Episode 7 of Netflix's Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is a political commentary on how racism impacted the case against American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and even contributed to the Milwaukee resident's killing spree in his own residence at Oxford Apartments.

Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is a limited series which stars Evan Peters in the shoes of Dahmer. It follows the crimes of Dahmer that spanned across 13 years - between 1978 and 1991 - and premiered on September 21, 2022.

Disclaimer: The following content contains descriptions of violence and abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

Also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, Dahmer was a child s*x offender who murdered at least 17 males in Wisconsin and Ohio, with the youngest victim being a 14 year old Laotian boy. His necrophiliac and cannibalistic tendencies have also been explored in the series.

Titled Cassandra, episode 7 of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is all about how Glenda Cleveland's (played by Niecy Nash) efforts of flagging her neighbor Jeffrey Dahmer's purported crimes fell on deaf ears, and was reduced merely to a black woman reporting a white man.

Read on for a detailed recap and review of episode 7 of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

The episode took off from Tracy Edwards' escape from Dahmer's apartment in July 1991. Glenda was asleep and was woken up by the sudden commotion caused by Edwards' cries for help. He ran out of Dahmer's apartment screaming and called the police for help. Although Glenda witnessed everything, she didn't utter a word.

Multiple accounts of the dismissal of Glenda's complaints from the past explained her silence. When the police did arrive, she said in a broken voice that she had reached out to them a million times, but to no avail.

The system was so heavily rooted in racism that it had chosen to overlook logic, thereby siding with Dahmer even when Glenda tried to seek help for Konerak Sinthasomphone, a 14-year-old Lao boy.

But it's not just the frame of a black woman speaking up against a white man that makes the episode political. The intervention of civil rights leader Reverend Jackson merged the spate of murders - which included people of color as victims - with the civil rights movement in America.

The point of convergence, according to the leader, was the unavailability and inaccessiblity of resources to non-whites.

While addressing the Mayor of Wisconsin and the Chief of Police, Rev. Jackson spoke about the case and pointed out that it went beyond just "a gruesome horror show." He said:

In addition to the murders, Jackson noted, society had also been rattled by patterns of racism and neglect, "years of poverty, high unemployment, discrimination, and police brutality."

After trying to hold the police and Mayor accountable through his words, Jackson visited Glenda in a new settlement that the residents of Oxford Apartments were relocated to, since the entire building was sealed as a "crime scene."

The ingrained racism in the U.S. of the 1990s was captured in numerous ways, key among them being flashbacks of Glenda gagging and retching due to the stench that traveled from Dahmer's apartment to hers through the vent, her consequent complaints to the landlord who was dismissive and called Dahmer a "good tenant," and the police who slammed Glenda for calling them several times.

Even the camera angles capturing the apartment space in Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story proved the insensibilities of the police in choosing to distrust the next-door neighbor who wanted to bring to light Dahmer's monstrosities, all of which were executed in the cramped space.

Glenda confided in Jackson and revealed that even after Dahmer's arrest, the police had not contacted her, while the press from France and other foreign media pestered her for information.

Episode 7 of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story thrives on fear. Even as Glenda recounted the tale of horror, the episode did not depict gore and violence, since she herself had not witnessed it firsthand. Sound and background music throughout the episode aided in propelling the story's horror factor without any visual support.

Instead of showing a scene where blood spattered across the psychopathic protagonist's face as he dismembered his victims' bodies with a sawing machine, the episode relied on Glenda's hearing faculties, which heard noises of metallic clanging and scraping, thudding, clicks of a polaroid camera followed by sawing, whirring, and cries for help - all coming from Dahmer's apartment.

The scene where Glenda tries to sleep through the noises is gut-wrenching. The awareness that an assumed murderer is your next-door neighbor is in itself horrifying. But Glenda and her family could do little. She remarked to the building's manager that her daughter would frequently stay over at her boyfriend's place because of the stench.

Niecy Nash is impeccable as Glenda Cleveland. A testament to her brilliant performance comes in the scene where she lets out a gasp of air after Dahmer visits her with a meat sandwich as a gift to make her withdraw her complaint that had led to him being served a notice of eviction.

The star of the episode, however, is Peters' portrayal of Dahmer. The ubiquitous, calm yet threatening expression on Peters' face is realistic enough to give the actual Dahmer a run for his money. Although the series is based on documented events, Peters' performance adds a much-needed element of uncertainty to the otherwise known vortex of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Even amidst the actions and events, Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story did not fail to highlight a single strand of morality from Dahmer’s conscience. When he was pushed to the ground and hand-cuffed, Peters' Dahmer can be heard saying, "For what I did, I should be dead."

All the episodes of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story are currently streaming on Netflix.

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