‘American Crime’ Postmortem: Richard Cabral on that Isaac Twist

Mandi Bierly

American Crime managed to shock viewers again in Season 3’s fourth episode. Even after we watched Isaac (Richard Cabral) brutally beat Coy (Connor Jessup) at the end of last week’s hour, many still assumed that it was Isaac’s brother, Diego (Clayton Cardenas), who’d killed Luis’s son, Teo, after Teo defended a young woman who’d been led into the fields by “the boss.”

Cabral, who starts filming the Sons of Anarchy spinoff pilot, Mayans MC, on Monday, spoke with Yahoo TV about the twist — and Isaac’s final scene with Luis (Benito Martinez), who shot and killed him.

Did you know that Isaac was Teo’s killer from the start of the season?
Richard Cabral: No! No! I didn’t! I didn’t! That’s how [creator John Ridley] works. It’s just going from script to script. You don’t have the whole story. When I read it I was like, “Oh, crap!” I was like, “Oh my God!” In the beginning, you’re just like, “Oh, Isaac’s brother is the sick man. That’s the monster right there.” But then when it turns, you’re like, “Oh my God. Isaac’s just as monstrous in his own ways.”

In your mind, why did Isaac lead the young woman Teo had been making smile into the field? And what do you think happened when Teo tried to stop him?
Isaac was really needy, and he just wanted that for himself. Teo pushed him. Again, it’s like what happens to Coy: Coy pushed him to a point where there was no return, where he couldn’t do nothing but beat Coy, or he couldn’t do nothing but take the woman, and then I think things just got out of hand when he killed Teo.

In the scene where Luis confronts Isaac, we see the quick flashes that Isaac has back to that day. It feels like Isaac had tried to block it out, and we’re watching him be forced to remember it. And then it’s interesting once Isaac sees Luis has a gun — he doesn’t make a move to try to get it away from him.
No, he doesn’t. Isaac accepted death. He’s carrying this weight from the beginning. Isaac killed that boy. It was hard to carry that burden. This was like a release. When Isaac knew that Luis was going to take him, Isaac was like, “I’m ready for this. I’d rather you take me than live like this forever.”

American Crime airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Read more from Yahoo TV:
Richard Cabral Talks Revving Up for Mayans MC

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