Vengeance Is Coming in 'Monte Cristo’s' Penultimate Episode
In the series' penultimate episode we finally get some revenge!
With the clock ticking down to the end of the series, The Count of Monte Cristo finally kicks its revenge plot — ostensibly the reason for its existence — into high gear. This is a good thing, if only because it’s about time something finally starts to happen on this show, but it’s hard not to be irritated by how rushed these events subsequently feel.
Fernand Mondego is unquestionably a dirtbag, and it’s immensely satisfying to watch him get publicly humiliated for not only getting rich off of orchestrating the murder of a military ally but selling a young girl into slavery on top of it. The Count gets his revenge, ultimately driving Fernand to suicide after revealing his involvement in Edmond’s arrest and imprisonment to his family. It’s grim stuff, but also... kind of not?
The series never made any effort to deepen our understanding of Fernand’s character, and he seems like a pretty bad husband and father in addition to all his other crimes. No one mourns the wicked, they say, but that probably goes double here. It’s difficult to feel anything like sympathy for him, even as he cries and takes his own life, because the only consistent character trait he has displayed throughout this series has been being a selfish [expletive].
