Monster ep.28

November 6, 2004 | 3 Comments

If you haven't seen this series, I'll recommend that you do so now while the episode count is still low. Now that I've seen this episode, I can safely say that this is one of the neatly written thrillers I've had the pleasure to see. Everything that has happened in the past 27 episodes finally start to come together in this episode. I really didn't expect this since I thought this arc is a side-story that has little to do with the main story but I couldn't be more wrong about it. I am also impressed with the way the animators manage to ratchet up the tension in this episode, especially when Richard starts having one of his episodic nightmares featuring the killer and his creepy smile. When this happens, for some reason I keep thinking that this time the killer will turn out to be real instead of Richard's imagination. After a while, this ends up being quite disturbing and tense to the point that I feel like looking away.

The episode begins with Richard being told by Schuwald to stop his investigation of Farren's suicide. Richard is upset about this but also surprised to see how Schuwald is unusually kind and forthcoming while conversing with him. He wonders how someone who never trusted anyone before has now turned kind all of a sudden. Never the less, he decides to shrug it off for the time being. The episode then shows Richard conversing with his psychiatrist, Doctor Reichwen inside a restaurant. Richard informs the good doctor that he's getting better at controlling his alcoholism and intends to revisits some of his old unsolved cases. As he re-investigate some of his old cases, however, he comes up with an interesting pattern which he never noticed before. And that is the fact that all of the murder victims used to be a friend of Schuwald in one form or another. What's more interesting is the fact that one of the murders is the one where Tenma ends up being a suspect.

When he finds out about this from Richard, Dr Reichwein remembers that an ex-student from his college-teaching days, Rudi Gillen, once told him about a case involving a killer who receives a mail from a unknown person (ep.19). So Reichwein decides to ask Rudi if he knows anything about Tenma, his ex-classmate who is now on the police's wanted list. Meanwhile, Richard is fearing for his life after he encountered life-threatening incidents which looks more like an attempt to kill him. Richard tells the Reichwen about his suspicion that all of his unsolved cases are related and that someone is behind this. He is surprised when Reichwein suggests that maybe that person is someone called "Johan" and proceeds to give him Rudi's letters. Upon finding out about this, the two come to the conclusion that "Johan" committed these murders to isolate Schuwald away from his friends. Richard's realisation then turns into terror when he remembers that he once met a young man called Johan when he visited Schuwald's mansion.

Impression:

What a fantastic episode this one turns out to be. Everything that Johan has done thus far finally leads to this point. However, now it's revealed that he has a purpose while committing those murders, I have to wonder why he wants to get close to Schuwald? What is so special about this old guy apart from the fact that he's rich? It's also surprising to see Schuwald changes from a cold-hearted old stone to someone who looks genuinely happy. While I believe that it's partly because he is finally reunited with his own son, I have the impression that there's more to it. When he tells Richard that "Johan is also here", it seems to me that he tries to give Richard a clue that Johan is somehow involved in all of these. But if he suspects Johan, then why did he hire the guy as his personal secretary? Finally, I have to say that despite his drinking problem, Richard is definitely a better detective than Runge. He's capable of being subjective while searching for the real answer. Unfortunately, judging from the 'accidents' that almost happened to him, it seems he will be gone from the series soon.

© memento 2003