Season 1 · Episode 1 · September 21, 2022
Bad Meat
Updated
- Season
- Season 1 — Dahmer
- Episode
- Episode 1 of 10
- Premiere
- September 21, 2022
- Platform
- Netflix
- Rating
- TV-MA
- Part of
- Monster anthology
Watch
Official making-of feature: the cast and Ryan Murphy on building the series.
The episode
The season opens at its ending. In July 1991, Tracy Edwards talks his way out of Apartment 213 and flags down a Milwaukee squad car; when officers walk back into Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment to check his story, they find polaroids, trophies, and the answer to a horror the building had been reporting for years.
From that night forward, the episode widens to the Oxford Apartments — to Glenda Cleveland next door, to the smells and sounds no one in authority ever chased, and to the neighbors evacuated while the evidence was still inside. The arrest is the beginning here, not the climax: the question is how it took so long.
Show vs. the record
The arrest night is documented. On July 22, 1991, Tracy Edwards left Apartment 213 and brought Milwaukee police back with him. What they found there stopped the killings. Glenda Cleveland lived in the building and had already tried to get the department to act.
Opening the season at its ending, and every conversation inside the apartment, is structure and dialogue written for the series.
New to the season? Start with the Season 1 guide for the full picture, or the watch order to see how the anthology fits together.
Keep watching
Browse every guide on the seasons index or jump to the Season 4 hub for the newest chapter of the anthology.