Recap | American Crime | Season 3 | Episode 1

If you are new to American Crime, it is an amazing show that addresses crime in America.  Each season covers a new topic,

in a new city, with the same major cast members, playing different characters. Teenage human trafficking and the underground migrant worker trade are on the agenda for season three, which is set in North Carolina.

The show opens with a call to 911 by a male caller speaking in a foreign language.  The scene goes to
a body in shallow waters where we can only see a hand and part of an arm.  From there we get a group of people who look to be Mexican immigrants walking through the dessert and crossing into America through an opening in a fence.

The group ends up in a house where they are interviewed by a man who is going to help them settle in the United States.  The camera focus is on one guy in particular, Luis Salazar (Benito Martinez), who does not speak English.  Per the translator, Luis insists upon going to North Carolina, although the options open to him are Texas, California and Florida.

The interviewer asks several times if he has family in the country, to which Luis tells the translator, no.  The interviewer tells him he will get him to North Carolina, but he will have to pay.  There may have been some sort of language barrier between the translator and the interviewer.  Next we see Luiz on a bus as it passes by a body on the side of the road with two cops standing over it.  The deceased person looks to be of Hispanic or Latin descent.

Kimara Walters (Regina King), is trying to get her cable service turned back on when she gets a call.  She rushes out of the building to go meet with a teen boy named Ishmael, who has been brought in during a prostitution bust. Kimara tells him that he is not under arrest, but the police would like to arrest his pimp. 

She tries desperately to find him a shelter but no one has a bed.  After Kimara presses the issue, one shelter director, Abby Tanaka (Sandra Oh), says she may have a bed the following day.   Kimara
and Ishmael go to a diner for dinner.  As Kimara presses him for information on his pimp, Ishmael tells her that he doesn’t have a pimp, the guy Marquis she is looking for is his cousin and is just looking out for him. Kimara breaks it down for Ishmael so he knows the difference between a pimp and someone looking out for him. She lets him know if Marquis gets him work, if he provides him a place to stay and food to eat, if he controls his every move and he has to give Marquis all of his money that makes him his pimp.  Ishmael asks what would happen if he just got up and walked out. 

Kimara reminds him he is not under arrest and she is simply trying to help him, but Ishmael gets up and walks out.

Next we are introduced to the Hesby family. They run a family farm and the father, who we do not meet in this episode, is critically ill and the mother, Laurie Ann (Cherry Jones), steps in to assist.  Laurie Ann and her son Carson (Dallas Roberts) are meeting with a buyer in hopes of getting a deal for their produce.  The buyer doesn’t seem to have much respect for women and speaks directly to Carson as if Laurie Ann she isn’t sitting there.

The buyer explains that they have to get their produce harvested quick and cheap in order to make a profit, because the deal he is offering is the best they will get. Laurie Ann meets with the supervisors at their plant and tells them they need workers and they need them at a low price and willing to work long hours, to get the produce picked.  We then see the employees going out brokering deals with their field supervisors to get more workers. 

The scene goes to Isaac Castillo (Richard Cabral), a migrant worker who has worked his way up the ranks.  He is driving around looking for workers when he comes across Coy Henson (Connor Jessup) walking down the street.  He has a conversation with Coy through the window as he rides alongside him. Coy reveals that he is walking to Patterson, a small town an hour away.  Isaac convinces
Coy to let him take him to the store and get him something to drink.

Isaac buys Coy some beer and as they are talking he tells him that he works for a farm and they are looking for people to pick tomatoes.  Coy starts to laugh at the suggestion, and this upsets Isaac and it is apparent that he is offended.  He tells Coy that he has a lot of nerve laughing when he was walking to a city an hour away with no money in hopes of scoring some drugs.

Isaac goes on to explain that he is a supervisor on the farm and how he makes good money and is seen as important in his community.  He gives Coy the information in case he is looking to make some money, and leaves him at the store with the remaining beer.

At a make-up counter in a department store, we are introduced to Shae Reese (Ana Mulvoy Ten). She is getting her make-up done by a product consultant when a guy walks up and rushes her to finish.  The clerk inquires if she is okay and she says yes.  Shae explains that they are going to meet her boyfriend’s sister for dinner at a fancy restaurant and she wants to make a good impression.  The
consultant seems skeptical and asks once again if she is okay.

We learn that Shae is a teen prostitute and has a meeting with a John.  The guy asks her why she has on so much make-up, which makes her look as if she is 30.  Shae reminds him that he requested that she wear make-up.  The John gets a wet rag and tells her to wipe the make-up off, but don’t rush.  It’s apparent that he asks for girls in make-up because he gets off watching them remove it. 

In a flashback scene Shae is sitting in a field talking on a phone.  She is reading words and their definitions to the person on the other end.  Back in the present, she leaves the motel
room, gets in the car with the guy from the store and hands him the money. He asks her why she’s blown, and we detect some form of speech impediment.  Shae smiles and assures him she’s not.

In a brief scene, Kimara is at a doctor’s appointment where she learns that her In Vitro Fertilization procedure didn’t take.

Earlier in the show, Carson’s wife Jeanette (Felicity Huffman) told him she was going to go visit her sister Raelyn (Janel Moloney).  In this scene the visit takes place and we learn Raelyn’s husband has left without a word.  Jeanette tells her that Carson’s father isn’t doing too well.  She tries to get Raelyn to come visit but she declines the offer, saying that the two really don’t know each other that well anymore.

Back at home Jeanette fills Carson in on what’s going on with Raelyn.  We learn that Raelyn is a recovering drug addict who once worked for the Hesby’s.  The relationship turned sour when Raelyn stole money from Carson’s dad.  Carson tells Jeanette there is no way he’s giving Raelyn another chance to hurt his family, but she can write her a check if it will make her feel better.

The bus carrying the migrant workers finally reach its destination and it turns out to be a rundown trailer park.  Luis questions the overseer Matias (Omar Leyva), regarding his pay.  Matias informs Luis that the owners of the farm pay him, and then he will get what is left over after his expenses are paid, which includes paying the guy from the border, housing in a nasty run down trailer, and food.  When Luis enters the trailer that he will be staying in, it is in deplorable condition and it looks like he will be sharing it with about five or six other men.

A girl is sitting outside a convenience store with a dog, when Shae and her pimp come out.  He tells Shae to invite the girl to come back to her apartment.  Shae tells the girl that she lives with some
girlfriends and she can come crash as long as she likes, but she says no thanks.

At her apartment Ishmael from earlier and Shae are laying on a mattress looking at something on her phone when the pimp, who I am assuming is Marquis comes in and tells her he is taking her somewhere. 

They arrive at a motel and Shae says the place looks familiar, and she seems uncomfortable. 

Inside a sweaty sleazy guy is all over her before she can get in the room good.  As she did with the first John, she calls Marquis to let him know she is inside.  He asks if she has received the money and
they hang-up.  Shortly after the police bust in, and in the next scene Shae is with Kimara in the same room where she met Ishmael.

Coy is sitting on the side of the road when a truck pulls up and it is Isaac.  He gets in and they drive off and the show ends.

The scenes with Kimara leads me to believe they are highlighting the new law in California where they don’t arrest the teen prostitutes but try to get them help, essentially making teen prostitution legal. 

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Love & Blessings,

Tracy

Tracy L. Darity is the author of three novels, He Loves Me He Loves Me Not!, Love...Like Snow in Florida on a Hot Summer Day, and The Red Bear Society.  Available in print and e-book. To learn more, visit www.TracyLDarity.com or Amazon.com.