Mark Watches ‘Monster’: Episode 43 – Detective Suk

In the forty-third episode of Monster, I didn’t know where this was going, AND THEN I DID. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Monster. 

Y’all, the narrative just switched to focus on an entirely new character, ignoring Grimmer, guess what? I STILL WASN’T READY!!! Still! Because Detective Suk’s perspective here is so odd, a tonal change from the mystery of Grimmer. Over the course of the episode titled after him, his entire world comes crashing down around him. 

For the most part, I’d argue that Detective Suk isn’t just inexperienced as a detective; he’s painfully naïve at times, too. That doesn’t mean I didn’t understand his reaction to finding his mentor dead; there’s a layer to this episode that also works as a condemnation of a lot of this culture. Because at every step of the way, Suk is trying. He’s trying to make his mentor proud while also hoping he can solve his murder. But he doesn’t have a whole lot of foresight, does he? He will just talk to anyone who will listen to him, which at times includes the actual murderer of Inspector Zeman! He’s so damn messy, y’all. 

Which is the point, I imagine. In this tragedy, Suk stumbles from one bad decision to another, desperate for the approval of peers and willing to do almost anything to get it. Prior to this, he idolized Inspector Zeman, and so, Zeman’s death sends him into a spiral. He can’t seem to find his footing, and him losing his meal after seeing Zeman’s body certainly didn’t help. The other detectives don’t see Suk as someone to look to for guidance because Suk needs so much of it himself. However, I can’t even say that without bringing in some context that’s given to us later. How many of these officers were part of the old Czecholovakian police? How many of them refuse to get close to Suk or to trust him because he’s not in their inner circle? 

I say that because once you know how complicated this is, it makes the earlier scenes messed up, too. Suk completely misses the fact that he was told that there was an internal investigation into the allegiances of other officers. But so many of them are in on it, and the evidence that Suk does uncover heavily suggests that Zeman was being bribed to keep the information to himself. Until Suk makes that discovery—which is entirely by accident, by the way!—he sees Zeman as his own personal hero, as someone to emulated and adored. Ironically, Zeman had already broken his own moral code, and Suk had no idea. So what happens when your world starts falling apart?

Apparently, Suk thinks talking to a random stranger who doesn’t know their own name is a good idea. Granted, as I mentioned before, Suk just talks to anyone. Y’all, he went straight to the Director/Commissioner once he discovered the book/money in Zeman’s locker. He literally identified himself as having found the truth to someone else INVOLVED IN THE CONSPIRACY. If it wasn’t all so tragic, it would be comical! Again, Suk is naïve as hell, and he doesn’t think through the ramifications of his actions here. He just reacts. Unfortunately, this is probably going to be bad? Real bad? Because again, I have no idea who this mysterious woman is, what she’s doing, or why she looks so much like Nina. Is there another sibling I don’t know about??? That doesn’t even make sense. But what I mean by this is that Suk has found an affinity of sorts in someone who is slowly picking off members of this police force. He doesn’t suspect her even a little bit, and she murders AGAIN in this episode, but not after revealing some things that link her to Johan. So, maybe she’s from the same place? Because that whole Cedok Bridge thing, and the Three Frogs Bar thing, AND THE POISONING BY CANDY THING—it all points to something more than a coincidence.

But why these people? What does she have against them? Why did she protect and spare Grimmer? What does she have against these ex-special police officers? Does she empathize with Suk because she also thinks it’s wrong for these people to be exploiting their uniforms for personal gain? I LITERALLY DON’T KNOW. I’m asking these questions to try and make sense of this all. But now, three more people are dead, Suk has no clue what he’s gotten into, and DR. TENMA FINALLY ARRIVED IN TOWN. Oh, shit. It’s on! They’re all convening in one place again!!! But what is Tenma going to discover here? Does he even know what to look for? 

The video for “Detective Suk” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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