{"id":7531,"date":"2020-04-10T13:00:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T20:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7531"},"modified":"2020-04-06T16:32:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T23:32:14","slug":"mark-finishes-monster-episode-74-the-real-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/04\/mark-finishes-monster-episode-74-the-real-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Finishes ‘Monster’: Episode 74 – The Real Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventy-fourth and final episode of Monster<\/i>, the end arrives. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to finish Monster<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of trauma, alcoholism<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Holy shit, I DID IT.<\/p>\n

So much of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Real Monster\u00e2\u20ac\u009d deals with the notion of the aftermath. That was one thing I wondered about in the last review: How would any<\/i> of these people return to a fraction of the normalcy they once had? But the truth is that humans are, as this episode notes, built in a very interesting way. We have an incredible resilience in us, and I know that personally. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count how many times my life felt so horribly disrupted that I began to question if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever get back on track again. (Unfortunately, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m currently in the midst of a double dose of such pain and chaos.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And now that this nightmare\u00e2\u20ac\u201dspanning multiple decades and countries\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas come to an end, what does that mean for those who survived it?<\/p>\n

Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 life goes on, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Karl and Schuwald are both survivors of Johan, one of them in a more literal sense. Their readings continue, and at the very least, they still have one another, which is a strange silver lining to all of this. If it weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t for Tenma getting involved, would either of them be alive at this point? So I understood why Schuwald sounded so wistful when he spoke about Tenma. He is alive because of him! Look how very many lives were touched by Tenma over the course of Monster<\/i>. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think of that episode when Tenma was finally arrested and news of it spread. All those people will get the confirmation of what they already knew: that Dr. Tenma is a good person, and he was innocent the entire time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of the closure provided by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Real Monster\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come from interactions with Tenma, though. Indeed, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue the opposite is the case with Eva Heinemann, who finally is able to move on from her grief and anger. I was really happy to see her growth over this series, as she had one of the most complex and challenging arcs on the entire show. Here, we see her in what looks to be her final session with Dr. Reichwein. Gone is the combativeness and the quick defenses we had gotten used to. Instead, Eva is open<\/i>. Open to a life without alcohol. Open to a life where she is earning money for herself. Open to a life where she can mourn the loss of Martin, open to a life where she isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t held back by the choices she once made. She gets an arc that ends in hope<\/i>, and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n

From a craft perspective, I also found it brilliant that Eva gave up that notebook, since it was a neat character detail. It also<\/i> provided exposition to the audience: We got to see through those clippings how Lunge and Tenma dealt with the hearings and legal proceedings after the massacre in Ruhenheim. Two birds with one stone, eh?<\/p>\n

Still, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all<\/i> hope here. Whew, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, that scene where Suk, Vardemann, and Lunge visited Grimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grave? AN INCREDIBLE PUNCH IN THE HEART. I love that Vardemann worked to clear Grimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name, even after death, and that the duffel bag Grimmer carried around helped in that. Then Lunge had to go and remind me of his promise and IT WAS TOO MUCH. But there was one detail that I found the most emotional here. Even if Vardemann couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t determine what Grimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name really was, he was granted a name in death. He was a whole person with a remarkable story of heroism and nobility. In choosing to be good and resisting the training and trauma that was forced on him, Grimmer made a name for himself.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So does Nina. I love that we discover that Tenma eventually discovers what Nina and Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original names were (more on that conversation later), but in Nina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. No, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important is that Nina has reclaimed her life, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so by making a name for herself. She continued in her studies and turned in one hell of a final paper, which means that she GRADUATED while dealing with this whole nightmare. Graduated! And she wants to become a LAWYER. Oh my god, I love it so much, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Even her professor recognizes that Nina is going to go out into the world and save a lot of people.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so central to what Monster<\/i> has been about: human goodness. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen so very much awful, but there are such incredible acts of kindness, humility, and good will in the show, too. Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s core struggle was over this issue, too. Could he use his hands to harm another, or were they always destined to heal? Well, he harmed Roberto that one time (still one of the most electrifying scenes in the whole show!!!), but in the end, he chose to help, even when that meant saving Johan again<\/i>. Yet in the finale, with the help of Heckel, he is able to track down an impossibility: Anna, the mother of Nina and Johan. The scene is one of the most powerful in the entire series, and for good reason! I had assumed she had died, and seeing her interact with the person who spent so much time with Nina and Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand also helped both<\/i> of them survive\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwas immensely meaningful. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also such a good<\/i> gesture to visit her and<\/i> to wait to talk to her about her children until she was ready. (At least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I interpreted that early line of dialogue.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once she was ready to open up, though\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I liked that the show gave her the agency to choose to not forgive Klaus Poppe in the end, even though it could have. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fascinating contrast to Nina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggle with forgiveness, though of note: Nina might be trying to forgive Johan, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not in his life anymore. Forgiveness doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean forgetting<\/i>. So for Anna, she can live a life separate from her children, too. She can be appreciative of what Tenma did for her family. But I feel as though we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re meant to understand why she hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t visited Nina or Johan once we see the final scene. Because I think that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very likely that Anna is dealing with guilt<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I say that knowing that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vision or hallucination or whatever the hell that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually real. However, I think it really does<\/i> explain that gesture she made. She was forced into a Sophie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice when Klaus and Peter Capek came to take one of her children. And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the answer to Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s question! Did she choose Nina, or did she know<\/i> that Johan was dressed as his sister? How much of that affected Johan in the years to come? Did it always bother him?<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I personally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind the open-ended conclusion here. Did Johan escape? Maybe. Will he choose a different life? Begin the cycle all over again? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that either. The ambiguity is totally fine with me, but I do feel like this finale (and perhaps the show as a whole) is a little\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 soft on Johan? What about all the lives he ruined? Ended? Took? Manipulated? Exploited? Is he never held accountable for any of that? It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even feel like Dr. Tenma holds him to the fire either. I thought the implication here was that Johan had not woken up since the operation, so maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why? Still, it felt off. If this show is about human goodness and evil, does it also say that Johan was never the real monster? Was it Klaus Poppe? Capek? The system that allowed all these people to go missing or for children to be kidnapped?<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go so far as to say this finale exonerates Johan. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it does that. But after the damage done, it feels like he gets off easy, you know?<\/p>\n

Anyway, I hope it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been clear how much I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve enjoyed this bizarre, challenging show. The things it did with narrative arcs! With expectations! With parallel storytelling!!! It was such a fantastic ride. If you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen the Master Schedule lately, we will be moving on next week to season one of Russian Doll<\/i> first, before then officially moving on to Jane the Virgin<\/i>, which has long been one of the most requested shows for me to watch. There are still episodes left to be claimed of Jane the Virgin<\/i> if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re interested.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for joining me on this journey through Monster<\/i>. Onwards!<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Real Monster\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>
\n– Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.
\n<\/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":"