If you’ve raced through all nine episodes of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, we’re sure you have one lingering question: Who are the true monsters in this series? 

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story chronicles the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed — and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole — that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. 

While Monsters is a fictional, scripted series, you can find out more about the true story in the documentary The Menendez Brothers, coming to Netflix next month. 

Over the course of the series — starring Javier Bardem as José Menendez, Chloë Sevigny as Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle Menendez — the story is examined from multiple angles, raising questions about how to define a monster. The brothers maintain they were pushed to the extreme and, after years of abuse, killed their parents out of real fear for their lives. The finale then takes us inside the last days of the brothers’ second trial (the first having ended in a hung jury), where prosecutor David Conn (played by Paul Adelstein) tries to convince the jury that José and Kitty were nothing but doting parents and that Erik and Lyle’s actions were premeditated and motivated by money.

In that final episode, the prosecutor succeeds in convincing the jury that the brothers deserve to be found guilty. But were the brothers villains or victims? Was it justice or injustice?

“[The show] is really more interested in talking about how monsters are made as opposed to born,” said Murphy during a panel after an early screening of Episode 1 in New York. “We try to not have too much judgment about that because we’re trying to understand why they did something, as opposed to the act of doing something. I think the audience is in for a real roller-coaster ride because every episode shifts perspective to a certain degree.”

Brennan added that showing many angles was “the only way you could do this show responsibly because ultimately the truth of what happened is not knowable by anybody else, other than two people who are sitting in prison right now,” he said. “So the job was then … this Rashomon approach. I kept picturing it like we’re holding up a gem, or a sculpture, and looking at different facets of it.”

The finale is intentionally ambiguous and provides no conclusions, since no one but the brothers can really know what happened to them or their parents in their home. “We ask you as the audience to make the decision about what really happened because we’re just going off research, and theories, and court testimony,” said Murphy.

Ahead, dive into the last episode and decide for yourself who the real monsters are.

First off, is O.J. Simpson in the Monsters finale? 

The brothers aren’t the only ones who receive a verdict in the final episode. In the opening scene, we see Dominick Dunne (played by Nathan Lane) sitting watching the jury deliver the verdict in O.J. Simpson’s murder trial. (We all know how that played out). We don’t actually see an actor portraying Simpson, just Dunne’s shocked reaction to the not guilty verdict. In the previous episode of Monsters, we hear Simpson’s voice (Trae Ireland) as he and Erik discuss their cases through the bars of their adjacent cells, but he doesn’t actually physically appear in the series at all. 

In the final episode, why doesn’t Lyle Menendez testify? 

During a trial prep scene at the top of the episode, Lyle (Chavez) and Erik (Koch) get into an argument over whose fault it is that their trial is going pear-shaped. Erik grabs a copy of the book, The Private Diary of Lyle Menendez: In His Own Words!, and tells his brother, “You fucked us. We are fucked. They have hours of you on tape! And you sound insane!” Lyle angrily responds that he didn’t know that he was being recorded by Norma — the woman who’d been calling him and pretending to help him write a book that would cast the brothers in a favorable light. Turns out, the book has made a huge mess of the case and squandered any chance the brothers have of being acquitted. It also means Lyle can’t testify because he’d be open to cross-examination on everything that’s mentioned in the book, which the prosecution later dubs a “glossary of all his lies.”

Who testifies during the trial in the final episode?

During the trial, a sales agent who sold José a car for Lyle testifies that the son was awful to his father during the process. Later, the Menendez’s pool repairer takes the stand to tell the jury he witnessed the brothers yelling at their parents while working on the property the day before the murders. He’s convinced the boys weren’t scared of their parents, but that their parents were scared of them.

Next up is the captain of the boat (Joseph Culp) who took the family out on a shark fishing trip. He tells the jury something similar and adds that when he heard about the murderers, he immediately thought the boys were responsible. The family cleaner also testifies that she never witnessed any fighting while living and working in the family’s home. Actually, her only takeaway is that the boys were very messy. Other character witnesses speak on behalf of Kitty and José, saying they sacrificed everything for their sons and that José was never an angry man.

Then there’s Erik’s friend Craig (Charlie Hall). The prosecutor, Conn (Adelstein), asks him about Friends, the unproduced screenplay he and Erik wrote about a character named Hamilton Cromwell who murders his parents in cold blood. Craig goes on to say that Erik confessed the murder to him but gave him a different version of events than what he and Lyle testified in the courtroom. In Craig’s retelling, José and Kitty were asleep when Lyle and Erik shot them.

Conn also asks Craig about the 1987 film Billionaire Boys Club. Craig says that the plot is basically what Lyle and Erik did to their parents. He adds that Erik was aware of the plot before the it came out because it’s based on the true story of their friend Brian (Ruben Vernier), whose parents were murdered for money. Brian then takes the stand, revealing that Lyle wrote him a letter from jail asking him to lie about José and the boys’ relationship by claiming that José was a powerful person and that Brian never felt welcome in his home.

What happens when Erik Menendez testifies in Episode 9?

Conn digs in, trying to convince the jury that Erik and Lyle planned the murders or, as he puts it in legal terms, that they were “lying in wait.” On the stand, Erik says that they were just trying to be prepared to defend themselves, because when they were growing up, their dad always threatened to kill him if he ever told anyone what was going on. Erik says when he told Lyle about the abuse, and Lyle confronted José, Erik believed José would go through with his threat and kill both of them. Conn bites back, equating the preparation Erik just described to premeditation.

Are the Menendez brothers found guilty of first-degree murder in the finale?

The jury find Lyle and Erik guilty of murder in the first degree in the deaths of José and Mary Louise Menendez. They further find the special circumstance allegation that Erik intentionally killed the victims while lying in wait to be true. 

What happens after a juror has a heart attack in Episode 9? 

Due to the severity of the brothers’ convictions, the jury is only allowed to consider two options for sentencing: life without parole, or death. One member of the jury, Leigh (Vicki Lawrence), is adamant that the boys deserve to die — in fact, she gets so worked up she has a heart attack, and an alternate juror is brought in to replace her. The new juror is more sympathetic toward Lyle and Erik, feeling that they aren’t violent people. He doesn’t know what to believe, but if there’s the slightest chance what they said was true, he doesn’t want to be responsible for taking their lives. 

Do the Menendez brothers get the death penalty in the final episode?

In LA County Jail, inmates watch the outcome of the trial on television. After three days of deliberation, the jury ultimately decides that the brothers should be sentenced to two consecutive life terms with no chance of parole. By the end of the episode, Erik and Lyle are on their way to prison. 

Do the Menendez brothers end up in the same prison in the finale?

No, as we see in the finale, the brothers are put in separate vans, and while they initially think they’re both destined for the same prison, they soon realize they’re being separated and transported to different penitentiaries to serve their life sentences. As the realization dawns on them, they both look devastated.  

What’s that song playing in the Monsters finale?

Milli Vanilli’s “I’m Gonna Miss You” plays over the scene. It’s a throwback to José and Kitty’s memorial scene in Episode 1. After addressing the congregation, Lyle hits play on the track, sharing that the song’s lyrics are his final words to his mother.  

How does Monsters end? What’s the very last scene of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story all about?

The final scene of Episode 9 returns to José (Bardem) and Kitty (Sevigny) on the same shark fishing trip they were on in Episode 4. This time, we see the action unfold from the parents’ perspective and hear their conversation, rather than from Lyle and Erik’s POV. The late telling of the other side of the story adds to the continuous ambiguity of the narrative that runs throughout the series. 

In the scene, José and Kitty discuss their futures: José wants Kitty to go back to work as a journalist, while he is running for Senate, and they’re getting their marriage back on track after his past affair. Then they call the boys over to join them in fishing. When Erik and Lyle don’t respond, sitting sullenly on the bow of the yacht, Kitty asks her husband what’s up with their sons. “Just let them be,” responds José.

Looking out at the ocean, Erik asks Lyle, “You’re not chickening out, are you? We bought the guns.” Lyle replies, “No. Let’s fucking do it.” They’re both in tears as they contemplate what’s to come. The scene cuts to black, and an end card reads: “Lyle and Erik Menendez maintain the allegation of sexual abuse at the hands of their mother and father. They continue to serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.” With that, the audience is left to decipher for themselves who the true monsters are. 

Watch the Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Trailer #2