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This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. |
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“ | Do you know what I got Alex? I got my friends, I got the team. I don't get to be all "boo-hoo I'm sad my friend died", I'm gonna put a bullet in my head so the whole world feels sorry for me. Jesus, you wave that gun around like I give a sh-t. I don't, man. If I sell out Bryce or lie, either way my life falls apart. I got no one else on my side. I can't run home, that team's my home. Going to playoffs, winning state, being an athlete? That's not about fun, for me it's about survival. It's all I got. It's everything. | „ |
~ Monty telling Alex his motives for his crimes. |
“ | Ty-Ty, nothing happened to you that hasn't happened to a hundred guys. It's nothing. Get over it. | „ |
~ Monty refusing to apologize for raping Tyler. |
Montgomery "Monty" de la Cruz is the secondary antagonist of the 2017 Netflix teen drama series 13 Reasons Why.
He is a student at Liberty High School who has been known to both mess around with the jocks and pick on the Baker's Dozens as a way to silence the victims of Bryce Walker or any of the jocks in Liberty High along with eventually antagonizing Bryce in the third season after the latter cuts ties with him.
He was portrayed by Timothy Granaderos.
Biography[]
Montgomery de la Cruz was born on November 2, 2000 to Mr. de la Cruz and an unnamed mother. All throughout his life, he is known well for typically being vicious and callous to the bone to other students (especially Tyler Down), most often preferring physical violence seemingly just for the cruel pleasure of it. He is a member of Bryce Walker's bully friends and is passionately loyal to him. This is proven in season 2 where he consistently tries to protect his friend Bryce Walker from facing legal consequences for his rape allegations, he goes as far as being an accomplice to his rape of Hannah Baker (who later killed herself partially because she felt she could not handle the trauma the rape caused her), and an attempted murder of Clay Jensen to keep him silent, to protect Bryce.
Later during season three, it is revealed that Monty does terrible things to others to release his anger towards his father while still being evil. He also falls in love with Winston, dating him in secret after saying sorry for beating him up. Later, Monty becomes a prime suspect in Bryce's murder as the narrative reveals that he started hating Bryce after Bryce, (whom was attempting to reform at this point), threatened him for raping Tyler. Despite this Monty still mourned for Bryce and he denied killing Bryce because “Bryce was his best friend.”
Eventfully, after Tyler confesses to the students that he was a survivor during Jessica's speech and tells the police with the help of Charlie St. George (who witnessed Bryce threaten Monty), Monty gets arrested for not only the rape, but also the murder of Bryce despite the fact that Alex performed the deed. As it turns out, to absolve Alex, the group and possibly Alex's father, framed Monty as his murderer (despite the fact Monty was having sex with Winston during the murder). At the end of the season, it is revealed that Monty was found dead in his cell.
In season four, Winston and Diego Torres try to gain justice for Monty being framed for a crime he did not commit. He is present throughout Clay's hallucinations alongside Bryce. His sister Estela also begins attending Liberty High and mourns her brother's death, despite having knowledge of his horrid actions. While Monty's death isn't shown, news of his crime had spread throughout the jailhouse. He was labelled as a child rapist by the other inmates and was stabbed to death for what he did to Tyler.
Personality[]
In every sense of the word, Monty is a bad boy for his usual nature of being insensitive, arrogant, sadistic, violent, brutal, and cruel, though most likely because of his abusive history with his father. His violent tendencies may also be a result of his abuse of steroids. He bullies Tyler Down frequently (so much that Alex and even Bryce choose to defend him on occasion), gropes Courtney at the school dance and spreads rumors of Hannah Baker being a "psycho lesbian". As the audience learns more of his past, the narrative brings to light that Monty's cruelty, although inexcusable, is clearly the result of his poor upbringing, abysmal environment, and possible self-loathing. However, he has some moments of humanity was seen when Monty admitted to Bryce that he missed Jeff Atkins and the fourth season also reveals that despite rarely caring for anyone else, he did love his sister Estela de la Cruz.
In Season 2, however, Monty is shown to be more depraved than others initially thought. In reality to the point where saying that he is very rude would be an understatement; he is a sociopathic, scheming survivalist, willing to side with whoever he believes will keep him safe even if the person is guilty. While Monty is extremely loyal to his friends and teammates, especially Bryce, it is not out of care or compassion but rather as a necessity because he believes that they are his best chance at surviving his abusive home. Even though Monty knows Bryce is guilty of raping multiple girls he still sides with him because of Bryce's family's influence and therefore his best chance of survival, despite knowing Bryce would never go the lengths Monty went to help Monty. He shows neither sympathy nor empathy towards any of his victims or Bryce's victims. He is also shown to be homicidal, trying to run over Clay Jensen in Bryce's car and trying to tempt Alex into suicide (by giving him a gun, bullet, and shooting diagram as instruction) by making him feel guilty for failing to stop Hannah's rape. He also goes a step further when he rapes Tyler with a mop stick in the high school bathroom on top of smashing his head against the mirror and sink multiple times out of spite for the baseball season being cancelled.
In Season 3, his violent behavior is slightly more subdued than in season two, as he is revealed to be a repressed homosexual. He also becomes even more paranoid when the police begin to search the sports teams' lockers for drugs, particularly steroids. He still remains completely callous and heartless towards others, such as mocking Justin's drug addiction, Clay for being a suspect in Bryce's murder, as well as making kissing noises at Tyler after his rape of him. Monty's rape of Tyler was so disturbing that even Bryce, who has committed far more rapes than him, is disgusted and appalled by it (even though it's because he started to become a better person). Though, we do see a few humanizing moments for Monty, such as seeing his abuse from his father as well as his repressed homosexuality, as well as showing a softer side to Winston such as genuinely apologizing to him for beating him up the first time they hooked up and opening up to him about his feelings the second time they hook up, which shows that his virulent and obsessive homophobia is likely a result of some sort of self-loathing that he hides deep inside through his sadistic cruelty.
It is also implied that Monty’s friendship with Bryce might be genuine after all. Since Bryce threatening Monty for raping Tyler leads to Monty telling Bryce he’ll kill him (to which Bryce replies Monty was “just a coward and always has been”) Monty was a prime suspect in Bryce’s murder. However, Monty didn’t murder Bryce as he was with Winston during the murder. Monty is then shown mourning Bryce at his funeral, crying for Bryce as Zach speaks and trying to attack the girls that protest the funeral. Monty later gets offended when Clay accuses him of killing Bryce with Monty saying, “He was my best friend a—-hole.” in a genuinely hurt tone of voice and shows further grief for Bryce when talking to Coach Keebra.
At the end of the day, Monty is a juvenile delinquent shaped by the poor quality of his environment, causing pain onto others to release and project the misery of his own frustrations. He is still evil, but he is still capable of showing respect towards others and feeling remorse even though he rarely does. It's possible that if not for his death, he would have found other ways to project his anger towards his father that didn't involve harming others. On the other hand, he still died without showing any remorse or making any attempts at redeeming himself for his actions. Therefore, he remains mostly unsympathetic despite becoming a far more complex character than he was in the first two seasons.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Mr. de la Cruz - Father
- Unnamed mother
- Estela de la Cruz - Sister
Friends[]
- Winston Williams - Lover
- Charlie St. George - Former friend
- Scott Reed - Former Friend
- Diego Torres - Friend
- Luke Holliday - Friend
- Chloe Rice - Former Friend
- Taylor and Kenneth - Friends; assisted in raping Tyler
Enemies[]
- Justin Foley † - Friend turned enemy, threatened during Hannah Baker trial
- Bryce Walker † - Best friend-turned-enemy and blackmailer
- Alex Standall - Friend-turned-enemy, threatened during Hannah Baker trial
- Jessica Davis - Threatened during Hannah Baker trial
- Clay Jensen - Acquaintance turned Enemy; Attempted victim
- Hannah Baker † - Harassed
- Zach Dempsey - Friend-turned-enemy, threatened during Hannah Baker trial
- Tyler Down - Bullying and rape victim
- Marcus Cole - Friend turned enemy
- Ani Achola - Situational Enemy
- Tony Padilla - Vandalized car
Villainous Acts[]
Season 1[]
This season Montgomery is at his least villainous and he is mostly an antagonist because of his brutish nature. However, later seasons reveal that he is more involved with what goes on than one might think.
At Liberty High School's Winter Formal, he goes up behind Courtney Crimsen and forces himself on her body (sexually grabbing her thigh), but he does stop touching her when she pushes him away. Monty claims he wants to be Courtney’s friend and starts dancing with her but it’s soon revealed Monty came to mock Courtney about the photo of her and Hannah kissing. Courtney lies that the girls in the picture are Hannah and an openly lesbian girl named Laura. Monty then starts to taunt Hannah about the rumor and spreads the rumor around the school that Hannah’s a "psycho lesbian".
Later, Monty was driving recklessly with Justin Foley on their way to school where he almost hits Alex Standall. Remorseless, he laughs vacuously in response to Alex angrily yelling that people were walking. The two then get in a fight, which Monty easily overpowers, and later Monty is suspended for 3 days while Alex is only given a warning.
After his suspension, Monty torments Tyler Down despite the latter's unprovoked behavior. He notices Tyler talking to Sheri, demands he leave her alone and pins Tyler against the lockers and threatens to break Tyler's expensive cameras against his face. Alex steps in and Monty backs off. Later as Tyler is talking to Courtney and Marcus, Monty shoves Tyler to the floor. Tyler pushes Monty back and Monty shoves Tyler against a locker but Bryce notices the fight about to happen and pulls Monty off of Tyler. This is his final antagonistic appearance in the season.
Season 2[]
Monty is a villain in this season and many consider him the main antagonist (even more than Bryce Walker) of the season. As one of Bryce's friends, he goes at great lengths to protect Bryce from any legal consequences due to the rape accusations Bryce faces. Monty's deeds consist of:
- Giving out hostile notes and papers to the people who received subpoenas, telling them to stay quiet and even one threatening to kill Justin.
- Making a mess in the photography room to intimidate Tyler not to testify.
- Attempting to hit Clay Jensen with Bryce's jeep, which almost certainly would have killed him if he succeeded.
- Broke into the Jensen house, stole a gun and attempted to force Alex Standall (a recent suicide survivor) to kill himself by leaving a bullet in his locker and also a diagram of a target shooting dummy, and later the gun as well. It's later revealed Monty was trying to guilt Alex into killing himself for failing to stop Hannah's rape and suicide.
- Leaving a naked female sex doll on Jessica Davis' (who was raped by Bryce Walker) porch, hanging from a noose, calling her a slut.
- Left a dead rat in Zach Dempsey's sport bag to mock him about his sexual relationship with Hannah Baker before she killed herself.
- Defacing Tony Padilla's car, which he loves.
- Throwing a brick through Mr. Porter's car window.
- Set a sign in Marcus Cole’s yard on fire.
- Stalked Zach’s sister and took pictures of her and then put them in Zach’s locker, causing Zach to think it was Tyler and attack him.
- Vandalizing the Bakers' drugstore, spraying words like "She's dead" in order to taunt them about Hannah's death.
- Violently assaulting Clay in the locker room with three other jocks.
When he is confronted, he ditches a crippled Alex in an abandoned building (after cruelly taunting him about his suicide attempt) and snatched the gun Alex had. Later it is revealed that he and Alex were at the party the night Hannah was raped by Bryce. Monty actually witnessed Bryce raping Hannah from inside Bryce's pool house (while Alex only heard it), however he chose to not intervene and remained silent about it without a shred of guilt while also keeping Alex oblivious of it.
He vows for revenge on Tyler when the latter indirectly ends baseball season abruptly before state by vandalizing the baseball field. When he tells Bryce his plan, Bryce refuses to help him due to his previous actions nearly getting Bryce in trouble. He then demands Monty leave both Tyler and himself alone and abandons Monty which leaves him even further unhinged.
Later he and two of his lackeys, Taylor and Kenneth, confront Tyler in the boys bathroom. Angry at Tyler for ruining the season, he assaults him by smashing the back of Tyler's head into the mirror, breaking it despite Tyler apologizing to Monty and promising to do better. He then proceeded to slam him head first on the side of one of the sinks multiple times. He screams Tyler ruined his life and vulgarly calls Tyler a slur before he begins shoving Tyler's head in the toilet while Tyler cries out that he's sorry repeatedly. Monty then tops it off by shoving the end of a mop in the bathroom up Tyler's anus while Taylor and Kenneth hold Tyler down, thus anally raping him. He pushes the stick so far up Tyler's anus that it bleeds and he later is revealed to be unable to defecate without bleeding. Monty, Taylor and Kenneth leave Tyler behind in tears and agony, not knowing that this was the last straw for Tyler and they indirectly pushed him so far he decides to go through with his plan to shoot up the school at their Spring Fling Dance. Thankfully, Clay talked Tyler down and prevented him from shooting anyone.
Season 3[]
Monty takes a less active role in this season than he did in season two. He harasses Tyler on occasion, showing no regret over raping him (even threatening to do it again at one point) and mocks Clay for being the prime suspect of Bryce's murder and Justin for still consuming drugs. He also callously refuses to apologize to Tyler, telling him to "get over" being raped.
When Bryce takes him to a "rich kid" party, he meets a boy named Winston Williams and the two briefly hook up. As Monty and Bryce are about to leave, Winston tries to speak with Monty, inviting him to hang out later on. Out of fear of being outed, Monty calls him a slur and beats him senselessly. As a result, Bryce is forced to pay out a total of 7000$ to Winston in exchange for his silence.
On the night of Bryce's murder, Monty is threatened by Bryce for raping Tyler. Monty then tries to fight Bryce during the big fight at halftime (with Bryce having the upper hand). After the game ends, Monty threatens to kill Bryce but Bryce tells Monty he's "just a coward and always has been". Monty notices Winston taking photographs after Bryce gets on the Hillcrest bus and leaves. Monty apologizes to Winston for beating him up and he is invited by Winston over to his house where they have sex, though Monty continues insisting he's not gay. Monty is then shown mourning Bryce after he dies and attending his funeral and tries to attack the girls who protest the funeral. Monty is finally arrested for his sexual assault on Tyler. Monty's father visits him in prison and angrily scolds him (not for the crime itself, but for assaulting a male). He warns Monty that he will get beaten up by the inmates for what he did and Monty finally stands up to his father for the first time, saying that while he may get beaten in prison, he won't by his own father for once. He then asks Monty if he's gay, which he bravely admits, before the man spits on his face in response before turning to leave.
The group subsequently frames Monty for Bryce's murder in order to protect the true culprit - Alex Standall - before being informed that Monty was killed in his cell hours ago. Feeling sorry that Monty and Bryce are dead, Ani nonetheless convinces Deputy Standall to close the case by blaming the murder on Monty and that they should "let the dead bury dead". Despite his cruel nature, Monty was mourned by Clay and his friends as even they felt he didn't deserve to die. Winston, who is also upset about Monty's death, confronts Ani about lying to the police, since he knows Monty is innocent and he didn't deserve to die like he did. It is revealed in season 4 he was stabbed to death by the other inmates after they discovered he raped Tyler (who was a minor at the time).
Trivia[]
- Ironically, despite playing such an active role in later seasons, Monty is not even on the tapes. This is despite how he, along with Alex (who was unaware that someone was actually being raped), did nothing while Bryce was raping Hannah and in Monty's case, enjoying it. However, it's very likely that Hannah was not aware that Monty was present. However, Hannah was aware of Monty being the one to spread rumors of her being a "psycho lesbian" (though this could be she was more hurt by Courtney who started the rumors and was her friend). Either way, him not being on the list confused viewers with some even saying that it's a plot hole.
- Timothy confirmed in an interview, "Monty is not gay but still finding his sexuality throughout the seasons." This would explain why he gropes Courtney and can be seen dancing with a girl at the Winter Formal. This, along with his father's abuse towards him and Monty's internal homophobia, explains why he's so aggressive towards homosexual people despite engaging in homosexual activities with Winston.
- Monty was a really close friend to Bryce Walker. Bryce would cover for his negative behavior with Winston Williams. Justin Foley even says that both he and Monty cared for Bryce at some point. That being said; Monty ended up hating Bryce for blackmailing him after Tyler's rape, however Monty still mourned Bryce after his death.
- This somewhat implied that Monty did truly care for Bryce, and didn't just see him as a way to escape his abusive home life.
- Monty is more of a sociopath than psychopath since he has been traumatized throughout his childhood from his father's abuse as implied and pointed out. This would explain his sadistic behavior and constant homophobia towards others, despite engaging in homosexual activities himself which would make him a hypocrite. It also explains his lack of empathy from those affected by his and Bryce's actions. This is also shown that he rarely shows emotion and care towards others such as apologizing to Winston for beating him up and showing genuine grief over Bryce's death.
- Monty has internal homophobia and would get insecure and angry towards others because of his abusive homophobic father. This would make Monty have more of an insecure side to him. One could even argue that his father's treatment of him is not just the reason for such vicious behavior, but also the reason he rarely shows compassion for others. However, the narrative as with most of the characters, still paint his way of coping in a way that makes Monty highly unsympathetic.
- Especially given Monty being born on the 2nd of November means he is a Scorpio, the unrestrained brutality demonstrated by him represents the nature of both fronts having been distorted by his conditions.
- Like with Bryce, Monty gaining a more sympathetic side resulted in an outcry among most fans. While even those who hated him the most felt he didn't deserve getting framed for a crime he didn't commit, a lot of people including some who supported Bryce, were furious that Monty suddenly showed some moments of compassion. Others were even more upset that Monty barely even tried to change his ways unlike Bryce; even stating that him saying sorry to Winston for beating him up was the only good deed he performed after raping Tyler (if not the only good deed he performed in the entire show). Some even outright stated that they felt that while he didn't deserve getting framed for murder, he deserved dying because of his actions. Overall, his "nicer side" was one of the most disliked aspects of the third season.
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Liberty High School Others |