The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox Episode 6 Recap & Ending Explained

From the moment Amanda found out that her roommate was dead and the moment she was put behind bars for her murder, life had been a complete unbelievable yet very real nightmare for her. Every step of the way–the interrogation, the arrest, the trial, and the punishment–Amanda made the mistake in expecting the Italian police and the justice system to do the right thing. But spending time in prison until the case went to appellate court was perhaps the most taxing and excruciating way for her to actually grow as a person. The good thing is, as long as she did grow, even as she had to make peace with the possibility of spending her entire life in prison, that was proof that breaking Amanda was the farthest thing from easy.

Spoiler Alert

What kept Amanda going in her early days in prison?

Not that anyone other than Amanda’s family, her lawyers, and Raffaele would even want to, but how do you even comfort a young girl who’s just been sentenced to 26 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit? The world came crashing down for Amanda when the judge read her sentence out loud. They let her hug her family on her way out of the court house, but Amanda is left too dizzy by the horror of her reality to even register all that. She goes into her cell kicking and screaming. But no matter how desperately she protests, the choice to live her life has just been taken away from her. Warden Banti only lets her family meet her for 10 minutes about once a week. And that’s about the only time that Amanda gets to cry her eyes out and get comforted in return. But there’s pain even in meeting the people she loves. It only reminds Amanda that she may not ever go to school or have a life again when Deanna talks about her cousins and their schools. She’s not mad at people for getting to have full, happy lives out there. She just can’t get herself to accept that hers was snatched from her before she could even say anything for herself. Even Don Saulo tried to lift her spirits by sharing his Christian sentiments about God’s design and everything. But how’s Amanda supposed to accept that this is God’s plan for her? She’s a complete mess when Curt comes by to visit. He has good news. There’s a whole PR team, independent DNA experts, and even the head of the Idaho Innocence Project looking into making a strong case against the prosecution’s tale of fickle lies. But Amanda’s in no state to process all that. She doesn’t mean to make her father cry. But when her desperate plea for freedom makes him break down in tears, the look on Amanda’s face is one of guilt. The keyboard Don Saulo gets especially for Amanda fails to help her overcome her grief over her own life. There even comes a phase where she contemplates ending it all. With a morbid knowledge of all the ways people have sought freedom from prison, life, and existence itself, Amanda considers slitting her wrists and bleeding out. But what keeps her from making that mistake is the thought that the police would only twist her suicide to push their story on people and make her out to be guilty. Amanda can’t have that. She’ll persevere. Even when life feels so unbelievably dull and depressing that the sun in the Aria and the giggles of her co-prisoner’s kid can’t put a smile on her face, she’ll go on just because she will never let them lie about her again. 

What brings Amanda’s fire back? 

Once a person makes up their minds about giving in to their circumstances, their built-in instinct to be okay kicks in spontaneously. It’s no different for Amanda. She asked Don Saulo how a person is supposed to just accept the bad hand they’re dealt. But she finds the answer somewhere else. Warden Banti was nice enough to put the only other American prisoner together with Amanda. And after a certain point, Cecilia couldn’t keep mum and watch a young girl waste away in her bed anymore. So she gives her a much needed reality check about the situation she’s in. Even in her pain, Amanda is not really alone. It doesn’t make it any easier for her to look around and see the stories of pain, loss, and love on the faces of the women around her. But it does remind Amanda that she’s not the only one going through something terrible. She’s not the only one who’s missing a life she’s left behind. It’s harder for Edda to come to terms with it. It might even have stung Deanna to be mistaken for her sister and being scolded for shocking her mother. But Edda didn’t mean to hurt Deanna. All she can feel anymore is the helplessness of losing her sweet little girl to a wretched world. She’s bound to want to cling to her hope for a better outcome in the appeal trial. She didn’t relish telling Amanda that it could take up to 3 years for the appellate court to set up the trial. But Edda doesn’t get to have it both ways. Amanda had to accept the possibility of a life in Italian prison. If anything, she should be applauded for even having the strength to think of an alternative life in that hell; far removed from the life she’s always dreamed of. She’s had to accept that she may never see the world, make a friend, fall in love, or have a child. But it’s not what her mother thinks at all. Amanda hasn’t lost her light. She’s found ways to enjoy her time in that awful place. She does yoga, makes friends, and hears the stories that she was too depressed to pay attention to before. So when her mother expects her to have just as much hope about the appeal trial as her, she says it like it is. However well-meant and loving her actions are, Edda is unfair to expect Amanda to put herself on hold until the trial. What Amanda really wants is for her mother to be okay with the very real possibility of her daughter spending a large chunk of her adulthood in prison. But you can’t hold it against Edda, really. No mother can bear to watch her innocent daughter turn 23 while wrongfully convicted of a terrible crime. Amanda doesn’t stay in this headspace for too long. Even in prison, her growth has been consistent, and that’s only a sign that she’s a well-balanced, wholesome young adult who wants to make the most of whatever situation life lands her in. But she’s terrible at handling her mail. Cecilia takes care of it for her. And thanks to her, Amanda knows that the prison guards in Italy have sticky fingers. They also had the audacity to send the letter from one of the Christian institutions that supports Amanda along with the empty envelope that was supposed to carry the 50 dollars they donated to Amanda’s defence. But the letter that really captures Amanda’s attention is the one sent by a certain Saul. He’s an expert on interrogation methods. And when he looked into Amanda’s case, he noticed the telltale signs that convinced him the police had manipulated her into giving her statement. This is Amanda’s first brush with someone who understood her, and more importantly, believed her horrible experience at the questura. And her stepdad, Chris, meets a completely different Amanda on his visit. Feeling like someone has actually seen her has been a major boost to Amanda’s spirits. She tells Chris all about the tactics the police used to get what they wanted out of her. But the thing that Chris notices the most is the fire that is back in her eyes. Amanda lost it for a while. But now that she understands things a lot better, and she’s stopped blaming herself for being crushed under the pressure the police put on her, she’s found reason to have hope. That brings a helluva shift in Amanda’s overall personality. Once someone who couldn’t even look Banti in the eyes, Amanda now has the gall to walk into his office and ask for the judge’s report on her trial. She’s a bright girl who’s found it pretty easy to get fluent in Italian in her time in prison. So the language barrier isn’t something they can use to intimidate and overwhelm her anymore.

What happened in Amanda and Raffaele’s appeal trial?

Amanda and Raffaele’s breakup didn’t change the fact that they’re friends. They’ve always been friends. It’s not been easy for Amanda to get to call Raffaele. But the moment she gets the chance to, she wants Raffaele to feel the same excitement over Saul’s letter. But Raffaele has kept up with the news. And more importantly, he knows the Italian court better than Amanda does. Amanda would’ve never thought that the Italian court would be stuck up enough to not even allow American experts in their trial. And what’s even worse is that there are no Italian experts on interrogation methods who can sub in for Saul. So Amanda got all excited over nothing when it came to the interrogation angle. But Raffaele has a whole lot more to share with her. With the way he did his job, it’s a mystery how Mignini had gone so long without being indicted. He’s always twisted the law to fit his whims and narratives. And he’s apparently only starting to pay with his suspension over the abuse of office in regards to the Monster of Florence case. It’s no surprise that Mignini is getting off with just a week-long suspension even when the charges are as big as illegal wiretapping and many such acts of misconduct. But perhaps nothing defines the gross hypocrisy of the Italian justice system more than the fact that, even indicted, Mignini still gets to be an active prosecutor. Not only that, he’s about to push for harsher punishment for Amanda and Raffaele in the appeal trial. But Mignini doesn’t scare Amanda anymore. She knows what kind of a man he is now. And by studying every single thing about her case, she basically makes sure that she knows more than even Mignini when she walks into a whole new courtroom. 

Don Saulo does his part with as much subtlety as he can muster. He’s known Mignini forever. But as an emotionally regulated, wise man, he’s found ways to keep things amicable yet honest with him. When Don Saulo catches Mignini at a cafe, he is blatantly sarcastic. He reminds Mignini of his privilege with the simple truth. Despite breaking the law, Mignini still has his job. And yet he sees his suspension as a bigger failure of justice than the fact that he’s convicted two innocent young kids. It’s probably not something Don Saulo would’ve done for just anyone. But he spends a lot of time with Amanda. And anyone who actually knows Amanda would know in a second that she can never even imagine doing what she’s been convicted of. So Don Saulo cuts right to the chase and tells Mignini what he believes. Amanda is innocent. There’s nothing more relevant and important than that. No matter how much the media and Mignini might try to twist Amanda’s plea for freedom as her American entitlement, the truth has to prevail over every manipulative distraction. Amanda is innocent. And when she goes to court this time around, she remembers to wear the confidence of a person who knows that they’re innocent. 

After four seemingly endless years, Amanda and her lawyers have another shot at proving that she couldn’t be further from the person the world thinks she is. Hope and fear are the two most prominent things that go through Amanda’s mind in this long ordeal. There is no middle ground. The court will either prioritize logic, reason, and truth. Or it will follow the old patterns and treat the case like it’s an attack on their patriotic sentiments. Two people play the biggest roles in changing Amanda and Raffaele’s lives for the better. This time around, the prosecution couldn’t hog the stage and overwhelm the court with their salacious exaggeration of everything. Two DNA experts absolutely demolish any effect Dr. Ippolito’s questionable analysis had on the case. She might’ve found traces of Meredith’s DNA on the knife, but the amount was far less than the bare minimum to be considered a true positive based on international protocols. And if that didn’t destroy the prosecution’s case enough, the DNA experts bring up the very real possibility of the knife having been contaminated because of poor handling. It was tested along with fifty other objects. The minute amount of Meredith’s DNA could’ve gotten on it from contamination. The police don’t get to dodge accountability either. The video footage of the investigation of the crime scene clearly shows the countless ways they contaminated evidence, which most importantly includes the bra clasp. They got Raffaele because they found his DNA on the clasp. But the footage clearly shows the clasp being exchanged between visibly dirty gloves. The Italian police can’t like this too much. It’s funny how the prosecution now has a reason to demand absolute proof. But when it came to the case they built against Amanda and Raffaele, proof was the farthest thing from their minds. No sensible judge would ever take what Mignini has to say against Amanda seriously. He can get instant validation from his subordinates, but the court has no patience for his ego. He claims that no innocent person lies. And he expects the court to believe that Amanda is a sex freak and a killer because she lied about Patrick Lumumba. That’s pretty weak for a closing argument. But what else could Mignini say for himself anyway? He won the first time because of the crazy sensationalization of the case. Things are different this time. But nothing more so than Amanda herself. This time, Amanda knows that she’s the only person who can speak her truth. She’s grown out of her naive expectations from the police, the law, the court, and the public. So her closing statement in her appeal trial is the truest she’s ever been in front of people. Every word she speaks in her now-fluent Italian aches with her desperate urge for freedom. She wants people to know that she’s heartbroken over losing Meredith, and that her family are always in her thoughts. But what destroys her a little every single day is being caged for a crime she could never think of committing. She speaks for herself, for Raffaele, and she doesn’t forget to apologize to Patrick for all the trouble her statement caused in his life. The police abused her into giving that statement. But Patrick can’t possibly expect an apology from that lot. 

In the ending of episode 6 of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, the thing that Amanda is most terrified of is hope. She asked to be sent back to the prison to wait for the verdict. What she really wanted was to spend time with Don Saulo on what hopefully is her last night in prison. Don Saulo may have lived his entire life in places that breed loneliness, but he’s not like that at all. He’s very capable of love, and he’s come to love Amanda like a granddaughter. His parting gift for the sweet girl he’s come to care about a lot is the Santo Spirito flying dove, a symbol of his faith that celebrates freedom. So it makes sense that Amanda sings of freedom when Don Saulo asks for one last song on the keyboards. Amanda’s learned her way around it. It really goes to show that good things exist even in the worst spaces. In what has practically been hell for her, Amanda has met wonderful people and made friends she’ll cherish for a lifetime. She meant it when she asked her mom not to worry about her. Amanda has always had the instinct to seek out the good things even in the worst circumstances. That’s what has kept her sane and steady. 

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