In the twenty-ninth episode of Monster<\/i>, Braun inches closer to understanding Johan. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Monster<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of police brutality, suicide, extreme manipulation, death of a child<\/b><\/p>\n
I knew Richard Braun could not have lasted too long, and I still wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready for this. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 have I been ready for any<\/i> of this show??? Even when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve guessed things correctly, it has generally come at a cost. TO ME. AND MY WELL-BEING. Because one thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m noticing about Monster<\/i> and the way it is written is that it constantly seems to anticipate what the audience expects from a narrative. And not in that shitty way where it seems like the writers are just creating twists for the sake of it, you know? (Not naming names, but Game of Thrones<\/i>.) What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting here is that I thought I had much of this figured out, but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Execution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d makes it clear that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly understand Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motives, at least not yet.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For example! I had assumed that Johan was going to kill Karl and replace him as Schuwald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s son. It seemed so obvious to me that this was what was being set up. But instead, Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whole endgame changed before my eyes. This was about isolating Schuwald. Do I understand that<\/i>? Oh, no, not in the fucking SLIGHTEST. And so, going into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Execution,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I assumed that the multiple people closing in on Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truth meant that I was about to see each of them taken out. Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite wrong, of course! But as Braun investigated Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past, the story became something else. Exactly how deep does Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nightmarish game go? I thought I had him figured out, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153parents.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d HIS PARENTS. What the fuck is going on there? Did Johan manipulate them, too? Because after seeing that chilling final sequence, I now have a new understanding of just how captivating and hypnotic Johan can be. The same goes with Dr. Guillen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interview of the serial killer Jurgens, which reveals another<\/i> level of manipulation and trauma that was only hinted at before.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The truth is that Monster<\/i> has been building towards this arc for a while now, not just with the previous Jurgens plot, but with the introduction of all these new characters in Munich AND Dr. Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discovery of Kinderheim 511. Johan has intricately inserted himself into the lives of countless people, often killing (or compelling people to kill) when anyone gets in his way. I should note that I still<\/i> don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get what the endgame is, but I think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Execution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has some clues in it. Johan seems obsessed with two things: the notion of good and evil, and the rights of children. It does seem easy to connect the two! Johan was subjected to untold horrors while in Kinderheim 511, something that Dieter had to deal with, too. And now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m starting to wonder if Johan is telling the truth about having a monster within him. Is that<\/i> why he is concerned about issues of right and wrong?<\/p>\n Even if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case: WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH HIS \u00e2\u20ac\u0153PARENTS\u00e2\u20ac\u009d??? My guess is that Braun just discovered the origin of the Johan Liebert name. I\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 think? Because the other complication is that we already<\/i> met the Lieberts in the first episode? So maybe Johan just coincidentally discovered this family, their dead son, and MANIPULATED THEM INTO LYING AND SAYING THEIR SON WAS STILL ALIVE. Which??? What the fuck??? It seems everything Johan has done in Munich was towards this goal of being at the university with Schuwald. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just include murder, but arson and extreme manipulation and faking a suicide? That also makes me wonder why he targeted Jurgens, too, who does<\/i> kill himself in this episode after a totally baffling and creepy conversation with Dr. Guillen. What the fuck was he talking about before he died?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that the one thing I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talked about in detail is part of the answer to that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so clear now that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen Johan goad Braun to his death just how fucking terrifying he is. He obsessively researches the people he targets, and he knows how to twist the knife in deeper and deeper. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he does with Braun. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horrible to watch, especially since the man genuinely tried to be better. Of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a deeply disturbing reveal in the midst of this: BRAUN WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DRUNK WHEN HE KILLED THAT SUSPECT. And the suspect came from Kinderheim 511!?!?!?!? So, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got an actual<\/i> extrajudicial execution at the heart of this, one that Braun carried out because he glimpsed pure evil in that boy. And evil that Johan might share?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This was too much. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much more to go, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. How??? Where the hell else is this story going to go?<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Execution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now OUT!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the twenty-ninth episode of Monster, Braun inches closer to understanding Johan. Intrigued? 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