{"id":7483,"date":"2020-02-19T13:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T21:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2020-02-09T12:36:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T20:36:41","slug":"mark-watches-monster-episode-52-the-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/02\/mark-watches-monster-episode-52-the-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Monster’: Episode 52 – The Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifty-second episode of Monster<\/i>, I have been personally targeted and attacked by this show. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Monster<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For alcoholism<\/b><\/p>\n

I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ready. I WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T FUCKING READY.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before I talk about The Thing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich just might be the greatest, most cleverly disguised twist I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in ages\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI want to talk at length about how this episode presents a compelling notion of justice and morality. Part of me is worried to invest anything<\/i> in Fritz Vardemann because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that Johan is just going to take him out as soon as he gets even close to the truth. Actually, at this point, I feel like everyone is a potential victim, so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 great. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great. But anyway! Fritz fascinated me because I imagine he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never met a person quite like Dr. Tenma. Both of them are highly<\/i> principled, though they approach morality in such different ways. One of my favorite things about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Lawyer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is how it loops the narrative back around to the question posed by the premise: was it right for Tenma to save Johan over Mayor Roedecker? And did that single act invalidate Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s belief that all people are equal?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Within Franz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s backstory is a similar exploration of justice. His own father experienced an injustice so severe and so deeply cruel that it inspired his son to devote himself to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153saving\u00e2\u20ac\u009d people who might possibly be innocent. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an admirable and noble mission, of course, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy or without its complications. When Schuwald first approached Franz, he actually rejected taking Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case. Why? Because there was too high of a chance that Franz would be motivated by profit. Like Tenma, Franz sticks to a rigid set of rules, and for him, he has to want to genuinely prove someone did not commit a crime. And like Tenma, he never truly knows if the person before him is good or evil. Instead, he has to have faith that the job he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing will put some goodness back in the world, especially since there was no goodness offered his father.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think Franz recognized that sort of selflessness in Tenma, especially since Tenma wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interested in proving his own innocence. Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moral code necessitates that Johan be identified and stopped because Johan has put so much evil into the world. Plus, Tenma still feels an immense responsibility for Johan, since he could have operated on the Mayor instead and avoided this entire nightmare. Now, I recognize why<\/i> Tenma feels this, even though the real responsibility lies with Johan. Johan was the one who chose to be a serial killer, and he was the one who chose to be a living nightmare. Still, this is what Tenma has dedicated his life to, and now, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got another supporter, one who might actually be able to change Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fate. And hell, Tenma might not have even gone down this path if he hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t met Gunther Milch.<\/p>\n

WHAT A WEIRD STORY THIS IS. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have a reason to believe that anything Milch said wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t true. His \u00e2\u20ac\u0153origin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d story was just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what the fuck??? But what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so intriguing about this is how Milch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire to escape in the face of one impossibility after another inspired Tenma. Why? Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue that Milch made it clear that Tenma had given in to despair. Yes, Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predicament feels<\/i> hopeless, but has hopelessness ever stopped Milch? No, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna escape and travel to Tunisia one day because WHY THE FUCK NOT. Walls and bars haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped Milch; why should they stop Tenma?<\/p>\n

I say all of this, but recognize that this is still deeply, deeply complicated. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Franz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan is going to be. (And his plan is, of course, horribly messed up by The Thing, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get there.) As Franz discusses with Dr. Reichwein, Tenma has fantastic character witnesses, as there are plenty of people who will testify that he was a wonderful person to all of them. On the other hand, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a ton of circumstantial evidence, and Tenma does not have a single alibi for ANY of the murders, especially those committed once he left D\u00c3\u00bcsseldorf. Well, he has one, but Eva Heinemann is not exactly someone who can be a credible witness for the court. Dr. Reichwein knows this, too! He watches as she rejects the offer to testify to save Tenma, claiming she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather know that he suffered in jail for the rest of his life. FOR DUMPING HER. Even though, if I recall correctly, she was the one who abandoned him??? So, is her own mental trauma around witnessing Johan leaving the scene of Junkers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s murder enough to push her to testify? And even if she agrees, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bigger problem.<\/p>\n

Yeah. The lawyer that Dr. Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s patients hired is not someone named Mr. Baul. I am still reeling from that final scene, when Tenma looks up and sees ROBERTO sitting across from him. I LEGITIMATELY FORGOT ABOUT HIM. Even though I (correctly!!!!) claimed that I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count him as dead without seeing his body! And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something so perfectly insidious about his character spending months in hiding and then using Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrest to get back to him. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what I would expect of him, so I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t question the believability of the reveal at all<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roberto\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next target is Eva. Oh, fuck, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, is he still working for Johan? WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Lawyer\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":"