Summary
Good American Family hits a turning point in Episode 4, with Michael finally getting on the same wavelength as Kristine. Here, we see some of the welcome ambiguity that the show has needed since the beginning.
Good American Family opens with a caution that it isn’t intending to take one side of the Natalia Grace story over the other, but that’s certainly what it continues to do in Episode 4. Since “Right There in Black and White” marks the halfway point, I think we might start to see some of the alternate viewpoints come to the fore in subsequent episodes. My working theory is that everything we’ve seen thus far has been entirely from the Bennett point of view, and that Natalia’s perspective might revisit the same events but show a totally innocent side to them. I sincerely hope so, anyway, since at this point, she’s basically the kid from Orphan in all but name.
I should point out that Kristine and Michael haven’t come across as perfect by any means. This is especially true in the 2019 scenes. Michael tried to paint Kristine as being solely responsible for everything that happened to Natalia, and here she’s seen gloating about how she can still manipulate Michael by sending him nudes since she’s the only one who can make him feel like a man (he’s remarried at this point.) So, you know, not exactly pillars of the community.
This present-day context helps, because when we see Kristine in the past preparing for a ghost writer to come over and begin work on her book about raising Jacob, you realize how much of her public-facing image is just a fabrication. That speaks to a woman who is used to making up stories – and everything involving Natalia could well be one of them.
But from the Bennett perspective, it doesn’t look like it. Natalia calls Child Protective Services right before the ghost writer arrives, and then, when she’s there, makes a ton of noise and eventually starts throwing her brothers’ toys into oncoming traffic. Kristine has no choice but to confess everything that’s going on, which will be excised from the published work. One gets the impression that this isn’t a particularly rare thing in ghostwritten parenting books, which doesn’t exactly surprise me.
Having had enough of Natalia, Kristine leaves with the kids and Michael remains behind to look after Natalia and try to find alternative employment, which Natalia also sabotages by repeatedly calling 911 to order pizza. Michael is forced to pause the interview to explain things to the authorities, but by the time he gets back his potential employer has hung up. He tries to explain to Natalia that this was the only way he can get his wife and other children to come home, and Natalia says – in an alarmingly casual way – that she hopes they die. Even Michael can’t ignore that one.
Imogen Faith Reid in Good American Family | Image via Hulu
If nothing else this leads to a reconciliation between him and Kristine, since they can both agree that Natalia’s a psycho who is trying to kill them. But they also agree they can’t go to the police because Natalia’s facility for lying and the haziness of her origins gives her too much scope to bend the truth. Instead, they decide to send her to a psychiatric facility, which seems fair, all things considered.
But in the meantime, they lock Natalia in the garage, which is a bit questionable. You can really start to see some of the implications about the Barnetts coming through in Good American Family Episode 4. There have already been suggestions about Kristine’s troubled childhood, but they’re reinforced here, and locking Natalia away is hard to justify. When she makes so much noise that a neighbour calls the police, you can see the outline of a more sinister scheme coming together. Kristine tells the police officer they’re good Christian people and he takes their side, telling them about the legal process of getting someone’s birth date amended officially. You can easily see how this might look from Natalia’s perspective.
But it’s a surprisingly easy process. The Barnetts are able to get Natalia’s age legally changed from 8 to 22, which opens up a bunch more “solutions” for them, one of which being to move her into an apartment on her own. They’ll foot the bill – though admittedly not out of their own pockets – and “occasionally visit”, but otherwise they’re free of her. Both Michael and Kristine can’t shove her through the door fast enough.
But there’s that ambiguity, finally. If the Bennetts are wrong here, which real life has subsequently proved they were, then they’re moving an eight-year-old into their own apartment and leaving them to their own devices. And they’re thrilled by it. Suddenly, the whole thing looks a lot more interesting, doesn’t it?
