You can be frustrated by the 'American Crime' finale, but don't deny it was great

Was justice served on the season finale of ABC's American Crime? That's a tough question -- one that's only really answerable with another question: What is justice in this case? 

Is it justice for Taylor, the boy who was raped at a party? Is it justice for Wes, the boy who Taylor shot on the steps of their school? Does it matter that Taylor was, prior to the shooting, jumped by Wes and other students and pushed to the edge of sanity? 

If American Crime has a specialty, it's tough questions. But the boldness to ask them and to use the steam from an aggressively boiling pot of conflicted interests to power an entire season is what has made this anthology's second season a triumphant piece of storytelling. One that, as it turns out, had as much of an ending as you would expect from a show that fearlessly lived on the blurred lines of morality. 

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In the end, Taylor (Connor Jessup) stood in front of a judge with a choice: take a plea deal that would have him serve 10 years in prison or take his chance at a trial where his fate would largely rest in the hands of his accused rapist, Eric (Joey Pollari). Eric, you see, was willing to testify to the fact that the other players had attacked Taylor -- a move his lawyer hoped would compel a jury to be lenient on him. 

"Eric's testimony is compelling. His testimony will matter," his lawyer said. 

But Taylor didn't want to be a victim anymore -- and definitely didn't want Eric's help.

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"He raped me and he gets to be my savior?" he told his mother. "The same guy who held me down and assaulted me gets to act like he gives a f--k?"

We never find out his decision. One would assume he takes the deal -- but the value of this story does not rest on his answer. There's no winning here for Taylor -- or anyone really. 

Eric, who maintained his innocence throughout, ended the season with a decision of his own: to continue his dangerous quest for human connection via dating apps or not. (It was just a few episodes ago that one of the strangers Eric met via an app physically attacked him and very likely would have killed him had Eric not fought back.) His continued disregard for his own safety says mountains about his self-worth -- or lack there of.

Meanwhile, Leslie (a brilliant Felicity Huffman) was pushed out of the school and replaced by a new person (Season 1's Benito Martinez), Kevin's family was on the verge of being relocated after his mother's (Regina King) employer read distasteful comments in leaked emails, and Dan's (Timothy Hutton) drug dealing daughter was sent to a detention center. 

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Sad? Maybe. But so are so many cases just like the one that unfolded over 10 episodes. What John Ridley did here, though, was compel the audience to sit with the sometimes painful stillness of this reality and confront the real emotional complexities that feed these types of situations. 

This could be any community -- and this is their warning. 

The whole of the simply superb season can really, though, be summed up by a speech given by Dan in episode 8, following the shooting: 

"All of us have been hurt. We've all been wounded and all of us, we deal with tragedy in our own way ...  Look, if we don't love each other, I mean really love each other, this, this is what happens. Talking about love and responsibility and doing right, that's easy. This is, what happened here, hate, death and guns in schools, people say this is the new normal. Is this the normal we want? It's up to us."

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