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‘Mindhunter’s Episode 7 Showed that Sometimes Evil is Just as Revolting as We Imagine
Is there a more frightening thought than knowing that some people are just born evil?
Echoing through the corridors of Oregon State Penitentiary, Jerry Brudos’ (Happy Anderson) manic and wicked cackle sounds like it was borrowed from a cartoon villain. It’s almost too deranged, frenzied, even caricaturistic in a way, to be realistic. Yet when we glance at the giant man it belongs to, it becomes spine-chillingly real. As a guard escorts the infamous Lust Killer — a necrophile who kidnapped, raped, and killed four young women between 1968–69 — to meet our mind-hunting duo, he’s talking about the boxing match in which Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw. He explains, “It is not an easy thing to break a human being’s jaw. Let me assure you… that takes practice.” And we instantly believe him as his overbearing body gets chained to a metal table. That’s The Entrance of a serial killer designed to make our blood run cold in a matter of seconds.
As much as it’s catered to our true crime-laden mind of how we tend to imagine a serial killer’s physique and demeanor, it’s the first time in Mindhunter when that actually rings true. Brudos is a monster from the moment we hear his voice. By the time we meet him in the flesh, we’ve already encountered Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton) and Monte Rissell (Sam Strike) — the former perhaps more unsettling in the long run — but none of those two struck us immediately as being as threatening and intimidating as Brudos.
With his portrayal, Episode 7 sets a crucial reminder: these men were remorseless, impulsive, manipulative, and perilous people first and only interview subjects second. Though this is a somewhat inherent quality in a series about real-life murderers, Brudos stands out as a memento to take us out of the trance the show pulled us in previously to say, “Hey, remember, this was real.”
The moment Brudos learns he’s faced with the FBI (two clean-shaven agents in grey suits clearly wanting something from him), he starts making demands. He wants a drink and cigarettes and pizza — anything that would take an effort and isn’t from the prison. Anderson may play the character slightly heightened and exaggerated for…
