There’s a lot going on in episode 6 of “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,” the FX show about the rise and fall of the former Patriots star.
The episode opens with Hernandez and a boyfriend — a fictional character, introduced in episode 4, named Chris — waking up in bed together in Cabo San Lucas, where they’ve gone for a few days to be alone because Hernandez is fearful of people finding out about his bisexuality.
But over breakfast in the hotel, Chris is bothered that Hernandez is acting as if nothing’s happened.
“These last few days don’t mean nothing,” he says.
“Chill,” Hernandez responds. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not … like that.”
Not long after returning home, Hernandez gets a call from Chris, who ends the relationship. Hernandez is upset and calls his friend Alexander Bradley — called “Sherrod,” a nickname, in the show — to go out to a club in Boston. The night ends in chaos, with Hernandez pulling up alongside a car carrying the two men who spilled a drink on him inside the club.
We see Hernandez fire several shots into the car, killing the two men, before speeding away with Bradley.
In reality, Hernandez was convicted of murdering Odin Lloyd in 2013, but acquitted of the 2012 shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. The car they were driving was discovered by police a year later in a garage belonging to a relative of Hernandez. Bradley testified that Hernandez was the one who fired five shots into the car that night, but a jury was unconvinced.
The sixth episode also shows Hernandez watching news reports of Junior Seau’s death in 2012. Seau, a former All-Pro linebacker who had played for the Patriots, died by suicide and subsequent tests revealed he suffered from CTE, a degenerative neurological condition caused by repeated hits to the head.
After his death at the age of 27, tests of Hernandez’s brain showed he had the worst case of CTE ever seen in someone so young.
Produced by Ryan Murphy, “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” is based on The Boston Globe’s Spotlight series and the accompanying podcast produced by the Globe and Wondery.
Mark Shanahan can be reached at mark.shanahan@globe.com. Follow him @MarkAShanahan.
