Recap: American Crime S3 E5: Limited Choices

The 5th episode of “American Crime” Season 3 (April 9, 2017) opened up with Diego Castillo being questioned by Amanda McKay, the Assistant D.A., about the Hesby farm and what goes on there. Diego was as close to tears as the guy is capable of over the murder of his brother, Isaac. “My brother is dead,” he exclaimed, “Somebody killed him. You don’t give a damn about that?” Then he sort of answered his own question: “People die all the time on that farm. Nobody cares.” And no, Amanda didn’t care about Isaac’s murder, she wanted to know if Isaac murdered Teo Salazar and put his body in the river. Diego said they put a lot of bodies in that river.

Shae Reese was learning how she could make money online, in a different area of the sex trade. She lied to Everett, the guy running the show, claiming she was over 18 and she checked up with other kids who work for him on whether he was straight with their money.

Nicholas Coates was grappling with the task of cutting back on his staff, drawing red marker lines through the names of people who were about to join the ranks of the unemployed. His business manager (we guess) said that wasn’t going to help. He was going to have to shutter whole departments and cut entire shifts. It is made obvious that Nicholas is dealing with a ton of stress and depression over this downturn in the business he took enormous pride in building.

Jeanette Hesby, meantime, made a mountain of food to feed her husband, Carson. She wrote him a “sweet” note and walked out of door. It didn’t take long for Carson to find her after she checked into a hotel with their credit card. Jeanette soon found herself in the pickle of a many a longtime housewife. No money of her own, no work history, no references. If you noticed, she did have that big diamond engagement ring and her wedding ring to pawn, but that will probably be a last resort.

Jeanette really did not think her situation through but a lawyer told her that Carson doesn’t have to support her for a whole year if they formally separate. She met with Carson who told her the farm was being investigated thanks to her and J.D. He pretty much said she could go whistle if she thought he was going to send her a monthly allowance, and she ended up going to her struggling sister, Raelyn, for a place to stay. What a comedown, eh? In the first episode, Carson told Jeanette to send Raelyn some money if she wanted to help her. It was never made clear whether she did, but both of them are probably broke now.

Gabrielle, the Haitian nanny, almost lost her wallet while she was at the park with Nicky. Upon telling her employer, Clair Coates insisted that Gabrielle keep her passport in the family safe because it would be quite a “cauchemar” if she really lost it. You got the feeling that it was going to be a nightmare for Gabrielle in the family safe, too. Clair was not down with teaching Gabrielle any English until Nicky had a handle on French. She questioned Gabrielle about her family back in Haiti. Gabrielle was reluctant to talk about her lack of family but revealed she had a grown son named Yves whom she has not talked to in years.

So we are juggling the stories of a lot of people who already are or are about to be at a crossroad in their lives. Kimara took Shae to the abortion clinic. Crossing the protest line, she was asked to consider adoption. Inside, she abruptly changed her mind. Kimara wanted to know how she planned to take care of a baby. Shae rudely said it was none of her business. Shae kept looking at her sonogram, and we imagine she was fantasizing about a loving future with her child. For all the protestors’ claims that someone will want to adopt Shae’s baby, from Shae’s point of view, nobody wanted her. Kimara wearily agreed it wasn’t her business and offered to drive Shae back to the shelter. The next time Kimara went to the shelter to give Shae some baby books, she was gone.

Kimara went to Amanda McKay for help in locating her lost teen but Amanda informed her that the D.A. put sex trafficking on the back burner in favor of investigating “the abuses in the local ag business.” Kimara already crossed paths with Clair Coates at a fundraiser where she gave a speech on how many exploited people feel a sense of liberation in their situation, especially when it got them out of another abusive situation. The lesser of two evils, you might say. Clair introduced herself and offered her theory that there’s a choice. Kimara tried to explain her perspective: “if your choice is between starving or selling yourself, what do you do?” Interesting and true, when in a situation where you believe there is no other way, but Shae just completely turned her back on Kimara’s help and got settled in her new gig as “Cassi.” Here’s an understatement: these choices Shae made aren’t going to work out well.

Clair went on to tell Kimara her “miracle baby” story, how it took 9 expensive in-vitro treatments before she was able to conceive and whoa! That was awful for Kimara to have to listen to. Clair then gave Kimara a $5,000 donation and when Nicholas found out, he was livid! Jeanette and Carson’s marital issues sort of pale compared to these two. After telling Clair her donation timing was bad, Nicholas mocked her. She is, it turns out, an accountant, and offered to help. He asked her if she thinks just because she had her “miracle baby,” she can wave a magic wand and perform miracles now.

As the expression goes, stuff rolls downhill and Clair later took out her frustrations on Gabrielle. Nicky hit Gabrielle and the nanny grabbed his arms and sternly told him he can’t hit people. Clair jumped all over her, telling her maybe they discipline children like that Haiti, but here we don’t. (Yeah, she’s one of those parents who turn their kids into bullies by empowering them).

At the end, Vanessa, the girl that Kimara passed her card to in a convenience store, called in the middle of the night. She was trapped in a motel room with an abusive john. Kimara tried to keep her calm while she arranged to get to the location and honk her horn 3 times in the parking lot. When she did, Vanessa ran out chased by the john. Kimara was ready to deal with him with pepper spray and she got Vanessa out of there.

This may be one of Kimara’s success stories since Vanessa expressed a desire to go home. She may be one victim of sex trafficking who did not come from an abusive home, but was a naive girl who fell in love with the wrong guy.

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