TV Recap: Natalia Grace Struggles to Live on Her Own in 5th Episode of "Good American Family"

Natalia Grace is on her own in the fifth episode of Hulu’s Good American Family. This episode marks a turning point in the narrative, as it’s the first to be based on the story told by Natalia herself. It puts viewers in the mind of an 8-year-old who was legally declared an adult and cast aside. It’s hard to watch, but that’s part of what has made Natalia Grace’s story a true-crime sensation.

Episode 5: “Too Hurty Without It" - Written by Katie Robbins

The events of this episode are based on Natalia Grace’s version of events.

November 2013

Detective Brandon Drysdale (Dulé Hill) meets with Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid) for the second time (we haven’t seen their first meeting yet). She tells him it’s been a year and a half since the Barnetts kicked her out. She seems anxious, kicking her legs off the chair as he asks why she was kicked out. “I was hiding knives," she tells him. Pressed for more details, she said she would lash out. Drysdale asks her what “lashing out" means. “I pushed my mom into an electric fence," she responds, “I put poison in her coffee; Oh, and my brothers, I wanted to roll them in a blanket and bury them in the backyard." He asks her why she would put them in a blanket. “So they’d stay warm," she responds.

Drysdale steps out into the hallway. We don’t see who he’s talking to, but we hear a woman’s voice. He complains that Natalia Grace doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with the interview. And since the woman in the hallway isn’t related to her, there's not much he can do. But he returns to the table to ask Natalia a few questions about life after she was on her own.

2012

Legally a 22-year-old, Natalia Grace finds herself standing in the main room of her new apartment. She hears her adopted parents start to drive away, and she starts to cry. And then she realizes they forgot something. She hobbles out the front door, chasing after their car. “You guys forgot to give me my walker!" If they saw her, they wouldn’t slow down or stop. “It’s too hurty without it," Natalia breaks down, begging them not to leave her.

“I wanna go home, it’s not fair," Natalia Grace pouts in her grimy little apartment. She begins to throw a tantrum, tossing a puzzle across the room and tearing the sheets off the bed. She sits on the floor against the wall, trying to calm down, and notices a carpet stain that looks like a bunny. “Hercules," she says.

Natalia wakes up from a nap on the floor in the early evening, sore. She gets up and goes to the kitchen, finding that the pantry and refrigerator are stocked as the Barnetts promised. However, nothing is ready-made. Climbing on the counters, she looks through the cupboards to find something she can eat. She finds a can of peaches, but she can’t figure out how to use the can opener.

We see Natalia Grace sitting on the couch late at night, making a meal out of peanut butter and crackers as she watches Disney’s Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. The talking-animal movie tells the story of two dogs and a cat who, thinking their family has abandoned them, go on a journey to be reunited with their humans. Natalia Grace perks up listening to Sassy (voiced by Sally Field) talk about feeling unwanted.

Through a montage, we see more of Natalia Grace’s lonely existence in the apartment. She’s unable to turn the old faucet handles in the bathtub that she can hardly get in. She does, however, figure out how to freshen up at the sink, even using it to wash her hair. She goes through all of the easy-to-eat boxed food and begins eating uncooked noodles. She watches lots of TV without any parental supervision, including an episode of The Simpsons that scares her, where Homer rushes into Bart’s bedroom at night brandishing a knife (Season 5, Episode 2 - “Cape Feare").

With all the boxed food gone, she tries the can opener again. She makes a cut in the top of the can of peaches, but can’t get it to open more than that. So she grabs a knife, singing “Firework" by Katy Perry as she stabs at it. She misses, slicing her hand open, crying for her mom. With no parents around, she goes out into the apartment complex. A barking dog frightens her, and she enters an open apartment, finding a box of donuts on the table. Unable to resist, Natalia Grace begins to heat them feverishly.

JJ (Jane Adams) is shocked to find Natalia Grace in her kitchen, eating her donuts, and asks where her mom is. “I’m 22, I just look young for my age," Natalia parrots. Natalia asks if she can use JJ’s phone to call her mom, and then realizes she doesn’t know her number. JJ helps look it up and hands her the phone. Natalia listens as she hears the Barnett family’s voice greeting, where each member of her family states their name. She isn’t part of it. She decides not to leave a message, and JJ talks about her own frustrating relationship with her daughter, who is a little older than 22. JJ shows Natalia Grace a picture of her grandson. She recommends that Natalia Grace apologize to her mom before things get beyond repair. She helps bandage up Natalia’s cut.

We see Natalia Grace that night, sitting on the floor talking into her oscillating fan as she eats the rest of the donuts and watches TV. A local interview segment comes on with Kristine Barnett (Ellen Pompeo) promoting her book, talking about how every child deserves love and how some are just harder to reach. In Natalia Grace’s mind, Kristine looks through the TV directly at her and says, “Do you hear me Natalia? I would never give up on you." The segment ends with a reminder that readers can find Kristine’s book in stores and libraries now.

Natalia Grace goes to the library to find Kristine’s book. Unsure of how that works, she asks a young librarian, Roger (Taj Speights), for help, and he can’t be bothered. Natalia steals a pencil off a desk, walks past a table full of Fifty Shades of Grey, and happens upon a copy of Kristine’s book by chance, recognizing Jacob’s face on the back cover. She excitedly picks it up, sitting down to page through it and finding a section of photos. She at first seems happy to see her family again. And then she gets to a family photo from the opening of Jacob’s Place. Natalia Grace has been cropped out, all but her hand. In frustration, she bangs the book against a shelf and heads for the exit with the book in hand. When she sets off the theft detector, Roger stops her and takes the book back. Natalia tells him she’s not a child, she’s 22, and he tells her that’s his age, too. He doesn’t believe her, asking for her birth year. Flustered, Natalia kicks him in the shin, grabs the book, and runs out with it.

“But I was there when we opened Jacob’s Place," Natalia cries in her apartment over the cropped photo. “I hate you," she yells at the book, using the pencil to black out all of her family’s faces. But then she regrets her action, trying to erase it, pleading for her family to come back.

The power goes out in Natalia Grace’s apartment, the result of an unpaid utility bill. It’s out for days. She is awoken one morning by the sound of keys unlocking the door. In walks her dad, Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass), who instantly complains about the stink from the disconnected refrigerator and the mess around the apartment. Natalia Grace is so excited to see him and just wants a hug and some tenderness, but Michael is angry at her. “Did you trick someone in the library into calling CPS on us?" he asks, reminding her that the “C" stands for child, which she is not, as he hints that she is a different C-word. “What kind of C am I?" she asks in confusion, wondering where Kristine is. He says she’s on a book tour.

Michael has bags with him, and he goes to the kitchen, putting a few items away in the cupboards, but refusing to put the milk away in the fridge. As he heads to the door, he sees Kristine’s book and picks it up. It opens to the family photo with their faces crossed out, and he asks if it’s a hit list. He gets a call from the power company, pays the bill, and waits for the power to come back on. “Thank you, Daddy," Natlia says as Michael leaves without saying goodbye.

Moments later, Michael enters Natalia Grace’s apartment, filming a video on his phone and acting like he just arrived. He walks through the apartment, showing how filthy it is, but making it seem like Natalia was able to restock her groceries all by herself. “Looks like you’ve got everything you need, right, Natalia?" The girl, hoping for an ounce of parental affection, responds, “Yeah, right, everything I need." Stopping the recording, Michael coldly says, “I’ll see you later." Natalia begs him to stay, talking about Kristine’s book and how it says all kids are special and deserve love. He repeats that she’s an adult. She tells him she doesn’t remember being other ages. “I remember, you said you love me for me, no matter what," she cries, clinging to him. Michael convinces Natalia that Kristine will love her if she cleans herself up and gets her act together. He leaves, saying he’s late picking Ethan up from basketball practice.

Natalia Grace gives herself a pep talk in the mirror, repeating Kristine’s speech about needing to earn her family’s love. In a montage, we see her going on a cleaning spree, including getting rid of the Hercules-shaped carpet stain. She even begins to wear the makeup her parents got her.

One day, Natalia knocks on JJ’s door asking to use her phone. JJ’s grandson, Keaton (Reydon Smith), is over, and JJ is exhausted from a double shift. Natalia uses her cellphone to call her family, but gets a message that the number is no longer in service. JJ says answering machines sometimes mess up. She goes to take a nap, and Natalia bonds with Keaton, who suggests Natalia just visit her family’s house if she can’t reach them by phone. When she tells him she doesn’t have a car, he tells her his mom doesn’t either, so they take the bus. He even has his own bus pass. Bored and wanting to get out of the apartment, he offers to show Natalia how to take the bus.

The Bus Driver (Joe Sachem) tells Natalia and Keaton that he will let them know when they get to the stop on Williamson Dr. They play games, upsetting one of the other passengers, during the long ride. Among them is Two Truths and a Lie, during which Natalia reveals to Keaton that she’s eight years old just like him. When they get off, they are in an unfamiliar location in a bad part of town.

The wait for the next bus is so long that the sun has set. Keaton wants to go back to his grandma’s, worrying he will be in trouble if she wakes up and he’s not there. But Natalia convinces him that her parent’s house is awesome and that they can get snacks there. But when they get to Natalia’s house, there’s a For Sale sign in the front yard. Val (Sarayu Blue) steps out of the house carrying a few items. She tells Natalia that the Barnetts aren’t her family and that she should be in jail for what she did. Val tells Keaton that Natalia Grace scammed the Barnetts, and he tells Val that she told him she was a kid, promising snacks if he joined her.

Val drives Keaton and Natalia Grace back to the apartment complex. JJ is waiting on her porch with neighbors, anxious. She rushes to hug Keaton and scolds Natalia Grace, calling her twisted.

We hear Natalia Grace’s prayers that night, begging God to help her be the person Krsitine wants her to be. “Please, I just want to go home. I just want my family back."

It seems like a dream when Natalia Grace wakes up to the sound of Kristine’s voice, opening her eyes to a sun-backed vision of her mother standing in her apartment. But whatever loving energy Natalia Grace immediately felt isn’t really there. Kristine is furious at Natalia Grace, announcing that she’s been kicked out of the apartment complex.

Kristine drives Natalia Grace to a new apartment, an upper level of a home with stairs Natalia can barely climb, even with Kristine there. On the drive, Kristine pointed out the closest supermarket and the school where Natalia will earn her GED so she can get a job and stop living off them. “This is the last time, I’m not doing this again," Kristine scoffs, hurrying Natalia up the stairs without helping.

Inside the new, dumpy apartment, Kristine tells Natalia Grace that she has a darkness in her soul that can’t be hidden. She makes Natalia Grace rehearse what she will tell people who ask her questions. When Kristine asks about the blanket, Natalia is confused. Kristine reminds her that she told Michael she wanted her brothers to die, exaggerating the story with rolling their bodies in a blanket and burying them in the backyard. Natalia repeats it back to Kristine. She apologizes to her mom, but Kristine doesn’t want to hear it. “I wish I could believe you," she tells Natalia Grace. And just before she leaves, Kristine pulls out pepper spray and burns Natalia Grace’s eyes, a warning of what’s to come if Natalia Grace causes trouble again.

We see Natalia Grace’s first day of school for her GED - an essay - the story of who she is. The area around her eyes is red from Kristine’s abuse.

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Next Episode: “Not Today Satan" - Premiering Wednesday, April 16th

Natalia questions whether she can trust an unexpected set of allies. As questions about her past arise, painful memories are unearthed.