Season 1 · Episode 9 · September 21, 2022
The Bogeyman
Updated
- Season
- Season 1 — Dahmer
- Episode
- Episode 9 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
Grief turns procedural: lawyer Joe Zilber files a $14 million suit against the City of Milwaukee on the families' behalf, and Shirley Hughes is pushed to sue Lionel over book profits — the season watching victims fight over the scraps of an atrocity.
Meanwhile the culture machine spins up: fan mail, autographed merchandise, dealers pricing Dahmer's belongings. Zilber's counter is the episode's one clean note — he buys everything at double the asking price and destroys it, then hands the families their shares of the loss.
Show vs. the record
Families did take the city to civil court, and there was a real trade in Dahmer's belongings after the trial. The episode names a lawyer, a dollar figure, and a choice to buy those items in order to destroy them.
Treat the motive and the amount as the series compressing that aftermath. The suit and the memorabilia trade are the part that belongs to the record.
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.