Monster ep.21

September 13, 2004 | 3 Comments

I have to admit that I was a bit weary of this series after the previous episode's lackluster storyline. Thankfully, this time around the story is not being stretched longer than necessary despite its slow pacing. On top of things, the episode actually progresses the plot a little bit, gives background information of a minor character, and introduces a new mysterious character. The combination makes the episode feels like a mysterious side story that serves as a foundation for future storyline. This episode also shows how to creatively do a recap of previous events without having to resort to a recap episode or five minutes recap scenes at the start of every episode. I really hope that this is a sign that the writers are not interesting in doing a full-blown recap episode like other anime series. I really like how so far the recaps are simply featured briefly and blended together with the new storylines.

The episode begins with Muller, one of two corrupt cops who killed Nina's foster parents, seen relaxing nearby an in-house pool. Apparently Muller has been living the high life ever since the incident and to top it off, he got married to a beautiful widow with a young son. Having said that, Muller's life is far from perfect. He's been haunted by his own guilt over the killing of Nina's foster parents and often sees the ghostly apparitions of the two. On top of things, he�s heard the news that his partner-in-crime, Messner, was killed not too long ago. Because of this, he decided to hire a detective to find out what actually happened to Messner. In his investigation, the detective manages to find out certain facts that so far are only known to Tenma, Nina, and the viewers themselves. Upon finding out about this, Muller decides to confide to his bodyguard/friend called Roberto about his past life. He tells Roberto that when he was a cop, he and Messner used to sell confiscated drugs to interested parties.

Unfortunately for them, someone knows about this and threatens to spill the bean unless they do his bidding. That bidding was to kill Nina's foster parents. Upon committing the act, both received a large sum of money and managed to launder the money off and go their separate ways. Muller, however, can't help but feeling that things don't add up and that someone have been controlling his life. Fast forward to a couple of days later, Muller is seen looking happy after his stepson, Fritz, genuinely acknowledges him as 'father'. His happiness, however, quickly fades when he walks to the 2nd floor of his house and finds the detective that he hired to do the investigation laying dead on the floor. Nina then appears from the balcony, giving Muller the impression that she was the one who killed the detective to avenge her foster parents' murder. Nina, however, insists that she's not the one who murdered the detective. She tells Muller that he can stay here and trust Roberto or he can follow her.

Upon hearing Roberto's footsteps, Muller decides to follow Nina fleeing from his house. His decision turns out to be a good one because by the time Roberto arrives upstairs, he's seen carrying a gun. Meanwhile, Nina and Muller ends up in a cliff where Nina angrily tells Muller that she wants to get a revenge for the dead of her foster parents. Nina, however, doesn't have the heart to pull off the trigger after hearing Muller's story about his own family. Unfortunately for Muller, he then gets a threatening call from Roberto. Roberto tells Muller that he better off returning to his house or something will happen to his family. Upon hearing this, Nina decides to help Roberto to free his family. They, however, don't realise that this is a trap set up by Roberto. Roberto just want to use Roberto's family to lure Nina to her foster parents' house so they can capture her. Realising this, Muller who now has grown a conscience tries to set her free. He succeeds in doing so but at the cost of his own life.

Impression:

Monster seems to have a habit of featuring characters that at first seem to be irrelevant or not very important to the storyline and then later on giving those characters some background story. This episode is an example of this. The story does a good job in building up Muller's characterisation to a point that he comes across as a sympathetic character despite his past. As a result, when he died trying to save Nina, I ended up feeling sorry for him. I do wonder, however, why he chose to reside next to his crime scene especially when he's haunted by his guilt every time he looks into the house of Nina's foster parents. It just doesn't seem so rational to me. Anyway, this episode also introduces the viewers to a new character called Roberto. I originally thought that he works for Johan to monitor Muller but the last scene where he tried to kill Nina and set his next target for Tenma seems to suggest that he has an entirely different alliance and intention.

© memento 2003