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"Episode One" is the first episode of season two of the ABC television series American Crime. It was written by executive producer John Ridley and directed by John Ridley.

Plot
Season two takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana where a student of a private school accuses another student of a rape. Episode one opens with a female voice calling 911 to report a rape. Quickly into the episode we see pictures of a student who attends Leyland high school, Taylor Blaine. These pictures show Taylor in a very venerable state. He is wearing no pants and looks as if he is drunk and possibly high. These pictures result in Taylor getting suspended from school. Taylor’s mother, Anne, is not told why her son is being suspended expect for ask your son to show you the pictures. Little do Taylor and Anne know this is going to be the start of a long road of arguments and indifferences with the school board. Anne is not sure what to do besides to turn to Taylor’s girlfriend, Evy Dominguez, to help get answers because her son goes silent and will not tell his mother what happened. Evy was only able to provide Anne with the photos. Evy goes on to explain that basketball boys invited Taylor and herself to a party. She continues to explain they were separated at the party for a while and when Evy saw Taylor next, “he was really messed up”. Anne confronted Taylor again about what happened, and he was only able to get out that he thinks something happened to him that night. Anne goes to the headmaster of Leyland, Leslie Graham, and is told they will take this very seriously. Leslie goes to talk to the head basketball coach, Dan Sullivan, and tells him he needs to talk to his players, so it looks like they took the situation seriously. When Anne goes back for another meeting with Leslie, Leslie tells Anne she should look at what her son did. Anne gets very angry and her response is saying her son was raped the night of the party. Leslie also states that the boys who are accused of this rape could never do such a thing. With the school not helping Anne in this situation she doesn’t know what else to do besides call 911. Which answers the question of who was calling 911 in the opening scene.

Perspective on Rape Culture
This season of American Crime focuses mainly on the topic of rape culture involving two high schools located in a suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. Within this first episode, we are revealed several moments where characters use rape culture terms, or display forms of rape culture and gender based violence through their actions. We see the Leyland basketball team passing a phone around in the locker room, and overhear boys calling the girl in the picture a bitch and saying, “I so wanna rape that”. We also see coach Sullivan videotaping his daughter, dancing inappropriately in front of one of his players. The boys encourage this type of behavior. Later when Dan Sullivan shows the video to his wife,Steph Sullivan, she says the dance routines are are unnecessary and white suburban girls should learn to dance like that in the strip club not on a school dance team. We also see Kevin, one of the basketball players, bring his girlfriend Val home. While they are making out in his room, Val asks Kevin to slow down/stop multiple times. He responds with expressions like, “why you acting like that?” and “Just be fun”. When Val does not want to have sex with him, he gets upset, and Val storms out. Another example of rape culture is when Anne goes to talk to the headmaster of Leyland, Leslie Graham. Anne tells Leslie her son has been raped, Leslie responds telling Anne she needs to be careful with that word. Leslie also victim blames Taylor when she tells Anne to look at what her son did that night and not what the other boys did.

Broadcast and reception



 * “This season’s more honed-in case seems a little more small-scale. Sexual assault with a male victim is also not a topic that’s often seriously explored on major network dramas.”
 * “American Crime maintains its commitment to shedding light on the subtle and difficult issues of race, class, and sex in modern society, but it remains to be seen if it will continue these successes”


 * “Its clear that one of the biggest influences on this season is the Steubenville High School rape case that begun in 2012, but with an interesting twist: its gender- flipped”


 * “Scene for scene, it feels more attuned to the to the daily realities of life in 2016 American than any other drama on network tv.”
 * “By the end of the first hour, you’re not entirely sure what happened or who is to blame, but you’re left with an unsettling feeling that even when the truth does surface, the story won’t be tied up with a neat little bow as it would be in so many other crime dramas on television.”