What a heart pumping hour!

American Crime Season 1 Episode 4 continued the formula of starting the hour off with an immensely powerful scene which set up the entire episode perfectly.

Watching Aliyah get ready while listening to the service was mind blowing and gave a better perspective of where she's coming from.

You cannot force someone to get clean and it's clear Aubry's family is just enabling her. There's no doubt Aubry needs help, but making her go to meetings against her will isn't going to help. She has one concern in life – Carter – and while he's being kept from her, for good reason, she's going to continue to spiral out of control. There comes a point when you have to stop helping the addict and introduce tough love. 

Poor Mark! He has to be the victim of listening to Barb go on and on about all of her problems and what she thinks are injustices. Also, thank you Mark for saying Barb's hair looks good – maybe now she will stop fussing around with it. It wasn't startling to find out Mark is basically Barb's pet and is being put in the middle of her and Russ. 

Russ has every right to stand his ground about wanting Matt's body to be with Gwen. It makes the most sense and I don't understand why Barb is so persistent in wanting Matt's body to go with her. They could easily put together a memorial service for Matt and when the final decision is made about where to bury him they can put together a funeral and truly grieve Matt. It's not like Gwen is dead, she was in a coma, so why can't they respect her and wait for her to wake up before making this tough decision? 

Why is Tom torturing himself with Gwen's sexual relationships? It makes sense Tom would want to know what his daughter was involved in, but if it has nothing to do with the case he shouldn't stress himself with the things she was involved in. He needs to take Eve's advice and remember Gwen is still their daughter and no matter what she was involved in they will love her and help her get through this. It was shocking to hear him actually call Gwen out and say she was a slut, especially when she wasn't there to defend herself.

I actually found myself feeling bad for Carter when he was talking with his "lawyer" and his sister Aliyah. Aliyah can't accept the fact Carter wants Aubry in his life and the color of her skin doesn't matter to him; though they do have a toxic relationship, and it would be smart if they kept their distance from each other so they both can get the help they need.

Speaking of Aliyah, how amazing is Regina King? She brings so much to this character and makes every scene so powerful. I loved how she stood up to the DA and was fighting for Carter to get a bail hearing, considering the evidence against him was slowly falling apart. Hearing Aliyah talk about how she saw her life before turning to Islam gave a better perspective of how she now sees herself and others. 

It's astonishing it took this long for Alonzo's business to be vandalized. He's the one who put himself on TV and said hateful words against a very large group of people – what did he expect? Alonzo should be more angry with himself for opening himself, and his family, up to being treated with contempt; though I'm not justifying what the vandals did.

Nancy gave Barb some great advice about what she should do at the bail hearing and how people will look at her. Nancy isn't wrong about people focusing on outward appearances and the public will make assumptions about the family by the way they act. Of course, Barb made everything fall apart the minute she went off on Aliyah and her friends; though her anger is completely understandable, but this will definitely make her look bad.

In the end, Aliyah came through for Carter and was able to get the bail money together, but there was a catch, he can't see Aubry which I'm totally fine with for completely different reasons – they are toxic together. The biggest shock of all, Matt had been selling drugs for a long time and Barb knew about it and she made him enlist in the Army. Plus, Tom admitted he should have never looked at those files and Gwen is finally awake which will hopefully lead to some of the missing puzzle pieces coming into place.

Next week on American Crime Season 1 Episode 5, things start to heat up when Carter defies Aliyah and sees Aubry which leads to some very bad choices. Mark has something important to tell Barb and Alonzo tries to mend his relationship with Tony.

What did you think of tonight's episode? How amazing is Regina King? Do you think Gwen will remember everything that happened?

You can watch American Crime online anytime via TV Fanatic.

Samantha McAllister was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in November 2018.