by Jorge Molina
The greatest strength of the second season of American Crime Story has become the amount of care, attention, and empathy devoted to Andrew Cunanan’s other victims. For the second week in a row, the show steps away from the titular Versace case to tell a self-contained story about the humanity of one of them. This week we focus on David Madson, a boy that Andrew was infatuated with...
Episode 4: “A House by the Lake”
This week’s episode takes place one week before the last one, before Andrew headed to Chicago to meet (and eventually also murder) Lee Miglin. We see that he has been staying with his friend David in an apartment that not coincidentally resembles a concrete prison.
David is an up-and-coming architect (Andrew’s victims being builders and creators is a theme the show is clearly exploring), who was charmed by Andrew at first. He's started to see his rough edges and wants out. Their friend Jeffrey Trail (played by pretty boy and Ryan Murphy regular Finn Wittrock) shows up one night after being called upon by Andrew. “You can talk about me while you bring him up,” he says to David threateningly but, also, almost as a plea.
And David and Jeff indeed talk about him; about how they are both sorry for and fed up with Andrew. They were both romantically involved with him at one point, but now are in love with each other. However, before this love triangle can reach any conclusion, they step into the apartment, and Andrew murders Jeffrey in one of the most chilling sequences that have ever played inside the Ryan Murphy-verse (and that includes 'verse includes someone bathing in their mother's blood.)
What follows for the rest of the episode is a contained psychological thriller; a small horror movie in which Andrew holds David hostage. First physically inside the solid rooms of his apartment, and then emotionally as they make their escape.
If last week’s episode explored the emotional burdens of being inside the closet, this episode is about feeling trapped outside of it. From the very start, Andrew dissuades David from calling the police or his father, because they will be biased against them. He instead convinces them that running away together will be not only the most convenient option for them, but almost a dream-like destiny.
It is never explicitly stated if, as they were both travel cross-country having left everything (including a murdered lover) behind, David ever really had any real hopes of escaping and making it out alive, or if he resigned himself from the moment Andrew was beating Jeffrey with a hammer in front of him, knowing he would eventually have a similar fate.
David goes through an emotional examination of his life, his decisions, and the roads that brought him and Andrew together. It is filled with melancholy, regret, and resignation courtesy of Cody Fern’s outstanding breakout performance. He makes David a paralyzed creature whose survival instincts are postponing an inevitable end. His eyes fill with quiet desperation as his hopes gradually flame out. Watch out for this guy; he’s going to be big.
Up until this episode, Darren Criss has managed to effectively balance the psychotic and charming sides of Cunanan. In this episode he falters a bit. There are points within "A House by the Lake" where his take on this serial killer verges on the parodic. It’s confusing, too, since this episode takes place before the rest of what we’ve seen on the show, but Cunanan seems to be emotionally ahead of it in his choices.
“A House by the Lake”, like last week’s episode, doesn’t touch on the titular narrative, other than revealing again why the manhunt for Cunanan eventually took so long.
If the backward format of the show continues, we could go back further in time to explore Cunanan’s background before the murder spree, but it's more likely we return to the Versaces. Nevertheless, I hope the thematic explorations and nuances that the show has delivered for the last two weeks can be carried on into the more famous story. They’ve been insightful hours of television.