American Crime Cliffhanger, Taylor and Eric’s Realities

The finale of the second season of “American Crime” (3/9/2016) left many viewers unhappy because it did not give a definite answer to what REALLY happened between Eric Tanner and Taylor Blaine. In fact, in the finale, both boys maintained their original positions to their parents.

Eric told his father that once somebody cries rape, nobody cares what the truth is and insisted he told the truth “from the jump.” He did not want to testify in court that he was pressured by LeSean and Wes to set up Taylor for a beatdown. He thought it was very unfair that Taylor gets to be the victim.

Taylor, for his part, told his mother that he did not want help from the person who held him down and raped him. In essence, he said he would rather spend 10 years in jail than get a lighter sentence via any help from Eric.

We didn’t even get to see whether Taylor accepted the 10-year plea deal in court, but we think that both Taylor and Eric are telling the truth about the rape: their truth. Even if there was a trial and Eric was convicted, he still would not believe he raped Taylor. Taylor will always feel and believe that what happened was a sexual assault, even though he has rejected being a victim. If he took the plea deal, probably only Evy and his mother will still believe him. Evy didn’t believe Taylor initially, but after she was molested at school she was able to identify with Taylor’s reluctance to talk about what happened. Even if Anne Blaine doesn’t understand why Taylor would rather go to jail rather than be “saved” by Eric’s testimony, she still believes her son was raped and that he killed Wes under extreme emotional duress, if not self-defense.

The last we see of Eric, he is still engaging in anonymous hookups and is conflicted about getting in a car with a stranger who drove past him and just opened his passenger side door when he stopped.

As for the other characters, many took a page from Evy’s book and took what was in front of them. Leyland Headmaster, Leslie Graham took her severance package and was seen packing up while a new Headmaster took over at Leyland. We think that paper Thurgood Marshall principal, Chris Dixon, was signing was the release for the $75K he was offered. After Terri LaCroix’s private emails (containing racial slurs) were leaked, Terri was given an opportunity to “reset” by her company — a lateral move, same pay, but with a reduced title. It was that or a severance package.

If you think of it as a story that was on your local news and in the paper, you would form an opinion about the case, one way or the other, and you wouldn’t even get to see as much of what was going on as you did on this season of “American Crime.” Karma caught up with everybody’s butt and it was a kind of poetic justice that the way a lot of it was doled out was the same as the way it started, through stuff being posted online.

As for Coach Dan Sullivan, his medical records revelations did cost Leslie Graham her position but didn’t do anything to help his daughter Becca. She was convicted of dealing drugs.