Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 4 recap and review: "Kill or Be Killed"
Now that we've learned the reason Erik and Lyle killed their parents in Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the fourth episode gives us flashbacks of confrontations and fights between the family members. Erik's attorney Leslie gets Lyle's side of the story, while we see more of the events that led up to José and Kitty's deaths. The fourth episode is titled "Kill or Be Killed," which seems to represent Erik and Lyle's mindset at the time of the killings.
Major spoilers for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 4 are below.
Trigger Warning: This episode explicitly references child sexual abuse.
At the start of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 4, we get a glimpse of Erik and Lyle's run-in with the law over their past burglary. We don't know who they're stealing from or why, but we'll find out.
Leslie goes to speak with Lyle who recalls the burglary, explaining that part of their punishment was to go see a therapist, which is when they met Dr. Oziel. Leslie, alongside Lyle's lawyer, asks about the sexual abuse and he surprisingly doesn't deny it, admitting to sexually abusing Erik and having been sexually abused by their father. That said, he does get very defensive. He doesn't want to damage his father's reputation, saying that his dad was a good person and they loved each other. Leslie doesn't understand how he can say all of this and kill him. Lyle says his dad wanted him to be the best at everything, and we see flashbacks of that being proven.
The story from Lyle's perspective
Lyle recalls memories of his dad cheering him on at tennis and slapping him across the face for writing a bad essay. He even controlled the girls he dated and was obsessed with the idea of him going to an Ivy League school. When Lyle was caught plagiarizing at Princeton, his dad tried to fight the expulsion, saying that he'd paid the school a lot of money. After his incessant protesting, it's agreed that Lyle would be suspended for one year. The family moved to California when his dad got his big job, which was around the time Lyle started to lose his hair. He worked at his dad's company as a trainee and his dad helped him with the hair replacement.
In one flashback, Erik and Craig show Lyle all of the money they stole from someone's house, saying that because so many families are on vacation, it's easier than asking their dad for money. We cut to them getting caught by the police, who look through everything they stole. In the car, their dad yells at the brothers and tells them that they're out of his will.
Leslie asks Lyle why the brothers never told Dr. Oziel about the sexual abuse, and Lyle explains he didn't know his father was still abusing Erik. She pushes on the subject, asking why they never told anyone about it. Lyle says he told his Princeton roommate, Donovan, as well as his cousin. He then goes into detail on when the abuse started and what it was exactly. He was just six years old when his father began abusing his son, and it escalated each year. When he told his cousin about it, she tried to tell Kitty, who Lyle says either didn't believe her or didn't care. This is when Lyle started to molest Erik, and he's very ashamed about that. He explains that he had to try and make his father's behavior normal, even though he knew it really wasn't.
Years of abuse
When Lyle turned eight, his dad began to rape him, and he told him to stop. His dad listened, and it wasn't until later that Lyle realized it was because he then moved on to Erik. Lyle recalls confronting his father multiple times about the abuse, and during the most recent time, he threatened to tell everyone about what he'd done. His dad doesn't seem threatened by him, however, telling his son that they've all made choices, and he's made his. Leslie asks what that could've meant, and Lyle thinks it's obvious. He believes his dad meant he would kill them.
Journalist Dominick hangs out with peers at a party and starts telling everyone about the article he's writing for Vanity Fair, which he's titled "Nightmare on Elm Drive" (the Menendez family lived on Elm Drive). He tells his friends that he's sure the murders were pre-meditated, confirmed by his "sources." We see through quick shots that he interviewed the likes of Craig, Judalon, Peter, and even one of the prison guards. Dominick tells the group that the brothers didn't kill their parents for money, it must've been something that "goes beyond hate."
Leslie sees Dominick's article which angers her, and she goes to meet with Donovan to ask him questions. He doesn't want to be on the witness stand, but she tells him there's probably no way around that. Donovan describes his relationship with Lyle at school and confirms that he told him about his dad's abuse. This conversation with Lyle happened four months before the murders.
Kitty knew all along
Leslie talks to Lyle again and asks what finally drove the brothers to take action. We get a flashback of José banging on Erik's door, and when he comes in he yells at his son for telling Lyle about what happened. "You destroyed our family," he tells him. Erik runs out of his room and sees his mom, who tells him that she's known all along. Her reasoning for not doing anything about it? She says she wanted to keep the family together. The brothers know then that their mom would always take their dad's side no matter what.
Erik goes into Lyle's room to wake him up and tells him that their mom knows, realizing they might not have much time until their parents try to kill them. Lyle tells Leslie that their mom loved guns and even told Erik once that she was going to kill someone. At the time, they believed she was talking about one of José's mistresses, but in retrospect, they wondered if she was talking about them. They believed Kitty had a handgun with a silencer, which motivated them to buy the guns the Friday prior to the murders.
In a flashback from that weekend, the brothers are alarmed when Kitty tells them that their fishing trip that Saturday was pushed back from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. This makes them suspicious, wondering if their parents needed it to be dark outside. On the boat, Lyle apologizes to Erik for everything, and Erik tells him it's not his fault. They leave the dock in one piece, and when they leave their parents, they go to a shooting range to get in some practice.
We're (hopefully) just about done with the flashback of events leading up to José and Kitty's murders, so I'm hoping Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story picks up the pace with the trial next. Keep reading our episodic recaps as we continue our binge here at Show Snob, and watch all nine episodes right now on Netflix.
The fourth episode of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story sheds more light on Erik and Lyle's decision to kill their parents, but the pacing is off and the story's format — switching from present-day to flashbacks — begins to feel old.. . "Kill or Be Killed". Monsters Ep 4. C
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