Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story shifts to a different perspective in episode 6, "Don't Dream It's Over." The story begins in Carbondale, Ill., in 1962. A college-aged Kitty meets a college-aged Jose. Their parents don't support their intention to marry but they do it anyway, calling it a dream. He vows to give her everything in life.
In the present, Kitty (Chloë Sevigny) tells her therapist she hates her kids. Lyle (Nicholas Chavez) scares her while Erik (Cooper Koch) is "pathetic." She hardly knows who they are anymore and their relationship is strained. She never sees enough of her husband, either. Her sons took her husband's attention away, as did his mistress. She understands his mistress because she knows he's trying to "escape the chaos" of the boys. She tells the therapist she's renovating the house and getting a facelift ahead of Christmas, hoping Jose likes her "tune up."
As Christmas Eve rolls around, she asks for Jose's (Javier Bardem) advice on the tree, then if he likes her facelift? He says he liked it when he paid for it and he'd like her to lose nine pounds. Jose dons a Santa hat and hands out gifts. Kitty gets a tennis bracelet and a Mercedes convertible. The brothers are upset their mom gets a car while they get books. It's The Greatest Salesman in the World, a book that inspired Jose when he first came to the US. He tells his sons to work hard.
Later, Jose's phone rings. It's the police; the boys have been arrested for burglary. He picks them up, remaining silent until they get to the car. When they start to apologize, Jose jumps out of the car and tries to pull himself together. "Stay away from me, please," he tells them. Jose goes home and informs Kitty they're moving to a new house in Beverly Hills because the boys have ruined their name in Calabasas. Kitty doesn't want to leave her dream home, but plans to keep it until the boys get to college, then they can return.
Entitlement
Dr. Oziel (Dallas Roberts) gets a call from Jose, who tells him he hopes he can "fix them" because his sons are liars and sociopaths. In session, Lyle says the burglaries were a cry for help; Erik agrees their home life is difficult. Then we see that Kitty and Jose are there, too. Jose calls them both a joke, grabbing Kitty and going to Mr. Chow's while the session finishes.
As Jose has a meeting about the boy band Menudo and how they deal with members growing older and asking for more money, he wonders if he made his sons the way they are because he spoiled them. His beautiful wife gave him two beautiful sons, but all he ever sees is entitlement. They want everything handed to them and he's ashamed. "Where do I go from here?" he asks. "It's not working."
The next morning Kitty finds Jose in the kitchen at 5:30 am. He says he doesn't love her, he doesn't love their sons and the family is a failure. She's a drunk and a pill popper. He always wanted a family but the "dream has failed." She thinks he's lying about never loving her and asks why he continues to lie about his mistress. She admits she's a wreck because Lyle scares her. Kitty reveals she tried to kill herself and failed. Now she’s just trying to get through the day without thinking about killing herself. She hates that he dragged her to Beverly Hills away from her friends. Jose kisses her and tells her to go back to sleep.
Fixing the family
In New York, Jose makes an offer for Menudo despite the fact the other businessman sees him as the car rental guy because he previously Jose worked at Hertz. When Jose makes his $30 million deal, the others are impressed. He closes the deal and is alone in his hotel room to celebrate. He has a male prostitute there and asks if he "uses soap." He insists he doesn't do "this" often, then asks if the young man knows about Greeks and Romans. He paints a picture of the raw masculinity and brotherhood that existed amongst soldiers. Jose dons a Caesar-like gold leaf crown and starts ordering the young man to crawl to him.
Back home, Kitty watches as Erik and Craig (Charlie Hall) practice their script. Erik yells at her for a typo but she points out it was on his original written page. Lyle arrives and teases Erik for allowing their mother to "burn" him. She says they mistreat her and it turns into a big fight that culminates with her saying she should poison everyone. That night the brothers are suspicious of their pasta so they decide to get something else for dinner. In a rage, she sweeps the plates off the table and then passes out for a few moments. After convulsing, she comes to and grabs the wine bottle. Her sons watch the entire ordeal, then leave to get burgers.
When Jose returns the next day he finds Kitty in the bedroom. He tells her he ended things with his mistress and landed the deal. He's going to make big changes in their family and needs her to stop taking pills, promising to help her, even to go to counseling. "I'm going to fix this family," he promises.
Jose wakes up the boys and forces them to go to every house they robbed to apologize and write a check for what they stole. Erik has to take the fall because he's a minor, allowing the case to be sealed. Lyle is on board with blaming his brother because it was his idea anyway. Jose tells them he hasn't been the father they needed; he's going to get them out of this, but afterwards there are no more handouts.
Jose takes control
Jose needs one more big deal and then he’s moving to Miami to run for office and take out Fidel Castro. He thought he'd be like Joe Kennedy and have his kids go into politics, but he has to do it himself.
The next day Jose gets a call from Princeton and soon he's on a plane to Newark. Lyle needs to be suspended pending a review of cheating allegations. Jose drives his son to the cemetery and shows him the burial plot he bought for their family. He wants to know if his son feels worthy of being buried among former presidents and great men. Lyle says his father abuses him by belittling him in public. Jose doesn’t think he hit his sons hard enough because it didn't work. He didn't hit him as hard as his own father hit him. "As a father that loves you, Lyle, I'm sorry I didn't hit you hard enough."
When Erik gets home from tennis practice, Jose informs him he's not good enough to play tennis in college, so he's going to business school at UCLA and live at home instead of being a model. Jose asks if Erik is homosexual because he's never seen him with a woman. Erik says no, but Jose is going to be a senator so he's arranged for Erik to go to prom with a girl; he just needs the photos to prove it happened. Erik refuses, saying he's going to be a model. In a rage, Jose drags Erik to his room as they argue. Kitty goes to the door, but then she walks away.
That night, Jose tells Kitty Erik isn't using condoms, with no girlfriend, he doesn’t want Erik to get AIDS. The next day Kitty tells Erik she needs to check his penis for blisters and herpes sores.
Later, she finds Jose working on his election slogan. She tells him she loves him but she needs to know what's happening with the boys. She knows there's no sex in their marriage and he's so worried about Erik getting AIDS so she wants to know if something sexual is happening with him and the boys. He asks if she's drunk, then denies anything happening. He reveals he was sexually abused by his mother. He thinks she's "confused" because they shower together and he wrestles with them and touches them, but it's part of his quest to make them men.
The dream is over
In counseling, Kitty blames their kids for driving her from her loving husband. She says there was abuse in her house growing up and she's drawn to it. Jose admits to hitting the boys (which Kitty supports) but he's never hit his wife. The therapist asks if either ever experienced sexual abuse, which angers Jose.
Jose calls his mother to tell her how much she hurt him. He's sobbing, but then he gets angry as his mother denies everything. He says he knows her uncle did the same thing to her, and he hangs up when she refuses to acknowledge it. The next day, Jose meets with his lawyer to talk about the will.
In therapy, Kitty admits she hates her kids and Erik hates his embarrassing Ford Escort. Jose is smiling through it all; after the session they go to Sears to take a family photo. When they finish, Jose takes Kitty's hand. That night they eat their dessert together on the couch while Erik and Lyle pull up outside with the intent to kill them.
The entire season of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available to stream now on Netflix.
