American Vandal season 2, episode 2 recap: ‘#2’

On the American Vandal season 2 premiere, a new case arose with the Turd Burglar adding laxatives to a school’s lemonade.

While the police believe that they have the Turd Burglar in a bullied student named Kevin McClain, a girl believes he is innocent and claims she has proof.

This brings the young filmmakers from season 1 in to shoot another documentary to try to find the real Turd Burglar.

Kevin McClain’s American Vandal Interview

The filmmakers are talking to Kevin McClain and letting him know that they want him to feel comfortable and just tell the truth.

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When they ask Kevin why he is there, he said that he is a student of St. Bernardine Catholic School, where everyone believes he is the Turd Burglar.

He also said that he did confess to it, but the school forced him to confess. He then drops the same bomb his grandmother mentioned last week – he also was a victim of the Turd Burglar and he also “sh*t his pants.”

There was an on-screen graphic that indicated that between 1989 and 2015, DNA testing reversed 1,532 homicide convictions. 25% of those people confessed to the crime they did not commit, and 38% of those under 18 confessed.

Kevin McClain was expelled from school and was indicted by the police. He said that his confession was coerced.

A Professor of Psychology said that false confessions do happen even in high stakes crimes that involve death penalties – even by normal people.

Kevin said that he was a name on the checklist at the start, but his time there was not an interrogation – but was “theater.” They wanted to bring someone down and he was the guy. He even said that there was a good cop/bad cop routine there.

Kevin said that he went out of his way to talk about an assignment and accidentally knocked Brother Buckley’s lemonade. When asked why he replaced it with the horchata, he said that anyone who doesn’t understand that has an “unsophisticated pallet.”

He even starts to talk about how divine horchata is and he got Brother Buckley the “superior beverage” since he felt so bad about it.

The police wouldn’t let him go home when school ended. The police even told his grandmother that she didn’t need to come to the school and he was kept in the room for hours “with no tea.”

Kevin said it was hard to believe that Tanner Bassett is who turned him in. He then said that it all makes sense now.

Kathy Wexler’s Role in Kevin’s Confession

After the six hours of the interrogation, the school’s dean Kathy Wexler came in and gave him a break. When he returned after 50 minutes, he admitted to everything.

The professor said that the police could not make him a promise if he changed his story, but the school dean could.

Kevin said that Wexler took him to his locker and then took him to the teacher’s lounge, where she offered him the best mozzarella sticks he ever had in his life. As his grandmother said, she knew how to get to him — with tea and mozzarella sticks.

Kevin said he told her he was innocent but was terrified. He thought he could get arrested for a crime he did not commit. Mrs. Wexler promised him that she would not let that happen if he cooperated and told them what they wanted to hear.

Mrs. Wexler said that if he admitted to it, he would get a two-week suspension, not be expelled, and it wouldn’t even go on his permanent record because the school would not press charges. Kevin said that he didn’t want to because he would get a lawyer and win in court, but the police had all the evidence and he could end up in jail.

“I understand the prison industrial complex.”

Kevin said that he believed her.

Mrs. Wexler refused to be interviewed for the American Vandal documentary. She sent an email and said that the issues were resolved because Kevin took responsibility. She said she could never give a student a reduced punishment and it took place a few weeks ago and she claimed he told her he did it.

The confession by Kevin McClain came 15 days after the Brownout. That included 15 days of news coverage and angry phone calls delivered to Mrs. Wexler.

Kevin said that he was so blind since Mrs. Wexler was working with the police to solve the problem and stop the angry calls from the parents.

The Poop Piñata

Up next, they wanted to talk about the piñata, and they asked how he got the poop in there.

It was author Kurt Vonnegut’s birthday and the English teacher, Mrs. Montgomery was having a celebration because Vonnegut is the “Kanye West of satirical postmodern literature.”

The classroom was decorated and there was a Vonnegut piñata. A kid admits to getting to hit the piñata first – “lucky me.” The kids cheered the first two times he hit it and then screamed the third time because poop flew everywhere. “No one screams like that for candy.”

Back to the interrogation, the police asked how he got the poop in there. He tried to show them that he was pooping on the top of it, but the police showed him that it couldn’t have happened that way and showed him where the poop had to be put in (the bottom).

The Psychology Professor said that the police supplied all the details, which is the only way that Kevin knew the answers. Kevin said that the officers told him how he did it and then claimed that he did it because he hated his classmates.

Kevin Discounts Any Bullying

Kevin said that he had not heard the name “sh*t stain McClain” in years. His grandmother said that he will always complain about his food, being forced to go to Church, not caring for her or her life choices, but he never once complained about his classmates.

Kevin mentioned the Fruit Ninja videos as the reason kids bullied him. However, Kevin pointed out that he is the one who started the Fruit Ninja videos himself in his freshman year. It was his idea.

Kevin said that bullying requires a person being bullied, but he said that it is his friends that he does it with. He even showed longer takes where he gives high fives to those who throw the fruit at him.

Kevin’s sister said that he does not think he is being bullied. A friend said that Kevin likes the attention and does not see it as being bullied. There is even more video showing him enjoying it and the kids love it as well.

They also said that Alex Wright dressed as him for Halloween as bullying. He then shows the picture. Kevin then showed the costume was his own personal hat and he loaned all the clothes to the person because he thought it was funny.

He said the cops wanted to hear motivation and they invented it.

The Sh*T Launcher

Up next is a pep rally before a basketball game. The Turd Burglar then promises another attack. One kid said that they are under the threat of another attack and they are holding a pep rally for an undefeated basketball team. “That makes no sense.”

There is now footage from the pep rally. There is no food or drinks allowed and they checked everyone before they went in. The kids say they felt safe in the gym.

Just when the kids went to yell “Go,” launchers were supposed to shoot out tee-shirts but instead shot out dust. “It wasn’t obvious that it was poop until someone shouted, it’s poop! And then everyone knew.”  It was cat feces.

The shirts that it shot out had the Turd Burglar card printed on them.

The police then asked him to show them how he did it. He went to try to show that he was squatting over it. The police told him exactly what was in it. He said “dog” and the police asked if he was sure and then Kevin guessed “cat” when they kept pushing him. They asked him to show how the folded it and the police showed him how it should have been done.

The Laxatives?

One of the officers said that you keep piling on the facts until the truth comes out. He is also sure that he is the Turd Burglar because there is a confession. The officer said that his best friend was with him when he bought the laxatives and that is all the proof they need (remember, his friend said he never really saw what was in the bag that Kevin bought and just guessed it was laxatives).

The police asked what was in the bag and then said, “was it laxatives?” instead of letting him answer. Kevin said that he does not remember what he bought that night at a convenience store two weeks before.

The key ingredient that caused the Brownout was Maltitol. They went to the convenience store to see what laxatives contained it. The pharmacist said that there are no laxatives with Maltitol in them because it is just a sugar substitute. The only thing that they had with Maltitol in it was sugar-free Gummy Bears.

They then showed the classic Amazon reviews about sugar-free Gummy Bears causing diarrhea. It also would have changed the color and texture of the lemonade. The filmmakers asked why the police did not even try to investigate the convenience store claims since that store did not sell laxatives that caused the diarrhea.

Did Kevin Ruin Skip Day for Tanner?

Someone said that Tanner and Kevin had not been best friends for “like a minute.”

Kevin McClain said that Tanner believes that he ruined Skip Day. This is a day where kids chip in for an A or a B and then get to skip school that day. They usually take part in something called The Great American Challenge that day.

It is a race involving four teams of six to finish a case of beer, a full pizza, a bottle of vodka, some drugs, and a giant puzzle of Lundgarden’s mom. The puzzle has to be last and the pizza has to be sausage and jalapeno.

Kevin and Tanner always made fun of Skip Day. “They called it Skip Chromosome Day.” That meant when Skid Day rolled around this year, he was surprised to see Tanner was not in school. Kevin told Tanner not to cry to him when he gets “an underage” and then Tanner said that Chloe was with him.

The cops showed up and Tanner was convinced that it was Kevin who called the police.

The police blamed Kevin for calling the police in the interrogation.

Kevin said that Tanner went to his house and was angry, calling Kevin jealous. Kevin said that he kicked Tanner out of their band and replaced him with a kid named Myles. Kevin said that Myles was a better fit because they are trying to get back into the Bar Mitzvah scene and Myles is a middle schooler.

Myles said that people think it is weird for high schoolers to play a concert for middle schoolers but since he is a middle schooler, it isn’t as weird.

Tanner was pissed because he helped start the band. Kevin said that Tanner was bitter enough to falsely accuse Kevin of a felony. The filmmakers said that Tanner had all the information about everything but waited until the day after he was kicked out of the band. “He was butthurt.”

The filmmakers are disagreeing about whether they feel Kevin is innocent or not. The reason for the doubt is that there were two more warnings sent out, but nothing was done, and it was because Kevin was already under house arrest. The last warning went out the day that Kevin was placed under false arrest.

The second filmmaker showed the footage of the Brownout. While Kevin also pooped himself, he feels Kevin pooped his pants on purpose to make himself look innocent. All the other kids were in pain, but Kevin was just trying to push it out.

“Forced confessions, forced turds. It was a lot to digest”

However, Chloe said that she felt Kevin was innocent, but no one listened to her statement. Chloe said that she knows who the Turd Burglar is, and the filmmakers want to know what she was ignored. She said that she saw someone with the Turd Burglar card in their wallet while waiting in line.

It was basketball star, DeMarcus Tillman.