Diksha Sundriyal
Things get more tense for Amanda in Hulu’s ‘The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.’ After being arrested for the murder of Meredith Kercher and being painted a villain by the press, Amanda and her defense team prepare to fight her case. But before that, a new revelation gives her hope. The episode opens with Rudy Guede breaking and entering a school five days before Meredith’s murder. This hints that his part in the story is going to take center stage, but it turns out that the press is not done with Amanda just yet.
New Information in the Case Gives False Hope to Amanda
Amanda’s father, Curt Knox, arrives in Italy and immediately finds himself surrounded by the media who hurl all sorts of questions at him about his murderer of a daughter. He tells them that Amanda is innocent, and this simple address causes tension between him and Edda, who tells him not to interact with the media since they don’t seem to be in the mood to be impartial about the case. This also turns out to be the first time Curt and Edda’s new husband, Chris, are meeting, but whatever mixed emotions should have surfaced are pushed back as the focus turns on their daughter. Things become hopeful when it is revealed that a man named Rudy Guede’s DNA has been found at the crime scene, including on Meredith. However, the man is yet to be apprehended.
This information makes Amanda’s lawyers hopeful, too, as they ask her whether she knows him at all. She says she doesn’t, but later, in a call with her mother, she says that she may have crossed paths with Rudy, though she never knew him by name. Anyway, now that he has been so strongly connected to the crime scene, it doesn’t look like the crime has been solved, and Amanda can finally be free. She is proven wrong, but before that, the cops try to get their hands on Rudy. He has been on the run since the day after Meredith’s murder. The cops get one of his acquaintances to call him, and eventually, he reveals that he is in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he plans to stay until the whole thing dies down. He also claims innocence, saying that he didn’t kill Meredith, but he did try to save her. He says that the murder happened while he was in the toilet.
He also reveals that Amanda was not there that night, so her arrest is wrong. Of course, the cops choose to ignore the part about Amanda. Or rather, they realise how this would mess things up for them, and after blaming each other for this oversight, they decide to stick with the original theory, only this time, they replace Patrick with Rudy. Patrick is released, which leads Amanda to think that perhaps she, too, will be found innocent. Instead, she finds herself caught deeper in the conspiracy, seemingly at work against her. Still, she tries to be happy and hopeful, playing with the kids in prison, in whom she sees her own innocence reflected.
The Trial of Amanda Knox Begins
Fifty-four days ago, Rudy Guede was hanging out in Giacomo’s room when Meredith and Amanda stepped in, asking for a little weed, which they would take upstairs to smoke with Filomena and Laura. While Meredith is revealed to be dating Giacomo, Amanda catches Rudy’s eye. He tries to flirt with her but fails because she doesn’t understand enough Italian to know what he is saying to her. The girls get the weed and go back upstairs, where Filomena is cooking. They fool around and have fun, and it seems that all is well between them. Then, as Rudy leaves, he discovers that a window (which is later revealed to be Filomena’s) has been opened by the wind.
Rudy is arrested and tried separately on partial charges. He gets a light sentence and, more importantly, remains entirely removed from the public eye, so that the focus is still on Amanda and Raffaele. As their lawyers prepare for trial, false stories are perpetuated about Amanda, with the media publishing news about the murder being a result of a sex ritual gone wrong on the night of Halloween, among other things. Her parents wonder why she is still in prison when a man has already been convicted of the murder. They get more agitated when the lawyers disclose their decision to bring the media into the trial room so that they can interact with Amanda and see her face-to-face to know that she is not the villain everyone is making her out to be. The parents are not sure about this, but they go along with the decision.
It’s 2009, and the trial finally begins. As Amanda walks through the crowds, she meets the throng of media and the public, where some familiar and friendly faces greet her, including Raffaele, whose fate is tied to hers. This is also where Amanda explains how the court system differs from America, and there are two major reasons why the odds are already stacked against her. The six-member jury has people who have been exposed to the case so much that their minds are already biased. Then there is the fact that this hearing is not just about the murder. On top of it, she is being sued by Patrick, Meredith’s parents, and even the owner of the house where she lived and the murder took place. This means that her lawyers are fighting about four cases at the same time, and because inadmissible evidence for one is admissible in the other, all evidence will be heard and considered, including Amanda’s false testimony against Patrick.
Amanda’s Character Assassination Remains the Prosecution’s Major Tactic
As the trial begins, Amanda’s lawyers advise her to relax and just be herself. In hindsight, this turns out to be a huge mistake. The narrative in the testimonies begins with her and Raffaele’s behaviour in the aftermath of the murder. From the kiss to the cartwheels, everything is laid out on the table. The cops also claim that the whole part about giving false testimony under duress is not true because they never hit Amanda. During recess, Amanda and Raffaele are put in adjacent cells, and they finally get to talk to each other since their arrests. He explains that the cops forced him to change his alibi. He apologises for it, and having been through the same thing, Amanda understands. They promise to be there for each other from here on out, and clearly, they are going to need all the support they can get.
One after another, witnesses take to the stand to talk about how Amanda had always been a bit weird and never sat right with them. All these people are her friends, which hits her even harder. From her not cleaning the toilet properly to her sex partners and her vibrator are brought under scrutiny. In a bad move, Amanda tries to explain the vibrator situation, but it only makes things worse for her as she is seen as a sex-crazed person. The moniker of “Foxy Knoxy” takes hold, while the prosecution slips other words, like “Luciferina,” to paint her in even worse colours. What truly gets to Amanda is when Filomena shows up on the stand to testify against her.
The night before, Laura met with her to talk about how much they liked and had fun with Amanda, and what kind of bad things were being said about her. While Laura seems somewhat sympathetic to their former roommate, Filomena seems to have made up her mind. The next day, she shows up in court, not meeting Amanda’s eyes, and talks about all of Amanda’s bad habits. What’s worse is that Amanda talked with Don Saulo the previous day to share her hopelessness on the matter. He tried to lighten her up and asked her to show her heart to the people. This turns out to be another bad advice, or rather one that Amanda takes too literally.
She shows up in court, wearing a T-shirt that says “all you need is love,” and has a smile on her face, which is wiped off when a cameraman calls her a psychopath. This turns the public opinion against her even more, as it looks like she is mocking all of them. Meanwhile, her parents wonder why her lawyers didn’t school her about what to wear and how to behave, and they say that they’d never tackled such a case before to know that one’s clothes and facial expressions could become so important. Amanda’s sister points out that this is Amanda trying to stay hopeful and positive, and no one can make her act otherwise.
Amanda Starts to Lose Hope as Filomena Testifies Against Her
Filomena’s testimony continues as the question of the window comes into question. The prosecution tries to prove that the window could not have been opened from the outside, which means the break-in was staged. The defense, however, tries to counter that since the window didn’t latch in properly, it could have been opened by a gust of wind, leaving the opportunity for a person to enter the house through it. Once Filomena is done speaking, Amanda addresses the court again, saying that all the little things against her are being exaggerated to make her seem worse than she is. She also expresses her hope that the truth will come out in the end.
Whatever hope she expressed in court doesn’t seem to be there when her mother comes to see her. With her own friends testifying against her, she wonders what hope there is for her. Edda tries to hand her a cross, saying that the image of wearing it will help her. However, Amanda refuses to wear it on the grounds that she is an atheist and she is not going to lie about herself to please others. As Edda leaves the prison, she finds a journalist talking with her younger daughter. She chides the man for hounding her daughters and asks him why he and the others are not talking about Rudy when it has already been proved that he is the murderer.
The final scene of the episode switches back to the night of the murder. Rudy breaks in through Filomena’s open window and looks around the apartment. He is in the toilet when he hears someone coming in, which turns out to be Meredith. The next scene has him washing blood off his shoes while he smiles and cries at the same time. Then he goes to Giacomo’s apartment, changes clothes, and runs away. Before disappearing into the night, he throws Meredith’s phone in the yard of a random house.
Read More: Chris Robinson: Where is Amanda Knox’s Husband Now?
You must be logged in to post a comment.