Ryan Murphy was known for the longest time for his popular shows, such as Glee and the American Horror Story franchise. Then, his Emmy-nominated anthology series Monster came along, proving he could dominate the true-crime genre just as powerfully as he did with horror and drama.
It started with Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story in 2022, which became a global phenomenon and one of Netflix’s most-watched series of all time. Then, in 2024, Murphy followed it up with Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, once again drawing massive attention for his chilling retelling of another infamous true-crime case.
The hit anthology series is now in its third season, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, which delves into the life and crimes of the notorious murderer and grave robber whose gruesome acts went on to inspire some of horror’s most iconic villains. All eight episodes are now available to stream on Netflix, and we've decided to recap the entire series. In this article, we've given a full breakdown of what all goes down in the first episode. Be sure to follow along!
Spoilers are ahead from Monster: The Ed Gein Story episode 1.
Ed Gein commits his first murder
The first episode opens on a snowy day in rural Wisconsin. Ed Gein is performing his daily duties around the family barn before heading to a house where he sneaks in to watch two young women trying on bras. Their names are Adeline and Madison. After making noise, he brings attention to himself and quickly leaves the house.
He returns to his home, where he puts on his mom's undergarments before tying a rope around his neck and hanging it from the door. He begins to pleasure himself. His religious mom, Augusta, finds him and punishes him. Before she lets him go on his way, she demands that he not talk to any jezebels, especially Adeline.
It appears Augusta is very overbearing. Later on, Ed sits at a diner with Adeline. Oh, so they know each other! She shows him photos of dead bodies at a Nazi camp, and Ed starts to look really uncomfortable. Adeline even lets him see a magazine titled "The B*tch of Buchenwald." It's a Nazi war criminal named Ilse Koch. The nervous look leaves Ed's face as he flips through the pages to see the different crimes llse did. He even seems fascinated. Adeline lets Ed take the magazine and photos home.
Back at home, Ed's older brother, Henry, tells him that he's going to leave home to be with his girlfriend. He even warns Ed to leave home as well, stating that their mother is too religious and sick. But Ed doesn't like what he's saying. He pushes Henry away before grabbing a nearby log and knocking him over the head. While Henry lies on the ground, bleeding out, Ed walks away. Henry then suddenly gets up and tells Ed that he's going to talk to their mother and clear things up.
Later that evening, Ed asks Augusta over dinner if he's talked to Henry and she tells him that he hasn't seen him in a week. Hmm. That's weird! Augusta tells Ed not to break her heart, and he promises not to. The following day, Ed returns to the barn to see Henry lying dead on the ground. Oh wow! Ed had imagined that Henry got back up after being hit with the log, and it appears he's been dead for a while. Ed then drags his body away from the barn, throws a bunch of branches on top of him, and then sets it on fire. He runs back to the house, yelling for Augusta.
Augusta bursts through the door, and Ed makes up a lie, saying that the fire got out of control and that he can't find Henry. Augusta calls the police, and they find Henry's dead body after the fire has been extinguished. Augusta cries hysterically while the police take Henry away. At the morgue, the morgue technician rules Henry's cause of death as asphyxiation even though the police were suspicious that he had bruises.
Ed digs up his first body
Ed returns home to learn that Augusta has had a stroke. After they return from the hospital, he begins taking care of her. However, Ed's caring methods are strange. While cleaning her, he stares at her body in a seemingly lustful way. Augusta ends up passing away after having a heart attack while yelling at someone who owes her money.
Following her funeral, Ed starts hearing his mother's voice in his head, telling him that they can still be together even though she's dead. He goes to the local cemetery and tries to dig up her body, but is unable to get to her. He then hears Augusta's voice in his head again, telling him to dig up the body of the person next to her. Ed brings the dead body of a woman back home and cleans her before propping her up in his mother's old rocking chair. Then, he just stares at her with a creepy smile. The first episode ends here.
There's also a short scene in this episode that introduces us to llse. We find out that she's enslaving Jewish people from concentration camps.