I Am The Night is a limited mini-series that centres around Fauna Hodel as she attempts to uncover the true nature of her past and in doing so inadvertently discovers the murderer behind The Black Dahlia case. The Dahlia is, of course, one of the most famous unsolved murders in Hollywood History and throughout the series, we learned the ins and outs of the case as well as who was potentially behind it.
Throughout this , I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the ending of the show and what it uncovers.
There will be heavy spoilers here so if you don’t want to know anything about the ending of I Am The Night, then I highly recommend that you turn off now.
With that out the way, I’m Deffinition and welcome to the channel where I explain it so you don’t have to!
I Am The Night: The Killer’s Identity
I Am The Night follows Fauna Hodel as she, with the help of Jay Singletary, uncovers the secrets of her past. The two travel together to Hawaii in search of Fauna’s mother which is where they discover that Fauna’s mixed-race status on her birth certificate is untrue.
It’s also at this location that Fauna learns that her father is in fact George Hodel and that he raped Fauna’s mother as a teenager. Though Fauana does not believe this, upon returning to LA, Jay is arrested upon the orders of George who then travels to Sparks and attacks Fauna’s adoptive mother, brutally assaulting her and leaving her for dead.
When Fauna learns of this she turns to Corinna for help who unfortunately drugs her in order for George to be able to kidnap her. At his LA home which doubles as a secret abortion clinic, she learns the truth. George Hodel, her father is in fact the Black Dahlia’s killer.
Fauna manages to escape the situation and is later discovered by Jay who manages to get out of custody and venture to the house. Jay confesses to a murder and even allows his fingerprints to be placed on the weapon in order to strike a bargain that will kill two birds with one stone. In exchange for confessing to Janice Brewster’s murder, Jay will work with Sgt. Billis to engineer a scenario where George can be taken out.
That doesn’t mean that justice is served however and when Jay arrives at the house he discovers that Fauna is safe and that George has left the country for Asia, attempting to out run the law. Many have said that the show ends on a slightly flat note because of this and it differs slightly from the book One Day She’ll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel which the show is based upon.
I Am The Night Real Life Story
In real life, George Hodel was a suspect in the Black Dahlia case and though he was never convicted, even his own children believed that he was the killer. His son, Steve who was an LAPD detective even went so far as to investigate his father and concluded that he was behind the crime.
It’s pretty clear that George was a very sick man and in I Am The Night, Fauna learns that George is both her father and Grandfather due to the incestuous rape that he carried out. George knows this and confrims it in the final episode when he states
“You’re just another one of my daughters that no one will believe”.
This ties into the fact that during his accusations as the killer by his own family, he had publically brandished Tamar as mentally unstable during her morals trial in 1949 and because of this was able to evade the charges of Incest and sexual assault.
I Am The Night Real Life Changes
However, I Am The Night also differs in it’s accuracy to real life in several ways. Jay is not based on a real person nor did he ever exist. He has been concocted by the series to juxtapose the villain George. Ultimately, Jay and George are killers and this haunts the former to no end who has severe PTSD from his actions in the Korean War.
Jay even admits that killing someone feels good and he is ashamed of this glee unlike George who relishes it. George of course due to his wealth and intelligence views himself as above people and does not see himself as someone who must obey their laws. He is happy to give into his natural urges and indulges them as it once again allows him to be a way that the majority of people won’t.
In addition to this, in real life, George is not actually Fauna’s father. The series merely implemented this for the sake of drama. After being acquited of the trial in 1949, Tamar was sent to a mothers home in San Francisco which is where she was rape by a local boy and became pregant with Fauna.
George then orchestrated the baby’s adoption by Jimmie Lee in 1951. Tamar however, insisted that Fauna’s father be listed as black on her birth certificate so that she would never uncover he true origins.
Whilst Fauna did eventually meet Tamar, this happened in the 1970s. George Hodel fled to Manila and reportedly continued his crimes before returning to San Francisco where he died in 1999 at the age of 91.
Fauna died in 2017 at the age of 66 due to cancer and whilst this is a rather sorrowful story we have to look at the positives of I Am The Night which is a girl that seeks out to uncover her identity but in doing so ends up defininig her own.
Your Thoughts
Obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on I Am The Night and if you enjoyed it or not. I’m seeing a lot of mixed reviews so obviously, I’d love to read yours in the comments below.
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