{"id":7516,"date":"2020-04-01T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T20:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7516"},"modified":"2020-03-23T14:25:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T21:25:59","slug":"mark-watches-monster-episode-70-the-town-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/04\/mark-watches-monster-episode-70-the-town-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Monster’: Episode 70 – The Town Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventieth episode of Monster<\/i>, I remain so unprepared it hurts. EVEN THOUGH I GOT A THING RIGHT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Monster<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For manipulation, death of children, terrorism, trauma<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, now we know what Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s endgame is, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think I veered kinda close to the truth at one point, since there was a moment when I entertained the notion that Johan was doing all of this as a means of getting revenge. I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revenge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the right word for this, particularly since Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions have involved so very many people being murdered who had nothing<\/i> to do with him or his life. He is extremely, extremely messed up because of years of abuse and trauma, and I imagine that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a part of this that feels logical and sensible to him. Or maybe all of it does. We still haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t heard directly from here, so maybe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a chance that Nina, Grimmer, and Klaus are wrong about all of this? Because between the three of them, a grim and nightmarish portrait has emerged:<\/p>\n

Johan wants to erase everyone who ever knew him so that he can truly disappear.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the process, though, he is wiping out an entire town, crafting a massacre with the help of Roberto (OH MY GOD I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DEAL WITH THIS) that includes the manipulation of vulnerable people so that they do Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bidding. Seriously, even seeing it spelled out makes it hard to believe, but Johan ONCE AGAIN exploited an elderly couple by making them think he was so much like their grandson. And just like that, these people become pawns of Johan, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost like they were in a trance. Until Lunge and Grimmer threaten them, the couple seems so terrifying. But once they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re threatened with violence, they fold<\/i>. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not nearly as terrifying as they once were. Do they realize what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done? What they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re complicit in?<\/p>\n

Perhaps at some point, but they mostly seem like they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in shock. And I get that, given what we see of the massacre in Ruhenheim. The show is smart in that it shows us virtually none of the murders themselves; even the cop who is shot only suffers a leg wound. Instead, the dead are just there<\/i>. One hangs out of a window. Wim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father returns to the pub he was rejected from, intending on violence, only to discover everyone is already<\/i> dead. Wim himself finds his bullies dead in an alley and himself holding a gun, so traumatized and frightened that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even remember if he pulled the trigger. (He did not.) While I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that some people in Ruhenheim turned on one another out of fear and paranoia, it struck me that nearly all of the murders we have seen thus far were committed by Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s believers, under the instruction of Roberto. Why? Why do these people believe in following Johan? Are they all victims of manipulation, too? Or did they all choose<\/i> to enact these acts of violence for other reasons? I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that part figured out!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Town Massacre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is just so damn, chaotic, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and at this point, we STILL haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen Johan at all. Where the fuck is he? Just watching this all go down from somewhere? Meanwhile, Tenma, through sheer willpower alone, has managed to make it to the city, despite no transit into Ruhenheim. (The narrative kind of skips over the entire logistics of that, which I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really mind. He got there. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the more important part.) Once he arrives, though, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beautifully astounding to me how quickly he has the most Tenma-esque reaction to everything. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t head straight for Johan. After a man dies while clutching his jacket, Tenma starts RESCUING PEOPLE. He helps a number of women, children, and elderly people get out of town by providing them with cover so they can escape out of the forest. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he does: whenever possible, he helps the people around him, even if it puts himself at great risk.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But is it enough? How many people can he save? What if this plan has gone too far?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On top of that, Dr. Guillen and Nina are BOTH on their way to Ruhenheim, too. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left unspoken, but I think there are two reasons why Guillen and Reichwein show Nina the email from Johan. First: They both probably realize that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way they can actually stop Nina from seeing her brother. She would leave them behind in a SECOND, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen her disappear on people numerous times throughout the series. But I believe there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another angle here, too: What if Nina, of all people, is one of the only people who can get through to Johan? What if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a chance that she could get him to stop this nightmare? The two of them have a massive shared history of trauma, so perhaps there is a way she can use her empathy and understanding to reach a part of Johan that no one else can.<\/p>\n

Maybe??? I hope???<\/p>\n

This episode, though, not only confirms my theory about Klaus Poppe (that I very weakly committed to, for the record, and only because of a process of elimination), but gives us the truth: Klaus came to Ruhenheim to give up his past life, but he always knew it would come back to claim him. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating of the show to do this from a character perspective, especially since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subverting expectations. Everything we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen of Klaus in Ruhenheim has shown us how kind and caring he is. At the same time, he is responsible for the most monstrous and harmful program imaginable. He manipulated and abused and traumatized children at the Red Rose Mansion, and he was the inspiration for the Kinderheim 511 program. And now, this is his reckoning, right? What I want to see is what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do<\/i> once this massacre gets worse. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all gearing up for some sort of battle at the hotel. But does Klaus have an idea exactly what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to go down? WHAT IS HE GONNA DO? Shit, is he actually sorry for what he did or is he just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 tired? Has he just given himself up to the inevitable?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Town Massacre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>
\n– 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":"