Port Fourchon, LA

> "*Uh, his name is Mr. Grey. He looks like a man, but don't be fooled. He is as far from human as they come. He is some kind of monster. Maybe even the devil himself. He'd go out nights, looking for victims. Seduce 'em, skin 'em. He has infinite appetite. Pain. Pleasure. He's obsessed with humanity. He picked me for an accomplice. Guess he could tell I was in the market for a skin suit. Eventually we acquired enough to last a life time. But done never seemed to be done. It was the girl that made me see he'd lost control. She was only fifteen. And he got her. And then he became her. I couldn't bear to see such a young life lost. And I had been a part of it. It had to stop.*"
> ― Alex to Toni
>
>

**Port Fourchon, LA** is the first episode of the first season of the Hulu original series *Monsterland* and the first episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

A down-and-out waitress questions her choices.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Alex drowns 15 year old Chrystina Harris in a lake. She struggles to fight for her life but is ultimately overpowered. He proceeds to drag her body on shore, take her car keys, and cut her face off with a sharp knife. Afterward, he goes back to his car and opens the trunk, which contains boxes with names scribbled across them. He stuffs Chrystina’s bag in the trunk and hops in the front seat, where he notices a gash in his right cheek. He sews up the cut with a fishing line and drives away.

Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Toni struggles to get her disobedient daughter, Jack, to take a bath, so she washes her in the front yard, inside the kiddie pool. Before taking Jack to the babysitter’s, she reminds her of their conversation pertaining to scissors and how she shouldn't use them to hurt people.

Toni drops Jack off at Denise’s before heading to work. After talking to her husband, Denise and Derek have agreed that it would be better for Toni to take Jack elsewhere. She suggests that Toni take her to Kidz Corner — a daycare on the island, but Toni can’t afford it. Denise allows Jack to stay until Friday, but after that, Toni has to find another babysitter.

Toni arrives at Kajun’s Diner, a rat infested restaurant, to start her shift. Toni asks Janine for the four-tops as she’s in need of extra cash.

Alex stops at a gas station to fill up. He meets the eyes of a homely-looking stranger, but doesn’t interact with them. He then heads inside and asks the clerk if there’s a hotel near. He replies that the only motel was taken over by the offshore boys. Alex then suspiciously asks where the clerk sleeps. The clerk becomes alarmed. Instead, he tells Alex that there’s a diner nearby if he’s looking for a hot meal.

Toni and Janine watch the news report of another missing person — Grand Isle Central High student Chrystina Harris — believed to be another Vitim in a deadly string of attacks by the south Louisiana killer, The Blind Butcher. They are startled by the sudden sound of a triggered mouse trap. Janine picks the mouse up and throws it into the mop bucket.

Toni flashes back to the evening of Jack’s birthday. She invited Donny over to celebrate. Jack asks if he’s her dad, but he doesn’t reply. In fact, he seems irritated by the question. Donny asks about Toni’s grandma, who died last January after her heart gave out. He asks Toni if she needs money as he didn't have any and wasn't sure why she invited him over, but Toni insists that’s not why she called. Jack has simply been asking about him. Later that evening, Donny places his hand on Toni’s thigh, but with Jack in the room and refusing to go to bed without taking a bath first, they are forced to hold off. Donny runs Jack a bath while Toni puts the cake away. She sprints into the bathroom as Jack lets out a scream. She had simply gotten soap in her eyes. Jack then starts to squirt Donny with her water gun even as he repeatedly tells her to stop. He becomes enraged, slapping Jack and shoving Toni into the wall. She hits her head on the door frame and falls to the ground. When she comes to, Donny is gone and Jack is laying face down in the tub. Toni pulls her from the tub and performs CPR.

Present day, Toni heads out back to dump the trash. She returns inside and serves Alex. He orders a hamburger and gives her a $100 bill. All he asks for in return is for her to have a conversation with him. Toni reluctantly agrees. She asks where he’s from. He replies that he lives nearby, but she can tell by his accent that he’s lying. She can tell that he wants something from her but has yet to determine what that is. He asks if she could be anyone else in the world, who would she be. Toni doesn't believe that life works like that. She believes that when you’re born, there’s a million yous that you can be. And as you go through life, one by one, each version goes off and dies until you’re left with whoever you are by the end. Alex then asks if she lives nearby. She doesn't respond. She is distracted and rushes into the kitchen at the sound of Jack’s scream. She’s covered in blood and fighting with Janine. Toni heads out back and confronts Denise, who explains that Jack is troubled. Denise reveals that Jack bit the mailman. And prior to that, she threatened Beau with a pair of scissors.

Toni takes Jack home and hoses her down in the front lawn. As she prepares dinner, the power cuts off, forcing Jack to eat a cold dinner meal.

Toni flashes back to her adolescence, when she first got pregnant. She asked two of her friends to help her induce an abortion. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get any misoprostol, though Meredith assured Toni that they could perform the abortion without the pills. Sunny had done it before on another student. Meredith suggested that Toni call Donny again, but he’d been avoiding her calls, and she couldn't go to her grandma, who was heavily religious. So Toni took off her pants and laid down on the floor. But she backed out at the last moment and decided to keep the child.

Present day, as Janine is closing up the diner, Alex enters and inquires about Toni’s residence.

Toni lays in bed with Jack and makes hand shadows until Jack falls asleep. As she is cleaning up, she hears footsteps approaching. She opens the door to find Alex standing on her stoop. He’s in need of a place to stay. He offers her $1,000 just for shelter for the night. He promises that he won’t hurt her and that there’s no catch. Toni agrees, allowing Alex to pull his car into her garage. She asks what he has in his trunk, but he doesn’t answer. Once inside, Toni asks who he’s running from. Again, he doesn’t answer. He then meets Jack. Toni warns Alex that she doesn’t respond well to men, but Jack is quite friendly with Alex. She asks what happened to his face. He claims that he got into a fight and had to sew it up.

While sitting in bed, Toni hears the water come on, and she decides to join Alex in the shower, where the two of them have sex. Afterward, he asks what she wants to be when she grows up. Toni once had a feeling of great potential but that died the moment Jack came along. Toni believes that Jack’s fits are caused by her knowing that nobody wants her. Toni included. Again, Toni asks about the trunk. This time Alex says that he can’t tell her.

Whilst Alex sleeps, Toni sneaks out to the garage with his keys and opens the trunk. Inside, she finds the boxes with names written on them. She is startled by Alex, who tells her to pick one. Toni opens a circular blue box. Inside, she finds a skinned face. She is terrified and begs Alex not to kill her. Alex pulls out a knife and cuts his own face off, revealing the exposed flesh beneath. A sighting so gruesome that Toni passes out from fear.

Toni awakens the following morning on the couch. Jack tells her that there’s a lady in the house. Toni asks the woman who she is. The woman explains that she’s a friend and that she is, in fact, Alex. They’re called "alternatives," Alex explains. Modified shells that allow them to appropriate another physique and human experience — essentially skin suits. It hurts less every time, and Alex has done it 18 times. Alex is running from a man named Mr. Grey. He looks like a man, but he is as far from human as possible. Some kind of monster who’d go out at night looking for victims to seduce and skin. He has an infinite appetite and is obsessed with humanity. He picked Alex as an accomplice. Eventually, they acquired enough skin to last a lifetime, but Mr. Grey continued. It was 15 year old Chrystina Harris that made Alex see that he had lost control. He killed her and skinned her. He then became her. Alex couldn’t bare to see such a young life lost, so he killed Mr. Grey. Or at least Alex hopes he did. He thought that he saw Mr. Grey outside a gas station once. And if he is alive, he will want his stuff back, which Alex refuses to allow to happen. He will keep the skins. He can be anyone and feel anything.

After Alex leaves, Toni finds the $1,000 sitting on the table. She decides to take the money and start over. She packs her bags and asks Jack where she wants to go. They start their journey with new names. Jack is now Jill and Toni is Isabelle. They stop at a diner, where Toni claims that she’s a nurse from Denver. Jack suddenly has another one of her fits and Toni is forced to take her back to the car, where Jack screams uncontrollably and kicks the back of the seat until she falls asleep. Toni can no longer parent Jack, and so she carries her sleeping daughter and places her in the back of a stranger’s car before driving away. Toni is initially sad but is also relieved.

## Cast

### Starring

* Kaitlyn Dever as Toni
* Jonathan Tucker as Alex

### Guest Starring

* Keilly McQuail as The Woman
* Megan Byrne as Janine
* Matthew James Ballinger as Donny

### Co-Starring

* Charlotte Cabell / Vivian Cabell as Jack
* Joy Jones as Denise
* Naiya Ortiz as Meredith
* Melaysha Green as Sunny
* Reggie Alvin Green as Attendant
* Wendy Rich Stetson as Anita
* Steven Solis as Pedro
* D. Dumebi Egbufor as News Anchor
* Caitlin Cisco as Cashier
* Bill Buell as Lee
* Leslie Glassman as Bum Drunk
* Tina Johnson as Grandma Bev
* Tamara Fay as Mercedes Woman