Debunking 'The Act' Episode 7 with Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Family

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The Homeless Shelter Lie

In the show, Gypsy seems to not know what Nick’s mom is talking about when she brings up the homeless shelter — but she catches on quickly enough and starts to improvise. But Fancy says the reality was a lot more rehearsed than that. “Gypsy acts surprised. … It’s as if it’s the first time she was hearing this,” said Fancy. “However, this was the predetermined planned story Nick and Gypsy had discussed.” Though they were exactly criminal masterminds, this was one of the elements of their plan that they had come up with ahead of time.

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Stealing from the Store

Though the family admits that Gypsy had stolen with her mom in the past, they didn’t buy this scene. “There has been no mention by either side [about] Gypsy showing Nick how to steal from anywhere,” Fancy told In Touch. “I feel like this [scene was added] just to show that Gypsy, even after escaping her mom’s deceit, carried it on willingly. There’s no evidence of that.”

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Nick Godejohn's Notes For Treating Gypsy

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Nick’s Notes

In previous episodes, Fancy has claimed that the show has made Nick seem more ineffective than he actually was, and the notes his character kept about how to treat Gypsy seem to be a further example of that. Though she can’t confirm anything for sure, she doubts that keeping a reminder to feed his girlfriend was something he would need to do. “From our communication with him, I don’t think he is that far down on the spectrum,” Fancy said. “He seems very well read, intelligent and well-versed.”

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All the Fighting

Again, we see Gypsy losing her patience and her temper with Nick in the show. In reality, she likely wasn’t the one calling the shots. “I feel like that was all intended to make Gypsy really look worse than she was,” said the By Proxy writer. “[Neither] Nick nor Gypsy ever indicated that she was angry with Nick or that she was being mean. … However, it is noted in the interview with Gypsy by the detectives that she said he was very controlling. But again, that’s her version of events.”

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Discovering the Facebook Post

According to Aleah, it went down pretty differently. She wasn’t the first person to spot the post. In fact, she didn’t even know there was one until the cops were already at Gypsy’s house. After driving home to pick up her niece, she realized there was a commotion. “My mom came running down the road, told me to grab my phone, and come talk the sheriffs,” Aleah told In Touch. “Once I finally made it to Dee Dee and Gypsy’s driveway, everyone was chattering about a post … so I finally looked it up and saw what all of the chatter was about.”

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That Eerie Facebook Post

The post, however, is real — and it’s still live on the memorialized account. Though the more graphic second post has been deleted, the first still stands, as do all of the comments debating whether or not it’s some kind of sick prank from a hacker. You can even see the 3:32 p.m. CST time stamp from June 14, 2015. However, there weren’t hours between the two posts.

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The Standoff

Did they really hide in a wardrobe? When it comes to parts of this episode, only Gypsy and Nick know what actually went down — but Fancy has the police reports and she said it seems about right. “The police discovered Gypsy and Nick at his mother’s residence in [Wisconsin]. They indicate in the police report [that] after a brief standoff, they were able to detain both Gypsy and Nick. They do not describe in detail what occurred during the standoff,” she said.

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The Interrogation

The interrogations were also pretty spot-on. Fancy notes that the writing here is “almost entirely accurate to the police interrogation videos.” You can check out some of the footage for yourself on YouTube, and watching Nick confess to the crime is chilling.

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There’s Just One Thing

Though Gypsy seems to keep up her act while Nick almost immediately confesses, Fancy admits the couple did discuss what they would do if they were caught. “They had a plan for what to tell the police when questioned, and it appears from the footage of the interrogation that Gypsy went along with this plan and Nick folded,” she said, revealing that the couple intended to claim that Gypsy had been kicked out of her house by her mother. “The detective used a pretty standard police tactic of turning the suspects against each other by telling Nick Gypsy had already told them everything.”

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The Press Conference

If you’ve seen the ABC press coverage of the press conference on YouTube, then you know the scenes are almost identical — if a little less flashy in real life. The line that the police officer speaks, “Things are not always as they appear,” is taken directly from the actual footage.

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Gypsy’s First Appearance

The news footage was also the first time most of Gypsy’s friends and family saw her walking, or at least it was the first time since she was younger. Joey King’s body language also almost exactly mirrors Gypsy’s — and the family has been seriously impressed with her performance, even when they disagree with the writing. “the way Gypsy looked and talked, she’s on point,” Kristy said. Even Gypsy agreed when she saw a trailer for the show. “She caught a commercial, and she’s like, ‘Wow, she … They made her really look like me.’ … I was like, ‘Yeah. It’s uncanny.'”

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The Whole Episode

Ultimately, though, the family thought this may be the best episode. “We’ve had many a comment on the departures that Michelle and her team decided to take and how we felt they were wrong and unethical or irresponsible,” Fancy said. “This episode is where we feel like the departures made sense, really were things that could have or could have not happened and would be in the realm of some fictionalized telling.” Instead of veering wildly off course from reality, the changes were based in “not knowing what happened during this time or having to decipher if after speaking to Gypsy and Nick.” If the writers “weren’t sure what was true or not,” it made sense to fill in the blanks themselves.