Monster Season 3 Finale Ignites Speculation: Did Ed Gein Help Catch Ted Bundy?

Monster: The Ed Gein Story leans hard into messy, inside-baseball true-crime energy, and the finale goes for the bold swing: it makes it look like Ed Gein helped bring down Ted Bundy. If you watched the last episode and went, wait, did that actually happen? you are very much not alone.

So... did Ed Gein help catch Ted Bundy?

No. Not even a little. The show flirts with that idea, but in the real world, Gein had zero to do with Bundy getting caught.

What the finale shows

The last episode, titled "The Godfather," follows FBI agents digging into a new serial killer case that turns out to be Ted Bundy. They hit up Jerry Brudos in prison, and he points them toward Gein. From there, the agents visit Gein, who eventually slips a sheriff a clue that supposedly leads to Bundy’s capture.

It plays like a shadow history where Gein is some twisted consultant helping close the net around another killer. It’s provocative television. It’s also not how any of this went down.

What actually happened

The short version: Bundy was pulled over in a stolen car, tried to run from a patrol unit, and was arrested. He was later executed in January 1989. Ed Gein had no role in any of it.

So why does the show do that?

This season, co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, is less interested in a tidy timeline and more into how Gein saw himself. The finale leans into an unreliable, delusion-tinged perspective where Gein imagines he left a mark on the world, even in places he absolutely didn’t. It’s intentionally disorienting and, yeah, it’s supposed to make you question what you’re seeing.

"It’s the most tonally challenging part of the show to me in that he’s not horrified by it," co-creator Ian Brennan told Netflix’s Tudum. "He sort of loves the fact that he made a mark."

Quick reality check

• On the show: FBI agents question Jerry Brudos, then consult Ed Gein, who gives a sheriff a clue that leads to Ted Bundy’s arrest.
• In real life: Bundy got nabbed after trying to dodge a traffic stop in a stolen car. He was executed in January 1989. Ed Gein had nothing to do with it.

If the ending left you debating whether Monster just rewrote history, that’s kind of the point. It’s not endorsing Gein’s version of events; it’s showing you how warped that version always was.