S01.E11: Episode Eleven

[formerlyfreedom]

SEASON FINALE!

 

The criminal case comes to a shocking close for all those involved as we see each life forever altered by this incident. Charged with emotions and unexpected twists, certain journeys will end while others begin.

[Wings]

Well, good.  Sounds like we do have some resolution.  

[BigBlueMastiff]

Can't wait!

[Wings]

This episode description states the vision/point of this series.  One crime creates ripples in the pond involving many.  Who did it is irrelevant.  

[Samwil]

Awesome finale.

[Chaos Theory]

Wow that was sad, twisted.....and yet strangely uplifting.

Who would have thought that Barb would have become such a fascinating and complex character. Hey Russ when Barb is the voice of a reason....listen.

Carter and Aubry played out like Romeo and Juliet, didn't they?

Never cared much for the Hector character. Figures he'd be the one who would get the happy ending...and a new shirt.

[Madding crowd]

I thought it was the opposite of uplifting. Cater, Russ and Aubrey dead and Barb is getting lectured by the girlfriend to the very end. Her ex husband and son have just died, maybe give her a break for God's sake. Hated everything about this episode and of course we never find out who the killer was and why Gwen was still alive.

[Samwil]

Even when things were going so well for Hector at the end, I felt like something was going to happen, like he gets shot, or in an accident.

 

Death was looming all around.  That lady that gave Barb's gun to Russ, set in motion three deaths.  

 

I was sad to see Carter and Aubrey both die.  I hope they are happy on a beach somewhere...

[Muffyn]

Regina King kicked serious ass in this role.  Damn.  That is all.

[Wings]

I thought it was the opposite of uplifting. Cater, Russ and Aubrey dead and Barb is getting lectured by the girlfriend to the very end. Her ex husband and son have just died, maybe give her a break for God's sake. Hated everything about this episode and of course we never find out who the killer was and why Gwen was still alive.

 

Barb had a happy ending, too,  and the least likely person is going to help her.  Her DIL was not lecturing her, she was saying they needed her in their life.  

 

Carter is the one who killed Matt. 

 

Since the series goal was to illustrate the far reaching arm of crime, they did that.   Gwen was another victim as were her parents. 

 

Interesting how Barb ended up a sympathetic character. 

 

I hope the next installment is better.  I liked this okay and hope the next season has a totally different style and not so dark. 

[Chaos Theory]

I don't think the show ever said for sure who killed Matt. Aubry confessed but she is a crazy liar who lies. Carter is a valid suspect as well but through the entire show he never once presented as the tiniest bit violent. I think if either of them did it it was Aubry. I think it was the one time she did tell the truth. Carter was a romantic who fell in love with the woman in his head and Aubry became that woman. I think that was why he was willing to take the fall for her. He is a romantic...and what is more romantic then dying for the woman you love?

Edited May 15, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[Broderbits]

Barb gave the gun to Russ herself, for safekeeping. That's when I knew exactly what was going to happen, and it played out just as I thought. After all, Russ had absolutely nothing to live for and no one to talk to; this was his way of finally "standing up for" his family. 

 

I, too, thought for sure Hector would not be allowed such a hopeful happy ending. He ought to buy a lottery ticket. 

[BigBlueMastiff]

 

I don't think the show ever said for sure who killed Matt. Aubry confessed but she is a crazy liar who lies. Carter is a valid suspect as well but through the entire show he never once presented as the tiniest bit violent.

Except when he beat up that drug dealer, pretty violent.

 

Wow, great episode, I didn't expect that from Russ, and weird, I'm glad Barb will be back in her son's life. Nice that the fiancee reached out, and said they needed and wanted her in their lives. Poor Aubry and Carter, loved the scene of Aliyah and Aubry's mom embracing, very powerful.

[Wings]

My thought on Carter as the killer.  Carter asked her why she she confessed.  Her response was, they won't kill me because I am crazy.  So she does the time (15 years, her guess) and then they could be together.   To me, it sounded like she was protecting him and their future on the beach.  

 

Carter said he would not be contacting her in prison.  He wanted to distance himself so he would be totally out of the picture for an appeal or her recanting. 

 

It doesn't matter to me either way, who did it.  I am just musing.  And there is a case for Aubrey having done it too.   I understand the ambiguous end.  It was not the focus of this series.    

[ToukieSmith]

 

Barb had a happy ending, too,  and the least likely person is going to help her.  Her DIL was not lecturing her, she was saying they needed her in their life.

I thought the same thing.  Proof that some love was still there....if they did not care about her, they would have never have looked back to see her fall to the ground.  Interestingly, they were looking for a sign too.  I think people are disappointed because they don't see love in the way THEY want to see it when its there in a way that is not necessarily recognized.

 

The same with Aubrey's mom and Aliyah.  They hoped for better.   They saw things in their loved ones that their loved ones could not see.

 

Russ was so hopeless.  Its interesting that he was the most broken.  Is it because he had a history of running away, taking the easy way out?

[Madding crowd]

While Barb was on the ground, the fiancée was telling her she can't be a racist anymore, which to me was lecturing and wrong time/place. They never said either Carter or Aubrey was the killer so it is all a guess.

[Chaos Theory]

The fiancée said "we" can't be this way anymore as in all of them including her future husband who had been holding on to old resentments about his family for years.. There was no lecture. She was saying they couldn't live in the past if any of them wanted a future together. If she was lecturing it was about forgiveness and letting go not about racism.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[Dowel Jones]

My thought on Carter as the killer

 

I thought that also, judging from the expression on Aliayah's face at the mosque after he whispered something to her.  In the larger sense, perhaps that doesn't matter so much as the main theme of the show, that a murder casts a long shadow over both families and societies.  Victims aren't always innocent, prosecution and defense attornies don't thunder with righteous indignation in court, bad guys get away with it sometimes, and the world moves on, tucking the story into the back pages of the newspaper. 

 

I wonder if Hector's girlfriend engineered the disappearance/murder of the prosecution witness, and thus is indebted to the cartel yet.

 

Completely off topic, but in the scene where Barb meets Russ at Gwen's house, has anyone ever seen an exterior door (non-security) that opens outward?  For some reason, that just surprised me so much that I had to rewind the scene to pay attention to the initial dialogue.

[Dagny]

Completely off topic, but in the scene where Barb meets Russ at Gwen's house, has anyone ever seen an exterior door (non-security) that opens outward?  For some reason, that just surprised me so much that I had to rewind the scene to pay attention to the initial dialogue.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought it was weird. On a different show, they had a double door (with the crash bar) that pushed inward.

 

The way that Hector's girlfriend was talking, it really sounded like she helped with the witness not showing up.

[WearyTraveler]

I also think Carter confessed to his sister after he heard that Aubrey had confessed.  And with all the talk of people getting what they deserved, I guess the show was saying he deserved to die for killing Matt and almost destroying Gwen.

[Syndicate]

I don't know that I liked this ending very much.  Didn't it all just kind of validate Barb's racist claims that all of "those" people were just dangerous thugs?  Certainly by implying that Carter was Matt's killer, it just looked like the long-standing stereotype that all black men are murderous thugs.  It was bad enough that Carter was on drugs and behaving badly to support his and Aubrey's habit, but to imply him as the killer too?  Carter's sister certainly looked like the fool after believing in his innocence for so long.  

Edited May 18, 2015 by Syndicate

[90PercentGravity]

Completely off topic, but in the scene where Barb meets Russ at Gwen's house, has anyone ever seen an exterior door (non-security) that opens outward?

 

It is common in areas where it storms a lot. It's almost impossible to break them in, by man or nature. In other areas, people install them for more security.

[shksabelle]

The girl who played Aubrey deserves an Emmy for portraying the single most worthless, waste-of-oxygen character I have ever seen on TV. 

Also, Regina King deserves an Emmy because she is absolutely awesome.

[Spartan Girl]

If Carter really was the killer and did confess to his sister, then it not only made her out to be a fool for believing in his innocence, but also assisting in dragging his victim's parents through the mud when they were already going through hell. Barb may have been a racist, but it's not like she didn't have a right to be upset that the media was focusing on the race issue and making it sound like her son deserved what he got.

[Madding crowd]

Yes, Barb was the biggest failure of a character to me, even though Felicity gave it her all. The other characters seemed to forget her son was killed, so she could not be impartial or even rational. She was a bigot, but that didn't mean she had a right to be upset that the killer of her son would be released. I also thought her living son was awful to her and sorry but if my son's girlfriend who I met one time was going to lecture me (and to the poster that said she didn't say anything to Barb about changing her ways, I watched it again and she did tell her she would have to stop being a bigot), I would tell her to take a flying leap.

[AncientSand]

I'm just so happy that this show and it's partner (Secrets and Lies) both finished up within the same season.   If they pulled another 'The Killing' type stunt, I would never watch this type of show again.  

 

The Aubry character annoyed me so much that I was actively rooting for her happy ending to be a dream.

[BigBlueMastiff]

 

Russ was so hopeless.  Its interesting that he was the most broken.  Is it because he had a history of running away, taking the easy way out?

Looks like he stayed true to himself, taking the easy way out, and leaving his family to deal with the aftermath.

[editorgrrl]

I'm just so happy that this show and it's partner (Secrets and Lies) both finished up within the same season.   If they pulled another 'The Killing' type stunt, I would never watch this type of show again. 

 

American Crime is an anthology, so an entirely new story every season. Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton will return for season two.

[ChristmasJones]

This ending worked for me. I was worried that they would try to tie everything up with a nice neat unrealistic bow. I feel like the ending matched the overall theme of the show. This isn't one of my all time favorite shows, but it was interesting enough to watch all the way through, something I couldn't do with Secrets and Lies.

[Wings]

American Crime is an anthology, so an entirely new story every season. Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton will return for season two.

 

 

This is interesting.  They are returning but playing totally different roles in a new drama of crime.  hmmmm

[Sims Addict]

^^^ Yeah, I am curious about how this would work. It seems like they could only do this for another season or two before it gets to be...odd.

 

I, like a lot of you, felt that Carter admitted some culpability to his sister. Maybe he did it alone, or with Aubrey, but Aliyah's visible response showed that she was shocked and hurt by what he said.

 

I am still most intrigued by Matt's wife. I felt like they could have scrapped the Mexican illegal's storyline to focus more on her.

[paperplate]

^^^ Yeah, I am curious about how this would work. It seems like they could only do this for another season or two before it gets to be...odd.

.

American Horror Story does it incredibly well. As long as the actors and actresses have range, their previously role doesn't factor into the current one.

I loved the finale and overall, the whole season. I hope they don't change the mood next season for better ratings or to appeal to the masses. I think the writing is pretty much close to a masterpiece.

[SunnyBeBe]

I watched portions on this show and really liked what I did see. I am considering watching the entire season from episode one to finale ( I actually watched most of the finale.)  However, I don't want to invest that much time if I am not provided with enough information to know who really killed that man and assaulted his wife.  Will I get that information if I view the entire season?  If not, I think I'll pass on it. 

[WearyTraveler]

Well, they don't show a flashback of what exactly happened, but, there's one scene in the finale which I think makes it very clear who the killer is.

[SunnyBeBe]

Okay. Thank you.  I think I will watch the entire thing.

[millennium]

Lordy, did that suck.   Carter and Aubrey got exactly what they deserve, IMHO.  That's the only solace I got from this uber-obvious, race-baiting wannabe morality play.

 

The writing was high-school level.   The characters were all cardboard cut-outs, written to inflame rather than inform.   Good on Russ for realizing he was trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone where the people aren't people at all but stereotypes come to life.   His only escape: suicide. 

 

Nice that the survivors of Russ' family, who wanted nothing to do with preserving their family, were given a chance at hope after poor Russ, the only guy who really tried to keep the family together, was dead.    Hope they all rot in hell.

 

Ditto for Carter's bigmouth sister who is more than happy to sell Aubrey down the river and possibly let a murderer go free if it means her side can score a victory against whitey.   She was really obnoxious.

 

Thanks for the hate-watch, American Crime.   

Edited May 24, 2015 by millennium

[millennium]

Looks like he stayed true to himself, taking the easy way out, and leaving his family to deal with the aftermath.

 

Please.   He tried for the last few episodes to reconnect with his jerk of a son and his witch wife and all they did was turn him away.   He got the bum's rush from Gwen the Slut's family too.   Nobody wanted to listen to him even though he worked hardest to keep everyone together.   Easy way out?   Try only way out.   Russ departed with dignity.

Edited May 24, 2015 by millennium

[Yeldarbe]

I can appreciate this and am glad that it is an anthology. I guess it has to be different when half the characters die.

please please please, quit it with the weird editing and out of sync audio/visual, it was waaaaay overdone and confusing at times.

[Totale]

Finally got around to this, it's been sitting here DVD'd since it aired.  I didn't necessarily think Carter was telling his sister he'd done it.  I thought that once he found out Aubrey took the fall, he told his sister than after what she'd done to him she would never see him again. 

 

Hector was about to get off the same way Carter did, the witness testimony evaporated and so did the case.  He was on the way to getting out before Aubrey collapsed.  But the cops were jabbering about her giving out info only the killer would know, which points to her at least being there or close to someone who was.  I assume the show's depiction of Mexico was simple minded and cartoonish, but so was a lot of the show - it's still network television.  Better than most, though, and I'll watch the leads in another tale.

[truthaboutluv]

I just randomly decided to binge watch this show and while it definitely had many problems, it did have some bright spots, mostly the performances of the actors. That said, I did an online search and saw nothing about it so I'm hoping someone on the boards know. Did John Ridley or anyone associated with the show ever say if the story was loosely based on real life events? The reason I'm asking is because I know there was a case I saw on Investigation Discovery where the father of a murdered victim (it was his daughter) walked into a restaurant and shot the guy he was sure did it and then later shot himself.

 

Basically, just like this show, the family of the murdered woman was positive this guy was guilty (in that case he was the murdered girl's boyfriend or husband) but after two long years and the prosecution mangling up the case, he walked. The whole thing took such an emotional toll on the whole family, culminating with the father killing the guy and himself. When I saw the ending with Russ and Carter, that's immediately what I thought of.

 

I did know, the minute Barb gave Russ the gun, that he would end up killing himself. While the activist woman kept talking about her concerns about Barb killing herself, the whole time I thought that was more likely to be Russ. Also, as a person who loves a mystery, I was disappointed that they didn't reveal what really happened the night of the murder but wondered again if it was because the story was loosely based on that real life incident. Because the father's murder of the guy and later himself, basically solidified the investigators never really finding out the truth of who murdered the woman. 

 

That said, I do think all three - Hector, Carter and Aubry - were involved on some level but how much truth each told was another story. I don't know that Hector really did just drop Carter off and leave or Aubry alone shot both Matt and Gwen. I'm inclined to think maybe all three were there and stuff went really bad and they all took off and tried to cover it up until Hector went around using Matt's cards and ID. I definitely think Carter was there and think his lawyer knew or suspected it. That look he was giving Carter when he told him Aubry confessed and then made the comment about the sin coming back on the sinner, etc. felt like a very loaded statement. 

[moon]

On 5/24/2015 at 7:23 AM, millennium said:

Lordy, did that suck.   Carter and Aubrey got exactly what they deserve, IMHO.  That's the only solace I got from this uber-obvious, race-baiting wannabe morality play.

 

The writing was high-school level.   The characters were all cardboard cut-outs, written to inflame rather than inform.   Good on Russ for realizing he was trapped in an episode of the Twilight Zone where the people aren't people at all but stereotypes come to life.   His only escape: suicide. 

 

Nice that the survivors of Russ' family, who wanted nothing to do with preserving their family, were given a chance at hope after poor Russ, the only guy who really tried to keep the family together, was dead.    Hope they all rot in hell.

 

Ditto for Carter's bigmouth sister who is more than happy to sell Aubrey down the river and possibly let a murderer go free if it means her side can score a victory against whitey.   She was really obnoxious.

 

Thanks for the hate-watch, American Crime.   

This was fucking perfect. 

(And, yes, I'm aware that I'm quoting it 3 years later. ?) 

[millennium]

13 minutes ago, moon said:

This was fucking perfect. 

(And, yes, I'm aware that I'm quoting it 3 years later. ?) 

:)