WARNING: The following article contains every spoiler imaginable for the entirety ofAmerican Vandals new season.
Read at your own risk!
The second iteration ofAmerican Vandalhas one obvious problem and one brilliant twist.
Credit: Scott Patrick Green / Netflix
Season 2s problem is the TV Continuation Paradox.
The moment of the season, for me, came in the finale.
After the mystery is solved, popular Sara Pearson (Saxon Sharbino) pulls Peter aside at a party.
You put people on blast, and forwhat?
What did my hookup list have to do with the truth?
But what a story, what a detail, a hookup list, how lurid, how delightful!
Theyre famous now, kinda: Their little documentary platform-skipped from Vimeo to Netflix.
That meta-origin story is never quite convincing.
(God knows what the real-world Netflix lawyers would say about publicizing the sex lives of minors.)
get to fly north to Washington.
They used to be regular high schoolers, and now theyre a crack team investigating dirty-joke holistic mysteries.
DeMarcus kinda lives under Lous microscope, says Sam.
Of course Sam would point this out.
If you buy season 2s backstory, you understand how Sam might know something about transactional friendship.
The correlation never occurs to anyone.
Ultimately, youre left feeling likeanyonecouldve filmed this season ofVandal.
Maybe theyre struggling with the anthology format just like everybody else.
But then theres the big reveal in the season finale.
And the freakiest thing about this reign of terror is its intangible lack of purpose.
The cops think its a crime of vengeance, a bullied student lashing out.
Turns out the cops had it right but they were thinking too small.
I made a joke and they kicked me out of the fing school, Grayson explains.
His villainy involves basically everything that frightens anyone about data technology.
He steals photos and videos off a womans phone, and uses them to construct a catfishing Instagram account.
Then he approaches seemingly everyone at St. Bernadine on social media, building relationships as blackmail material.
Not hard to find lonely people, in high school or anywhere.
A few students and one teacher send Grayson nude selfies.
At which point Grayson turns the tables, using his own victims as unwilling collaborators.
The suspect was actually multiple people, blackmailed dupes working for a shadowman.
Graysons a distant presence inVandal, but Culhane cuts a fascinating figure in a few memorable scenes.
Grayson could be pretty muchanyangry young white dude, hiding behind the internet to torture the people around him.
Youreallfull of st, the Turd Burglar says in an early post.
But Grayson is beyond connection.
Heavy stuff, for a show with several hundred poop jokes!
But with this final reveal,Vandalseason 2 finally finds that second gear that made season 1 so special.
But its DeMarcus who delivers the most somber, humane perspective.
Melvin Greggs the breakout star of this season, shading DeMarcus raucous charm with a tense power.
The scene where he explains how he got fooled by Grayson could beAmerican Vandals whole mission statement.
Its hard to know whats real, DeMarcus says, When nobodys real with you.
This lamentation sums up this seasons tricky power.
All these misunderstood lonely people seek a real connection, and thats their first mistake.
DeMarcus isnt offering this conclusive statement to a friend or loved one.
Hes telling it to some kids he just met and to their camera, always on.
Grayson used DeMarcus for vengeance.
Whats Peter using him for?
