In Good American Family Episode 7, ‘If You Tell a Story Well Enough’, Natalia Grace continues her fight against Michael and Kristine Barnett, and medical evidence confirms what we all knew about her age.
Based on The Curious Case of Natalia Grace docu-series, the Hulu series travels back to 2010, when the Barnetts adopted Natalia. Soon enough, they started claiming Natalia was an adult masquerading as a child to trick them, and in 2012 had her age changed from eight to 22 years old.
However, anyone who’s followed the real case will know that Natalia was, in fact, a child when she was adopted and moved into a home on her own. Good American Family details these events, with Episode 6 introducing her new adoptive parents, Cynthia and Antwon Mans.
The latest episode jumps between timelines, from Natalia’s experience at a psychiatric ward and a shocking hearing to the Barnetts’ split and an infamous Dr. Phil episode. If you’re unfamiliar with the case, warning: spoilers ahead.
Natalia Grace builds her case
Good American Family Episode 7 kicks off in a psychiatric ward. Natalia’s in the kids’ section, where she’s telling a ghost story to her new friend Sky.
All of a sudden, a nurse comes in and drags Natalia away, informing her that she’s been re-aged and is being moved to the adult unit. Natalia begs to bring her stuffed toy Hercules with her, but the nurse refuses.
Natalia is thrown into a room with an adult man, who’s restrained to the bed. The nurse tells her she has to behave or else she’ll be restrained too.
For those unfamiliar with The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, it should be known that this really did happen in real life. The Barnetts had Natalia’s legal age changed from eight to 22 years old after putting her in a psychiatric hospital, meaning she was sent to the adult’s wing.
We cut to the present timeline, where Natalia recounts this traumatic experience to Detective Brandon Drysdale, with Cynthia by her side. Cynthia is furious that the legal situation hasn’t been fixed yet.
Brandon explains that the records of Natalia’s re-aging have been sealed in probate court by the Barnetts. But there’s a workaround – they can argue Natalia was denied due process, as she was locked in the ward and not present for her own age change.
“We can’t argue that the re-aging decision was wrong, but we can argue it was made in the wrong way,” he explains.
Kristine and Michael Barnett get served
HuluGood American Family then goes back in time to 2014, with Michael and Kristine living in harmony in Canada (at least in Michael’s head).
Kristine is busy promoting her book on autism, Jacob is sailing through grad school, and Michael is living in delulu land about their happy family. Then comes a bombshell: a motion has been filed to overturn Natalia’s age ruling.
Michael tries to reassure Kristine that they can block it and promises to handle it while she’s off on her travels. But when Michael shuts down the request, they just file again, resulting in a “neverending nightmare of paperwork that went on for three years,” according to Michael.
Then, in August 2017, it stopped. This time, the Barnetts are sent a new request: to have Cynthia and Antwon made Natalia’s new legal guardians.
Michael thinks it’s a great idea, not realizing that this could land them in prison. “The only reason we’ve been able to deny these petitions is because we’re her legal guardians,” says Kristine.
“The second that goes away they can make her a kid again. Do you know what happens if they do that? Then they can say we abandoned a child. And do you see why that would be really bad? Why that would ruin our lives?”
Kristine orders Michael to go back to Indiana so he can be at the hearing. He’s more preoccupied with their planned date night, but she tells him, “Until you fix this, the shop is closed.”
Michael makes a shocking discovery
HuluAnd so Michael travels back to Indiana to meet with a lawyer Val set them up with. During their meeting, Kristine sends over what they call the “Natalia papers” – a small collection of documents they saved after the adoption.
Michael has to instruct the not-so-tech-savvy Kristine how to create and share an album, and she accidentally includes a series of nudes, which he quickly realizes weren’t intended for him (they haven’t had sex in months).
After the meeting, he sits in his car listening to Meat Loaf’s ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’ (of course), trying to figure out what to do. Rather than confronting Kristine, he simply reacts to one of the nudes with a thumbs up.
Kristine calls immediately and they get into a fight. She does her best to gaslight him into believing he’s crazy, but he’s having none of it and tells her it’s over.
Michael goes to drown his sorrows at a nearby bar, where he runs into his former colleague Jennifer. They reminisce about old times while drinking shots of tequila until eventually they kiss.
The hearing that changed nothing
HuluGood American Family Episode 7 then cuts to the hearing, where Natalia and the Mans’ lawyer announces the filing of two motions.
The first is for Cynthia and Antwon to be Natalia’s new legal guardians, and the second is to vacate the 2012 ruling that changed Natalia’s legal age from eight to 22 years old.
However, right from the off, the judge is biased towards the Barnetts. Even though Natalia’s lawyer has a mountain of evidence from doctors indicating that Natalia was a child at the time, he dismisses it.
Then, the Barnetts’ lawyer brings in Dr. Lawrence, who claims that he analyzed Natalia’s medical records. He alleges that by the time Natalia went to Larue Psychiatric Hospital, she had been having a menstrual cycle for years, and that she was diagnosed with sociopathy.
Although Cynthia knows this isn’t true – Natalia still hadn’t had one period while under their care, and only met Dr. Lawrence once – the judge is dismissive of their case.
HuluFinally, the judge asks Natalia to come forward. She thinks it’s her chance to share her statement, but instead he tells her, “I’ve heard everything I need to hear.”
“I will not be adjusting your guardianship and I will not be vacating the 2012 re-aging decision as I’ve seen nothing today that indicates things would’ve been different if you’d been part of that process,” he says.
The Mans family go to comfort Natalia and Detective Drysdale insists that they’ll appeal, but Cynthia doesn’t want to hear it. Natalia’s already been through enough and she doesn’t want her to go through this process again.
Doctors confirm Natalia’s real age
HuluDetective Drysdale agrees to their wishes, but he changes his mind a few years later when he and his wife adopt a daughter of their own.
He decides to reopen the files, knowing the Barnetts were hiding something. And in summer of 2019, he pays Dr. Lawrence a visit, which proves to be very enlightening.
Lawrence admits that he didn’t have anything to do with the “re-aging business” – so his testimony that Natalia had been menstruating for years and was diagnosed with sociopathy was a lie.
He also admits that he only saw Natalia one time, stating, “Michael and Kristine reviewed the specialist reports with me, and I simply wrote it down on paper for them. These are good people. I was just trying to help.”
Realizing the implications of this, he asks, “Do I have some sort of liability here?” Detective Drysdale replies, “I’m not sure yet. I’m going to need names of those specialists.”
The truth comes out as soon as he speaks with the team of specialists who checked Natalia back in the 2010s. All of them confirm that their results showed Natalia was a child at the time.
HuluAgain, if you haven’t seen The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, this is another part of the story that is true. Natalia really did undergo multiple medical assessments of her age, and none of them backed up the Barnetts’ claims that she was an adult or had even started puberty.
Drysdale brings this to his superior, who says he needs a confession from the Barnetts to bring the case to court.
This would have been impossible, if it weren’t for the fact that Michael and Kristine had since gone through a messy divorce – surely, one of them will turn on the other.
The infamous Dr. Phil interview
HuluThe new TV show cuts to Drysdale interviewing Michael. He uses the bid for his children to lure him into a false sense of security.
Soon enough, Michael’s singing like a canary. He accuses Kristine of beating Natalia while she was living with them, saying he even filmed one of the attacks just in case she turned on him.
When asked why she beat their daughter, he replies, “It was the age thing man, it was always the age. She was obsessed.”
Michael also states that this was happening at a time when doctors were telling them Natalia was around eight years old. “So you folks knew she was a kid?” asks Drysdale. “I’m only asking because if she was a kid then your ex committed child abuse.”
Believing this could get him his sons back, Michael says, “Yes, we knew she was a kid.”
After their meet-up, Michael heads home to Jen feeling proud, not realizing that he just implicated himself. “If you told the detective you knew she was a kid then you’re probably guilty too,” Jen explains.
We then fast forward to Kristine’s trial, where she pleads not guilty to six charges of neglect and two of conspiracy to commit neglect.
She heads into a meeting with Michael, Jen, and all of their lawyers. Even though Jen’s not keen on the idea, they agree to put on a united front to strengthen their case.
So, while Natalia shares her story with the world, Kristine and Michael peddle their version of events, making sure theirs is “louder”.
In the final scene, it’s February 2020 and Natalia appears on Dr. Phil. In real life, she went on in 2019, and you can watch a clip of it below:
Dr. Phil asks, “What made you decide to speak up?” And Natalia replies, “Well, they’d been doing all the talking, so I figured it’s my turn.”
The Good American Family finale drops on Hulu on April 30. Until then, read about why Natalia’s biological mother isn’t in the show, check out our recaps for Episode 3 and Episode 4, and learn about what Freddie Gill said in the docu-series.
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