American Crime Story
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Im a sucker for a Christmas episode.
I like the hazy glow of a well-lit tree on-camera.
I like seeing what other people do on a morning when were mostly invisible to one another.
(To this point, the Tripp familys Christmas pajamas are magnificent).
Characters, drunk on glogg and nostalgia, cant quash their sentimentality, even tough characters like Linda.
The closer you get, she tells Monica, the nearer you are to the end.
I almost cried for my own mortality.
(She was cute, if a little zaftig.
Deeper in the story, he adds chubby to his litany of descriptors.
Tapper is wearing theKnives Outsweater.
At least Tapper pays.
Between her subpoena and the 110-pound card-stock Christmas party invitations, Lindas desk is covered in personal paperwork.
I suppose its not that risky; a letter of rec from the commander-in-chief is likely to open doors.
She tells Linda shes planning to get the executive semen washed off her blue dress for the event.
At all costs, Linda must prevent Monica from laundering the dress, she says.
One day they may need the DNA preserved on that dress to corroborate Lindas account of their sexual relationship.
Between them, theres little worse in this world than looking heavy.
Over at the White House, its depo prep day.
The presidents lawyers are playing Paula Joness team; Bill is playing Bill.
Its not going well.
He calls Monz at 2:30 a.m. to let her know she has been added to the witness list.
She lets him know shell deny everything, no sweat.
For example, the president is days from lying under oath at this point in the timeline.
Monica presses the matter again at Lindas party, which is a smash.
Monica, though, cant relax into the holiday spirit.
The walls are closing in, and Carol of the Bells is the menacing soundtrack to her waking nightmare.
Sitting in her car outside the party, she screams, butstillLinda doesnt promise to lie.
Vernon Jordan helps Monica find a lawyer to write her a patchy affidavit while Linda dodges her obsessive calls.
December whips by in a blur of eggnog, and suddenly its Monicas last day at work.
She doesnt want to take them because Paulas lawyers somehow knew about the hatpin he had given her before.
This should be the end of the Bill Clinton chapter of Monica Lewinskys story.
In all likelihood, it would have been, if not for Linda Tripp.
The tapes are meager evidence of an affair but damning evidence that Linda committed a felony.
He suggests telling Bob Bennett about the tapes to motivate the president to settle the Paula Jones suit.
Its a pretty neat little strategy, if you ask me.
The prosecution is only a problem for people who cant get immunity.
Even a young Brett Kavanaugh thinks the Whitewater evidence is spurious.
Did anyone else totally forget that Colin Hanks is in this show?
Its too late, of course, but Monica takes a final stab at securing Lindas silence.
If the roles were reversed, she would absolutely stay mum, she says, and I believe her.
But Monica is too trusting and too eager to be liked.
I wish there were fewer people in the world whom shed be willing to take such risks for.
Still, she seems to sniff at least a little dishonesty wafting off Linda.
Monica rifles through her handbag when Linda leaves for the restroom.
Halfway through the season,Impeachmenthas saddled itself with an awkward structure.
Bob Bennett is vicious as he takes Paulas deposition.
He asks if she gave four men blowies at the same party in 1987.
Its ugly and exasperating, and Paula is rightfully distraught.
She wants to know why Susie didnt warn her, but why would she?
Its easier to lead a lamb to slaughter when its blindfolded.
No one will survive intact.
Linda finds herself deep in a Washington world that had held her at arms length.
But its more dangerous at the center of things.
Once youre at the center, theres nowhere left to hide.
Clintons teameven deposed him.
Bill Clintonreally didget semen on Monicas dress, though Monica believed it might have been spinach dip.
Lucianne, it turns out, was right on the science.
