Recap: American Crime S3 E3: A Little Family Would be Good

In the third episode of American Crime Season 3 (3-26-2017), family is kind of a theme but not in a particularly good way. Shae and Kimara yearn for one of their own. Luis learns more about his son’s fate and Jeanette embarks on a path that will likely destroy her own marriage.

In group counseling, Shae Reese opens up after another young man tells his story of being strangled and beaten by a trick in a gas station bathroom. She talks about how much she misses “her guy,” her pimp Billy. Shae knows Billy has done some bad things but he’s the only one who ever gave her anything and kept his promises to her. (He promised to keep her off the streets, so he let her work out of motels). Her father’s girlfriend made her abort her first pregnancy and she isn’t going to keep the baby she’s carrying now. She knows it’s not Billy. But she forlornly wishes that Billy wasn’t in jail and the three of them could be a little family.

Jeanette Hesby implored her husband, Carson, to look at the photos that she took of the aftermath of the fire in which 15 farm workers died. She simply cannot fathom Carson’s lack of emotion and refusal to agree that the Hesby family has any responsibility in the matter. Carson tries to pacify his wife by telling her that his sister and brother, Laurie Ann and J.D., are doing a policy review and are going to look at the subcontractors. “Things are getting done,” he says. But that’s not good enough for Jeanette. She wants to be involved in some way. Carson obliquely tried to make her see she is rocking a boat she doesn’t need to get on, by saying he does not want what goes on in the business to come between them. But she is persistent and it results in her being teamed up with J.D., who at first tries to smooth over the situation but then tells her that this has not been the first tragedy resulting in loss of life at Hesby Farms. There have been many.

Kimara, in the meantime, has had her hopes shot down by her ex-boyfriend, Reggie. He refuses to be her sperm donor for several reasons, even though his wife does not object. He can’t split his time between her kid and his own kids and he also does not think Kimara has the financial resources to raise a child on her own or even the time. He reminds her they broke up because of the amount of time her job demanded. Kimara is simply devastated. She heartbrokenly pleads with him to give her the chance to have a good man father this child she wants so that she will know the unconditional love of a child.

Kimara is called to the shelter after Shae’s theft of a cell phone is discovered. The shelter director is about to give Shae the heave ho. Kimara manages to wrangle a few minutes alone with Shae who says she took it for the camera, not to call Billy. She just wanted to take pictures of the world around her. Shae has to return the stolen phone but Kimara takes pity on her and gets her another, telling Shae to hide it well. That seemed a little foolish to give the girl something she is forbidden to have but it’s an “I’m on your side” moment in their relationship. You’re already predicting that Kimara will adopt Shae’s baby, right?

Luis’ continued search for his son, Teo, leads him to a girl named Itzel, who has a baby that Luis at first thinks might be Teo’s. Itzel tells him that the last time she saw Teo, they were working in the fields. Teo made her smile and that made the boss mad. She said they call the fields “the green motel” because the bosses can do whatever they like to the female workers and no one can stop them. She was dragged off by the boss and when Teo tried to defend her, he was dragged away and never seen again. Luis demands to know the name of the boss who did it. Now, in the opening scene of the episode, Coy was shown working in the Hesby field. He saw Diego, one of the bosses, sexually assault a woman. So it is implied that Diego fathered Itzel’s child and is also responsible for the disappearance of Teo. Luis moves on to the Hesby farm.

Diego also appears to be Isaac’s brother. We thought he was Isaac’s supervisor or the one that brought Isaac in, but their relationship seems to be close enough to where Isaac makes a little effort to stop Diego from abusing Coy. Diego has it in for Coy for various reasons: Coy’s a white trash druggie and Isaac is too soft on him. We doubt he’d be too worried about Coy as a witness to what went down earlier. Isaac has mixed feelings toward Coy. Whatever Coy’s reasons were for telling Isaac about his near-death experiences with drugs, what Isaac heard was when a white kid nearly overdoses, the fire department saves his life but they wouldn’t do it for blacks or Mexicans.

A confrontation with the three men ensues where Diego keeps kicking over Coy’s bucket every time it gets filled. Coy yells at Isaac for not standing up to Diego. It’s as if Coy thinks Isaac has to protect him and he doesn’t realize that Isaac has to protect himself. Coy more or less tells them to shove this job and starts walking away. Isaac catches up to him and beats him senseless. Diego just stands there. Luis also sees and you know that he is imagining that on another day, that was Teo.

The last scene showed Jeanette and J.D. attending a workers rally where the leader Roberto says “the food on your table comes with a price that you can’t see but that somebody has to pay.” He says it is the same with the clothes on their backs and the things in their houses, and they can choose to ignore it as some do, but “what you can’t do, is be ignorant.”

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