Kill Or Be Killer – As the fourth episode of Monsters begins, two men in black break into a residence in Calabasas, California in 1988. They take jewelry and other items. The men see the safe and carry it out of the house. In the van, Erik (Cooper Koch) and Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) are happy with the results. In the present, Lyle is questioned by Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor). He claims it was Erik’s idea and that’s why Erik took the fall for it. That’s also how he met Dr. Jerome Oziel (Dallas Roberts). Leslie asks Lyle whether he sexually assaulted his brother. Lyle gets upset. He says his father was a great man and he loved him a great deal. His father held them to a higher standard. Leslie says it doesn’t make sense that he shot his father even though he claims he loved him.

Lyle explains his father wanted him to be number one at everything. Jose (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloe Sevigny) complain about his grades and his girlfriend. Jose sends the woman away. Lyle says his dad was obsessed with the idea that he gets into an Ivy League school. Jose gives him advice for getting in and says everyone cheats. However, they should never get caught. Lyle admits he finally got into Princeton. When he gets caught plagiarizing, his father tries to work something out with the school. He tells the headmaster that his son didn’t cheat on something important and he’s not getting expelled. Jose reminds him how much money he’s given to the school. They agree to a one-year suspension. Jose tells Lyle he’s coming to LA with him this summer to get a job. They can’t tell anyone about this.

His dad got a big job so they moved to California. One day, Lyle notices that his hair is falling out. At work, Jose praises Lyle in front of his coworkers. He notices that his son is losing his hair. Lyle hears the others complain about him in the bathroom. Then, he goes to a barber to get a toupee. Lyle tells his dad he might not want to wear a wig. Jose refuses to accept that though. He makes Lyle thank him for everything he’s doing for him. Soon, Lyle learns that Craig Cignarelli (Charlie Hall) and Erik broke into a friend’s house. The police catch them before long. Jose learns about eight grand in cash is missing. He asks for a number so he can cut a check for it. On the ride home, Lyle apologizes and thanks Jose for bailing them out. Jose says he doesn’t get it. He tells them they’re out of the will because they got caught. At home, Jose speaks to someone on the phone and says they’re going to do it because a judge says they have to.

He tries to get a psychiatrist to sign the paperwork so his sons don’t have to do therapy. Jose doesn’t want them to talk to anyone about the family. That’s how they met Oziel. Leslie asks Lyle why he didn’t tell Dr. Oziel about the sexual abuse. He claims he didn’t know Jose was still doing that to Erik. Leslie explains they need to know about it in as much detail as possible. Lyle says Donovan knows and his cousin knows. He wanted to sleep with his cousin in the basement so his dad couldn’t come down there. Lyle tells Jill (Jess Weixler) that it started when he was six. Lyle says it started with massages after tennis. It felt like he was the center of Jose’s world. They would fondle each other. He doesn’t think his mom knew this was happening. When Lyle turned seven, it changed and Jose started showing him pornographic movies.

They’d go into the bathroom and Lyle would have to kneel on the tile. He says his dad would guide his movements for him to fondle him with his house. Lyle claims he was seven when his father made him person oral sex on him. He had just gotten the Sesame Street stuffed animals and they used to argue all the time about stuff he was doing with them. Ernie always wanted to play with him after to get his mind off of it. Lyle started to really not like it. His dad started to incorporate objects. His dad would get him naked and insert the objects. He told his son. As for his mom, she didn’t believe her or didn’t care. That’s why Lyle started to do it to Erik. He doesn’t know why he did because he didn’t like it either. Erik kept asking him to stop. Lyle had to make it normal even though he knew it was. When he turned eight, they started showering together and his dad would rape him.

Lyle told him he wanted it to stop because it hurt. His dad told him it would stop and it did. Once he found out it was happening to Erik, Lyle confronted his dad and told him it needed to stop. Jose told him that Erik makes things up. He told Lyle to keep this between them. Much later, Lyle found out that he was still doing it to Erik. When Erik told him, Lyle felt like Jose had taken his brother away from him. He saw how his dad treated Erik and he treated him the same way. Lyle claims he confronted Jose again to tell him it’s done. He threatens to tell everyone. Jose tells him to be a man and do it. Jose says Erik made his choice, Lyle made his choice, and he will make his. Lyle tells Leslie he thought that meant Jose was going to kill them. Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) speaks to Carrie and others about the Menendez case.

He tells everyone about the house and its prior residents. Dunne talks about the crime scene. He believes the brothers entered through the terrace doors to catch their parents by surprise. Dunne insists it was premeditated. They had been planning it for a long time. Craig tells Dunne he thought they were just writing a screenplay. Judalon Smyth (Leslie Grossman) says the brothers were fed up with the situation and wanted to put an end to it. Peter Hoffman tells Dunne about the things the brothers did after the murders. Dunne also learned about the letter and the escape plan. He says some family members are still defending the brothers. Dunne don’t think you’d kill your parents like that just for money. He says that’s about evil that goes beyond hate. His Vanity Fair piece is called, “Nightmare on Elm Drive”.

At home, Leslie complains to Tim Rutten (Michael Gladis) about the article. She says it’s terrible that Dunne’s daughter was murdered, but that doesn’t give him the right to traffic in lies. She worries the boys won’t have a fair trial now that public opinion is screwed. She suggests finding a good journalist to help her push back. Leslie admits they have to reschedule the adoption hearing again. Tim sarcastically says they should save themselves the trouble and adopt Lyle and Erik. Leslie meets Donovan who says he doesn’t want to be put on the witness stand. Leslie thinks it’s unavoidable since Erik used his ID to buy the shotguns. She warns him that the brothers are facing the gas chamber. Leslie wants to know what he talked to Lyle about when they were boys. Donovan says they both have domineering fathers although Jose was much worse.

Leslie asks about any secrets Lyle shared with him. Donovan says Jose had an affair and it nearly killed Kitty. At the time, Lyle talked about killing his father. A few weeks later, Lyle tells Donovan he’d take care of his family if something bad happened to him. Donovan insists he’d do the same. Lyle asked if there was anything he was hiding from him. Donovan told him he was molested as a kid. It happened at a family friend’s house. Lyle tells him he knows what he’s going through because he and Erik were molested by their dad. Lyle confessed to the molestation to Donovan four months before the murders. Lyle told him about the creepy showers. Donovan believes the hardest part for Lyle was that he couldn’t protect Erik. Leslie asks Lyle why that weekend was so special and why he felt their lives were in danger.

Lyle says Erik can tell her more about it. Jose allegedly barges into Erik’s room and reminds him he told him not to tell anyone. He accuses him of destroying the family. Kitty confronts Erik downstairs and admits she knew. Erik goes to Lyle to tell him. They don’t believe they have much time. Lyle says his mom loved guns. She talked about getting a gun that fits into her purse and used guns to scare away homeless people. Kitty allegedly took Erik to a gun shop and mentioned killing someone with a gun. Lyle tells Jill and Leslie that they thought Kitty had a handgun with a silencer. Erik and Lyle took the money from Erik’s Peter Rabbit book to buy shotguns. That was on Friday since Saturday was supposed to be the big fishing trip. Something happened that freaked them out. Kitty woke up Erik to say the boat trip tomorrow has been pushed back from 11 to 4.

Something about that really messed them up. They thought they’d drive around all afternoon and leave without them. When they got back, their parents were still there so they left the guns in their car. In the car with their parents, the brothers notice what appears to be a gun with a silencer in Kitty’s purse. The brothers go out on the boat anyway. Lyle tells Erik he’s sorry that he felt he couldn’t come to him. He’s also sorry that he did that to him. Erik tells him it’s not his fault. After the trip, Jose calls it a waste. Lyle says Perry is going to pick them up. At that moment, the brothers decided to never give them another opportunity to hurt them. They go to a range to practice shooting.

 

Monsters Review

The fourth episode of Monsters again proved that the series never needed nine episodes. It’s getting to the point where we’re hearing the same things and seeing the same scenes four or five times. The story is becoming increasingly unbelievable to the point that no one is painted in a good light.

Everything with the Dominic Dunne character, who looks nothing like the real guy, could be chopped. After all, the article he wrote for Vanity Fair was barely skimmed over. A documentary based on Dunne’s life would be more interesting and more fitting. There’s so much more that the series could’ve done instead of going off on tangents so often.

There was also no need to try to turn this into a trendy action film because that’s certainly not the case. This is going to require a lot of willpower and patience to get through because it’s so tedious at times. How many times do we have to hear and see the same things before the series finally reaches its climax? The problem is that the murder was the climax and it was over before the series barely started.

This episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story can be found here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.