In the fiftieth episode of Monster, I can’t deal with this. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Monster.Â
HI, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED IN THE ROSE MANSION???? HI???? HOW DOES THIS STORY CONTINUALLY GET WORSE AND WORSE AND MORE HORRIFYING? It’s been hours since I finished this episode, and I still get immensely nervous thinking about Lunge opening that hidden door in the Rose Mansion. And you know what? Him not finding anything at all made this WAY MORE FRIGHTENING.
I’m jumping ahead, I know that, but I’m so fucked up by all of this. Y’all. I love that it’s Lunge who is at the head of this because he’s able to approach this nightmare without necessarily being emotionally attached to it. Because anyone else? I don’t know that they could have done what Lunge did. Seriously, look how bold he is to visit Suk so openly, then to disarm one of Renke’s men, then to DEMAND to be taken to Renke. Lunge relies on his reputation, but he’s also such a confident character. When he knows he’s hot on the trail of the truth, he just goes. It’s through this that we, the audience, learns that Lunge has basically abandoned his theory that Tenma is behind all these murders. Lunge cannot believe in the coincidence that two men separated by time and geography both committed murders that are eerily reminiscent of one another. Does that mean I know how this is going to be resolved? No. I don’t know how Lunge (or anyone else, for that matter) is going to help absolve Suk and Tenma. How do you prove it at this point, especially with a wildcard like Johan orchestrating it all?
Let’s talk about that scene with Renke, though, because that’s when “The Rose Mansion†first let me know that it was about to ruin my goddamn day. I love that this show (and I assume the original source, too) loves to toy with archetypes. I’ve mentioned something like this before, but when Renke is suddenly freaked out, it has a bigger effect on us. Here’s the leader of this massive secret police force, who is unafraid of literally anything, who has gotten away with monstrous things because of his access to money, resources, and power. And once Lunge starts pushing Renke on the Rose Mansion and its history, Renke is TERRIFIED. Because apparently, on one single day, every political prisoner and researcher was murdered there. It’s not hard for me to assume that this is because of Johan, but I also know so very little about what actually transpired there. What’s the real timeline?
Regardless, when Lunge gets there and discovers the door that should never be opened (WHY WOULD YOU CALL IT THAT BECAUSE THAT HURTS SPECIFICALLY ME), he finds an empty space that smells terribly of antiseptic. Someone one cleaned up a massacre there, then sealed it up so that no one would find it. Except Lunge found it, and it’s only a matter of time before Nina and Johan make it there. And is Lunge going to report this to any local authorities or keep it a secret? Again: I still don’t know what the FUCK is happening on this show.
I might feel more confident predicting literally ANYTHING on this show if it didn’t constantly throw me loop after loop. You know, it’s been so long since Tenma was in immediate danger of being apprehended that I basically didn’t consider it a real threat anymore? Tenma’s meeting with one of Franz’s old publishers leveled that threat, but was it actually going to happen? We learned important things from that meeting, so I saw that as the purpose of the scene within the larger narrative. The publisher’s daughter found Franz terrifying, and the publisher rejected a manuscript of Franz’s, and Franz gave a creepy (but true) warning about the door that shouldn’t be opened.
Except how can Tenma focus on any of that when he’s getting ARRESTED? He is surrounded in that final shot, y’all!!! He can’t talk his way out of that!
This damn show.
The video for “The Rose Mansion†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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