Woebegone

Oh interesting. May not be about the rape though. It could be about the call he made that lured Taylor to the attack.

Which promo is this? I've only seen one that shows someone with pale skin having handcuffs put on. While this could be Eric, it could also be Becca who we know gets arrested for sure.

I think there are a few mitigating scenarios for rape from a moral standpoint, if not necessarily a legal one. If both partners were equally intoxicated for example or if one party didn't know or fully understand that the other party wasn't able to consent. But let's look at it from another angle. Say we were introduced to Taylor much earlier in the timeline, before the party so that the only thing we knew about him was that he was cheating on Evy and was even planning on taking her to a party so he can cheat on her there. Is there any justification for his behaviour then? A lot of people think she's awful because she won't let it go, but I don't think that what he did to her should be forgotten just because he was raped in the same way that I don't think that what Eric did to Taylor should be forgotten just because his mom is awful.

Yeah, I get the feeling that if we were to play all nine hours of this show in front of a jury, they'd still acquit Eric because the evidence just isn't there. Even going on the assumption that Taylor is being 100% truthful, there are still issues about the reliability of his testimony given his drugged state. And yeah, we're totally playing into the hands of the writers. Taylor is a school shooter and they have the audience hoping he doesn't get any prison time because we got to know him well in advance of his crime. They've played a different game with Eric. They fingered him as a suspect much earlier, but always left just enough room to doubt the accusation. And they've given him such a sympathetic storyline that he's probably the secondary protagonist after Taylor.

I think she was acting as a mouthpiece for the audience at that point because I don't think we care about what Taylor really felt about her either at this point; we just want to know about what really happened with the rape. I think I'll have to see the final episode to know for sure, but his answer had a certain definitive quality to it. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last we ever hear about the subject. Eric did it. The whys or hows of it may be still left up for debate, but he did it. And yeah, it still doesn't make 100% sense, but not everything in real life does either. I've probably spent more time than I should have thinking about what it means for a show as socially conscious as American Crime to portray a rapist sympathetically. I think my conclusion from all this, what I think American Crime is getting at, is that victimization isn't a zero-sum game. It doesn't take away from the validity of what Taylor has gone through by saying that Eric is also just a confused teenager trying to figure things out. That Eric isn't a two-dimensional, grinning sociopath doesn't make what he did to Taylor any less monstrous. That we can and should sympathize with both because neither has had it easy. It's strange, but I think what we've seen this entire season is people being at their very worst when they let themselves demonize other people, make them out to be monsters, to justify their hatred of them. We saw that with Couch Dan ranting about Anne to the reporter and again when he told off Leslie. We saw that when Terri barged into Anne's diner to call her son a whore. We saw that when Michael tell Terri how vindicated he felt when Taylor turned out to be a murderer. We saw that when Kevin ranted to the team about that 'little bitch' Taylor. When we make people out to be monsters, that's when we become monsters ourselves.

I'm reminded of an episode of Poirot where the titular detective watches a murder mystery play and is convinced a certain character was the killer, only to be very upset when it turned out to be someone else. The writers did a bad job, he said. The murder did not match the facts. I wonder how much of that is applicable here. According to Eric, Taylor was not only not incapacitated, he was directing the action, telling Eric what to do. I can't reconcile that version of events with Taylor's, where he was unable to call out or do anything more than weakly crawl. Someone is lying or misremembering or something because they can't both be true. Aside from that, the other major discrepancy in their stories is who gave Taylor a drink. Eric says he didn't. Taylor said he did. Again, both can't be true. Interesting fact though: both versions are consistent with Evy's story. The only testimony not consistent with hers is Kevin's. He says when he saw what was going on with Taylor, he tried to help him. But according to Evy, "No one was helping him." Fascinating, eh?

I don't really remember Dekker's role too well, but it seemed like he just played a sweet and supportive best friend character? It didn't seem particularly iconic at the time and he was only on that show for part of the first season. What I remember more was controversy over him or maybe his agent not wanting the character to be gay and butting heads with the Heroes writing staff over this. I think it might have been a big misunderstanding, but the takeaway a lot of people may have gotten out of it was that he Dekker was difficult and possibly also homophobic.

I agree that Kevin could have known that Eric was gay without Eric explicitly telling him. Kevin did say that Taylor was at the party looking like a bitch who wanted to be 'turnt out' and this intuition might have led him to direct the team independently of whatever Eric and Taylor were planning. I thought you meant that there was some kind of conspiracy between Eric, Kevin, and the entire team to sexually assault Taylor, which didn't seem probable if Eric hadn't trusted Kevin enough to let him in on his secret. The team didn't seem to know that Eric was gay either until he came out. I'm still not sure the team had anything to do with what happened to Taylor at the party beyond taking photos and putting them online. I think, as you've guessed, what they're really worried about is people finding out what happened to the girls at the party. The "making the team" tradition and date rape drugs being present at the same party seems to point to this. And I think the team is mad at Eric, because not only is he a pervert, but also because his indiscretions with Taylor managed to bring police attention to a party that they would very much like everyone to forget. I think only Kevin's smooth-talking managed to redirect their hostility back to Taylor.

It's really hard to discern until we've seen the entire season what is a clue and what is a plothole left by the writers. Like, I thought the fact that Taylor had brought Evy to the party he was planning a hook-up with Eric as something that was really unlikely, but then the show explained it later. I agree that Taylor's behaviour at the start of the show is odd. Yeah, you can explain it has him as being in denial or not being remembering what happened until after the photos came out, but he contradicts this theory himself when he said that he contacted Eric the very next day to accuse him of rape (Taylor does not specifically mention when he contacted Eric, but Eric says that it was the very next day and the police have access to his texts, so he is unlikely to have lied). I think we have to wait and see. It's possible that the writers just wanted all the major teenage characters in the same room at the start of the show. Why would Eric get enraged and attack Taylor if Taylor was doped and incapacitated? Also, Eric never told Kevin that he was gay (this was confirmed in the argument that they had in this episode) so it seems extremely unlikely that the team worked together to help Eric rape Taylor.

I think from here on out only Taylor's future is in anyway predictable. He killed someone; he's going to prison. The only question now is how much time he is going to do or, ah um, they still have the death penalty in Indiana don't they? He might get a more lenient sentence if Anne and Sebastiene manage to change the narrative enough, but with the kind of cynicism a show like American Crime has, I wouldn't be surprised if a child psychiatrist hired by the prosecution determines that Taylor is a remorseless sociopath (and then writes a book about it afterwards). What will happen to everybody else is less certain because they all still have something to lose. Eric, Kevin, and Becca could all go to jail. Coach Chris might get fired. Leslie might kill herself, like someone above mentioned. Anne might have another breakdown and be hospitalized again. Eric's dad might kill himself too.

So from the episode descriptions for 9 and 10, we know personal information was leaked that implicates Kevin (in the attack against Taylor) and Becca (in the drug dealing). This sounds like Sebastien's work since I think the only other major character who knows about Kevin's involvement is Eric and Eric didn't know about Becca (Taylor knows about Becca, but he doesn't know about Kevin because Kevin wasn't present during the attack). I'm kind of curious know what kind of information is floating out there online that points the finger at Kevin -- maybe Wes messaged the other guys that "Kevin said Taylor needed a beatdown"? Also, strangely enough, Eric wasn't mentioned at all, meaning that he might have slipped through the cracks, even with his phone call to Taylor that night.

Yeah, I don't think we'll ever know for sure. My current guess is that Kevin gave Taylor a drugged drink, Eric had sex with Taylor not knowing he was not fully in control of himself, and Taylor after the party thinking that Eric was working with Kevin in drugging him. This explains why Taylor blames both Eric and Kevin (but Eric more) and why Eric thinks Taylor wanted it but changed his mind after the fact.I don't think Eric will go to the police about the beat down because he knows that he is technically an accessory, but even if he did, I don't think he will be charged. From the police perspective, the obvious charge against the attackers is a hate crime, but including Eric as one of the accused complicates any narrative the prosecution might try because he is gay himself. They're more likely to support his contention that he was coerced through intimidation and put him on the stand as a witness.

Definitely the collective avoiding of responsibility and the search for a scapegoat was a major theme of this episode. Both Kevin and Leslie had a hand in wheat happened, but their accusers probably should have looked at their own involvement as well. I think the scene with Eric and his dad was awkwardly written and edited, which is why there is so much confusion over what it was about. I read an interview with Joey Pollari where he said that he thinks that Eric is just looking for love, and at the time I thought it was about romantic love but now I think I was being too narrow minded. I think what happens to a lot of closeted gay kids is an inability to accept the love people show them because they believe it's based on a lie; that if their family and friends knew who they really were, they would feel differently. And we saw that with Eric's mom and brother, like they literally ran away from him. So when his dad told him, hey, I know who you are and I'm still here -- I think that was what he was looking for this whole time.

Of all the things we didn't know about the party that they could have revealed, this was probably one we could have already guessed. I mean, Eric obviously didn't pay for it. He doesn't have the money. I thought it was interesting how his father brought up the fact that Eric likes to feel sorry for himself, but doesn't want to take any responsibility for what he's done wrong. Like, he blamed Kevin for sending the team after Taylor, saying that they forced him into making that call, but doesn't acknowledge that he could have stood up to those guys and said no. Overall I thought the episode was rather uneven. The interviews were powerful, but the drama parts were kind of hit or miss. Eric and his father's conversation felt kind of heavy-handed to me. And what was going on with Becca's actress in that confession scene?

I'm not sure if it was that serious. It looked more like Eric gashed his attacker from the back of the neck to the collarbone. A really gory cut, but probably not life threatening. In any case, I don't think Eric will see the inside of a jail cell for this. Maybe for something else, but not for this.

I seriously doubt Eric's attacker will press charges. We saw how he flew off the handle just from a description of what it's like being out -- no way would he be ready to bring this out into the open to face it himself. Also, Eric is covered in bruises and his attacker just has the one (very serious) cut. It's a no brainer who started it because it is doubtful he could have beat Eric up after that kind of injury.

There's a connection between bullying and school shootings. The Columbine shooters, for example, were widely acknowledged to have been picked on prior to the shooting. I think there was also a study showing that kids that were bullied were almost twice as likely to bring a weapon to school. Edited to add that I'm reminded of the scene between the coach and the reporter where he was ranting about how this crazy delusional woman has been allowed to make baseless accusations that have harmed the lives of his boys. Then the reporter, a little taken aback, points out that Anne's medical records are confidential, that what was done to her was illegal, and he just brushed it off. As far as he was concerned, she was the villain and anything that happened to her, she deserved.

I think what happened is that IMDB either got the name wrong or were using an early version of the character's name. I mean, Eric is still listed as Eric Lupton in some places. It's the same actor though. He's still the only basketball player besides Kevin and Eric with a full name. Oh and I saw a spoiler that says that Becca tells her dad something about something that happened at the party. Edited to add new episode summaries for 9 and 10: Season Two: Episode Nine TV Episode After a Leyland student is murdered on campus, members of the community re-examine their choices; Becca and Kevin are implicated in the shooting; Chris is at a crossroads. Episode 10 TV Episode Sebastian makes a stunning discovery; Steph and Dan deal with the consequences of Becca's arrest; Michael takes extreme measures to protect Kevin; Chris comes to a decision.

I thought maybe that it might have been because Kevin had provided drinks to underage teens, but I just looked it up and you don't get six years for that. Rape, incidentally is like 3 - 16 years, although with aggravating circumstances can go as high as 20 - 40. I'm not sure if the rest of the team had sex with Taylor because of the way they're ostracizing Eric because he's gay. They may have raped him in other ways though, like with an object or something.

The short answer is probably not. The long answer is that what he said in the minivan is consistent with his statement to the police that Taylor wanted it, but changed is mind after the party and accused him of rape.

I can see that. I mean, it's not a perfect parallel because Taylor was drugged and couldn't fight back and Eric was sober and clearly could, but they're both not heterosexual and though their circumstances are different, they share similar risks in pursuing sex in the conservative neighborhood they both live in. I actually saw the guy with the minivan, Todd, as kind of an older version of Eric and that the attack was maybe a metaphor for Eric confronting the person he could still become. If that's the case, I hope it's a good sign that he won.

That's something that I've found interesting too -- justly or not, Eric genuinely seems to believe he wasn't responsible for what happened on the night of the Captain's party. After his suicide attempt, he tells the Coach that he suspended him "for nothing". It makes him sound like a monster without a conscience, but we still don't know exactly what he did or did not do at that party. Maybe he didn't actually 'do' anything (remember Becca's talk with her mom?) or maybe he really is a monster. I know some people have taken his rant on the minivan as a confession of sorts to the rape, but I'm not so sure. I mean, he basically reiterates the line he has been touting this entire time -- Taylor wanted it and then changed his mind. The way he said it makes it sound like Taylor changed his mind before the sex, but he could also have meant that Taylor changed his mind afterwards, as he told the police. And anyways, if we're accepting this new version of events (that Taylor changed his mind before or midway and then Eric forced him) it's still at odds with Taylor's story that he was drugged and unable to say yes or no. Or maybe Taylor changed his mind way before and then Eric drugged him? I guess that works too.

I've been fairly sympathetic to Eric throughout this show, but the flashback of him saying "Be fun. Just be fun." was the creepiest thing ever. Even though we don't see what followed, it's hard not to imagine Taylor being uncooperative and Eric doing something to to make him 'fun'. I think Wes might have been targeted because he was the ringleader of the crew who beat him up, but I guess it's plausible that he might have had some involvement at the party as well. Kevin's involvement, in my opinion, is the other shoe that is about to drop. He's the ace that the writer's have been keeping up their sleeves this whole time. I don't have a great deal of confidence that we will know everything that happened at that party, but we will definitely know more than we do now. Something the show has been doing consistently is the avoiding of easy characterizations. Sometimes shit happens and the people who are wronged aren't always the people we would prefer to sympathize with.

I felt terrible for Anne. No mother should be put in the situation that she was put in at the end of the episode. I don't think I could have handled that nearly as well as she did. But she made it worse from the very beginning. She wouldn't let it go, so Taylor couldn't let it go. He got attacked last episode because the basketball team blames him for snitching and in this episode her medical records released because of the lawsuit. Her priority should be to take care of Taylor and that's not what she's doing right now.

I thought Kevin's involvement at the party was hinted at again because he was the second person on Taylor's list after Eric, which is interesting because Taylor didn't mention him at all when he was questioned by police. And Kevin's own version of events places him well out of the way of what we've been told happened. So he's definitely involved, maybe not as the primary assailant (which still seems to be Eric at this point), but enough to warrant a place on Taylor's enemies list.