-Dazs he likes. This prompts a full-blown tantrum, and a lengthy explanation of why that Danish-sounding name was made up by the company’s American founders. Clearly, Andrew’s already taking mental notes on how easy it is to win through branding and subterfuge.

There is some love in this mother-son dynamic; she clearly adores him, and he’s affectionate to her too, promising that he will take her with him when he ascends to greatness. But when he actually claims to have hit the big time, and makes plans to leave home to travel the world with Gianni Versace, he tells her she can’t come with him. She won’t let it drop—it seems like Andrew got some of his relentless pushiness from her—and in the end, he pushes her against a wall and injures her in a horrifying scene.

In other news, when Mrs. Cunanan asks Andrew whether he’s drunk, he responds: “Drunk on dreams,” which is a great response that I will certainly be using myself in the future.

4) Andrew’s greatest fear is being rejected.

“For me, being told ‘no’ is like being told I don’t exist,” Andrew reveals to Jeff Trail—who’s still his good friend at this point in time—in a self-reflective moment. Ironically, we then see him summarily rejected by an escort agency. The no-nonsense owner unceremoniously asks Andrew for his attributes, his measurements, and his ethnicity—and balks when he gives the honest answer that he is Filipino-American. “This is about being what people want,” she says flatly. “I can’t sell a clever Filipino, even one with a big dick.” Stung but undeterred, Andrew tells her he’ll sell himself in that case—and does so pretty successfully.

5) Andrew meets both the love of his life—and the sugar daddy of his life—in this episode.

There’s a lot happening here. Andrew gets dressed up in a tux and goes to the theater by himself, where he successfully draws the attention of Norman Blachford, the sugar daddy whose relationship with Andrew we saw souring in last week’s episode. But at this early stage, it’s actually Norman’s friend Lincoln Aston whom Andrew ends up in a “relationship" with. In exchange for effectively being a 24/7 callboy who will hook Norman up with the San Diego gay social scene, Andrew demands a weekly allowance and an expense account.

But Lincoln tires of this arrangement pretty fast and cuts Andrew off—and shortly afterwards, Lincoln is murdered by a drifter he picks up in a gay bar. While Lincoln’s murder and the alleged circumstances are all true to life, Andrew witnessing the murder and allowing the killer to escape are clearly a fictionalization. But if you’re looking at this incredibly grisly scene in which Lincoln is beaten to death with an obelisk and thinking “hmm, this seems familiar,” some people did draw a comparison between the manner of Lincoln’s murder and that of Jeff Trail’s in real life. But Andrew was never a suspect in Lincoln’s murder, and the killer later confessed.

This is also the episode in which we finally see Andrew’s first meeting with David Madson, which was described in Episode 4. Andrew and his high-society friends are dining at a very ritzy San Diego bar, where David is drinking alone until Andrew invites him to join them. From there, the attraction seems instant, and David is just as bowled over by Andrew’s suite at the Mandarin Oriental—and the free slippers—as he said he was in that Episode 4 diner scene. This show really is unique in a number of ways, especially since it’s rare to watch a meet-cute where you’ve already seen the romance end in grisly murder.

Donatella Finally Shines in the Latest Episode of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

‘American Crime Story: Versace’ recap: ‘Descent’ – TheCelebrityCafe.com

Versace…! Head is officially starting to hurt trying to keep this timeline straight.

Versace is back from its week hiatus, the new episode of American Crime Story: Versace goes back even FURTHER in the timeline of Andrew Cunanan. Granted, not all the way back to his first interactions with Versace, but a year before he started his killing spree.

In 1996, Andrew is doing alright for himself, as he’s living the glamorous life. That is, he’s crashing at a mansion with a luxurious swimming pool (in which Andrew swims in naked during the opening scene), which is technically owned by an older man named Norman (Michael Nouri).

Andrew and Norman aren’t dating, per-say, despite having had sexual relations in the past. Rather, and this is where the tale turns sad, Norman pities Andrew. He sees that he’s become accustomed to his lifestyle, and doesn’t want to throw him out on the street.

But all good things must come to an end. This relationship does end up crashing and burning eventually, shortly after Andrew’s birthday party.

Most noticeably amongst the guest that Andrew invites is David, whom he killed two episodes ago, and Jeffrey, who met his fate in the previous episode.

Andrew loves David (lol some things never change). Like, head-over-heels in love, despite the fact that David clearly doesn’t feel the same way. Jeffrey, at this point, is no more than just a close friend to Andrew— a close friend that he plans to use to get closer to David.

After trying forcing Jeffrey to put on his old navy uniform for a conversation starter (clearly Andrew was manipulating people long before he started killing them), David arrives and is almost immediately impressed.

Impressed with Jeffrey, that is. The two hit it off right away, leaving Andrew running to the bathroom to do lines of coke and wonder what’s happening and where he went wrong.

The party doesn’t improve when he’s interrupted by Lee, the guy who Andrew killed THREE episodes ago (are you starting to see where the headache comes from?). Andrew, evidently, is embarrassed of Lee and doesn’t want David knowing about his relationship with him.

After gathering together everyone who he eventually ends up killing for a group photo, Andrew has his confrontation with Norman. Norman catches Andrew in a web of lies and then gives him a pretty solid ultimatum: either tell the truth or get out.

Andrew being Andrew choses to leave. The problem is he really doesn’t have anywhere to go — his apartment is literally falling apart.

That’s not going to stop him, though. Oh no. As we heard referenced in previous episodes, Andrew then saids the letter to Jeffrey’s dad — hoping to out him as gay before he’s ready and sabotage the relationship between Jeffrey and David.

The plan has the exact opposite effect. Jeffrey confronts Andrew, telling him he’s moving to Minneapolis — where David lives.

Panicking, Andrew comes up with another brilliant plan (since he’s so full of those): he’s going to invite him to a fully funded trip to Los Angeles and try to win him back. Sorry, did I say invite? David really didn’t have much say in the matter, as Andrew refused to take no for an answer.

Of course, Andrew doesn’t have the money to pay for any of this, but that’s not really his concern at the moment. He just wants David to see how much he means to him.

And, to his credit, David realizes that feeling pretty quickly. Problem is, it’s not a mutual feeling. He eventually tells Andrew that they can’t be together and he’s not the one. Even when David gives him the slightest chance, Andrew reverts back to his lies and the whole thing falls apart.

A couple of days letter, Andrew is hitting a new low. After stumbling into a bar and making up a lie about his new fiancé to the bartender, he comes across a shady guy sitting in the corner who offers him meth. He takes it and winds up having a trippy dream that involves Versace, love and a measuring tape.

Now, with a new drug addiction to support and an exponentially growing credit-card bill, Andrew is officially out of money.

He returns to Norman’s house, pleading to be let back in, but Norman opts to call the police instead (can you blame him?), He gets bailed out by his mother, who takes him back to her apartment — a housing situation that somehow looks even worse than Andrew’s.

His mother, though, seems to think Andrew is destined to great things. Even when Andrew straight-up tells her that he’s unhappy, his mother won’t let him stay in that frame of mind — he’s a born star.

A born star who ends the episode declaring he’s on his way to Minneapolis. And the rest is history.

There’s only three more episodes of Versace left, what do you think is going to happen next? Check out the new episode on Wednesday nights at FX and read our other Versace recaps by clicking here.

‘American Crime Story: Versace’ recap: ‘Descent’ – TheCelebrityCafe.com

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: ‘Descent’

The most recent episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace begins to reveal bits and pieces of Andrew Cunanan’s twisted and broken state of mind as he starts to break down. The episode opens to Cunanan in a luxurious waterside mansion in sunny San Diego swimming naked in the pool. The timeline for this falls a year before he commits his first murder.

It is shocking to understand just how much Cunanan was able to accomplish in a short amount of time. In this flashback, he is pretending to be an art curator who lives with his wealthy, old client (sound familiar?).

The client/fling, Norman, is throwing Andrew a birthday party with all of his closest friends, including Lizzie, Jeffrey Trail, and the love of his love, David Madson. So for someone who seemed to have it all, what exactly pushed him to go on a murder spree? This is what this episode helps us understand.

Cunanan’s goal in life has always been to be something he’s not, and in a similar fashion, he attempts to craft Jeffrey in a more “presentable manner” for the party. He goes as far as personally wrapping a present and asking Jeff to regift to him at the party. This is the moment where his subtle urges to manipulate start to shine through–and perhaps the beginning of one insane journey.

Cunanan’s love interest, David Madson, flies in from Minneapolis to attend the party but appears to form a connection with Jeffrey. This puts Cunanan in a state of panic as he heads to the bathroom to snort a line of coke. This is strike one on the path to Cunanan losing it.

And if that isn’t enough to send Cunanan off the rails, one of Norman’s friends approaches him to exchange a few harsh words. He tells Andrew that he is protecting Norman and knows exactly what he is up to which sets something off inside of Cunanan. And while the party already had two of Andrew’s victims in attendance, the entrance of Lee Miglin added a third. Talk about awkward, right?

This illustrates yet another connection Cunanan had to one of his victims and helps the audience begin to piece together the road that led him down a murder spree.

Following the aftermath of his birthday party, Andrew sits down with Norman to go over a list of demands he has if they are to stay together as a couple. This moment seems quite odd seeing as how Cunanan needs Norman more than the other way around. Nonetheless, he begins to list off the need for a higher allowance, Norman’s entire inheritance, and a car.

Unfortunately for Andrew, Norman begins to attack him by revealing he knows exactly who Cunanan is. The truth hits Andrew like venom, as he begins to lash out. Despite Andrew being a basket case, Norman attempts to offer to help out in other ways but Andrew just won’t have it. He storms off after Norman refuses to follow the demands on his list.

Following his fight with Norman, Cunanan heads to the only place he can think of–his real home which is a small tiny apartment inclusive of one mattress and his dear mother. It is here where he begins to take revenge on Jeffrey, who he feels is trying to David away from him. Some episodes ago, we learned Andrew sent a postcard to Jeff’s house outing him as a gay man. In this episode, we see him committing the act of writing it.

Upon finding out, Jeffrey confronts Andrew and tells him he is moving to Minneapolis. The same place David Madson currently lives. Andrew perceives this as a threat and begins to court David into an all-expenses-paid trip to L.A. Even though David shows up for the trip, he ultimately ends up rejecting Andrew and his advances. He tells him he is not the one for Andrew and while Andrew requests he simply gets to know him. When Andrew begins to spin a web of intricate lies, David walks away once and for all.

It has been quite some time since we’ve seen Versace in an episode, but lo and behold he made an appearance in this one. However, it was in one of Andrew’s dreams where Versace is his tailor and tells him they are not the same because he is loved, unlike Andrew. And this is where things get crazy. In a meth-induced state, Andrew goes back to Norman’s house violently shouting to be let into the house as Norman calls the police. Andrew goes back, broken and defeated, to his mother’s house where he tells her his next destination is…Minneapolis.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Recap: ‘Descent’

Andrew Cunanan’s Gold Digging Leads Down A Dangerous Path in ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ (Ep 6)

Episode 6 of “American Crime Story: Versace” picks up in California in 1996, a year before Andrew Cunanan’s murder spree began. Cunanan found himself in some kind of luxury abode, wrapping presents from Tiffany’s and toting bags from Saks Fifth Avenue. Some lines of cocaine are conspicuously apparent on a nearby table.

Cunanan obviously shacked up with some rich older man while “employed” as his “interior decorator.” He wonders aloud to a friend, Lizzie, about a certain blonde paramour, obviously referring to David Madson.

“Who are you trying to be?” asks Lizzie, unsure of what she’s witnessing.

Moments later Trail arrives at the party. Cunanan gifts Andrew some expensive clothes in the hopes of making him look more high class in front of his new crush. Cunanan instructs Trail to lie and say he’s still in the Navy. Trail refuses.

When Madson arrives, Andrew finds himself caught in a series of lies about having previously worked for Versace.

Meanwhile, the friends of Cunanan’s elderly patron show visible disdain for Cunanan, recognizing his gold-digging proclivities. Later, Lee Miglin approaches Cunanan to wish him a happy birthday. Cunanan pushes him aside and chastises him for addressing him in public.

Andrew and his future victims all pose for a picture together.

Later, Andrew’s patron confronts Cunanan (who had apparently been going by the name Andrew De Silva) about his birthday wish list (first class flights, a new car, to become sole inheritor of his fortune) and and his past. Cunanan had claimed that he was disowned by his wealthy parents for being gay and had a PhD. A private investigator had apparently determined Cunanan’s story about his own history to be completely fabricated. Nonetheless, Andrew’s patron attempts to get Andrew back to school, desperate to make a more amenable arrangement despite the deception. Andrew refuses to negotiate. He wants everything. He leaves, telling the older man that he expects a call in the future.

Andrew takes up residence somewhere with decidedly less class. Meanwhile, Trail’s father calls him to say he’s received a bizarre postcard signed “Love, Drew.” Trail assumes this is a tortuous blackmail attempt on the part of Cunanan. Trail confronts Cunanan and the argument turns physical before Trail admits he’s taken a job in Minneapolis. Cunanan’s paranoia perks up: he thinks Trail’s going there to pursue a relationship with David Madson. The next day, Andrew calls up Madson and offers him a trip to Los Angeles, all expenses paid. Madson, confused, does not know how to feel.

Cut to Madson meeting Cunanan in a luxurious mansion. Andrew continues to seduce David by buying him luxury suits and promising him future success — together, as a couple.

“Andrew, I’m not the one,” Madson tells Andrew over an obscenely lavish dinner.

“You are the only one I have ever really, truly loved,” replies Andrew.

Madson attempts to console Andrew, but only exacerbates the situation.

“We had a great time in San Francisco, one great night. And maybe there was a chance but … I get the feeling you don’t have many great nights with people. Am I right? So when you do it feels huge. It feels life changing,” says Madson.

Madson begs Andrew for the truth about his life. He spins another yarn about his wealthy parents, but Madson’s face shows he doesn’t believe a word about it.

“Your parents must have loved you very much,” Madson says through clenched teeth.

Later at a gay bar, Andrew’s on the hunt for a fix. He buys some crystal meth. In a drug-induced fantasy, he imagines Gianni Versace dressing him while bemoaning the selfishness of the world in the face of his unending generosity. The fantasy turns persecutory, with Cunanan imagining Versace as a kind of antagonist.

“We’re the same. The only difference is: you got lucky,” Andrew tells Versace.

He returns to the club for more drugs the next day. He doesn’t have enough money to pay the dealer. He goes back to his former patron’s mansion, begging to be let in. The police are called.

Andrew finds his mother in a shabby motel. She bathes him gently before declaring that his “smell” has changed. Something’s off about her: when Andrew admits he’s unhappy, she keeps chattering. She proclaims the world is meaningless without children. She doesn’t seem to understand that Andrew is gay, or is in emphatic, perhaps delusional denial about it.

“We always had so little, they always had so much,” she says, comparing herself to rival families growing up. She still believes Andrew to be the lies he tells: she thinks he works as a costume designer for operas.

Andrew tells her that he’s heading to Minneapolis.

“They have an opera house in Minneapolis?” asks his mother.

“No, Mom. I don’t think they do,” he responds. She kisses him goodbye.

Ryan Murphy has been using this season of American Crime Story to tell a nuanced story about the complexities of gay identity. Andrew’s web of lies may be seen as pathological parallel to the deception so many queer people must maintain to be considered respectable by society. But Andrew’s proclivities take him too far, and he overcompensates to make up for his very real deficits.

The illusory nature of wealth has always been a fascination of queer culture, from Oscar Wilde’s obsession with abundance to the ballroom scene’s fascination with opulence. In a society organized around the marginalization of sexual minorities, obtaining material success is seen as a spiteful rebellion (not so dissimilar from the rap world’s fascination with getting paper) against the forces that try to keep queers down. But Andrew’s obsession with wealth, forged by his mother’s jealousy of her adversaries, goes too far. The facade of happiness, which in the age of Instagram must be even more carefully maintained, falls apart so fast — especially for queer people, who are almost expected to fail.

Murphy appears to be using Cunanan’s tale as warning, and surely queer men will see something of themselves in not only Cunanan’s loneliness, but also his desires. But Murphy’s Cunanan is a sort of fun-house mirror, exaggerating the blemishes of queerness and turning them into something monstrous. Few sympathetic portraits of Cunanan have been made since his crime spree occurred, and although Murphy clearly shows his viciousness as an aberration, he also appears to be asking how different many gay men are from the notorious killer.

Andrew Cunanan’s Gold Digging Leads Down A Dangerous Path in ‘American Crime Story: Versace’ (Ep 6)

ACS: Gianni Versace: “Descent” – Blog – The Film Experience

For the first time in a month’s worth of episodes about his victims, American Crime Story returns to an Andrew-centric episode. We’re going further back into the narrative, to the events and actions that led to his string of murders. And as it has been teased all throughout the series, all it takes for a delusional man whose entire identity is built on a bubble of lies to break down, is to pop that bubble…

Episode 6: “Descent”
The sixth episode of the series takes place in 1996, one year before the murders. Andrew is living in San Diego in the mansion of gay millionaire Norman Blachford, under the pretenses of being his personal interior designer. Pretenses is all Andrew lives off of; he’s mooching off everything he can from the poor man, who only wants company.

Andrew throws a birthday party for himself, in house that he doesn’t own, with money that is not his, surrounded by people that don’t know him. And yet somehow this is the life that he always envisioned for himself. It’s a game of perception that he needs to keep playing in order to keep the fantasy alive.

Annaleigh Ashford, bubbly and buoyant as ever, returns as Andrew’s best friend Elizabeth, who does not believe that Andrew is living a genuine life with Norman. But he tells her that he won’t stay there for long. He’s now chasing after David (Cody Fern – it still hurts every time to seem him alive and well), a boy he met in San Francisco that now owns his heart. He will be attending the party, and Andrew wants to show him that he is a loved person. As we see through the episode, this is something Andrew desperately wants to believe in, too.

Jeff Trail seems to be his only genuine friend. They are still close after the initial bar encounter we saw last episode. Jeff comes to Andrew’s party, with real feelings of friendship and gratitude that Andrew brushes away in lieu of putting on a charade for David. He implores Jeff to pretend to have a life that goes more with what Andrew has created for his. Everyone around him needs to be part of his games in order for them to work.

Jeff and David meet in this party. Lee Miglin is also there. They all take a picture together. It has to be a creative decision to have all (or at least sixty percent) of Andrew’s victims gathered in the same place, appearing in the same picture. But it translates the theme of Andrew destroying those around him into visual terms.

But, as it has always been with Andrew, he doesn’t have enough. He needs more from Norman; a bigger allowance, first class flights, being named his sole heir. You know, reasonable petitions. And then Norman bursts the first of Andrew’s bubble, and reveals him he has had him investigated. All the stories he has told about himself are false. He’s still willing to keep Andrew around, as long as he makes himself useful. But Andrew doesn’t want to be useful. He doesn’t want to be ordinary. So he decides to leave Norman. Wanting more is slowly destroying him.

Living off the last credit he has left, Andrew invites David to LA under work pretenses. He woos him with fancy hotels, and expensive dinners, and lush gifts. But David cannot take this any longer, and makes him clear that he is not Andrew’s guy; never will be. In his last attempt to connect with him, he tries to ask about his past and his family, but Andrew won’t let go of the invented narratives he tells himself. So David leaves him.

And, as an incredibly aggressive way of asserting his territory with Jeff, Andrew sends a postcard to Jeff’s father, outing him to his family. Jeff confronts him and tells him he is leaving for a job in Minneapolis; the city where David lives. He assures him the two have nothing to do with each other, but Andrew doesn’t buy him. And just like that, Andrew has lost all the people he cared about, or that cared about him. So, as one does, he seeks refuge in a crystal meth from a pyromaniac at a local dive bar.

In one of his highs, we get the only Versace appearance of the episode in the form of a hallucination, a way for Andrew to confront this other person who embodies all of his ideals: the man who has everything he wished and fought for. They are the same person, only Versace got lucky. There is bitterness and deep resentment in Andrew, and the psychotic gears start to turn again.

Andrew hits rock bottom (in this episode, at least, not in his life), when he tries to break into Norman’s home so he can get money to pay for his drugs. Norman calls the cops on him. And then we get a final sequence where, having been stripped of everything, Andrew goes to visit his mother.

This is his real mother, not the thousand different women he has invented to strangers at parties. And we confirm what has been always strongly suggested but never confirmed until now. Andrew came from nothing. He had very humble beginnings, and wishing for more is something practically ingrained in the family emblem. “I am unhappy” he mutters to his mother, a cry for help that does deeply unheard. No one is going to help him anymore.

“Descent” was good in illuminating some aspects of Andrew’s character that has been hinted at before, but never expressly addressed; mainly the fabrications that he tells others (and, as it turns out, himself) in order to keep going. The further we go back into the narrative, the more human the characterization of Andrew is becoming, which is a weirdly amoral line to walk when depicting someone that killed five people.

I don’t know how farther back we will go in future episodes, or when we will pick up the murder narrative. The Versace part of the story is as behind from us as it can be, and the show has now made it explicitly clear that it is not about them, or that particular story, at all. I just hope in the last leg of the season we can start moving forward instead of keep looking back. Just like Andrew, if you look too far back, it’s hard to come back from that.

ACS: Gianni Versace: “Descent” – Blog – The Film Experience

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: the narration of the sixth episode | 3 March 2018