By Alison Lanier | TV | January 13, 2025 |
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace debuted in two parts, nominally “seasons,” roughly one year ago. Now, we have a “Final Chapter” of a third season — but in this story, a final chapter and a conclusion are two very different things.
Case in point: the documentary project was wrapped at the end of that second season, with what executive producer Eric Evangelista called a “happy ending.” Natalia Grace Mans, a young woman with dwarfism who was adopted from Ukraine as a child, had now been adopted by a loving family. This, after having endured a horrific level of neglect and abuse as a child with her previous adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett. The Barnetts had her age legally changed from roughly seven years old to 22 years old and then abandoned her in an apartment.
The Barnetts’ part in this is a tangled web in itself, told over the course of the first two seasons — and with some truly irresponsible storytelling on the part of the documentary. The first season’s momentum rested on teasing ‘What if Natalia’s actually a homicidal adult masquerading as a child?’ (If that sounds familiar, it’s the plot of the very fictional horror movie Orphan.)
Unfortunately, the happy ending at the end of the second season wasn’t all it looked like from the outside. Natalia’s new adoptive family turned out to be abusive fundamentalist Christians who exerted extreme control and brainwashing over Natalia. When she finally escaped, she believed her adoptive father, who insists on being called “Bishop” (because he’s decided he is one?), is a miracle worker and prophet…who, you know, also lives on Natalia’s disability benefits while leaving her holding the bag for the taxes she then has no money to pay.
The story of the third, and hopefully final, season is the slow, difficult, and painful journey of Natalia’s recovery from that living situation. There are revelations about the so-called “Bishop” and the Mans family’s exploitation of the children they foster — exploitation of which Natalia is a cookie-cutter example — but the bulk of these final four episodes is an emotional narrative. At the heart of it is the struggle of the DePaul family, and especially mother Nicole, in trying to help Natalia find safety and security, both in a logistical and a mental health sense.
The DePauls tried to adopt Natalia years prior, but the adoption didn’t go through. The DePauls are a family of little people well acquainted with the day-to-day challenges of dwarfism, whose accessible amenities in their home are a whole new world for Natalia. The family is also deeply aware of the medical and financial side of being disabled, including a real risk of paralysis if Natalia does not receive necessary surgery.
The family befriended Natalia when she was a child —hence the attempt at adoption— and when, in the Mans’ house, Natalia managed to communicate with the outside world via her boyfriend Neil, Neil knew to go to the DePauls.
If you’ve ever had a friend or loved one who is in a dangerous or harmful relationship and who is the only one who can’t acknowledge the danger and harm of it when it is painfully visible to everyone who cares about them, then this story will feel very familiar. You can pull that person physically out of a living situation, put distance between them and their abuser, but if that person is still living in the distorted reality taught to them through their abuse, there’s no one who can save them from that but themselves (with the aid of mental health professionals).
The documentary ends on a high note with Natalia doing a photoshoot and interview for PEOPLE, and visiting New York for the first time. It’s definitely a deliberate narrative maneuver for a positive and empowering story. It’s hard to tell how much of Natalia’s happiness is performative for the cameras and interviewers. But the series also doesn’t make a claim to be telling the full story, as it did at the end of the second season; recovery doesn’t happen neatly at the end of a season’s arc.
I also think the storytellers are grappling with the fact that the story they told in the second season— the proffered happy ending— was ultimately cover for yet more abuse. And if they’re not, then they should be. Because as soon as they started asking questions, they started hearing about abuse and coercion by the Mans, especially toward children. They should have been asking those questions sooner, but at the time they were focused on the Barnetts and the depth of their cruelty as Natalia’s guardians.
Everybody looked the other way to make the story they wanted to make out of Natalia’s life — including the documentary team who told us, the viewers, where and how to look at a story.