Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 8 recap and review: "Seismic Shifts"
Next up to take the stand in Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is Judalon, who we haven't heard from in a while. And she has a much different take on her relationship with Dr. Oziel than we had previously seen. While Lyle believes her testimony will help them win, Erik isn't sure about anything.
Major spoilers for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 8 are below.
Trigger Warning: This episode references adult and child sexual abuse.
The penultimate episode of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story opens up with Judalon on the stand, where she accuses Dr. Oziel of rape and mistreatment. She has recordings of their conversations that are played, which involve talk of sex and Dr. Oziel agreeing to prescribe her drugs. Judalon seems a bit unstable in her testimony, but the therapist looks much worse.
Judalon remembers Oziel forcing her to take pills and staging a suicide attempt, something she didn't do. He allegedly told her that if she ever tried to leave him, he would have her committed to a hospital. She says that although she went to the police, they did not help her.
On the bus ride back to jail, Lyle is becoming more excited about the way the trial is going but Erik is not. We then cut to Jan. 17, 1994, the day of the real-life Northridge earthquake. The brothers experience it in jail and everyone is shaken up and tense about the event, which leaves multiple aftershocks for days. Erik is next to take the stand, and surprisingly, it doesn't go well at all. Though Erik is willing to be vulnerable and honest, he's not great in front of a crowd. Not like Lyle is.
Erik's disastrous testimony
While being questioned by Leslie in the courtroom, Erik has a lot of trouble with the microphone. When he leans in too close, the mic pops and causes feedback, while when he sits back, no one can hear him. It's a painful back and forth to watch, and it's distracting to his story. After a break, Erik is a little bit better, crying as he recalls the abuse, but the prosecutor goes hard on him. They try to find holes in his story but Erik maintains he's telling the truth. He then gets caught in a lie when asked about trying to buy shotguns at a specific store that apparently stopped selling them years prior. On the bus ride back to jail, Erik tells Lyle he genuinely remembered it that way, having been years ago at this point.
Lyle is angry with Erik for not being able to keep the story straight, and for not being able to give a good performance like he did. Erik becomes angry, too, telling Lyle it was all his fault and he made the murders happen. Erik disagrees, telling his brother he's the one who wrote the screenplay and he's the one who was obsessed with the Billionaire Boys Club movie. Another layer in the story comes out when Lyle tells Erik he only wanted to kill their parents because they recorded his phone calls and heard him talking about sexual things to Craig. Seemingly feeling bad, Lyle tells Erik that their parents got what they deserved.
The baby Leslie and her husband are adopting is born and it's a boy. Though Leslie is very happy about this, she's also got other things on her mind. In jail, Lyle talks to inmates about who could be cast to play him in a movie and the earthquake aftershocks continue. At court, Leslie gives her closing argument, which is strong. But is it convincing enough to win over the jury? Lyle believes it's a slam dunk, but Erik still isn't sure. He says he feels like something has shifted.
The perception of Erik and Lyle has shifted
We see what he means in the next scene. Though Dominick said he believed Lyle when he took the stand, Erik's poor performance apparently changed his mind. While having dinner with friends, he's back on his soapbox talking about how the brothers made everything up. He doesn't think Erik connected with the jury and has no idea what the verdict might be. He declares that if the brothers walk free, karma will come for them.
On the day of the verdict, the judge breaks the news that the jury was not able to come to a decision and it is declared a mistrial. We get a six-month time jump here, cutting to Leslie meeting with the women of the first jury who believed the brothers. Leslie thinks the men of the jury were the problem, and she asks the women what went wrong. What was she missing that led to the indecision?
One woman says she feels that they have a maternal instinct which made them connect with Erik and Lyle, while another mentions some might believe men can't be sexually abused. This argument was actually used by the prosecution in the real-life case, but for some reason, it's not included in the show beyond this moment.
The women give Erik a call to try to cheer him up, but he sounds very sad. He asks to talk to Leslie alone and tells her that he feels like the narrative is much different in the media now. People have turned against him and he now gets hate mail. Erik believes it's all over for him and Lyle, and though Leslie tries to comfort him, it doesn't work.
When the women leave, one stays behind to tell Leslie a hard-to-hear truth. Politely, she tells her that another reason the case ended in a mistrial is because a lot of the men didn't like Leslie.
The big bombshell
As the general public begins to turn on Erik and Lyle, they get more bad news. Jill meets with Lyle and tells him that he has no more money, so unless she and Leslie begin working pro bono, they have to find new lawyers. Lyle is certain he'll have more money as soon as he's able to publish his book, telling her that Norma is helping her write it. Well, Jill has a bombshell for Lyle. Norma has already written the book on her own and it's coming out. She's also recorded their phone conversations and those are being released, too. Of course, Lyle showed his true colors in their conversations, and that's going to seriously hurt the case.
In one of the recordings that have come out, Lyle says: "I've been practicing crying and I'm getting so good at crying." Yikes. Jill says because he would be cross-examined on everything he's said in the next trial, he cannot testify. That means they have to rely on Erik. Jill also tells Lyle that she's quitting and she'll help him find a good public defender.
Leslie tells Erik about what happened, and because of what Lyle said in the recordings, the brothers cannot argue self-defense now. Their whole defense is ruined. Leslie tries to remain hopeful, saying they'll just have to come up with something else. She tells Erik that there's no evidence that he shot his parents, only that Lyle did. But Erik doesn't want to hear it. He asks Leslie if she knows how much people hate her, saying she didn't do a good job at the first trial. Of course, he's just upset, but can you blame him?
Episode 8 comes to a close with an unexpected development. OJ Simpson has just been arrested and is brought into the same jail wing as Erik. Erik talks to him from his cell and gives him advice, suggesting he take a plea bargain. We'll learn how the Simpson case impacts the Menendez brothers in the finale. It's not looking good for Erik and Lyle right now, and sadly, this story doesn't have a happy ending.
Stream all nine episodes of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix.
"Seismic Shifts". Monsters Ep 8. B. The penultimate episode of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story rushes through a lot of ground, having to stuff in multiple events for the sake of time. Though it scratches the surface of compelling themes of the case, it's only fleeting before moving on to the next event..
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