I have my unfair share of problems with Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox that the show is in no way responsible for. That said, I also have to admit that the show about a young American girl’s uniquely terrible yet not the worst luck has given me goosebumps, broken my heart, and even emotionally overwhelmed me at times. That should tell you just how well made The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is. You’re here because you’ve grown to care about Amanda and her story before and after she was wrongfully convicted of her friend’s murder. Lucky for us, the closure she achieves in the final episode is the best way that this chapter of her life could close.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Amanda want to meet Giuliano Mignini?
You think it was frightening for Amanda to put pen to paper and send a letter to the man who put her in prison? You should see the other guy. It’d be a serious understatement to say that the letter Mignini gets from Amanda catches him off guard. He’s seen a lot of odd things in his long career as an investigator and a prosecutor. But even he couldn’t think up a world where the girl who he had put through the wringer would write to him and address him as “my prosecutor.” I know what you’re thinking. That’s just how you refer to the person who prosecutes your case, right? But Mignini is Italian. So the simple misinterpretation of a “my” instead of a “the” has him wondering how this girl could be so affectionate to him after what he’s done to her. But let’s back up a little. Mignini had to muster up a whole lot of courage to even touch the letter that Don Saulo had to remind him was, in fact, not Anthrax. But the fear that Amanda’s letter brought into his life wasn’t something Mignini was ready to face. What if it makes him introspect? And what if the man who looks back from inside him resembles the monster the American media has been making him out to be? To hide the fear of acknowledging his bias, Mignini was projecting his insecurities on Don Saulo when he wanted him to read the letter. He didn’t want to accept that Don Saulo’s love for Amanda wasn’t the bias that he should have been concerned about. But what could Mignini have done? He couldn’t just bin the letter and get on with his life like he didn’t do anything wrong. What sort of man would that make him? The surreal glow that each letter that Amanda wrote to him emitted was the sign of their bittersweet significance to the old prosecutor. But once he read her letters, Mignini couldn’t help but admire Amanda’s capacity for empathy and understanding. Even without the promise of any acknowledgement or apology, Amanda did her part and went through every thought in her mind about her prosecutor. It was bigger than her process of figuring out “why her?” She wanted to grant Mignini the openness of understanding he didn’t grant her when it had been his turn. But Amanda’s empathy wasn’t conditional. She didn’t see Mignini beyond the terrifying man he seemed to be. Amanda was just being herself in her letters to him. She is the kind of person who understood that Mignini was more than his disapproving frown and his detestable lies about her. He was a husband, a father, a man who was loved by his family for a reason. Amanda wanted Mignini to know that she didn’t expect anything from him. But while she might’ve even meant that, a part of her certainly wanted a whole lot of explanation from her prosecutor. The most gnawing reason behind that is the depressing truth that Amanda hasn’t been able to move on. And that’s only understandable. Knowing how the world sees her, Amanda feels the constant anxiety of being back in prison in moments of normalcy. Even a decade after being free, and happy in her relationship with Christopher, Amanda isn’t free from the reminders of her pain. How do you explain freedom to someone who gets flashbacks of the rabid paparazzi when her wedding photographers shoot the happiest moments of her life? Thankfully, Amanda chose the right man. When Amanda is pregnant, and she gets an answer from Mignini, Christopher is the only one who understands just how big it is for her. Mignini is still too protective of his denial to want to speak about the case, but he’s communicating through other means. He’s sent her a clip from a film he relates to. And in that film, Maigret’s character is a detective who deeply regrets putting an innocent man in prison. That’s basically an admission that he was wrong, right? This is the first time Amanda is witnessing this side of Mignini that she only hoped existed. He is human after all. And though he may not be ready to talk about it just yet, Mignini basically says everything that he needs to with the movie clip. But Amanda needs more than that. Keeping correspondence with Mignini and sharing warm anecdotes of their families is fine and all. But what Amanda really needs from Mignini is a clear admission that he was wrong. And when Mignini agrees to meet her in Italy, Amanda sees this as this absolutely unique and utterly terrifying opportunity to put her past to rest.
How does Amanda’s family react to her decision to meet Mignini?
If you’re Amanda, the last thing your family expects when you get them all together for a get together is the news that you’re going back to Italy. Amanda’s daughter, Eureka, is a toddler now. So when Deanna and Edda heard about a surprise, what they expected was another baby. Nobody’s happy with Amanda’s decision to go and meet the man who’s caused her and all of them so much pain, least of all Edda and Curt. They’ve been the only two people who’ve always tried to do what’s best for Amanda, sometimes even against the advice of the lawyers, the PR team, and the rest of the family. And as the two people who’ve had the hardest time even surviving the long years when their baby girl was locked away in a foreign prison, Edda and Curt have naturally wanted to move on from that experience the most desperately. So yeah, they don’t understand what could’ve gotten into Amanda to make her want to risk losing everything. The court might’ve acquitted Amanda, but Italy still believes her to be a freak they would all be too happy to hurt. But to Amanda, all of this boils down to one simple fact. While everyone around her might think that it’s easy for her to move on, she’s the one who still gets called a murderer on the internet. However much Chris may want to cut Christopher down to size by reminding him that he wasn’t there when all of it was going down, Christopher isn’t the kind of man who can be convinced that what his wife is going through is nothing. He fights the haters online first hand. And he sees just how much it hurts someone as sweet as Amanda to be treated like a freak in most of the spaces she frequents. Edda loves her daughter more than anything or anyone else in the world. But even she doesn’t quite get that motherhood and its responsibilities are different for someone like Amanda. She can’t possibly just wait for Eureka to hear awful things about her mom on the playground and come back with questions that Amanda doesn’t have the answers to. Why her? That’s the one thing she hasn’t been able to explain to herself or the world. And when it comes to Eureka, Amanda is tormented by the guilt of having an indelible stain attached to her name. Rudy Guede was released just a few days back. The man who probably broke into Via de la Pergola on that fateful night and, at the very least, witnessed Meredith’s murder. Rudy’s DNA was all over the crime scene. So how’s Amanda supposed to be okay when she reads her name on the headlines when Rudy is freed? Anything related to Meredith and Rudy is spoken of in relation to Amanda. The press calls Meredith Amanda’s roommate. And Rudy gets referred to as “Amanda’s roommate’s killer.” Can you believe this? Neither can Amanda. And more importantly, she can’t let her daughter grow up thinking there’s a side to her mother that she doesn’t understand. Mignini has the answer to all the questions that can finally put the world’s doubts about Amanda to rest. And if there’s a chance that Amanda can achieve such clarity, she’ll do so no matter how badly her sister hurts her about it. It’s been hard on Deanna. She’s a young girl too. While the whole thing with Amanda’s trial was going down, Edda and Curt had no time or attention to spare for Deanna. Bitterness and jealousy is bound to grow in such circumstances. And it just so happens that Amanda’s story is so long, loud, and grand, that Deanna has felt completely neglected, overlooked, and overshadowed by it. For as long as she can remember, everything has been about Amanda. But what Deanna needs to realize is that none of what their family has been through has been Amanda’s fault. Hell, she was rotting in prison, and even after that, she had to spend years clearing her name, at least legally. She didn’t ask Chris to move to Perugia to be close to her, and she certainly didn’t make him fight with Edda and have the two of them sleep apart for 15 months. The only two people responsible for the problems in Chris and Edda’s marriage are the two of them. But Deanna wants to pin that on Amanda too. And along with that, the panic attacks, the bullying, the fear, and all the other struggles their cousins have chalked up to Amanda’s case. It’s like Amanda is responsible for the well being of the entire world. Deanna makes her feel like her quest for answers will be the greatest betrayal to what their parents have been through to free her. But this is good kind of situation where you can’t pick sides in good conscience. Deanna had to drop out of school. And Amanda’s immediate family was certainly devastated by this whole ordeal. Thankfully, all that really counts in Amanda’s decision making process are her parents’ approval. They’ve always been her bigger cheerleaders. They understand Amanda better than anyone else in the world, except maybe Christopher. And they know that once their daughter has made up her mind, there’s no making her rethink it. But Curt’s hesitation is understandable. The last time he gave her his blessings to go to Italy, all of this happened. But he’s also not okay with the idea of Amanda, the daughter that he’s endlessly proud of, continuing to feel like a less-than-ideal parent for things that other people did to her. And Edda is going with her, of course she is. They get that Amanda absolutely needs to do this. However bizarre it may be for every party involved.
What happens when Amanda goes back to Italy?
Here we go. We’re back in time to see Amanda go back to Italy to meet her prosecutor, something we’ve seen flashes of in the first episode. There was never any question about Christopher and Edda coming along. Who knows what was going through Amanda’s mind when she was hidden in the car covered under a sheet? But there has to be a mix of hope and fear as Amanda comes back to Italy to find the answers that will free her soul from the burden it bears. No one thinks it’s a good idea. How can her mother think she’s doing the right thing when Amanda’s subconscious puts her through the worst case scenario in her sleep? Thankfully, she wakes up in Christopher’s arms. Edda can’t even get herself to go in with Amanda when they reach the meeting spot and Don Saulo takes Amanda into his arms. Amanda is happy to see the man who’s always loved her like a granddaughter and believed in her innocence. But the prospect of actually meeting and speaking to Mignini is terrifying, to say the least. To her relief, the Mignini who meets her is who she expected he would be in her letters. He’s much softer, much more understanding in person. But that doesn’t necessarily make Amanda shiver any less as she goes through the notes she’s jotted down for the meeting. She isn’t saying much that she hasn’t said already in her letters. But it’s got to be uncomfortable for Mignini to be proven wrong about his understanding of the way she refers to him. My prosecutor. To Mignini, there’s some warmth attached to it. But ironically, in Amanda’s language, it’s a plain expression. It’s only ironic because, as Amanda’s sarcasm reminds him, the police misinterpreted the real meaning of her “see you later” text to Lumumba. Amanda wants Mignini to know that she doesn’t hate him. And Mignini feels the same way about her. But there’s still this thick layer of denial standing between Amanda and Mignini. It’s made of Mignini’s discomfort with acknowledging about the case he prosecuted. Sure, he agrees with the court’s verdict that Amanda didn’t kill Meredith. He even goes as far as to admit that the Amanda that he knows now couldn’t have done what he believed her to be capable of. But he’s still reluctant to give Amanda the acknowledgement that she’s flown across the world for. Even Mignini knows that he’s going around in circles trying to convince Amanda that two kinds of truth exist for a prosecutor–the judicial truth, and the real truth. I mean, he can’t be obtuse enough to not hear the hypocrisy in his claim that all he did was his duty, and all he relied on for his investigation was the judicial truth. When push comes to shove, no matter how Mignini really feels, he’s just not ready to accept that he made a terrible mistake when he pushed the idea that Amanda was a sex freak, violent young woman. His selective blindness is even more scathing when you hear him complain about his slander by the American media. Amanda feels genuinely bad for what he’s been through. And she’s not uncomfortable to admit her truth. But Mignini can’t face the truth of his hypocrisy when Amanda asks him the hardest hitting question. For the whole time he went after Amanda, Mignini maintained that he saw Meredith when he looked at his daughters. It’s bound to make another young girl he pointlessly targeted feel wildly confused. Why didn’t he have the same empathy for Amanda? What made it so easy for him to believe that she was a monster? Mignini has no direct answer for Amanda. But his pain and guilt make his heart ache too much for him to be able to hide it. It just so happens that the day he’s come to meet Amanda is the anniversary of his father’s death, the loss that determined the course of his life. Ever since Mignini lost his father to a car crash, he’s been trying to fix the world in the most desperate ways. He may not have the courage to openly admit to his guilt about what he did to Amanda yet. But it’s written all over his face as he squirms at the prospect of introspection. Amanda didn’t get married and have a baby to impress people who think that’s what a woman should do with her life. You know, people like Mignini. But the fact that Amanda is a mother now is a way for Mignini to stick to his original argument. Bear in mind that this is the first time he’s meeting her outside of the court. What he wants to convince himself of now is that this isn’t the same Amanda that he convicted. He wants to believe that the Amanda that he thought was a freak and a weirdo has been changed by motherhood. So when all is said and done, it makes sense that Edda is frustrated by this outcome. They’ve all just taken a huge risk for a rather underwhelming outcome when it comes to Mignini.
Does Amanda find closure?
Once Amanda actually meets Mignini and speaks her mind, Italy doesn’t seem like such a scary place anymore. This is probably the first time Amanda and Raffaele are meeting after their acquittal. So Amanda couldn’t have picked a more perfect place to introduce Raffaele to her family. Raffa is all grown up now, maybe even perpetually pensive. There’s this constant sadness on his face that you just can’t ignore. In the decade that has passed, Amanda must’ve thought about Raffaele and how he’s coping with what he’s been through. But weirdly, Raffaele’s experience hasn’t been anything like that of Amanda. Sure, the world thought Amanda was a murderer. But money is a very real thing. And a lot of people were offering her big bucks for her story. The same wasn’t the case with Raffaele. On the contrary, he’s always one Google search away from being fired. And dating, well, that’s been going as well for Raffaele as it can for someone wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. The normal ones avoid him, and the ones that are into him are in it for all the wrong reasons. So yeah, that’s about it when it comes to Raffa’s life. Under different circumstances, Amanda probably would’ve kept the burning question to herself. But hearing all this is bound to make her wonder if he regrets having met her. Raffa is honest in his answer. A few weeks of the most perfect romance can’t be worth 4 years in jail and a lifetime of stigma. But Raffaele doesn’t regret loving Amanda. They know better than to go down the rabbit hole of what ifs. But a couple of those are too frustrating to not think about every single day. What if Amanda didn’t go back home to take a shower that morning? None of this would’ve happened. It’s especially painful to think about it in the context of the real reason Amanda went back home that morning. She and Raffaele had plans to go to Gubbio. And Amanda wanted to pick up just the right skirt to look the part in her very own romance movie. Life’s been anything but that for the two of them since then. But coming to Italy has been far from futile for Amanda. She didn’t get what she wanted from Mignini. But she got the perspective that made her see a lot of things a lot clearer. That’s why Amanda wants to let her mom know that she’s a total warrior for holding her head high while fighting to free her daughter. What happened to Amanda is a parent’s worst nightmare. And Edda not only brought Amanda back home safe and sound, she’s continued to be her constant support system. Being a mother herself, Amanda now gets how horrifying it is for any mother to go through that.
And while it’s not like she didn’t feel it before, in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox’s ending, the titular character actually acknowledges that in a weird way, she’s the lucky one. She bids a distant, yet warm goodbye to Via de la Pergola before leaving Italy. The place may have been marked by the unthinkable tragedy that took Meredith, but the same place also holds the memories of Amanda and Meredith just being girls. None of this was supposed to happen. A bright, beautiful girl like Meredith was supposed to have a long, amazing life. And Amanda was supposed to have the time of her life studying and growing up in Italy. The world hasn’t really made it convenient for Amanda to mourn the friend she absolutely adored. But maybe there was a part of her that she wasn’t aware of that knew exactly where she needed to go. Amanda needed to go back to where it all happened to finally mourn Meredith and make peace with a fundamental truth of life. Some people will always doubt her. And it’s not her job, nor is it even possible for her to change their minds. But wait. There’s something interesting in the last scene of this week’s episode. For a glimpse there in the middle we saw Mignini walk the city kind of in a daze. It looks like meeting Amanda has made it impossible for him to hold on to his rigid denials anymore. The man in the confession box about to unburden his heart to Don Saulo is Mignini. Amanda was right about him. There is a tender man underneath the prosecutor. At the end of the day, it’s good to see that Mignini has chosen to be the man he set out to be instead of the prosecutor people expected him to be.
