'American Crime Story' Review: 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Is The Season's Best Episode

This week's American Crime Story review takes a look at the latest episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, "Don't Ask Don't Tell." Spoilers follow.

What makes The Assassination of Gianni Versace such an ultimately heartbreaking season of American Crime Story is the way it takes the time to introduce us to its victims. Yes, the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were tragic, but we never really met them as characters last season. The show kicked off after they had already been killed.Technically, Versace begins after its victims have been murdered as well, but the show's backwards-moving narrative device has the power to resurrect these characters from the dead. Only to snuff them out again. "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is particularly brutal in this regard, because it spends almost its entire length introducing us to Jeff Trail; we want to stop the clock and keep him alive longer; stop him from showing up at David's apartment to meet his cruel fate. But we can't.Andrew Cunanan arrives in Minneapolis four days before Jeff's murder, and proceeds to bully his way into David and Jeff's lives. David is sympathetic, but Jeff clearly wants nothing to do with him. Jeff is a former Naval officer working a dead-end job, filled with regret. When we meet Jeff here, we see him talking with a new coworker who was also in the military. When the new employee politely asks why Jeff left the Navy, he snaps. "I made the decision!".This leads to a flashback to 1995, two years before Jeff's murder. Jeff is relatively happy with his life in the Navy, but he also lives with the fear that sooner or later, the secret of his sexuality will come out. This fear intensifies after he saves another gay sailor from being beaten by a group of other sailors. This one event triggers the path of the episode, as Jeff grows more and more intense and nervous that he's going to be found out.In one particularly disturbing sequence, Jeff learns that there's a chance that another gay sailor is going to identify other homosexuals in the Navy. This sailor apparently doesn't know names, but can recognize his sexual partners via their tattoos. This story sounds utterly made-up when you remove yourself from it, but for Jeff, in the middle of it all, it has a ring of truth. His solution is to try to cut a tattoo off his leg with a box cutter; an action that doesn't go according to plan.Later, Jeff's paranoia reaches a fever pitch, and he attempts to hang himself. This, too, doesn't go according to plan, and Jeff eventually ends up at a gay bar, where he first meets Andrew Cunanan. Once again, we want to stop the clock; to warn Jeff that befriending Andrew will be the biggest mistake of his life. But Jeff is alone, in need of comfort, and Andrew – in his own manipulative, sneaky way – can offer it.During the course of the evening, Jeff tells Andrew he plans to conduct an interview with the show 48 Hours about gays in the military – an action Andrew thinks is a mistake. "The Navy are going to witch hunt you, Jeff," he says. But Jeff feels he has to go through with it. The interview Jeff gives is brilliantly contrasted with the interview Versace gives to The Advocate. As Jeff meets in a cheap motel room in secret, hidden in shadows, Versace is seen in a well-lit, expensive hotel. His interview with The Advocate frees him, while Jeff's 48 Hours interview simply makes things worse. There's no catharsis here; no emotional weight lifted from Jeff's shoulders. Instead, he recounts how he saved the gay sailor's life earlier in the episode, and adds: "It's the bravest thing I've ever done, and I can't even tell you how many times I've thought about taking it back, just so people wouldn't know about me."Back in 1997, in the days leading up to Jeff's murder, the situation between Jeff and Andrew grows more and more radioactive. Andrew is in Minneapolis, under the assumption that he, Jeff and David will spend time together. But Jeff wants nothing to do with Andrew. We learn that Andrew once sent a postcard to Jeff's father in a feeble attempt to out Jeff to his parents, which has only made the relationship between the two men more strained. Yet Jeff is still nice enough to let Andrew stay at his apartment for a night while he crashes at the home of his pregnant sister.The idea is for Andrew to vacate the premises before Jeff gets home, but Jeff finds him waiting there, at which point Jeff's rage simmers until he can't keep it tamped down any longer. He accuses Andrew of ruining his life, and says that he wishes he had his old life in the Navy back."They don't want you," Andrew says. "They never wanted you. I want you." When Andrew adds: "I loved you–", Jeff snaps, cutting him off and shouting, "No one wants your love." It's in this moment you can see the wheels turning behind Andrew's eyes. You can see the decision slowly forming; the decision to kill Jeff. Andrew realizes that he can no longer manipulate Jeff; no longer use his lies to bend Jeff to his will. In other words, Jeff has become useless to Andrew, and in Andrew's mind, there's nothing left to do but end his life.

– You can watch an excerpt from the real 48 Hours interview with Jeff Trail here:

– You can read the real Advocate interview with Versace here.– While this episode is primarily focused on Jeff, the scenes we get with Andrew stand out due to Andrew's desperate, unsubtle attempts at control and manipulation. At one point, Andrew and David go to a club to meet friends from David's work, and Andrew spends the entire evening being loud and abrasive, constantly trying to get the upper hand.– On next week's American Crime Story, we see what triggered Andrew's complete descent into murder and madness.