Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 3 recap — prison life

The party is over for the Menendez brothers as what happened to their parents comes to light in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Let's take a look at everything that happened in the Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story episode 3. 

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" begins with Dr. Jerome Oziel (Dallas Roberts) getting a call from his wife telling him to come home right away. The police are there. Meanwhile, Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) are looking at a potential location for a restaurant. 

Det. Zoeller (Jason Butler Harner) and Det. Linehan (Drew Powell) tells Oziel that they have a warrant to search their house based on a tip. Oziel’s wife knows that it was Judalon (Leslie Grossman). Oziel quickly says he committed no crimes, but the police aren’t interested in him. They want to know where the tapes are. Oziel presses play on the tape recorder and they all hear Lyle and Erik confessing to killing their mother. 

It's just us now

Lyle gives money to his friends in case he needs to be bailed out of jail. They’re bewildered as he rants about tapes and confidentiality. He goes for a swim, then he takes his friends to lunch. The police are outside waiting for him. Zoeller reads him his rights. 

Erik is in Israel. He’s on the phone with his lawyer, who explains that the tapes can be used against them. His lawyer is going to call Robert Shapiro, but in the meantime, he suggests that Erik get out of Israel before he’s arrested and sent to a Middle Eastern prison. Lyle is escorted to his prison cell while Erik is arrested as soon as he steps off his plane. 

Later, Erik is led to a cell and they discover that they’re next to each other. Lyle thought Erik managed to flee. "It’s just us now, E," Lyle says. "We’re on our own." At some point, Lyle is on the phone with his lawyer, who says they can blame one of the five families for the deaths. They just have to have a better story than the prosecution. 

The brothers learn how to navigate life in prison, from getting dimes for the phones to Erik only drinking milk and being afraid of the showers. Lyle complains that they’re millionaires and they can’t get dimes. Suddenly, though, dimes start appearing for Erik as Lyle learns the prison bartering system. 

One day Erik overhears that there are times when the showers are empty, so he ventures out to use one while Lyle removes his tattered hairpiece and weeps. As Erik bathes, another man watches him. Erik’s looking at him, too. The other man faces him, putting his genitals on full display. Erik does the same. When the other man leaves, Erik smiles.

Fake tanner and Fidel Castro

Lyle gives his list of needs to his lawyer, Robert Shapiro. The list includes self-tanner. Lyle asks where they are with Castro and what’s happening. He says they need to look good because the case is going to be televised and they need to look good. Shapiro shows them a photo of the gas chamber ("Is that a sauna?” Erik asks) and says it’s built for two. Shapiro calls their arraignment a disaster because they looked like psychopaths. Erik insists that they’re not guilty, but Shapiro says they need "more than fake tanner and blaming Fidel Castro."

Suddenly Erik says they should probably talk about what happened before that night. Lyle asks for a moment alone with his brother. Lyle says they aren’t going to talk about "that" but Erik thinks it would give them a chance with the jury. Lyle dismisses it as things that happen. 

The Menendez family has gathered together with Shapiro. They decide to fire him for not defending the brothers. He has no problem leaving the case because they’re "impossible." He offers some advice — they need a better story because their confession is on tape and the police know it. If the family doesn’t move fast, the brothers will end up in the gas chamber. 

Tony (Brandon Santana) tells Erik how his small crime ended up landing extra charges because of how the laws are written. Now he’s being jailed with murderers. Tony is "confused" about Erik, thinking he’s gay. Erik says he isn’t, that he doesn’t even like the word. Erik says that it’s because of what he went through at home, but he likes being around Tony. Tony tells him it’s okay to be who he is. "Not in my family," Erik says.

New representation

Erik’s cell gets searched and the officers find letters from Lyle, who has written up lavish plans for their escape. In a montage, we see them transformed into Milli Vanilli lookalikes who lay low in Toronto until they can get away. Back in reality, Lyle is taken to another cellblock and he’s not coming back. Erik needs someone he can trust. In the yard, Tony puts his hand on Erik’s shoulder. Unlike Erik, Lyle is alone in his new cell and doesn’t have anyone. 

Tim Rutten (Michael Gladis) and Leslie Abramson (Ari Graynor) are sitting in an adoption interview. She has an adult daughter but she admits she was working so hard she didn’t pay attention to being a mother. Now she feels like she wants to "enjoy being a mother, where it doesn’t feel like a struggle." She also knows too well about kids not getting the right support and ending up on the wrong side of the law so she knows she can be a good mother. 

Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) is at lunch and he calls the Menendez brothers sociopaths. Nothing shocks him anymore, except that they have a justice system that puts the rights of killers and rapists above their victims. Across the restaurant, Leslie is defending the notion that everyone is entitled to a fair trial. Dominick calls her everything wrong with the legal system. He has a grudge against her for trying to get a plea deal for the man who killed his daughter, and she has a tendency to fight hard for male clients who need her. There’s clearly no love between them. 

Leslie gets a call on her way home. Soon she’s meeting with the Menendez family, who explain that they just fired Bob Shapiro. She doesn’t like cutting deals; she prefers to fight. She has experience working on hard cases, and she tells them about her last client and the abuse he suffered until he decided to kill his father. We see her in court making her closing argument. She painted a picture of the young man being the victim, not the murderer. He was acquitted and sentenced to three years’ probation. She tells the family she could represent Erik but Lyle would need his own representation. Leslie can’t make promises but she can put up a fight. 

He'd do anything to make it all stop

Erik meets with Leslie, who knows how hard it has been for him. He’s in tears. She says that people think they’re spoiled rich kids who wanted their parents’ money. Their spending spree after their deaths was the first mistake. Then they trusted the doctor and allowed him to record the sessions. And then they said they were going to kill Oziel. 

She says they looked soulless in court, but the biggest mistake was killing their parents in the first place. Leslie knows about the letters Lyle wrote about their family secrets. She wants to know everything. Leslie hires Dr. Vicary (Gil Ozeri), a forensic psychiatrist, to talk to him. Erik is reluctant, but she says it’s necessary. He needs to trust her so that they can win. 

Erik tells Dr. Vicary that he needs different food because he can’t eat prison food. Vicary says he needs honesty from him, so Erik admits that they did it but there was a reason for it. 

Later, Vicary hurries from the prison and goes to the first payphone he can find. He meets with Leslie and shows her the notes. She’s stunned by what she sees. 

When Leslie next sees Erik, she thanks him for telling the truth. "You were sexually molested by your brother, Lyle," she says. He says it started when he was five or six. He thought he liked it at first, but then he didn’t. She presses him for more information. He never blamed Lyle because Jose did it to Lyle, telling him it’s what the Spartans did to make their sons tough. When Lyle told him to stop, Erik recalls that it was when Jose started doing it to him. She comforts him and asks how they survived it. He said they found ways to make it go faster. He knew someday he’d do anything to make it all stop. Leslie sits back in her chair, satisfied that she has the answer to how she’s going to defend him.

The entire season of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available to stream now on Netflix.