Monster ep.8

June 8, 2004 | 0 Comments

Hmm, nothing much happened in this episode. I think this one is meant to be a recap/bridging episode that sets up the story and the narrative structure for future episodes. And from the look of things, it seems the show is about to take a direction similar to The Fugitive, which is not a bad way to go as far as the storyline is concerned. I think this set-up will allow the writers to ratchet up the suspense and the speed of the story, both of which are important assets to this series. Besides, given the fact that Detective Lunge has been kind of keen to blame Tenma right from the beginning, it is expected that sooner or later Tenma will have to do something in order to prevent himself from being sent to jail.

Anyway, the episode itself begins with Tenma returning to the hospital and performing his job as usual. The episode also shows that his colleagues seem to think that he was on holiday while he was away from the hospital. Elsewhere in the city, Eva is seen in a deep sleep inside her house. It looks like she just consumed a rather large amount of alcoholic beverages the night before. While asleep, Eva relieves her time together with Tenma before Tenma decides to go against her father's wish. Eventually, the memory wakes her up from her sleep, leading her to consume some more alcohol. Her solitude, however, is disturbed when her butler soon informs her know that she has a visitor. The visitor turns out to be none other than Detective Lunge.

Eva, at first doesn't recognise Lunge. But after a while, she realises that he is the detective who investigated her father's murder. She wonders if the detective is there to find out about her father's inheritance and the money that she got from her divorce settlements. Eva tells the detective that she lives in luxury now and that he can take anything that he wants as long as she can keep her alcohol. Lunge, who can't be bothered to listen to Eva's rambling, decides to get straight to the point and asks her if she recognises the tie that he found near the Heidelberg castle. Eva, however, tells the detective that in her lifetime, she's given that kind of tie to many men so she can't remember who owns the tie.

Seeing that he can't get further information from Eva, Lunge decides to exit the house. After Lunge left, Eva picks up a framed photograph of herself and Tenma from the floor and staring intently at it. Back at the hospital, Tenma is being praised by one of his patients because of his patience and kindness in dealing with him. Before the two can have more conversation, however, they are interrupted by the nurse who tells Tenma that he has a visitor waiting for him. It turns out Eva has decided to pay Tenma a visit since she's been feeling nostalgic about their relationship. Tenma, however, tells her that unfortunately, he has no time for this. Eva tries to tell Tenma that she realises now that he's the only man who ever loved her and asks him to take her back.

Tenma, however, refuses. As a result, Eva once again shows her monstrous personality and threatens to spill the bean about Tenma's tie to Detective Lunge if he doesn't take her back. Tenma, however, doesn't seem to care much and in her anger, Eva decides to tell Detective Lunge that she does know who owns the tie after all. Upon hearing this, Detective Lunge decides to capture Tenma on the basis of his involvement in the Heidelberg castle murder. When the police got to the hospital, however, they find out that Tenma's loyal patients have been blocking their entry point, claiming that Tenma is a good doctor who can't possibly commit a murder. It's always kind of nice to know that Tenma's kindness does not go unnoticed by his patients.

What the police don�t know, however, is the fact that Tenma has somehow managed to hide himself inside an ambulance and asks the driver to take him to the station. Fast forward to five months later, a truck is seen travelling on a dusty road. Inside the truck, the driver is talking to someone who's reading a three-days-old newspaper. According to the newspaper, there was a murder happened in Verden not too long ago and the suspect seems to be a doctor. The camera then reveals that the reader is none other than Tenma, who apparently is also on his way to Verde, presumably to investigate the murder. Tenma, however, looks edgy and upon close-up, the camera reveals that he secretly hides a gun underneath his jacket.

As I said before, the story does look quite similar to The Fugitive at the moment. To begin with, the series' protagonist is a doctor who is accused of a murder that he didn't commit. Then there's the real murderer who manages to cleverly hide his identity from the police. There's also an overly zealous detective who is hell bent on capturing the innocent doctor. And now, it seems that the protagonist will have to become a fugitive while at the same time try to find the real murderer and prove his innocence. Anyway, despite the similarity, I still find myself enjoying this series a lot. I especially appreciate the character development that they've given to Eva. Much to my surprise, they didn't completely redeem her in this episode. I like the fact that although she has changed, she still has a long way to go in improving her personality.

© memento 2003