Toni

> "*I see it like this. When you're born, when you a little baby? There's a million yous you can be. Doctor, lawyer, bank robber, happy, sad-- All kinds of versions of you. And then you start going through life, and you make this choice... This one, that one. And one by one, those versions sort of go off, like, they die in a sort of way. And then finally, you end up who you is. The end*"
> ― Toni to Alex[source]
>
>

**Toni** is a character on the Hulu original series *Monsterland*. She is portrayed by Kaitlyn Dever.

Toni is a single mother from Port Fourchon who was struggling to support her daughter. She's been on her own since her highly religious grandma died a year prior after her heart gave out. Overwhelmed by parenthood and life struggles, Toni abandoned Jack in hopes of pursing a better life.

## Season 1

### Port Fourchon, LA

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 then 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. 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.

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. 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.

### New Orleans, LA

Toni, who is going by Jennifer, now resides in New Orleans and hopes to become a dental hygienist. Nancy points out how far Annie has come and views her as an inspiration and asks her to share her inspirational story with Toni. Annie reveals that she left home when she was 15 years old and her father was a drunk who abused her mother.

### Newark, NJ

Toni has moved to New Jersey, where she works in a late night diner. She's sleeping in a booth when Brian enters in search of something to drink. She goes in the back and grabs a bottle of liquor. She suggests they have sex, but he points out that he’s married, leaving her to question why he’s doing shots alone in a diner at 2:00 am. He says that she’s too young to be so jaded. Toni retorts that she’s wise. She had an epiphany last week. There was a crying baby in the diner, which reminded Toni of her daughter, Jack. So she went outside to get some fresh air and that’s when she saw the local drug dealer. She approached him and asked what he was selling. "Angel blood," he replied. He tells her it’ll make her whole. Toni swallowed the pills, which took effect almost instantly. Her trip ended with her vomiting in the restroom. She went to wash her face in the sink and when she looked into the mirror, her eyes were bleeding black goo and her mouth was gone. It showed her that she was a monster.

Toni wishes to play a game of who is the worst person. She reveals goes to a grieving group for parents who lost their kids. However, her kid isn’t dead, though she tells stories as if she were. Toni has not the slightest idea where her child is now and has no desire to get Jack back. Brian then reveals that he failed to watch his daughter and that she was abducted. Toni then turns on the jukebox, and she and Brian started to dance. Just as they’re about to kiss, the music cuts off. She goes to get change from the register and drops the coins onto the floor. This triggers Brian, reminding him of the day that Tabitha went missing, and so he leaves.

## Appearances

### Season 1

* Port Fourchon, LA
* New Orleans, LA
* Newark, NJ