Don’t Dream It’s Over – As the sixth episode of Monsters begins, it’s Carbondale, Illinois in 1962. A young Kitty (Belle Shouse) meets Jose (Orlando Pineda) and they immediately begin hanging out. When Jose calls him, he’s told he’s too young to get married. He meets Kitty’s mother. When Kitty argues with her mother, Jose interrupts and takes Kitty outside. They end up getting married. During a therapy session, Kitty admits she hates her kids and kids in general. She explains that Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) scares her. As for Erik (Cooper Koch), he’s pathetic. Kitty says she cares about them in her own way. Most days, she hardly recognizes them. She complains that she never gets enough from Jose (Javier Bardem). Erik, Lyle, and Jose’s new fling Louise keep trying to take the love of her life. She believes Jose is trying to escape the chaos at home.

The only thing she has going for her is renovating the house. She’s also getting a facelift. After getting a facelift, Kitty complains to Jose that he didn’t even say anything. He asks her to lose nine pounds. He begins complaining about the boys being late. Jose scolds the boys when they enter. He reminds them they were going to do presents tonight. The boys don’t have anything for their mother. Jose gives her a nice bracelet and the keys to a Mercedes Benz. Jose tells the brothers that he got them a book. When he came to America, he could only get a job as a dishwasher. During his breaks, he would read that book nonstop. He blacked out all of the BS in the book for them. Jose talks to them about controlling their moods. Later, Jose gets a call from Detective Mills from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

He learns that Erik and Lyle have been linked to a series of burglaries in the area. Jose picks them up and they deny robbing the houses. Jose begins freaking out. He yells for Lyle to stay in the car and to stay away from him. Kitty speaks to a renovator about moving the pond. Jose interrupts to say he’s found a house in Beverly Hills and they’re going to be moving. He explains that the Menendez name is ruined and they need a fresh start. Kitty says it’s a dream home. Jose suggests they can keep the house and return in a few years. They move into the new house soon. Jose receives a call from a man who wants to talk about the brothers. Jose quickly tells him that his sons cannot be trusted. Lyle believes the burglaries were a cry for help. Eric tells Jerome Oziel (Dallas Roberts) that home isn’t always easy. Jose asks what he means by that.

Jose goes through all the things they’ve done for their kids. He decides to take Kitty to Mr. Chow’s and leave the brothers behind. Marzi Eisenberg (Mara Casey) goes over the speech with Jose again. It mentions the members of the Menudo being kids and how they get replaced when they ask for money. Jose wonders if he made his kids this way. He had nothing when he came to America at 16. He talks about finding a lover and having kids. He wanted to give them everything, but all they see is entitlement. He fought for all of it and they want it given to them. Jose admits he’s ashamed of the way he raised them. Marzi tells him he’s not a bad dad. Jose insists he doesn’t like screaming at his kids. He blames himself for his kid’s actions. Jose wonders where he’ll go from here. Kitty finds him awake at 5:30 in the morning. Jose confesses he doesn’t love their sons or the family.

Jose complains the dream has failed. He’s going to fly to New York because he has to make more money for the family. Jose says he can’t lie to her. Kitty tells him to say hi to his girlfriend. She’s convinced Jose loved everything about her initially. Kitty can’t handle their boys because Lyle scares her. She tried to kill herself but she said. Kitty complains about being dragged to Beverly Hills away from her friends. Every day, she has wanted to be dead. Jose goes to New York and offers RCA 30 million dollars to sign Menudo. He wants Menudo everywhere. Later, he confirms he closed the deal. In his room, he asks a young man if he used soap. Jose claims he’s different than most of his clients because he doesn’t do this much. Jose begins talking about the Greeks and Spartans. They created a man in different ways than they do now. Jose claims they bonded with each other and learned what pain was.

He asks the man to get on all fours and crawl over to him. He wants him to take his tunic off with his mouth. Erik and Craig Cignarelli (Charlie Hall) read their screenplay, Friends, to Kitty who messed up. Erik complains that they’ll have to rewrite the entire page. He says she needs to be proofing it. Kitty complains that they always gang up on her when she’s alone. She tells Lyle to shut up. During dinner, the boys ask Kitty whether she poisoned them. Kitty insists she was joking about that. When the boys decide to leave, Kitty yells that maybe she should poison them. She collapses. The brothers watch as Kitty struggles to get up. Lyle claps when she takes a drink of wine before he leaves with Erik. Jose returns home later. He told Louise (Jennifer Ingrum) that he was going back to his wife. Jose tells Kitty that he signed Menudo. He says Erik paged him and he was very upset. Jose asks her to stop taking too many pills.

He agrees to couples counseling with her. Jose gets the brothers up and makes them apologize to their victims. They also repay each one. In the car, Jose says Erik will take the fall because he’s still a minor. He explains that Lyle needs a clean record so he can go to Princeton and get into business and politics. This will be the last handout and the last time he gets them out of trouble. Later, Marzi tells Jose that Jack wants to get in touch. Jose asks her if she likes Miami enough to move there. He talks about going to Florida, running for Senate, and bringing down Castro. Jose says Marzi can come with him. If he wants the American dream, he has to do it himself. Jose tells Marzi he’ll call. He confesses he doesn’t know anything about the music industry. Jose goes home and hangs out with Kitty. He talks about running for office.

Jose receives an officer from Charles Deere who is the dean of students at Princeton. He goes to the school to talk to him about Lyle cheating. After learning Lyle has been suspended, Jose takes him to the burial plot he bought for the family. They talk about whether Lyle feels like he should be buried there among such great people. Lyle asks if he’s seriously curious as to why he ended up like he did. Jose mentions the dog, Khan, that they had and how he hated it. He talks about the collars that poke dogs. Jose says some people think those collars are cruel. He believes the other collars are cruel. Jose believes he didn’t hit Lyle hard enough. He tells Lyle how his father hit him and how his head would throb for days. When Erik gets home, Jose gives him Clotrimazole cream for his athlete’s foot. Jose puts it on for him. He tells Erik he’s going to get him into business school at UCLA.

Jose gets upset at Erik’s modeling photos and the fact that he wants to be a male model. He asks Erik if he’s homosexual. Jose wants Erik to work for him when he’s a senator. He’ll need a girlfriend. Jose suggests Janice Shemanski. He insists he’s going to take her to the prom. Erik says he’s doing modeling and acting. Jose takes Erik to his room where the argument continues. Kitty overhears it. She contemplates opening the door but walks away. Later, Jose tells Kitty that Erik is not using condoms. He knows because he counted them. Jose worries that Erik could get AIDs. He goes on to say Erik cannot bring AIDs into their house. Later, Kitty tells Erik that she needs to check his privates for blisters and herpes sores. Eventually, Erik reluctantly lets her inspect him.

She doesn’t find anything. Kitty finds Jose working on a slogan since the exploratory committee wants one. Kitty asks him if he has proclivities. She explains that they don’t have sex anymore and he seems very concerned about AIDs. Kitty eventually asks if something sexual is going on between him and the boys. She promises she won’t tell anyone but she needs to know. Jose says no before asking if she’s drunk. Then, he suggests it’s time he told her why. Jose admits he knows what it’s like to be abused. When he was little, his mother would fondle him until he got an erection. Then, she would start laughing. When he was six or seven, his sister, Marta, told his mom not to do that anymore. His mother said it was nothing and Jose agreed with her. Jose suspects she’s confused because he takes showers with them sometimes after tennis.

Jose claims his father did that with him as well. He insists he’s not regretting. He reminds Kitty that they’re family. During therapy, Kitty admits she hates her kids. They’ve turned them into people they don’t want to be. She tells the therapist that she’s grateful to have a strong man like Jose. Kitty talks about women marrying men like their fathers. Dr. Anne Heller (Mandy Levin) asks if there was sexual abuse in the home growing up. Jose asks why she’s talking about this. He gets upset and leaves the room. Later, Jose calls his mom. He reminds her he told her he would tell her how much she hurt him. Jose believes she knows exactly what he’s talking about. He says Marta knew it was bad, but his mom made her feel like an idiot. His mom claims not to know what he’s talking about. Jose knows about her uncle who may have abused her.

Jose gets upset and ends the call. Next, Erik watches as his father meets a man. During a therapy session, Lyle says he flew to Europe to see Jamie and he loves her. He thinks his mom and dad should have to pay for that. Kitty isn’t going to come to any more sessions. Erik is asked about the embarrassment he has because of his vehicle. He admits he’s embarrassed because it’s a Ford Escort. Lyle asks Jose why he’s smiling. Jose claims he’s practicing his smile. After the session, they get family photographs taken. The murders are replayed yet again.

 

Monsters Review

The sixth episode of Monsters was drawn out and possibly even unnecessary. Out of the hour episode, there might’ve been five minutes that added anything to the bigger picture. The murders were added to the end of the episode in hopes of breathing life into an otherwise dull episode.

At this point though, the murders have lost their impact because they’ve been shown countless times. They’re nothing more than a vanity to the creators. How many times are the same scenes going to be repeated before this series finally gets to the point?

That’s the problem though. The series really doesn’t have a point. It obviously wants to play multiple angles and pretend to be an unbiased observer. In reality, everything about the story has been skewed to try to make the series more interesting. Instead, it’s a lifeless affair with no emotion and no purpose. The episode scores a 4.5 out of 10.

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