Diksha Sundriyal
In Hulu’s ‘The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,’ the investigation into the murder of Meredith Kercher unfolds as her friend and housemate, Amanda Knox, is accused of the crime. While the first two episodes focus on the cops zeroing in on Amanda, the third episode focuses on the forensic holes in their story, while the media presents a sex-crazed version of her to the world. In between this, she struggles to understand what is happening to her while also facing the reality that she might have to endure this ordeal for longer than she expected. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Origin Story of Giuliano Mignini
The third episode of ‘The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox’ hands over the narration to Giuliano Mignini, the public prosecutor in charge of finding Meredith Kercher’s killer and bringing them to justice. As we dive into his mind, it is important to under where he comes from, so the story begins with his childhood. When he was a child, Giuliano lived in a neighbourhood where he had the church on one side and a women’s prison on the other. Through his window, he would see the conflicting sides of the world, and it was enough to stoke his curiosity about evil and where it comes from. His father was an officer of the law, and Giuliano looked up to him. So, when his father died in a car accident, young Giuliano found himself becoming the man of the house.
Around the same time, the Monster of Florence came into the picture, and the terror that he wreaked on the country inspired Giuliano to become a detective. Now, he is a sought-after public prosecutor, for whom the memories of the Monster’s serial killings are rendered anew by the sight of Meredith Kercher’s body. So, he vows to get her justice at all costs, which brings us to Amanda Knox’s arrest. At the end of the previous episode, Amanda ended up signing a confession where she also implicated Patrick Lumumba in Meredith’s murder. She later tried to recant the whole thing and even wrote a long letter explaining everything, but that doesn’t change the fact that she basically confessed the whole thing to the cops. Now, she finds herself being subjected to a DNA sampling, following which she is asked to remove her clothes.
Her pictures are taken, which include a specific focus on the bruise on her neck. At the time, Amanda believes that she is considered a witness and is being taken to a witness protection facility. Even as she is walked to her cell, she is confused about what’s happening. This is when the prison officer tells her that she has been accused of Meredith’s murder, which is when she loses her mind. Meanwhile, her mother, Edda Mellas, waits for her turn to meet her daughter. When she shows her documents to the officer, he becomes confused about their different last names, and once again, the language barrier prevents Edda from explaining that she divorced Meredith’s father and married someone else. The officer phones someone else, explaining the issue, which means that Edda has to wait a while longer to see her daughter.
Amanda’s Case Gets Murkier by the Minute
Emotions run high as the Kercher family arrives and is devastated to see Amanda like this. Being in their vicinity makes Giuliano even more adamant about making sure that all of the accused (which includes Raffaele Sollecito and Patrick Lumumba) are found guilty in the court of law. The pressure mounts on him as the media hounds him about the case, especially since they believe that the case is closed now that the arrests have been made. But Giuliano knows that the real fight starts now, because now, they have to collect each and every piece of evidence to support their theory about the murder. The problem is that nothing concrete has shown up yet. There is no DNA evidence that would place the trio, or even a single one of them, on the crime scene, let alone prove that they are the murderers.
Still, a few reports are being processed, and Giuliano decides to work with whatever he has. Connecting the dots in his mind, he comes up with the story of Amanda, Patrick, and Raffaele engaging in an orgy where they forced Amanda to participate, leading to her murder. Meanwhile, Amanda cries for her mother while being confined in her prison cell. When the priest, Don Saulo, offers his services to her, in case she needs to chat about anything, she refuses on the grounds that she is an atheist. Trapped in the cell, Amanda recedes into her mind, thinking about the time when she and her former boyfriend went on a camping trip where they learned to survive in the wild on their own. As she lies on the bed, she conjures the image of the starry night sky from her camping trip to soothe her mind, and she must survive similarly here as well. She is also cornered by the prison officer, who asks her lewd questions about her sexual nature. While Amanda struggles to understand his Italian, she gets the hint that he is not a friendly force.
To make her day better, Amanda finally gets to meet her mother. The duo happily embraces, and Edda confirms with her daughter that she wasn’t there the night Meredith was murdered. Amanda tries to explain her alibi, how she thought she was helping the cops, how they turned around on her, bullied her, hounded her, and even hit her, which led to her false confession, which also implicated Patrick. Edda reveals that her lawyers are going to go for a house arrest, so at least Amanda will be able to live in the place provided by the American embassy. Before they can discuss any further, their conversation is cut short as Edda is asked to leave. The mother expresses her sadness about not knowing when she will get to see her daughter again, but her appearance seems to have given Amanda new hope. Meanwhile, it turns out that the meeting was being recorded and listened to by the prison officer who hoped to find something incriminating in the conversation.
The Prosecution’s Case Starts to Fall Apart
As Giuliano looks for the evidence that will win the case for him, a hearing for Amanda’s house arrest takes place. This time, she has two lawyers, but that doesn’t make it easier to digest that her future is being decided right in front of her, and she doesn’t have an inkling of what’s going on. Giuliano continues to attack her, mentioning the orgy and its connection to the murder, and deems Amanda too much of a flight risk to be given house arrest. Her lawyers, on the other hand, don’t seem to say much, and later, she is told that she will have to stay in prison while the case goes to trial, which means at least a year.
While Edda is hounded by the media, protests against Patrick’s arrest grow stronger. People demand his release, pointing out that there is no evidence against him, and the color of his skin is the only reason he is being treated this way. Meanwhile, Giuliano discovers that several people have come forward to provide an alibi for Patrick, one of whom is a university professor. What makes things worse for his case is that the media finds out that there is no definitive reason to believe that Meredith was sexually assaulted. Meanwhile, it also turns out that the mop that Amanda took to her boyfriend’s house does not have any blood or DNA, which is what the cops had been hoping for. This only makes the cops more desperate to get evidence.
In prison, Amanda is told that her blood report reveals she has HIV, which means that she needs to list down all of her sexual partners so that they can be tracked down and informed. She does so, making a list in her journal, which she believes is private. She also goes to Don Saulo as she needs to talk to someone lest she loses her mind. While he doesn’t fake his belief in her, he does show her the compassion that she hadn’t received from anyone for a while. Meanwhile, Giuliano has an argument with the coroner for leaking the detail about Meredith not being raped to the cops, and fires the coroner, before storming out in anger.
A Scandalous Narrative Forms Against Amanda
As the case starts to fall apart, Giuliano starts to doubt his instincts. He’d always thought that he was anointed by god to find the truth and that his instincts always led him to the truth. But now, he doesn’t know what to believe. That is, until Meredith decides to talk to him again. She believes that explaining everything to him would make things better. This time, she walks into the room with a clear head, determined to convince the prosecutor of her truth. However, things go haywire all over again as Giuliano points out that she signed a confession, and she is the one who named Patrick, while she tries to tell him that she was coerced into the whole thing. Once again, all the shouting from the prosecutor gets to Amanda’s head, and the interview ends with her saying that she named Patrick in her confessions because she thought that he could have been the murderer.
A satisfied Giuliano takes it as the sign he was looking for, convinced that he was not wrong about anything. When Amanda returns to her room, she is told that the HIV report turned out to be false and she is in the clear. But then, she discovers that her entire cell has been upturned and her journal is missing. Angry and dejected, she turns to the TV that she was told not to switch on and discovers that the list of ex-boyfriends that she made is being used to paint her as a devious sex machine. She is called “Foxy Knoxy” and old videos of her are played to assassinate her character, while she is labelled “the American witch.” The narrative about the orgy and her bad behaviour picks up all over the media. That evening, Giuliano receives the bad news that the bloody fingerprints found in Meredith’s room don’t belong to any of the accused, which means that the media trial is the only thing working in the prosecution’s favour right now.
Read More: Chris Robinson: Where is Amanda Knox’s Husband Now?
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