We continue moving back in time, leaving Gianni’s assassination further behind as we’re given the context behind two infamous interviews. On the one hand, Versace (Edgar Ramirez) gears up to face a reporter from gay magazine The Advocate to finally come out publicly — much to the dismay of his sister, the ever business-driven Donatella (Penelope Cruz). On the other, a young closeted navy officer participates in a CBS news segment about “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Only, we’ve met the officer before. His name is Jeff Trail. He’s played by Finn Wittrock. We’ve already seen how he died at the hands of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), bludgeoned with a hammer at the home of Minneapolis architect David Madson (Cody Fern), whose own death we saw in last week’s episode.
The episode, aptly titled “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is very much focused on Jeff: we see his stint in the navy (where he saved a fellow officer from getting beaten up for being gay), witness his first meeting with Andrew (at a gay bar where they hit it off), and later still get a chance to relive the ill-fated weekend before he showed up at David’s apartment. Further expanding its examination of the culture of silence that fueled much of the still-rampant homophobia in the 90s, this latest episode connects Jeff’s own experience in the navy with Versace’s own desire to be more open about his private life.
But where Jeff finds an unlikely cheerleader in Andrew, who actually thinks the former navy officer should be brave and show his face on the CBS News segment (he chose instead to have his face be obscured to keep his identity safe), Gianni only finds pushback from the one person he’s always trusted when it comes to his label’s PR: Donatella. To her, coming out so publicly will spell disaster for their brand. She’s worried about how many people will be put off by his admission, how many investors will flee their company, and how women across the world will see the Versace style differently. “You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” she tells him. “You’ve forgotten how ugly the world can be.” Nevertheless, Gianni is resolute. It helps that Antonio (Ricky Martin) has emboldened him to be braver, especially after his near-death experience with the unnamed illness from a few episodes back. He wants to be as bold as his clothes. “Is the brand of Versace braver than the man?” he asks his sister, finally making her relent and understand better why getting this off his chest, with his partner of more than a decade in tow, is so important to him.
This Week’s MVP: Donatella’s jacket.
Okay, Murphy-staple Wittrock (you may know him as the tighty whitey-wearing serial killer in American Horror Story: Freakshow) astounds in this episode playing the troubled Navy officer with wounded sincerity, but we have to give the costume designer of this show her due. Lou Eyrich has won three Emmys already for working on Murphy’s American Horror Story franchise. But she is doing just as fabulous work in this fashion-heavy show. Everything from Cunanan’s penchant for tight briefs to Versace’s bold satin shirts shows how the costumes (both off-the-rack and high-fashion) help to tell the story while also being downright amazing. Though truly, when you’re outfitting Penelope as Donatella and Edgar as Gianni — the Versace siblings are as colorful a pair as one can find — you really can’t go wrong.
Better yet, they truly help inform character. Donatella’s jacket, after all, is both warm yet imposing. It’s a working woman’s blazer that dares you to call it tacky (that pink! those butterflies! the gold pattern!) It’s ostentatious while also being understated, the kind of piece you can see her picking out of her closet almost absent-mindedly. But with those sleeves rolled up and those big, gold pieces of jewelry adorning her, we get to see Cruz-as-Donatella as the kind of no-nonsense style icon she’s always been, always having business in mind even while styling herself as she were about to be in a lavish editorial spread about female executives shattering glass ceilings.
With the show skipping back and forth in time, at times leaving its titular Versace assassination behind, we’re curious where Murphy and his team take us next week when we travel to San Diego for a Cunanan birthday celebration.
Oh, thank God. Gianni Versace is back, he wears an amazing Versace top while being interviewed by The Advocate, and, as a special bonus, we also get Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace wearing a fitted butterfly blazer and microscopic black skirt. What better outfit to wear when being super mean to your brother and his lover? I would probably let someone treat me as shabbily as Donatella does Antonio as long as she dressed like that.
Those few scenes add splendor to the otherwise dreary and sad world of Andrew Cunanan, where we’ve been living for the past few episodes. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is really about coming out and the two very different experiences of these two very different men. We see Gianni in his great designs and well-lit photo shoot for his Advocate cover, immediately contrasted with Jeff Trail, one of Cunanan’s victims, giving an interview with CBS News about gays in the military where he has his face and voice disguised “like a criminal.”
This illustrates just how difficult and different coming out was for different classes of people in the mid-‘90s. Versace, as a millionaire with a thriving business in a creative field, was allowed to come out without much consequence. (Although the actual Advocate interviewwasn’t exactly as depicted here.) Donatella is worried that celebrities and tastemakers will leave the brand like they did to Perry Ellis when it was discovered that he was dying of AIDS. Her brother retorts, “At least we’ll keep Elton,” meaning the famously out rocker Elton John. (Duh.)
Versace’s coming out is seen as a celebration, something that advances gay rights and gay visibility. It was only possible because he was in fashion, one of the industries where you can’t swing a designer handbag without hitting a friend of Dorothy’s. Not everyone was so lucky to have the financial success and protection that Versace did, and things were a lot harder for them.
Look at how it was for Jeff Trail. He’s forced into the closet so that he can continue to serve his country and be a member of the military. Everyone in his family has served. While coming out might have a bit of an impact on Versace’s multimillion-dollar business, if Trail came out, he’ll lose his job, possibly his family, and everything he holds dear. Coming out isn’t a choice for him, especially after his commanding officer gives him a creepy comic book (seriously, U.S. military? A comic book?) about how he can’t be gay and in the Navy at the same time.
I always say that the closet makes people crazy, and in this case, it leads Jeff to consider severe self-harm. He thinks about cutting out a tattoo on his leg when he hears that a gay man has been caught for cruising on his military base and is going to rat out the tattoos of every enlisted man he’s slept with. First of all, this is a bad idea because it doesn’t work (except as a plot device on Riverdale). Second of all, it’s a bad idea because who the hell wants to carve out their flesh in the shower with a box cutter and some alcohol?
After the comic book incident, Jeff tries to hang himself in the shower rather than come out, but he can’t do it. He’s suffering under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” not only in the military, but also in his own mind. Maybe if he doesn’t talk about it, he seems to decide, he can be just a little bit gay. Even after he’s out of the military, he refuses to come out to his parents despite his sister insisting that he do it. He knows that she has his back, so why can’t he still be true to himself? After being in the military for so many years, the homophobia is coming from inside the house.
I didn’t really like the way the episode played out, however. We see Jeff first through Andrew’s eyes, when he plots a trip to Minneapolis (on American Express’s dime) in a last attempt at having a normal life by marrying David. Thanks to the last episode, we all know how that ends. I’m still fascinated with the series playing out backwardsbecause Andrew’s trip always had an air of failure about it, from the moment he shows up at the airport to a less-than-fuzzy reception from his former friends. Because of what we’ve seen, there is a much more sinister overtone to the proceedings.
What I didn’t like is that we see Jeff talking on tape about saving a man’s life in the military and how he wouldn’t do it again because that is what outed him to his fellow sailors. I feel like that really took away from the magic of seeing him actually save the man, comfort him in the showers, and get caught by that very imposing looking dude with a mustache. (How come the old-school bigots in these things always have a mustache?) If we didn’t know what was coming, it would have had more impact. The same goes for when he finally gives the interview later in the episode. It just seemed like needless repetition. The emotion could have been more intense if we didn’t see Andrew watching that video in the first place and didn’t know exactly what Jeff was going to say.
The relationship between Andrew and Jeff is also very confusing. Andrew definitely saved Jeff the first time he came into a gay bar: He needed someone to show him the ropes, prove to him that being gay wasn’t so awful, and to joke about his name being spelled out in sparklers on the bar. But eventually, Jeff is the only one who sees that Andrew is just spinning a bunch of lies, and that he’s a dangerous sociopath who could cause them all a lot of pain. David, on the other hand, sees Andrew as harmless and wants to help him. He even offers to break his date with the hunk in the leather vest so they can talk, but Andrew can’t abandon his “crazy stories” about starting a new life in San Francisco in order to ask for help. When he does accept David’s offer, it’s only as a pretense so that he can kill both David and Jeff. The crazy stories are stronger than any real connection with a human being.
What confused me was when Andrew and Jeff have their confrontation in Jeff’s sad apartment when he returns home to find Andrew eating Fruit Loops on the floor and his military uniform splayed out on the bed. He confronts Andrew about the story and about sending a postcard to his parents trying to out him. Even though Andrew saved him, Jeff wishes they never met. “The bars, the meals, the men. Everything you gave me means nothing,” he tells Andrew. “I want my life back. My real life, as a soldier.” Jeff equates gay life with Andrew and since Andrew is a person of mirages masking an empty and rotten core, he sees gay life the same way. We would assume that because Andrew was his role model, Jeff thinks it is impossible to live a rewarding and openly gay life. He sees gay values as being about fun times, meaningless sex, designer clothes, and hot go-go boys in star-spangled Speedos. That’s why he rejects both Andrew and gay life and ends up yelling at other veterans in the lunchroom of a shitty factory.
I could buy that, except that Jeff also has David in his life. We get hints that they’re a couple — even though David was obviously seeing other people — so why wouldn’t David be a good role model for Jeff? He’s openly gay, he has a successful career, and he’s a caring person who seems to be about more than just hookups in the back of bars. Shouldn’t Jeff see that he can have a life like David’s? Shouldn’t he know that Andrew is the negative extreme played up by the media and shitty military comic books?
Tragically, he doesn’t. Finn Wittrock does an excellent job showing Jeff’s pain and struggle, just as Darren Criss and Cody Fern have both been spectacular in the past two episodes. It’s going to be a really tough Emmy race if they wind up duking it out with each other. This episode as a whole, however, seems a little bit clunky. It’s just too much of a stretch to knit all of these stories together in a meaningful and emotionally impactful way. Still, the differences between these coming out stories is key to understanding exactly how and why Versace’s death happened, and I’m glad the show is drawing those unique parallels.
Now that we are halfway through “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” we can reasonably infer that there are no more bodies to fall. The fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death outside his Miami Beach villa in the season premiere. The Chicago real estate tycoon Lee Miglin was tortured and bludgeoned, and a New Jersey cemetery groundskeeper, William Reese, was fatally shot, execution-style, in Episode 3. Two more men were knocked off in Episode 4: the Minneapolis architect David Madson and the Navy veteran Jeff Trail.
So as this second season of “American Crime Story” works its way backward in time, we have moved past the body count to what should be the most interesting moment in any serial killer’s story: the moment before he starts to kill.
Yet frustratingly, five episodes in and with four more go to, we are barely any closer to knowing what turned Andrew Cunanan into a pathologically mendacious psychopath, much less a killer.
There is still time to explore that question, but by structuring this narrative in reverse chronological form, the show’s creators have demanded a great deal of patience from viewers — and taxed the patience of this one — as they’ve asked us to bear witness to ruthless, grisly violence.
So far, I don’t feel my patience has been rewarded. I’ve given this season credit for some unforgettable characters — especially Marilyn Miglin, the tycoon’s widow, and David Madson, the semi-closeted architect (thanks in large part to exceptional performances by Judith Light and Cody Fern). But I increasingly find Andrew Cunanan, as portrayed by Darren Criss, to be more an irritation than an enigma. His self-absorption, narcissism, casual cruelty, lack of empathy and penchant for self-pity have not been leavened by any redeeming qualities.
To be frank, I have come to find him so charmless that I nearly cringe any time he appears onscreen. I do not care for his petty lies — the Walter Mitty world in which he is the scion of a pineapple magnate, the builder of sets for the movie “Titanic,” the owner of a fabulous condominium in San Francisco — and, what’s worse, I’m starting to lose interest in how he turned into a killer. It will be a real challenge for this series to create a back story that makes Cunanan’s crimes explicable.
Unlike Episodes 3 and 4, which were effectively character studies of two lives upended by Cunanan’s malevolence, Episode 5 doesn’t have a singular focus. It begins in Milan, where Gianni Versace announces to his sister, Donatella, and to his partner, Antonio D’Amico, that he plans to come out, through an interview in the gay magazine The Advocate. From there, it jumps to Minneapolis, where Jeff Trail, Cunanan’s first victim, works at a propane plant, having been forced out of the Navy for being gay. It then moves backward in time to San Diego, where Trail, in his first visit to a gay bar, meets Cunanan.
The episode’s narrative arc connects the coming out of two men — Versace and Trail — who, other than being gay and getting killed by Cunanan, seem to have little in common.
Versace is depicted as wanting to show gratitude for being alive despite having received a diagnosis of what we’re led to believe is HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (The Versace family has disputed the notion that Versace was HIV-positive, as hypothesized by the journalist Maureen Orth in her book “Vulgar Favors,” on which the series is based.)
Versace shares his plans with his sister, who is worried that Versace’s coming out as gay will hurt the fashion empire he has worked so hard to build. She worries that “the rock stars, the actors, the royalty whose endorsements we cherish — they might not want to be associated with us.”
“You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” she tells him. “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.” Their exchange reminds us how recently spheres that now seem safely liberal — Hollywood and fashion — were still hostile to open gayness, an aversion that is far from vanished today.
We first meet Trail at the propane factory where he works. A co-worker, an ex-Marine, learns that Trail worked on an aircraft carrier that was decommissioned after the first Gulf War. Trail says he misses the military life, and regrets leaving. The Marine, who was enlisted, is startled to learn that Trail, a Naval Academy graduate with two siblings in the military, left a promising career as an officer. Trail flies into a rage, shouting, “It was my decision!”
Trail’s back story turns out to be more complicated.
In 1995, he broke up a homophobic attack on a gay sailor who would otherwise have been beaten to death. For his valor, he was quickly suspected of being gay himself, and subjected to increasing harassment. In one cringe-inducing scene, he tries to cut off a tattoo for fear that it could be used by military investigators to identify homosexuals who have had hookups aboard the aircraft carrier; in another scene, he puts on his dress whites and comes close to hanging himself.
It was the time of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Clinton-era policy in which gay and lesbian service members were ostensibly tolerated as long as they did not come forward. The compromise was an uneasy and often dishonest one, embodied by a scene in which Trail is given a comic-book-style “training guide on homosexual conduct and policy.” Its title, “Dignity and Respect,” seems like a cruel joke.
Trail leaves the military and decides to give an interview to CBS News — his face is obscured — in which he comes forward about the agony of being gay in the military. If he hadn’t stopped the gay-bashing attack, he says, “no one would have suspected me” and his life wouldn’t have been ruined. “I did a good thing, and I can’t tell you about how many times I’ve dreamed about taking that moment back and letting him die.”
That interview is juxtaposed with the far more positive disclosure in which Versace tells The Advocate about D’Amico. It is an affirming and empowering moment, one that demonstrates the obvious point that coming out, while never easy, is vastly easier for some than for others.
But what does it add up to? That Versace and Trail both made sacrifices to come out as gay men does nothing to elucidate for us why they were targeted by Cunanan, or whether anything other than cruel coincidence cut short their lives at his hands.
We see glimpses of Cunanan’s potential to be charming, when he helps to usher Trail into the gay world at a bar. (Trail’s first time, as he reveals.) We learn that the romance, if there was any, quickly wore thin. When the two reconnect in Minneapolis a few years later, Trail’s sympathy is nearly depleted: Cunanan sent his father a postcard outing him, but claims that it was an innocent mistake. Back at Madson’s apartment, Cunanan gives Madson an expensive watch and declares: “You are the man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you marry me?” Madson looks horrified.
“We can’t get married,” he says. “We can’t. You understand? Even if we could, we can’t.”
Madson urges Cunanan to stop telling the crazy stories. But Cunanan can’t let go of his delusions. “I told you I’m going to start a new life in San Francisco, and I just need someone to share it with,” he says. He is at his most vulnerable, but instead of doing what a sane person would — seek out the solace of friends and family, and perhaps professional help — he can’t let go.
He hovers outside Madson’s apartment, watching in anger and envy as the architect brings another man home. Later, in Trail’s apartment, he rummages through the closet and takes out Trail’s dress uniform, enraging him. “I don’t know you,” Trail shouts. “I don’t know what you stand for. I don’t know who you are. You’re a liar. You have no honor.” Confronted by the truth, Cunanan tears into Trail, calling him “a washed-up queer” reduced to “bitching about how you could have been someone.”
He continues: “When I found you that night at the bar, I was there for you, I saved you.”
Trail replies: “You destroyed me. I wished I’d never walked into that bar. I wish I’d never met you.”
We have yet to learn how their relationship soured, or what made Cunanan turn from cruelty to bloodthirst. But at this point, his character is so deranged, vile and incorrigible that I’m not sure I care to know.
Finn Wittrock is well-known to fans of Ryan Murphy’s work from his performances HBO’s The Normal Heart and three seasons of American Horror Story, most notably his role as Dandy Mott in Freak Show.
But he’s never been as heartbreaking as he is on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Wittrock plays the first victim (and former friend) to Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Trail was also in the Navy during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era and was one of the first people to speak out about life as a closeted gay man in the military.
EW talked to Wittrock about the role and whether he’ll return to the world of AHS anytime soon.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:What made you want to play this part? FINN WITTROCK: Well it was sorta kinda a story that kept opening up for me, I would say. At first I was intrigued by the way Ryan was telling the story and the way Tom Rob Smith structured the narrative. I didn’t know much about Cunanan and his downward spiral.
But then I just really became enamored with Jeff and the kind of guy he was and what kind of upstanding American and true Patriot he was. He loved his country and loved being in the military and just had this secret — he knew who he was and was trying to make himself at peace with that and find some self but also it wasn’t compatible with the life he was living at that time. I was just really, really intrigued by that dichotomy of a guy who’s just really all-American, does everything right but the fact that he was gay he couldn’t ever really overcome that because he was stuck living two lives. And how amazing and sad that it was not that long ago? It’s not like we were talking about the ‘50s — it was like 1996.
The final relevant thing for me was it was right around when Trump did the transgender people in the military ban. When I was reading it at first, I was like, “Well this is a good story but it’s a little dated.” Then, that happened I was like, “F—! This is not dated at all. It’s more relevant than ever.”
Did you reach out to Jeff’s family? Or what kind of research did you do? I didn’t. I felt weird about that. We had some really good Navy help on set in terms of getting the technicalities right. And then there is that real interview he did. It really does exist. His face is in shadow but it’s like a 20-minute interview about him coming out amidst Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Often as an actor, you have one thing as your anchor. That was it for me. I kept that video on me at all times. It’s an amazing introspection and a really brave thing for him to do at that time. Then, we had Maureen Orth’s book.
What was it like shooting this because you start with your murder and it goes backwards? It must have been challenging as an actor. Yeah, and the nature of the shoot was already out of sequence because of the schedule. We were shooting different episodes one day to the next so I sometimes lost track of sometimes which episode I was actually in.
What I did when I first got the script was, I just tore them apart and put them in chronological order. I had to kind of do that because the structure is really fascinating to read but as an actor I had to kind of re-adjust my internal compass. The nature of his and Andrew’s relationship erodes over a few years so to really kind of be specific and map that was a challenge and was a kind of on-going conversation, like, Where are we right now? What’s happened?
I spoke to Edgar Ramirez about this, but is it more emotional to shoot a death scene when it’s a real person? It can be haunting. I find you tread more carefully, if that makes sense. It’s more precious. Like when we’re doing Horror Story, it can be really dark and torturous. But it’s also like we’re just letting our imaginations run rampant and just running loose. This you feel a little more obliged to take things carefully and watch your steps and realize the preciousness of the story you’re telling.
Did Jeff actually attempt to cut off his tattoo? It’s a bit of dramatic interpretation. I know everything Rob wrote in that is from real accounts of guys who were gay in the military. It’s not all his necessarily but it’s based on factual stuff. There’s a lot actually we don’t know about Jeff.
What was it that drew Jeff to Andrew in your opinion? Was it that he was so open and charismatic? It is still a mystery. He seemed like such an upstanding guy who really believed in a moral right and standing up for what you believe in and all these admirable values. Then it’s like, How did you become involved with this guy who was so obviously a sociopath? But that’s the thing about them is, they know exactly what to do to make you trust them.
I think there was something in Andrew’s freedom and letting himself loose that really appealed to Jeff at that time. We’ve all maybe had friends who at certain times of your life came in and were just what you needed and you had a great, fun time. Then, you kind of grow out of that and you kind of move on and they don’t but the level of the friendship is so strong that you can’t just disown them so you’re caught with this person sort of hanging on you. I think that was part of the downfall — Andrew did not like getting shaken off.
How was that final fight between Jeff and Andrew to shoot? How was it working with Darren? I remember that being a hefty day. It was a lot of dialogue and a lot of heated stuff. We kind of played with the temperature of how much is it an all-out battle. He’s a very easy partner to dance with. He likes to explore it and try different ways and try one way hotter and one way colder. It was a fun conversation in that way. It’s really interesting to watch him work. He was kind of playful on set and I know from playing some f—ed up people it can be a survival mechanism to kind of stay light when you’re not in it because otherwise it can kind of eat you.
What do you want people to take away from Jeff’s story? It’s sort of a warning about what happens when you don’t share your real self with the people you love. It’s also a warning about our society not letting people be who they are and the dark road that can lead people down.
Is there any chance you can return to American Horror Story? I don’t know. I would love to. I am committed to staying in the Ryan Murphy universe as long as he will have me.
The core of this episode is two interviews about being gay: One interview is extremely public; the other is hidden, both literally and figuratively.
Since we’re moving backward through the story, Gianni Versace is still alive, arguing with Donatella about his decision to do an interview with Advocate magazine in which he will openly say that he’s gay. But Donatella does publicity for the brand and knows the world still isn’t kind to openly gay men. They compare Versace to Perry Ellis, the designer who walked his final runway show weakened by what was believed to be AIDS shortly before succumbing to the disease; Gianni sees it as the most important show of his career, Donatella as the moment people stopped buying his clothes.
Antonio also has a perspective: For 13 years he’s been mistaken for Gianni’s assistant, and he wants their relationship to be public, which makes Donatella even more prickly. She sees Antonio as a climber and a leech; the family business should concern only family.
Cunanan has his own argument across the country, albeit a less glamorous one: He’s on the phone with American Express, asking them if they can expand his credit so he can book a flight to Minneapolis. He has two friends there, he explains, and they owe him money. If only he can get to Minneapolis, all of his money issues will be solved and he’ll be able to pay his credit card bills. The voice on the phone sighs and seems to reluctantly answer in the affirmative. Cunanan injects heroin between his toes, and we’re afforded a wider view into his private life: a miserable, bleak apartment, a closet full of well-pressed clothes. And then behind the clothes: a collage of Gianni Versace, including that inevitable Advocate interview.
Cunanan is met at the airport by both David and Gulf War Navy veteran Jeffrey Trail — two of Cunanan’s victims, back from the dead thanks to the show’s backward timeline. Trail is equal parts savvy and prickly; his repeated “I made the decision” to a co-worker about leaving the Navy implies there was something else going on with his discharge, and as soon as he links up with David in the airport he makes his feelings for Cunanan clear. “Everything he’s told you about his life is a lie,” Trail says. David is more sympathetic to Cunanan — he feels sorry for him, but Trail has nothing but teeth-clenching anger and a debt to pay. Cunanan had “accidentally” tried to out Trail to his father with a postcard signed, “Love, Drew, kiss kiss,” but Trail says he still owes Cunanan, at least enough to let him use his apartment for the weekend so long as they don’t have to interact.
Cunanan comes home with David, who slowly seems to be coming to the same conclusions that Trail already reached. When Cunanan proposes, with a $10,000 watch, David reacts with shame and pity and humiliation for both of them. Cunanan, with his typical dissociated bounciness, tells him to think about it.
David gives him his answer at a polka club that night, where he and Cunanan have come to meet David’s co-worker, Linda (the same woman who will find Trail’s body, and who will tell the police about Cunanan). David says he’ll never marry him, that their relationship isn’t real. “It’s just another story,” he says, thrusting back the watch. Later, Cunanan will watch David bring another man back to the apartment.
Since he has the keys, Cunanan heads to Trail’s home and begins picking through the man’s belongings. He puts on his Navy hat and peels his uniform out of its box, revealing a VHS tape hidden underneath. He watches the video: a news report about gays in the military in which an anonymous man — presumably Trail — talks about his experience, his face shrouded in shadow. Cunanan also steals Trail’s gun and points it at the screen in what we in the television recapping industry like to call foreshadowing.
We flash back to two years earlier to see Jeffrey Trail in the Navy, and witness firsthand the incident he spoke about in the interview, where he saved a gay sailor’s life and it cost him his anonymity. First, he broke up a fight between several sailors attacking one man, and then later, he rescued the man again when he was tied to his bed and beaten, inches from death. Trail comforts the sailor in the bathroom; someone sees him, and that’s all it takes.
Someone makes a sneering remark about identifying gay sailors by their tattoos and Trail tries, in a panic, to take a knife to the ink on his kneecap. With seemingly no way out, he begins to hang himself in the bathroom, until he changes his mind, gasping for breath, and goes another way: to a gay bar, where he meets Andrew Cunanan.
Cunanan is charming and flirty, exactly the type of man someone like Trail would have wanted to run into on his first night attempting to experience life as a gay man. The two become close, close enough that Cunanan tries to talk Trail out of doing the anonymous interview with CBS. But Trail knows: It’s just something he has to do. It’s the same sentiment echoed by Versace: a shared, quiet bravery that makes their deaths all the more aching.
On the day of Jeffrey Trail’s murder, Cunanan eats the most sinister bowl of Froot Loops since Get Out, while Trail returns home, infuriated that Cunanan touched his uniform. He sees Cunanan for what he is: a selfish fraud, a stark contrast to a soldier who’s willing to sacrifice himself for something. “You’ve never believed in anyone but yourself.”
Cunanan protests, asking Trail to remember everything that he gave him, but Trail just spits back bile. “Everything you gave me,” he says, “It means nothing. You have no honor.” Cunanan says he saved him. “You destroyed me!” Trail fires back. Cunanan tells him he loves him, and Trail answers, “No one wants your love.”
From there, we know how the events play out. Cunanan brings Trail’s gun to David’s house and tells Trail to come and get it. While David goes downstairs to let Trail up to the apartment, Cunanan grabs a hammer. Trail’s sister went into labor, and she and her parents call, over and over, to tell him to come to the hospital. Their voices are recorded on the answering machine, playing out to an empty apartment.
For the fifth episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, we learn about Jeff Trail. The last episode opened with the unknown young man being bludgeoned to death with a hammer by Andrew Cunanan. But who is he and why did Andrew kill him?
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as the title suggests, also focuses on one of the major themes of the show, dealing with the shame of being a closeted homosexual. Jeff’s story is equal parts tragic and heroic in that respect, and it’s beautifully contrasted by the return of the titular fashion designer.
Versace Comes Out
The episode opens in June 1995 in Milan. Gianni Versace is back, informing his sister Donatella that he’s going to do an interview with The Advocate and publically come out as gay. She is skeptical of the idea, thinking that Antonio is behind this because he wants to be famous. She’s also worried that it may hurt their business, but Gianni is insistent.
Despite her warning, he wants to do it because the brand is all about bravery and he wants to show that he is brave. She’s a realist, recognizing that the world can be cruel, but after getting sick, Gianni simply wants to be himself. Given what we’ll see with Jeff Trail, it’s hard to ignore the fact that coming out is a luxury that Gianni Versace can afford because he’s a celebrity. It may cost him some money and business, but that’s nothing compared to the cost for Jeff.
Andrew Comes to Minnesota
Four days before Jeff’s murder we see Andrew in San Diego, doing drugs and sweet-talking a lady from the credit card company into extending his credit limit so he can buy a one-way plane ticket to Minneapolis. He’s obviously in deep debt and promises that he’ll be financially solvent and repay his debts thanks to his two friends, Jeff and David, in Minnesota.
Meanwhile, former Navy officer Jeff Trail is in Minnesota, working at a propane factory. When he learns that Andrew is flying in he meets David at the airport, explaining to him that everything Andrew says is a lie and he has no one. The only reason Jeff still puts up with him is because Andrew was there for him once, but he’s done with Andrew after this weekend and encourages David to do the same. David still feels sorry for Andrew. There isn’t much tension here since we already know how this weekend ends for both of them.
Andrew arrives and he’s his cheery, obviously fake self, acting like everything is wonderful. Jeff gets into it a bit about how Andrew “accidentally” sent a postcard to Jeff’s dad that almost outed Jeff to his family. Jeff is staying with his sister for the weekend so Andrew can crash at his place.
Andrew’s Proposal
When Andrew and David go back to his apartment, Andrew proposes and David tries to decline as politely as possible without hurting Andrew’s feelings. Andrew is throwing out about a million red flags and it should be clear to David that this guy is seriously mentally unstable.
Andrew and David go out to a polka club with David’s co-worker (the one who will discover Jeff’s body in a few days). David eventually declines Andrew’s proposal as forcefully as he can. Back at the apartment David tries to give back the expensive watch Andrew bought him, explaining that it’s OK to ask for help and Andrew doesn’t have to make up elaborate stories about how amazing his life is.
David sees the real Andrew and how unhappy he is, offering to help. But people seeing his true self seems to be Andrew’s primary trigger for his insanity.
Andrew then goes to Jeff’s apartment, suspicious that David and Jeff are dating. Andrew snoops through Jeff’s things and finds his Navy uniform, a video of a news report about gays in the military…and his gun. Andrew watches the video, in which Jeff was an anonymous gay officer in the Navy talking about how they would never accept he. He talks about how the military knows he’s gay because he saved a gay sailor who was being attacked, but now he regrets that moment.
The Tragic History of Jeff Trail
Jeff goes to his very pregnant sister’s house. She knows he’s gay and thinks he should stop letting Andrew have this sort of control over him and just come out to their parents.
We flash back to November 1995 to see the story Jeff was talking about, saving the gay sailor. This epitomizes my biggest problem with this season. Why show us a video of Jeff telling the story, then show us that same story in a flashback? It’s excessive and takes away the dramatic tension because we already know what’s going to happen, just like how we already know that Andrew is going to kill Jeff and David.
Jeff tries his best to protect the other gay sailor, but in the process he fears he may have outed himself. This leads to a brutal and graphic scene of Jeff trying to cut off his own tattoo so he can’t be identified by a captured gay soldier who may report him.
All of the fear and paranoia of being a closeted gay man in the military gets to Jeff, to the point where he tries to hang himself in the bathroom. It’s a tragic moment, but one that he doesn’t follow through on.
After his suicide attempt, Jeff goes out to a gay bar and meets Andrew. Andrew is accepting and encouraging, exactly what Jeff needs in this moment. It’s Jeff’s first time in a gay bar and Andrew helps him through it, explaining the debt Jeff owes Andrew. Andrew was a friendly face who met Jeff in his darkest hour.
The Two Coming Out Stories
Jeff tells Andrew about a reporter wanting to interview him for a news story that includes his side on the issue of gays in the military. In a brilliant bit of contrast, we see Jeff going to a seedy motel and being interviewed in the shadows while intercutting it with Gianni Versace doing his interview for The Advocate in a fancy hotel, being greeted warmly and asking Antonio to sit by his side and do the interview with him.
It’s a very effective way to show how different this experience is. For Jeff, it’s the hardest thing he’ll ever do, he regrets saving the gay sailor’s life and it will likely cost him his career. For Gianni, it’s an affirming, positive experience with a photo shoot, allowing him to live his life open and free.
It’s a heartbreaking juxtaposition. After these interviews, Jeff can’t live the life he wants anymore, being in the military, but Gianni gets to live his life exactly how he wants.
The Death of Jeff Trail (Again)
The show is back to the day Jeff dies, which we saw last week. Jeff returns to his apartment and sees that Andrew went through his stuff. Jeff gets angry and tells Andrew that the life he gave him with the bars and men wasn’t real. Jeff only ever wanted to be in the military and that’s what he wishes he had.
Jeff doesn’t care that the military doesn’t want him. He calls out Andrew for being a liar with no honor. Andrew claims he saved Jeff, but Jeff wishes he never walked into that bar and met him. Jeff gets a bit violent, yelling that “No one wants your love.”
Andrew is trigger and leaves to David’s place, with Jeff’s gun. That night Andrew calls Jeff and tells him that he took his gun because David’s stalker is back in town. Jeff agrees to come over to get it, but after that he’s done with him.
This leads to the moment we knew was coming, when Andrew kills Jeff with a hammer (which was definitely premeditated). In one final emotional punch to the gut, while Jeff is dead in David’s apartment, his family calls his home and leaves messages on his answering machine that his sister went into labor and had her baby, with his parents saying how much they love him and want him to meet his niece.
Throughout this season of American Crime Story, Ryan Murphy and FX have often been forced to use their imagination. As many of the real people depicted in the series are dead and the victims’ families have largely kept quiet, The Assassination of Gianni Versace has often had to take creative liberties when recreating the narrative. Using a plethora of source material, from Maureen Orth’s Vulgar Favors to newspaper articles and FBI reports, FX has had to imagine interactions between Andrew Cunanan and his victims — and even depict events never confirmed by the victims’ families.
In the opening moments of the fifth episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Gianni (Édgar Ramírez) tells his sister Donatella (Penelope Cruz) that, much to her chagrin, he’s going to publicly disclose his sexuality to The Advocate. Donatella derides Gianni’s decision and tries to dissuade him, concerned that coming out as gay could put their company in jeopardy but Gianni remains steadfast in his decision.
In a moving moment during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Gianni interrupts his own interview with the Advocate to introduce his longtime partner Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin) to his profiler, Brendan Lemon, revealing that they’ve been together for 13 years. Often publicly relegated to the position of Gianni’s assistant, Antonio is visibly moved.
While Gianni’s decision to publicly come out was a big deal in and of itself, it had a lasting effect on him. During the Television Critics Association tour last summer, Murphy opened up about what Gianni coming out in the Advocate interview meant to him and what it was like to film the interview.
“I admired that and always did,” Murphy said. “I loved him and looked up to him, and was so proud and excited when he did that interview in the Advocate. At that time there weren’t a lot of people brave enough to live their lives in the open. So for me, I had a great passion for it, and I was very emotional shooting it.“
The scene was incredibly moving, especially interwoven with Jeff Trail’s (Finn Wittrock) anonymous CBS interview regarding being gay in the military, reminding viewers that while Gianni Versace was able to live a proud life as a gay man, many others were forced to remain in the closet for the sake of their lives.
When Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock) and David Madson (Cody Fern) return to the latter’s sleek, minimalist apartment, something is immediately amiss. David’s dog is tied to a coffee table, and their mutual friend Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) is waiting unseen across the hallway. That’s when it happens: Andrew snaps. He bludgeons Jeff with a hammer, blood spraying everywhere. David (and his poor dog) can only look on in horror from the other side of the room; as most of this unfolds, the camera remains affixed to David’s terrified expression. Blood occasionally splashes on his face.
Gruesome scenes like this one at the start of “House by the Lake,” the fourth episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, are a familiar sight for a medium that’s been historically obsessed with killers. But each portrayal is different, and how a TV series depicts a murder tells you a lot about its intentions. Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal turned many of its deaths into baroque pieces of bloody art, relishing in the creative ways victims could be disposed (death by electric eel is definitely … different). On the opposite side of the spectrum was Dexter, whose eponymous serial killer would do just about the same thing every time — a calculated routine devised over decades that carried out like an everyday chore. As for Versace, Cunanan’s murder of Jeff Trail is the beginning of a violent, agenda-driven killing spree.
Because Versace plays out almost entirely in reverse chronology — beginning in the premiere with the fashion mogul’s death at the hands of Cunanan before the opening title comes into view — the audience knows we’re seeing is Cunanan’s first murder, despite it being the final one presented onscreen. The show continuously folds into itself, in the process delving into Cunanan, studying how and when the seeds were planted before they blossomed into this narcissistic, entitled, and dangerous personality.
However, what makes Versace a unique presence in an ever-crowded television landscape has less to do with its Nolanesque chronology or its insidious killer than it does how much attention the show dedicates to the people who were killed, the lives that were affected by these murders, and how a society plagued with systemic homophobia enabled Cunanan to claim five total victims — culminating in the death of Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez) on the steps of his opulent mansion. By devoting screentime to Versace and Cunanan’s lesser-known victims — with the exception of William Reese, whose death was the result of a man being in the wrong place at the wrong time — the show empathizes with the discrimination each faced as a gay man in ’90s America and the institutions that failed them. In Versace, there’s more than one killer.
The fifth episode of the season, which aired Wednesday night, flashes back to Trail’s first meeting with Cunanan, in addition to his time as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. The title of the episode, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” is self-evident, and Trail suffers from the Clintonian policy. When one gay soldier offers to out other gay military members who frequent a well-known hookup spot as part of a deal to avoid dishonorable discharge, Trail uses a knife to remove his biggest identifier, a tattoo on his leg. The closest Trail gets to coming out is agreeing to be interviewed by a news program for a “don’t ask, don’t tell” package. Trail’s experience in the episode is juxtaposed with that of Versace’s coming out in a magazine interview with The Advocate. As Versace is invited to a glitzy hotel suite to sit down for a cover story alongside his partner Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), Trail meets his interviewer in an unbecoming motel room, his face is shrouded in darkness to avoid identification. It’s less of a coming out than an affirmation that he needs to stay in the closet — or leave the Navy entirely.
Versace makes his decision to come out in spite of his sister, Donatella (Penélope Cruz), who pleads with him to reconsider for the sake of the financial future of their business. The show paints this less as a success of the individual than an indictment on just how large you have to be to avoid public discrimination — coming out might be OK, so long as you’re a multimillion-dollar fashion designer. How the gay men of Versace react to societal homophobia affects them in wildly contrasting ways — Versace sits atop a fashion empire, while Cunanan, fixated and jealous of the designer’s rarified experience, becomes a con man and, eventually, a spree-killer targeting other gay men. Then there’s someone like Trail, suffocating from the effects of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “I can’t help feeling that by talking to you it’s the end of my career,” he tells his motel room interviewer. “But maybe my career actually died a long time ago.”
Cunanan leverages this rampant homophobia against both Trail and Madson. He sends Trail’s family a letter addressed to him that heavily implies their son is gay while he’s still closeted, trying to force his hand. And after killing Trail in Madson’s apartment in “House by the Lake,” Cunanan convinces Madson that calling the cops is the worst possible idea — he’s a gay man with a dead body in his apartment, who are they going to believe? — and that they need to run off together. Cunanan preys upon these men’s insecurities, using society’s homophobia as a trap, while also seemingly lashing out because of it.
Trail, Madson, the Chicago real estate developer Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell) from Versace’s third episode — these are tragic figures, undone by shame brought upon by outdated norms. Seeing them broken down in reverse chronology, knowing they’ll fall victim to Cunanan, makes it all the more heartbreaking. That Versace devotes the time necessary to show how these characters were victims — specifically to a rage-filled spree killer and more broadly to a repressive society — speaks to what the series cares about. Versace could luxuriate in the violent, sociopathic tendencies of Cunanan, or, as more befitting of creator Ryan Murphy, envelope itself in Versace’s elegant, campy world of fashion, but it doesn’t. At times Versace might be more interesting to think about than to watch unfold onscreen, but the series’ intentions — much like its time-bending narrative — are a particularly unique sight on television, and especially among crime shows.
Last week’s episode of American Crime Story introduced Finn Wittrock as Jeffrey Trail—a sometime-close friend of Andrew Cunnan’s—just moments before a jealous Cunanan brutally murdered him. This week, as the show’s reverse chronology continues, Episode 5, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” delves into Trail’s backstory, his troubled time in the Navy, and how he first came to befriend Cunanan. We also return to Minneapolis to chronicle the last few days before Cunanan’s murder spree began. Spoiler alert: they are excruciating, and not for murder reasons.
And after two full weeks away from the Versaces, this episode reintroduces their storyline, paralleling Trail’s experience with the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy with Gianni’s groundbreaking decision to come out as gay in The Advocate—much to the consternation of Donatella, who’s concerned this will negatively impact the business.
Here are five talking points from The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Episode 5, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
1) Andrew Cunanan pre-murder spree is somehow more unsettling than actual murderer Andrew Cunanan.
Look, I know this might seem like a weird stance, but at least once Cunanan flipped into murder mode, there was no ambiguity about what we were dealing with. In the four episodes we’ve seen so far, he’s a murderer, but in “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” he is merely the most extreme Stage Five Clinger ever witnessed onscreen. His ability to completely ignore social cues and boundaries is breathtaking and deeply stressful. The portions of this episode that I spent hiding behind my hands were not the ones you’d expect; Trail trying to cut off his own tattoo is grisly, sure, but I’ll take that any day over Cunanan’s proposal of marriage to a horrified Madson, or his desperate attempts to insert himself into Madson’s life. When he yelled “Friend? I’m more than a friend!” I actually tried to crawl inside my chair. It became hard to tell the difference between Prints the dog’s whimpering and my own.
In any case, we learn that Cunanan winds up in Minneapolis because he’s run out of money in California and is living in a very creepy hovel injecting heroin between his toes. He goes to Trail because he knows Trail feels indebted to him, for reasons that become clear later in the episode. He’s also determined to lock down Madson, who he calls “the man I want to spend the rest of my life with,“ but Madson wants no part of him, for reasons that also become clear later in the episode.
Ultimately, Trail lets Cunanan stay at his apartment for one night of Cunanan’s Minneapolis trip, while Trail is out of town on "business"—i.e., avoiding Cunanan while staying with his sister. In a deeply disquieting scene that also leads us into a flashback to Trail’s days in the Navy, Cunanan sneaks into Trail’s bedroom, goes through his closet, finds his old uniform, and just puts it on. He also steals Trail’s gun, which he will ultimately use to kill Madson, Reese, Versace, and himself. Wearing Trail’s full regalia, Cunanan watches a videotape of an old CBS News documentary about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, in which a soldier—his face in shadow—describes a harrowing experience. He saved a “closeted gay sailor” from being beaten to death, but now regrets it, because it made his colleagues suspicious that he is gay.
2) The scenes depicting Trail’s time in the Navy are some of the show’s saddest and most brutal.
Cut to two years earlier, with the revelation that that soldier speaking in the video isTrail. The opening moments of this episode have already made it clear that Trail harbors a lot of anger about leaving the Navy; in a scene from 1997, he flips out at an unsuspecting co-worker when asked why he left the Navy. Later in the episode, we see Trail save the closeted soldier from being killed, then comfort him with a hug—a moment witnessed by a mustachioed, homophobic fellow soldier. From that moment on, it’s clear to Trail that he is a target.
After hearing that another gay officer was offered an honorable discharge on the condition that he give the Navy a list of identifying tattoos on the men he’d been involved with, Trail tries to cut his tattoo off his own leg. It’s a truly harrowing scene, matched by one shortly after, in which Trail tries to hang himself, but changes his mind at the last moment. It’s seemingly right after this awful moment that Trail takes a walk into town, and ends up at a gay bar—where he meets Andrew Cunanan.
3) This episode shows us, for the first time, a genuinely charming Andrew Cunanan.
Seeing Cunanan in the past also illustrates how far he’s fallen in the present. The only thing he ever had to offer was being entertaining and charismatic, and it got him a long way. Now that he’s making everyone around him deeply uncomfortable, there’s really no way back for him.
But in this bar, it’s completely clear why Trail would be drawn to Cunanan. He’s intriguing and fun and worldly without being intimidating, and he gently makes fun of Trail’s admission that this is his first time at a gay bar. Before they start talking, Trail is so overwhelmed that he almost walks right back out of the bar, but Cunanan makes this muscular, aggressively neon-lit world seem welcoming. When Trail thanks him for “stopping this night from being a humiliation,” Cunanan responds, “I feel like I’m part of your history. You’re going to remember this moment.” Not inaccurate.
4) Gianni Versace returns… but only as a framing device for the Trail/Cunanan storyline.
We’ve all pretty much accepted at this point that despite its title, this is not a show about Gianni Versace. And after two full weeks without a single Versace on screen, Gianni’s storyline is woven back into this episode, but only peripherally. After years of never having officially confirmed his sexuality, Gianni wants to come out as gay publicly in an interview with The Advocate. But Donatella is hostile to the idea, and initially blames Gianni’s partner, Antonio D’Amico, accusing him of being publicity-hungry. He claps back: “I know my place. Unlike you.”
Donatella tries to convince Gianni that coming out will impact their business both abroad—in countries where homosexuality is still illegal—and at home, where rock stars and royalty may no longer want to be associated with him. “At least we keep Elton, no?” Gianni responds, because everyone is really on their clapback game in this scene. “You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” Donatella tells him. “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.”
But Gianni is determined, and so we see The Advocate interview intercut with Trail’s CBS interview; one as triumphant and moving as the other is unceremonious and bleak. Strange though it feels to agree with Cunanan on anything, he’s not wrong in what he says to Trail about his CBS interview. While the homophobic soldiers who don’t want gay people to serve in the military are in their uniforms, facing the camera proudly, Cunanan notes, the gay soldiers like Trail have to be interviewed “in the shadows, with your face distorted, like a criminal.” This is crushing because it’s clear Trail didn’t get the catharsis he hoped for from the interview. In fact, it likely made things worse for him.
5) Between this episode and Get Out, Froot Loops may now officially be the chosen cereal of villains.
Cunanan is just chilling with a bowl of Froot Loops while waiting for Trail to come home. He’s not eating the cereal separately from the milk, like Allison Williams’ truly deranged Get Out character, but nevertheless, this has been a rough year for Froot Loops onscreen. Do only sociopaths enjoy this beloved cereal?
6) Trail and Madson both have specific reasons for turning on Cunanan.
The fact that Cunanan is creepy and demanding and has no boundaries played a role, probably, but we also learn two new pieces of information this week, which shed light on why these relationships soured.
Madson is getting increasingly uncomfortable with Cunanan, who ultimately proposes to him in this episode—much to Madson’s discomfort.
Trail, meanwhile, is angry at Cunanan for sending a postcard to his father which effectively outed him—it was signed “Drew xx,” and while Cunanan claims it was an honest mistake, Trail’s not buying it. Given his lack of boundaries and desire to control Madson’s life, neither am I.
Additionally, Trail seems to blame Cunanan for the way his life has turned out, specifically the dissolution of his military career. The details of exactly why are vague—probably because there are a lot of gaps in the known facts about this relationship—but Trail tells Cunanan that he wants his life back and wants nothing to do with Cunanan. “When I found you that night at the bar, I was there for you. I saved you,” Cunanan yells, to which Trail responds: “You destroyed me. I wish I’d never met you.” But the real kicker is when Cunanan tries to declare his (past tense) love for Trail, and Trail spits: “No one wants your love!” This, more than anything, seems to be the line that tips Cunanan over the edge into violence. A few hours after this exchange, he shows up at Madson’s loft, coerces Trail into come over by revealing that he has the gun, and then waits behind the door, claw hammer in hand.
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