Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Colors of Evil: Red’ delivers a riveting murder mystery with several twists and turns that keep the audience guessing. When you think the case has been solved, a new piece of information comes to light, and you are forced to reconsider everything you thought you knew about the case. And yet, when the whole truth comes to light, it becomes clear that the answer had always been right in front of us all along.
The movie begins with the body of Monika Boguska, found floating by the sea, her lips cut out, and her body exhibiting the same wounds that were found in another victim, Zaneta Kaleta, fifteen years ago. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that the person who killed Zaneta must be the one to have killed Monika, too. But the answer is never that simple. SPOILERS AHEAD
Did Lukasz Kazarski Kill Monika?
Lukasz Kazarski killed several people, including Zaneta and several other women who disappeared over the course of the fifteen years, but Monika was not one of them. One could say that had Monika not been killed when she was, she would have eventually wound up in Kazarski’s hold and would been forced to submit to him completely or die the same way that Zaneta and the other women did. But things didn’t go that far, and Monika’s death came at the hands of a very unexpected person.
Monika was friends with Mario, the son of the medical examiner, Dubiela, with whom her mother, Helena, was having an affair. Both Monika and Mario knew about the affair, and for the most part, it didn’t affect their friendship. What Monika didn’t know was that Mario was in love with her, but he never expressed his feelings because Monika was dating someone else at the time. But then, the whole thing with Kazarski happened, and she was forced to leave everything and run away.
Monika’s father advised her to disappear so well that not even he would know where she was. He asked this of her because he knew that Kazarski would try to find her, and as long as someone knew where she was, she would be in danger. The only person that Monika could trust to help her and not rat her out was Mario. He brought her to the cabin his father owned in the woods. It was a secluded place, and because no one really knew about it, especially anyone related to Kazarski, there was no way his men could track Monika there.
Seeing Monika in a vulnerable position and having helped her out, Mario thought she owed it to him to reciprocate his feelings. He had saved her, after all, been her knight in shining armor. It only made sense that she should now fall in love with him, or so he thought. When he made a pass on Monika, she made it clear that she was not interested in him that way. When he forced himself on her, she fought back. This angered him because he couldn’t understand why Monika wouldn’t agree to be with him when she had been with so many other guys. His anger got out of control, and he bashed her head repeatedly on the floor. By the time he realized what he was doing, she was dead.
The only person that Mario could turn to was his father. When Dubiela discovered what his son had done, his first instinct was to protect him. He had already lost his wife; he couldn’t lose his son. So, he came up with a plan to make it look like someone else had killed Monika. Years ago, he had autopsied the body of Zaneta Kaleta. He knew exactly how she was killed. He had also autopsied several women who had died with similar wounds, except the missing lips, and knew there was a pattern there. More importantly, he found out that Zaneta’s boyfriend, Adrian Jakubiak, who was convicted for her murder, was recently released on parole. It felt like the perfect opportunity to turn the focus towards him.
If the murderer had the same MO, then the first person to fall under scrutiny would be Jakubiak. So, Dubiela cut out Monika’s lips and recreated the injuries to match Zaneta’s. Later, he planted Monika’s blood-soaked T-shirt in Jakubiak’s house and watched him go down for a crime he didn’t commit once again. If it weren’t for Bilski, everything would have gone down as Dubiela expected, and the truth would have remained hidden.
What Happens to Mario and Dubiela?
While Mario may have killed Monika, he did love her. His frustration made him do a terrible thing, and he was completely aware of it. He immediately felt guilty and wanted to turn himself in, but his father stopped him. Dubiela didn’t want to lose his only child, and he knew that Mario was not strong enough to survive prison. He told Mario to keep his mouth shut, but that did nothing to alleviate his guilt. He had kept Monika’s ruby ring, intending at some point to come forward about his crime, but his father kept him from telling the truth.
It is when Mario finds Dubiela and Helena at the cabin that the enormity of their betrayal strikes him. He cannot accept the fact that his father, who helped dispose of Monika’s body, is sleeping with her mother. If he had somehow convinced himself to go about his life, he couldn’t do so after seeing Helena with his father. Considering how serious things were between them, things would eventually come to the point where Dubiela would marry Helena. How could Mario look her in the eye and accept her as his stepmother when he had killed her daughter? So, he decided to do away with all pretenses and come clean about his crime. He left it to his father to tell Helena the truth while he drove to the city to confess his crime to the cops.
As a sign of his guilt and confession, Mario also left behind the ruby ring, which he purposefully put on the table for Helena to find. He wanted to let her know in case his father didn’t tell her. When Dubiela discovered that Helena had found the ring, he drugged her and held her captive. At that point, he thought he could still save his son, but then he realized that Mario never meant to hide. When he left the cabin, he went with the intention of coming clean about the murder. So, no matter what he did, he couldn’t save his son anymore.
When Helena manages to free herself of the constraints, Dubiela doesn’t attack her. Instead, he confesses the whole thing, revealing why and how he did all that. By this time, he also knew that there was no saving him or Mario anymore. He couldn’t bear losing his son to prison, so he shot himself. Meanwhile, entirely unaware of his father’s actions, Mario arrives at the police station, reports Monika’s murder, and confesses to the role he played in it, ensuring that justice is served, something that should have happened a while ago.
Does Lukasz Kazarski Go to Prison?
When prosecutor Bilski went after Lukasz Kazarski, it was with the intention of holding him responsible for Monika Boguska’s murder. So far, Kazarski, despite his many crimes, had managed to stay out of jail. He had been convicted of several crimes, but nothing was ever big enough to put him in prison permanently. But then, Monika dies, and her father, who worked for Kazarski, decides to give up all of his financial crimes, hoping to have some sense of justice for his daughter, who he believes was killed by Kazarski. This evidence allows the prosecution to get their hands on Kazarski, and it’s enough to have him sent behind bars for a long time. But it’s not enough for Bilski. He wants Kazarski to be held accountable for the murders of Monika, Zaneta, and all the other women Kazarski had killed.
The problem is that no matter how hard he looks, there is no evidence to suggest that Kazarski killed all those girls. Bilski has his house, his club, and every other place he owns turned inside out, but there is no evidence strong enough to prove his guilt. And then Bilski realizes that he has been looking at it the wrong way. Kazarski is a psychopath who kills for pleasure. He keeps the trophies (the cutout lips of the victims), and he wouldn’t just leave them lying around. He must keep it with him, which means that it must have been on him when he was arrested. Sure enough, when Kazarski’s stuff collected when he was processed into his cell is looked through, a necklace of lips skin is found. This confirms that Kazarski killed the women, but they still need to identify the victims.
When Bilski confronts Kazarski with the necklace, what bothers him is that the man doesn’t confess to killing Monika. Later, the DNA test of the skin in the necklace reveals that it has skin that belongs to Zaneta and other women but nothing that belongs to Monika. From the lens of a prosecutor, Bilski knows that he has enough to pin down Kazarski for all his crimes except the murder of Monika. With the financial crimes and the murders and the irrefutable proof for both things, it is clear that Kazarski is never coming out of prison. And that’s a clear win, but it still doesn’t solve the case of Monika’s death.
Eventually, Bilski realizes he’d seen Monika’s ruby ring in Mario’s hand when he first visited Dubiela at his house. At the time, Bilski didn’t know about the ring, so he didn’t pay attention. It was much later that the memory came back to him, and he realized the biggest hint he had missed. This is also when he realizes that Helena is in trouble. He knows she left for the weekend with Dubiela, so he races to the cabin, which he finds after hearing a gunshot. Luckily, it turns out that Dubiela had killed himself and not Helena. She is safe, and Bilski can rest, too, because the case has been fully solved. There are no loose threads to keep him awake at night.
Read More: Colors of Evil Red: Is the Netflix Show Based on an Actual Murder?
