Last week's episode of American Crime Story introduced Finn Wittrock as Jeffrey Trail—a sometime-close friend of Andrew Cunnan's—just moments before a jealous Cunanan brutally murdered him. This week, as the show's reverse chronology continues, Episode 5, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" delves into Trail's backstory, his troubled time in the Navy, and how he first came to befriend Cunanan. We also return to Minneapolis to chronicle the last few days before Cunanan's murder spree began. Spoiler alert: they are excruciating, and not for murder reasons.
And after two full weeks away from the Versaces, this episode reintroduces their storyline, paralleling Trail's experience with the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy with Gianni's groundbreaking decision to come out as gay in The Advocate—much to the consternation of Donatella, who's concerned this will negatively impact the business.
Here are five talking points from The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Episode 5, "Don't Ask Don't Tell."
1) Andrew Cunanan pre-murder spree is somehow more unsettling than actual murderer Andrew Cunanan.
Look, I know this might seem like a weird stance, but at least once Cunanan flipped into murder mode, there was no ambiguity about what we were dealing with. In the four episodes we’ve seen so far, he’s a murderer, but in "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell," he is merely the most extreme Stage Five Clinger ever witnessed onscreen. His ability to completely ignore social cues and boundaries is breathtaking and deeply stressful. The portions of this episode that I spent hiding behind my hands were not the ones you’d expect; Trail trying to cut off his own tattoo is grisly, sure, but I’ll take that any day over Cunanan’s proposal of marriage to a horrified Madson, or his desperate attempts to insert himself into Madson’s life. When he yelled “Friend? I’m more than a friend!” I actually tried to crawl inside my chair. It became hard to tell the difference between Prints the dog’s whimpering and my own.
In any case, we learn that Cunanan winds up in Minneapolis because he’s run out of money in California and is living in a very creepy hovel injecting heroin between his toes. He goes to Trail because he knows Trail feels indebted to him, for reasons that become clear later in the episode. He’s also determined to lock down Madson, who he calls “the man I want to spend the rest of my life with," but Madson wants no part of him, for reasons that also become clear later in the episode.
Ultimately, Trail lets Cunanan stay at his apartment for one night of Cunanan's Minneapolis trip, while Trail is out of town on "business"—i.e., avoiding Cunanan while staying with his sister. In a deeply disquieting scene that also leads us into a flashback to Trail’s days in the Navy, Cunanan sneaks into Trail’s bedroom, goes through his closet, finds his old uniform, and just puts it on. He also steals Trail’s gun, which he will ultimately use to kill Madson, Reese, Versace, and himself. Wearing Trail’s full regalia, Cunanan watches a videotape of an old CBS News documentary about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, in which a soldier—his face in shadow—describes a harrowing experience. He saved a “closeted gay sailor” from being beaten to death, but now regrets it, because it made his colleagues suspicious that he is gay.
2) The scenes depicting Trail’s time in the Navy are some of the show’s saddest and most brutal.
Cut to two years earlier, with the revelation that that soldier speaking in the video is Trail. The opening moments of this episode have already made it clear that Trail harbors a lot of anger about leaving the Navy; in a scene from 1997, he flips out at an unsuspecting co-worker when asked why he left the Navy. Later in the episode, we see Trail save the closeted soldier from being killed, then comfort him with a hug—a moment witnessed by a mustachioed, homophobic fellow soldier. From that moment on, it’s clear to Trail that he is a target.
After hearing that another gay officer was offered an honorable discharge on the condition that he give the Navy a list of identifying tattoos on the men he’d been involved with, Trail tries to cut his tattoo off his own leg. It’s a truly harrowing scene, matched by one shortly after, in which Trail tries to hang himself, but changes his mind at the last moment. It’s seemingly right after this awful moment that Trail takes a walk into town, and ends up at a gay bar—where he meets Andrew Cunanan.
3) This episode shows us, for the first time, a genuinely charming Andrew Cunanan.
Seeing Cunanan in the past also illustrates how far he’s fallen in the present. The only thing he ever had to offer was being entertaining and charismatic, and it got him a long way. Now that he’s making everyone around him deeply uncomfortable, there’s really no way back for him.
But in this bar, it’s completely clear why Trail would be drawn to Cunanan. He’s intriguing and fun and worldly without being intimidating, and he gently makes fun of Trail’s admission that this is his first time at a gay bar. Before they start talking, Trail is so overwhelmed that he almost walks right back out of the bar, but Cunanan makes this muscular, aggressively neon-lit world seem welcoming. When Trail thanks him for “stopping this night from being a humiliation,” Cunanan responds, “I feel like I’m part of your history. You’re going to remember this moment.” Not inaccurate.
4) Gianni Versace returns… but only as a framing device for the Trail/Cunanan storyline.
We’ve all pretty much accepted at this point that despite its title, this is not a show about Gianni Versace. And after two full weeks without a single Versace on screen, Gianni’s storyline is woven back into this episode, but only peripherally. After years of never having officially confirmed his sexuality, Gianni wants to come out as gay publicly in an interview with The Advocate. But Donatella is hostile to the idea, and initially blames Gianni's partner, Antonio D'Amico, accusing him of being publicity-hungry. He claps back: “I know my place. Unlike you.”
Donatella tries to convince Gianni that coming out will impact their business both abroad—in countries where homosexuality is still illegal—and at home, where rock stars and royalty may no longer want to be associated with him. “At least we keep Elton, no?” Gianni responds, because everyone is really on their clapback game in this scene. “You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” Donatella tells him. “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.”
But Gianni is determined, and so we see The Advocate interview intercut with Trail’s CBS interview; one as triumphant and moving as the other is unceremonious and bleak. Strange though it feels to agree with Cunanan on anything, he’s not wrong in what he says to Trail about his CBS interview. While the homophobic soldiers who don’t want gay people to serve in the military are in their uniforms, facing the camera proudly, Cunanan notes, the gay soldiers like Trail have to be interviewed “in the shadows, with your face distorted, like a criminal.” This is crushing because it's clear Trail didn’t get the catharsis he hoped for from the interview. In fact, it likely made things worse for him.
5) Between this episode and Get Out, Froot Loops may now officially be the chosen cereal of villains.
Cunanan is just chilling with a bowl of Froot Loops while waiting for Trail to come home. He’s not eating the cereal separately from the milk, like Allison Williams’ truly deranged Get Out character, but nevertheless, this has been a rough year for Froot Loops onscreen. Do only sociopaths enjoy this beloved cereal?
6) Trail and Madson both have specific reasons for turning on Cunanan.
The fact that Cunanan is creepy and demanding and has no boundaries played a role, probably, but we also learn two new pieces of information this week, which shed light on why these relationships soured.
Madson is getting increasingly uncomfortable with Cunanan, who ultimately proposes to him in this episode—much to Madson's discomfort.
Trail, meanwhile, is angry at Cunanan for sending a postcard to his father which effectively outed him—it was signed “Drew xx,” and while Cunanan claims it was an honest mistake, Trail's not buying it. Given his lack of boundaries and desire to control Madson’s life, neither am I.
Additionally, Trail seems to blame Cunanan for the way his life has turned out, specifically the dissolution of his military career. The details of exactly why are vague—probably because there are a lot of gaps in the known facts about this relationship—but Trail tells Cunanan that he wants his life back and wants nothing to do with Cunanan. “When I found you that night at the bar, I was there for you. I saved you,” Cunanan yells, to which Trail responds: “You destroyed me. I wish I’d never met you.” But the real kicker is when Cunanan tries to declare his (past tense) love for Trail, and Trail spits: “No one wants your love!” This, more than anything, seems to be the line that tips Cunanan over the edge into violence. A few hours after this exchange, he shows up at Madson’s loft, coerces Trail into come over by revealing that he has the gun, and then waits behind the door, claw hammer in hand.
