Monster ep.38

January 31, 2005 | 4 Comments

Please be aware that reading this recap prior to watching the episode will ruin your enjoyment of the story

OMG!! This is the best Monster episode thus far. In fact, I better stop with the excitement there otherwise I'll sound like an incoherent idiot who has just watched anime for the first time. Having said that, the climax to this arc has to be one of the best things I've had the pleasure to watch. I can't believe that for a moment I forgot that this is an animated show. Anyway, I don't think I can say anything else about the episode without spoiling the story. I also have decided not to show the images on the index page again so that it won't spoil anyone unless they deliberately click on the 'Read the Rest' link. If you really desperate to know about it, then I'd actually recommend that you watch this episode first even if you haven't seen the first 37 episodes.

The episode begins with Tenma remembering the time he spent with Hugo, his gun instructor. He remembers how the guy told him to shoot his target twice so that he'll maximise the chance to kill the target. Back to the present, Tenma finally manages to shoot Roberto in the shoulder and then just for the safe keeping he shoots him again in the chest, sending Roberto plunging down, hopefully his death. Upon doing this, Tenma realises that his hand is not shaking anymore when holding the gun. With this in mind, he races downstairs to find Johan but before he manages to do so, he trips over the body of the guests who fall unconscious as they try to climb up the stairs. Meanwhile downstairs, people are still trying to get out of the library but find out that the exit doors have been locked for some reason.

At the same time, Schuwald asks Johan what else he intends to do apart from showing him this hell-ish vision. Schuwald believes that Johan intends to replace him. Johan, however, tells the older guy that he changed his mind and is not interested in that matter anymore. Upon hearing this, Schuwald becomes angry and asks Johan who he is and where does he come from. So Johan decides to get closer to Schuwald and tells the guy to look deep into his eyes to find the answer. He then adds that he comes from a fairytale town where most of its people are dead, leaving only him and Nina as the only survivor. Two survivors without names. For some reason, as Schuwald looks into Johan's eye and hears Johan's explanation, his hand begins to tremble badly as if he sees some kind of monster inside Johan's eyes.

Meanwhile, Nina finally arrives in front of the library and ends up meeting Dieter and Dr. Reichwen by chance. Before they can catch up with each other, however, Dieter realises that smokes are coming out of the building, suggesting that the library is on fire. At the same time, Karl is seen inside his father's office looking for the file that his father mentioned back at the library. When he picks up the envelope containing the file, however, he drops a photograph that is included inside it. Upon picking the photograph, he realises that the picture is none other than that of his mother. He quickly reads through the accompanying file that comes with the photograph and realises that the file is about an investigation report on his mother, Margot Langer. While he reads the file, Karl remember how the truth is, his mother never hated Schuwald.

Anyway, the most important part of the investigation report, however, is the information that Margot Langer once lived with an 18 year old guy in Hesse. Not long after this, her body was found dead in a street. However, 3 months before she was dead, Margot sent a letter to a friend of hers. In the letter, Margot mentioned how she now lives peacefully but the problem is, she keeps thinking about her son, Karl, as well as the fate of her friend who tried to escape Czechoslovakia but was capture and taken back to Prague. This Czech friend apparently gave birth to a twin and now lives in Prague. Margot also mentioned how he met a kid about the same age as Karl and decides to take him in since he reminds her of her old friend from Czechoslovakia. Upon hearing this, Karl cries and tells himself now he knows why his mother doesn't hate his father.

Back at the library, Reichwen is frustrated because he can't seem to make the door open but he then sees Dieter running back to him telling him that the fire fighters are on their way. Inside, the visitors are at their wits end after failing to open the door in anyway. One of them, however, looks up and notices someone carrying a gun approaching. The man turns out to be Tenma and he immediately orders everyone to stay away from the door as he approaches it himself. He then shoots the doors' hinges with his gun then tries to smash the door open. Upon seeing the action, some other visitors understand what he tries to do and begins to help him. Eventually, they managed to force opened the door, allowing the visitors to get out safely. One of them is thanks Tenma for his help but is shocked when he sees Tenma going back into the fire.

Meanwhile in another part of the library, Nina manages to get in by breaking the glass window on the second floor. At the same time, Tenma finally finds his target: Johan. He begins to walk towads the guy and Schuwald. Much to his surprise, however, Johan calmly walks towards him as well. He then points his finger into his head, suggesting that Tenma shoots him right in the brain. Upon seeing this, Tenma hesitates to pull the trigger. To complicate matters, Nina then appears behind Schuwald and asks Tenma not to shoot Johan. It seems that she wants to take care of the matter herself. A stand off then happens with both Tenma and Nina trying to prevent the other from committing a crime while Johan calmly walks away towards the fire. Nina eventually fires her gun but in the middle of doing so, the building starts to collapse.

Impression:

Pure thrill is the only thing I can think of after I watched this episode. The stand-off scene between Tenma/Johan/Nina was awesome to watch. It's interesting to see that both Tenma and Nina does not want the other to commit a crime of killing someone but they themselves do not hesitate to do it for the sake of the other. Both also seem to hesitate to kill Johan probably because they both have so much history with the guy. Unfortunately, Johan seems to know this fact and are happy to use this knowledge to escape from the situation. At the same time, I have the impression that if Tenma had shot him in the head right there and then, Johan wouldn't have mind it either. I get the impression that while Johan would not let anyone else to kill him, he would have been happy to be killed by either Nina or Tenma.

This episode also reveals that Johan is probably connected to the woman who used to be Margot Langer's friend in Czechoslovakia. This is probably how Johan knew Margot Langer and eventually manages to worm his way into her life. However, if Johan really was the son of Margot Langer's friend, how did he and Nina end up being the two people left in their town? And what did Schuwald see in Johan's eyes that makes him so terrified? I'm of the opinion that Johan is one of those people who has nothing left in his life. There is nothing more terrifying than this kind of people because they have nothing else to lose in life. He probably welcomes death if it means dragging everyone that he hates into hell with him. However, since he hates the majority of mankind, this means that his plans normally translated into large scale massacre such as the one he attempted to do just now in the library.

© memento 2003