{"id":7505,"date":"2020-03-23T13:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T20:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7505"},"modified":"2020-03-16T10:48:39","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T17:48:39","slug":"mark-watches-monster-episode-66-welcome-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/03\/mark-watches-monster-episode-66-welcome-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Monster’: Episode 66 – Welcome Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixty-sixth episode of Monster<\/i>, Johan welcomes Nina home, and truths are revealed. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Monster<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For torture, kidnapping, eugenics<\/b><\/p>\n

Holy shit.<\/p>\n

I wanted answers.<\/p>\n

I got them.<\/p>\n

I WAS NOT READY FOR THEM AT ALL.<\/p>\n

It took me until he was literally onscreen to remember that Capek was telling Nina the truth about Johan, mostly out of fear that Johan was actually<\/i> the one in control. Which is true! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re watching unfold now. Johan has been planning this for ages, and I feel like this more or less confirms the (previously shaky) theory I had that this is all Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revenge<\/i>. Maybe??? Because holy shit. HIS MOTHER\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LAST WORDS. I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T. I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET THEM OUT OF MY HEAD.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Where do I fucking start<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all? Actually, I think a good place to jump into this nightmare is with something I said on video that I want to expand on: It is incredibly<\/i> hard to build up a mystery over a long period of time and have the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153answer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to it be satisfying. Seriously! We have all experienced shows or manga or books\u00e2\u20ac\u201danything serialized, really\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat have built up something for ages, only for the solution to feel disappointing.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This does not do that. At all<\/i>. In fact, to expand on another point I only briefly got to make on video (BECAUSE A MILLION THINGS WERE HAPPENING AND I HAD TO FOCUS), the reveal of the backstory of Johan and Nina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents ties directly<\/i> to what is happening in the present. There is a direct like between eugenics and right-wing terrorism here, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one that is deeply, deeply realistic. (Which is not to suggest that only right-wing organizations flirt with or advocate for eugenics; even well-meaning liberal and progressive folks fall into eugenics traps when talking about overpopulation or disability.) This story so neatly ties together various plot threads, too. As I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said before, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t divorce Monster<\/i> from the place and time where it is set, and this only furthers that claim. Which is a good thing! The cultural and political specificity gives it an air of realism that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to capture. The story playing out feels alive. Lived in. Uncontrollable. How many times has this show tried to tell us that human experimentation is at the heart of the narrative? My god, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Nina and Johan were conceived as a LITERAL part of a eugenics program. Their entire origin story fits into the pattern we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen with Kinderhiem 511, the Red Rose Mansion, and the modern neo-fascist movement. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ALL PART OF THE SAME NARRATIVE.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The parallels, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get over it. One thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve admired about Monster<\/i> is how themes and motifs parallel one another. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve commented on it more times than I can possibly remember! How many times have the main characters met others on their journey and were shown that humans struggle with such similar things across time and distance? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a longstanding narrative of consent and experimentation spread throughout multiple plotlines, like those relating to Kinderheim 511, where kids were kidnapped or held in nefarious conditions in order to program them. And the actual origin of this all is similar: Nina and Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother conceived a child with someone whose mission was to procreate with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfect\u00e2\u20ac\u009d person to produce a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfect\u00e2\u20ac\u009d child. BUT THEN THEIR FATHER DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T WANT TO GIVE UP THEIR CHILDREN SO HE TOLD HIS WIFE THE TRUTH AND THEY TRIED TO RUN BUT THEY WERE SEPARATED AND HE WAS PROBABLY EXECUTED AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOW. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get confirmation that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead? And look what happened with Franz Bonaparta! He is probably still alive!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe we finally saw his face. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m losing it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, we know that Capek organized the eugenics program, but the original source? Bonaparta. I still think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more to be revealed regarding his involvement with everything, and wherever Johan has set up his final confrontation is tied to that. Do I get it? No. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to be meaningful; Johan is too intentional of a character to just randomly<\/i> choose a building to operate out of. I say that because the latter part of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d finally reveals an absolutely gut-wrenching truth: Johan has been murdering other people for a long, long time. I would not be surprised if Nina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horrible story is that when she opened that door in the Red Rose Mansion, she saw Johan standing in the middle of the massacre.<\/p>\n

I have a very uncomfortable question to raise, though. Did Johan kill all of these people\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe ones Nina said were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kind\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbecause of Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warped sense of protecting his sister? I ask that because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only after<\/i> the unnamed couple seen in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d discusses calling the police that Johan murders them. He seemed perfectly content spending time with them prior to that. How much of Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s words of vengeance are playing into Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motivations? Or are they unrelated? Because one thing we still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have is a REASON. Why did Johan do all this? Why kill all those couples? Why did he tell his sister to shoot him in the head? Does Johan know exactly what he is? Does he want<\/i> to be stopped? I still keep thinking of that message he painted on the top of that building, too. UGH, WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ACTUALLY GOING ON HERE??? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so close to the truth!<\/p>\n

Amidst all of this\u00e2\u20ac\u201dseriously, this twenty-minute episode packs in enough reveals for a traditional hour of television\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also the tense plot between Tenma, Eva, and Kristoff. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Tenma ACTUALLY SHOT KRISTOFF SIEVERNICH IN THE THIGH. HE DID IT. And yet, this episode loops back around to one of Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest struggles. He shot Roberto during the library fire (WHERE THE FUCK IS ROBERTO, BY THE WAY), and maybe he had a genuine intent to kill him. He shot Kristoff, too, but does that mean he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll actually<\/i> be able to pull the trigger when it comes time to execute Johan? Even though he is suffering massive blood loss and death is imminent, Kristoff is still able to dig into Tenma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insecurity, pointing out that Tenma still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t escape being a doctor. He does not cause harm, and at the end of the day, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll always choose saving a human life over ending it, no matter who that person is. While Tenma does get Johan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s location, he still makes sure that Kristoff will get medical attention.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of what Kristoff is referring to as Eva breaks down crying. Why does<\/i> Tenma care so much, even about people who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care for him? Because he clearly cares for Eva, too, even though Eva has been horrible to him. He admits in his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153message\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that he believes he ruined Eva\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Eva breaks down. Even in a moment so dark and low and awful, Tenma is thinking of someone else. Her<\/i>. He wants to comfort this person who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t comforted him.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no wonder that someone like Kristoff does not understand Tenma.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome Home\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":"