Monster S1E3: “Murder Case”

We have at least three bodies that were definitely not left by the Stasi, now, regardless of whether or not the first two actually were. Is this the work of creepy psychic kids, or is Kenzo just falling to paranoid psychosis and poisoning his coworkers? You know, the more I think about it, the more the Heinemanns' insane lizardman moments feel like they could have been Kenzo hallucinating...though there's also third person confirmation for at least some of their inhuman weirdness, so maybe not.

Anyway, episode three. I predict Kenzo will become a suspect in these new deaths, rightly or not. Begin!


Sure enough, the episode starts with the cops knocking on Kenzo's door in the middle of the night. Presumably the following night, as he's sober enough to come to the door.

He tells them that he was out drinking until dawn all last night. Which is probably better for him than if he'd been home alone all that time; if he can recall at least a few of the bars he was at, they can probably find witnesses and/or security footage to back him up. Unless he actually did lumber back to the hospital in a drunken haze and kill them, of course.

After the police interview, Kenzo races to the hospital to see what's going on, and finds the security struggling to fend off a veritable army of news reporters. He has to physically fight his way through them and shrug off a ton of invasive questions just to get in the front door.

Kenzo is relatively quick to resort to physical force, I'm noticing. This could just be a result of how much stress he's been put under, or it could be hinting at something deeper seated.

When he gets inside, he learns that the situation is even worse than it appeared. Tonight ended up being a very busy one in terms of patients. There are multiple emergency room visitors in need of surgery, and the hospital is down a director and two top surgeons, in addition to the press laying siege to the damned place and making it hard for anyone to get in or out. Then, as soon as Kenzo starts moving toward the operating rooms to do what he can, he's accosted by the detective, who asks him if he knows anyone who might have had a grudge against the three doctors. Kenzo realizes at once that he's the most obvious example of such a person, though to be fair it seems like there are probably any number of others who'd have been given reason to hate Heinemann if not the other two over the years. He nervously stammers out that he can't think of anyone. Just then, that nurse who's been scrambling after Anna for the last few days comes running in a panic and tells him that both the twins have disappeared.

This is really turning into the night of Murphy's Law.

Kenzo runs to Johan's room, to find it indeed empty save for the hastily cast-aside bed covers and the pile of unopened get well presents. The nurse assures him that Anna's, too, is abandoned, and that no one seems to have seen either twin leave.

That expression is appropriate as hell. Is it just me, or are the people who aren't Dr. Becker's faces a lot more detailed and realistic than usual
for anime? Actual noses, even when we aren't seeing the faces at a profile!

The next scene, after ending on Kenzo looking stunned and horrified and probably more eager than ever to move away and never see this place again, is Dr. Heinemann's funeral. Plenty of mourners and associates. Completely undeserved speech from the priest or whoever presides over German funerals, about the late doctor's longtime selfless devotion to saving lives. The flower-covered coffin is lowered into the pit. At the front of the crowd of attendants, Eva collapses on her knees and sobs.

Actual sorrow at the loss of her father? Pure performance? Could be either. Kenzo reflexively starts approaching her to comfort her. Dr. Dickhead beats him to it, but she physically throws him off of her and says that she doesn't care about him or anyone else, she just wants her father back. She just isn't programmed to care about anyone else.

After the funeral, Kenzo is approached by Dr. Becker as he leaves the graveyard. Dr. Becker is taking obvious pleasure in Eva's misery. Not because of her actual unlikable qualities, but simply because she's a spoiled rich girl whose father gave her a priviledged position in the world, and now she's fallen down to earth with the likes of himself. So, pretty much the same way he felt about Kenzo's demotion, only more openly gleeful since he's not talking about the humbled person to their face this time.

And yeah, he is definitely getting more deformed and uncanny-valley looking with each passing episode.

As Kenzo tries to stay polite while asking Becker what his damage even is, the police approach him again. The local detective who was trying to talk to Anna is here, along with a sinister-looking German federal agent named Inspector Lunge. Lunge claims to have heard of Dr. Tenma's incredible neurosurgical skills, but the expression he gives him while saying so is coldly, understatedly hostile, in a way that makes Kenzo's fingers twitch nervously.

It turns out that they've found the cause of death for all three of the doctors. A paralytic nitrate poison was found in all three of their bloodstreams. And, all three of them were discovered in close proximity to a matching candy wrapper that tested positive for the same toxin.

I guess at least one of those well-wishers sending gifts to Johan wanted to finish the job they left undone in the house. Presumably hoping he'd eat the candy before he could give testimony. I wonder if they also sent something to Anna, in that case?

So, no psychic powers or unreliable narrators after all, at least so far. Just a really frustrated East German assassin.

For all that he gives me the creeps, Inspector Lunge seems pretty sharp in how he's put the clues together. He's already concluded that whoever killed the defector and his wife was probably also responsible for poisoned candy getting into the hospital where their children were being treated, and that the three doctors were most likely not the intended victims. Of course, if the assassin is going to such lengths to kill the children after the initial attack, it stands to reason that they know something. Thus, finding those kids is essential not only for their safety, but also potentially a matter of national security. Sound reasoning all the way through.

One thing I wonder, though, is why Anna didn't get shot along with the rest of her family. The simplest explanation is that she managed to hide until the police sirens scared the assassin off, but considering that the cops found her in the same room as the wounded Johan...yeah, I don't know. I suspect that there's more to this.

Kenzo tells the inspectors that he'll certainly contact them if he can think of any other details that might help the investigation. After he and Becker leave, Lunge stares after them and thinks aloud. Kenzo definitely had a grudge against at least two of the three poisoning victims. His alibi checks out, but given the vector of the poisoning its possible that he offered or planted the poisoned candy on them the previous day. It also strikes Lunge as odd how humble Kenzo was about his surgical skill, when Lunge complemented him on it, though I'm not sure if that makes him seem more suspicious or less.

Also, as Lunge muses, his hand does this weird Dr. Strangelove thing. When the local detective asks about it, Lunge just says that his hand does that when he's committing something to longterm memory. He explains it as him "typing the information into my hard drive" with his fingers.

Either alien hand syndrome and an eccentric personality, or something much weirder.

Meanwhile, Kenzo and Becker walk on their way. I'm not sure why Kenzo keeps tolerating this guy to the extent that he does, when it seems like there are plenty of nurses etc who are fond of him and that he could socialize with instead. Becker comments that the cops grilled him as well, earlier that day. Kenzo just looks up at the sky and tells Becker how exhausted he is. He also says that, as I expected, he's planning to go back to Japan as soon as the investigation has concluded and the hospital has found suitable replacements for its diminished surgical team.

By the next day, all the patients have heard about this. And half of them are begging Kenzo not to leave, because doctors like him who actually care about their charges are such rare treasures.

Is Kenzo hallucinating some of these biting comments made to him in one-on-one conversations?

The nurses also claim to all be behind Kenzo, and one of them begs him not to leave. This scene seems a little less surreal, though. And it makes sense that the nurses who have to be around these same doctors day after day and thus get to actually know them would be pretty desperate to have Kenzo around rather than what seems to be the norm. Though to be fair, much of that norm seems to have been a consequence of Heinemann's management, so maybe things will get better without him.

It seems the hospital's board of directors, led by whoever replaced Heinemann, cares more about performance than politics. In a meeting later that day, Kenzo is promoted back into his old job since that seat has just been opened again. Which, well. It seems like maybe staying in Germany wouldn't actually be such a bad idea after all, at this point. He might have been lured here under false pretenses, but the work he's done since then has actually amounted to something.

Well. In any case, he can't leave until the investigation's conclusion. And I suspect that further complications will be happening long before then.

For now, Kenzo has a cathartic laugh/crying fit in the hall after the meeting. Given the emotional roller coaster that this last week and change has been, that's perfectly understandable. When we next see him, he's very unwisely agreed to meet Eva at a restaurant for lunch. She complements him on his re-promotion, thanks him for moving to comfort her back in the funeral though he stopped short, and tells him she regrets doing what she did and wants to start over with him. As she speaks, she rests her hand on his across the table.

Kenzo wisely gets up and leaves the restaurant without a word, and doesn't turn around even when she starts tearfully calling after him from the door. Maybe after she's had her Pixar adventure about finding her own personhood and developing a humanlike sense of self, but not before then.

Let's just hope she doesn't go really far in the other direction and try to frame him for the murders out of revenge or something.

Who am I kidding, that's exactly what she's going to do.

Flash back nine years earlier, to Kenzo about to begin surgery on what must have been one of his first patients in Europe. Then, before anything can even happen, we flash forward eighteen years to 1995, where some agents of the recently reunified Germany are working disaster relief in a flooded city.

As they move to a rendezvous point, they complain about how the crime rate has risen since reunification, and share misgivings about how things might get worse as it integrates further into the European Union. And, it turns out that this particular group aren't dealing with the flood itself at the moment, but rather something that the surging waters flushed out into the open. The bodies of an elderly couple have been found floating in their living room with their throats slit. It looks like the murderer hid their bodies in a closet not long before the flood hit, and the corpses floated free. This is the fourth such double homicide in Cologne in the last while. At first they thought it was the MO of a gang who killed their elderly victims while robbing them in their homes, but it's starting to look more and more like a serial killer. The items taken from the houses are seeming more like after the fact impulse thefts than any systematic looting, and the couples who have been killed have enough factors in common (childless, elderly, etc) to suggest a fetishistic motive.

One of the investigators on the case is our old friend Detective Lunge. And, he thinks he may have come up with a lead.

The victims all seem to have been killed quietly, without a struggle, and in no cases did neighbors hear a door being broken or a window forced. And, in three of the four cases, a known burglar was seen in the neighborhood not long before the murders. This suspect has no history of violent offenses, but he's been arrested twice for theft, and he committed his thefts using his exceptional lockpicking skills. In other words, he suspects that their serial killer might have hired this guy to do the breaking and entering part, possibly without the guy even knowing what it was for. This might also explain the sporadic thefts accompanying the murders, if the lockpick opportunistically grabbed some things while doing his work.

Flash back again to an unspecified period sometime early in Kenzo's stint in Germany. Kenzo and Becker are walking through the hospital's grounds. Becker, who seems to have been friends with Kenzo from the beginning and comes across as less bitter and envious than his older self, is asking Kenzo how his first date with Eva went. Apparently, Kenzo got paged in the middle of dinner and had to leave early, which Becker thinks he shouldn't have done. Erm...I don't think that's optional for surgeons, Becker. He might not have been as negative back then, but he certainly wasn't any brighter. The conversation is interrupted when Dr. Tenma notices a child patient of his having trouble getting a kite to fly, and goes over to help him. He has a bit of a cultural bonus to kite usage, after all.

Becker quietly mutters to himself about how if he could perform such smooth acts of child-friendly altruism in front of female witnesses, he'd be buried under a mountain of tits by now. Because of course that would be his take.

Back to the present (or at least, shortly before the present), Kenzo and his team are performing a delicate operation. Some other doctors are observing the operation, and being wowed by Kenzo's skill and creative problem solving when it comes to human brains.

Then back to...I THINK we're in 1995 again, but I'm not sure. That cat burglar who Lunge suspected of being involved in the Cologne murders (at least, it sure looks a lot like the photo of him Lunge had) is running through an alley in blind panic. Whatever he's running from, it has him in such a frenzy that he runs straight out into the evening traffic and is hit by a car.

Something something killer realized he needed to silence him, something something ended up lucking into vehicular assistance while chasing him down.

The man is taken away by ambulance, and Inspector Lunge arrives at the local hospital shortly afterward.

The doctors don't think there's much they can do to save this man, even when Lunge insists that he's a vital witness in a serial killer hunt. The doctor thinks a moment, and then tells Lunge that there's a brilliant neurosurgeon in Dusseldorf who might be able to save the guy. Lunge chuckles grimly, as he remembers that case from nearly a decade ago and correctly names the doctor as Kenzo Tenma. Small world.

So, they call for Kenzo, and he's able to make it in relatively short order. Google tells me that Cologne is a 40 minute drive from Dusseldorf, so unless German traffic has gotten much better since the nineties that's a reasonable trip. Kenzo, still head of the surgery department at that hospital, is led in. Lunge is giving Kenzo that sort of creepy look again, just like he did in their brief meeting in 1986. Kenzo understandably doesn't remember him at all, but Lunge doesn't forget a face. Much less the face of a suspect in a case that was never solved. He reminds Kenzo of their past meeting, and insists that Kenzo make sure this patient survives and keeps his memory intact, because he's a witness for a very important case. Kenzo irritably tells him that he performs medicine for the sake of his patients, not for anyone or anything else, and that he never does anything less than his best to ensure their survival.

Lunge then comments on how successful Kenzo has been since their last meeting. Filling the position of one victim, after the political obstructionism of another victim was removed. Some say that he might become director of the entire hospital in the not too distant future, which was Heinemann's old job. And, even nine years later, that case has yet to be solved. In fact, it's the only case that Lunge has ever failed to crack, and he refuses to close and bury it.

Kenzo asks him what exactly he's implying. Lunge smiles coldly, and tells him to ignore his rambling, he just does that sometimes. Lunge's hand writhes and twitches as he types at his imaginary keyboard. Kenzo glowers at him, and turns away to go perform the damned operation.

You know Lunge, if I were you I'd have saved that bit of needling for after the delicate brain surgery. You don't want Kenzo distracted or anxious while he's saving your critical witness, right?

As Kenzo works, Lunge stands outside of the hospital and just stares at the building.

There was never any evidence against Kenzo. But, he was the one man who had everything to gain from the murders. And a deeply personal grudge on top of it. As a surgeon, he certainly would have had access to muscle relaxant drugs with lethal overdoses. But there just wasn't ever any tangible evidence.

...

I wonder what Dr. Heinemann did with the rest of that candy. There was a whole bag of it. He and the other victims each had one, as far as I could see. The package it came in had wrapping paper around it, as I recall.

Where did he throw that wrapping paper after stealing one of Johan's presents? And what happened to the rest of the candy, assuming Heinemann didn't just finish the bag himself on the way home? If Lunge had found either of those things, he probably would have figured out what happened. He hasn't, so I guess he didn't find them.

...

Fate has brought his newest unsolved case back in touch with his oldest one, and Lunge doesn't intend to let the opportunity pass him by.

Lunge doesn't mention it, but the connection between these recent serial killings - all of middle aged or older couples in their homes - is also reminiscent of that earlier case's prelude. The method is different; knife wounds rather than gunshots. And of course, the East German couple did have children. But other than that...

Hmm.

...

Let's say that the original murders were, in fact, a Stasi op. That is the obvious explanation, after all.

These later killings, in Cologne...what if these are copycats inspired by that incident?

And we have these two creepy children who were sneaking out of their rooms and pretending to be unconscious while the adults in their rooms were talking. One of whom would say nothing but "kill."

That doesn't fit the deaths of those three doctors. The twins - assuming they were somehow able to understand the office politics unfolding around them - would have definitely had motive to kill those three. But the method doesn't seem like something they could have managed. A gift-wrapped package of poisoned candy, arriving alongside all the other presents? That had to have been the original assassin.

...unless it WASN'T the same candy. If Johan saw the three take his candy, told Anna about it, and then had her hide poisoned ones in each of their offices...hmm. I don't know where the hell two children would have learned to identify hazardous drugs or learned to apply lethal doses of them. Yeah, never mind, that's way far fetched.

The more recent couple murders, though. I have a feeling that that's the twins. Some sort of fucked up self-therapy, inflicting the traumatic murders of their parents on other couples as a way of taking ownership of it. With perhaps a merciful spot in their choosing couples who lack children of their own.

That's not how serial killers work in real life. And, to be honest, the prevalence of this sort of murderer backstory in fiction is kind of fucked up in the way it demonizes victims of violence and makes them out to be monsters waiting to happen. But, WITHIN the crime/mystery genre, this kind of motive is often given to serial killers. So, there's a good chance that this story is doing that.

I kind of hope not, for the reason above. But I suspect that it is.

...

Come morning, Kenzo has finished work on the burglar. He's slowly regaining consciousness, and while the longterm prognosis (especially concerning his ability to remember and communicate specific details) is unclear, he'll definitely live. Still, Kenzo insists that the police not be allowed to interrogate him until he's recovered much further. No matter how obnoxious Lunge gets about it.

As the sun rises, Kenzo visits his stirring patient and tests his speaking ability. At first, when greeted, the patient is unresponsive. As Kenzo keeps speaking encouragingly and softly, though, the man's eyes open wider and his lips start moving. He's trying to speak, but Kenzo can't make out what.

Let me guess. "Kill." It's going to be "kill."

Actually, no, it turns out that I was wrong. What the man whispers, presumably the same thought that was going through his mind when the car hit him, is "The monster is coming."

Kenzo isn't sure what the hell to make of that. Music gets effectively creepy.

So, have we jumped ahead into the nineties altogether, now? Are we in this era henceforth, with the first couple eps just having been a prologue? Maybe. Anyway, end episode.


It's hard for me to resist the impulse to just binge this show from this point on. Even if I have some misgivings about the tropey direction I suspect it'll go in, the execution is just that good. Even without the murder investigation plot, the psychological horror aspects would be enough to carry the show.

Also, I've mentioned it before, but I don't think I took a picture. Here's the end credits image:

I know, right?

Two more episodes have since been commissioned. However, it'll be a long time before I can get to them.