Lizzie Borden’s Rage Fuels ‘Monster’s Bloodiest Season Yet

Courtesy of Netflix

Casting Beatty, daughter of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, as Lizzie also felt right, says Brennan. “She can have a real blank slate of a face,” the creator says. Perfect for Lizzie’s unbridled rage, which is nearly always simmering under the surface. “She exudes this sense of innocence,” he continues. “There’s so little photographic evidence of Lizzie, but the iconic daguerreotype of her — she’s got such a strange look. There’s something about Ella that was able to match that inscrutability.”

The series opens in April, months before the August murders, where viewers will see Lizzie being poorly treated. Her vicious stepmother berates her, calling her an “imbecile” and “a true freak of nature.” Her casket-builder father and barely-around older sister Emma (Billie Lourd) are indifferent to the abuse. “She’s treated like an animal,” says Brennan. “It’s so difficult to watch, but [Hunnam and Hall] are such nimble actors that it’s so entertaining and really funny, knowing that they’re going to get their comeuppance.”

Hunnam was fresh off playing horrific murderer Ed Gein for the show’s third season, when he was brought back into the fold as Andrew Borden. “He’s playing another very lonely man, who expresses his loneliness differently [from Gein],” teases director Max Winkler (who also worked on Season 3). “Andrew’s in desperate need for some male companionship and friendship, and he can’t find it anywhere.”

And it’s no surprise that his malicious wife Abby can’t hold down a maid. Viewers will see her fire her sixth housekeeper that year, before bringing on the enigmatic Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps, last season’s Ilse Koch), who the family calls “Maggie.” She dies her hair, has been to Paris, and insists Lizzie get some books written by women. And she can get a blood stain out of anything. “Bridget is really a catalyst,” says Brennan. “She’s like a foreign object that gets introduced to this ecosystem, and completely turns it on its head.”

Bridget and Lizzie bond, and soon begin the romantic relationship that many have theorized happened in real life. “I think Lizzie’s just completely perplexed [by Bridget] at first,” says Brennan. “She becomes, very quickly, an object of deep fascination and then desire.”

Courtesy of Netflix

Like the caged bird she is, Lizzie builds an escape for herself — and eventually Bridget — in the garden’s dovecote, where she sweetly cares for dozens of doves. (“We’re not being subtle with the bird imagery,” Winkler says with a laugh.) At one point, Lizzie and Bridget adventure outside the Borden home, seeing a stage production of William Shakespeare‘s chaotic A Midsummer Night’s Dream, led by actress Nance O’Neil (Jessica Barden), who becomes Lizzie’s friend. “A lot of our show is about Lizzie’s awakening. [In Nance, Lizzie sees] a woman who’s very comfortable. Maybe too comfortable to take up space,” says Winkler, Barden’s real-life husband. “You could feel the wheels turning all these influences on Lizzie.” 

Another influence is Hungarian serial killer Countess Elizabeth Báthory (also played by Krieps), known for slaying virgins and bathing in their blood. Bridget reads her story to Lizzie. And we’ll also see how modern killer Aileen Carol Wuornos (Sarah Paulson) was influenced by Lizzie. “They’re all inspired by each other,” says Brennan. “[Wuornos] was fascinated with Lizzie Borden, and Lizzie and Bridget, were fascinated by Elizabeth Báthory. There’s this throughline of these stories of female rage.”

But do Brennan and Winkler believe Lizzie was really guilty? “I think she did do it,” admits Brennan. “We entertain other theories in the show, but that’s part of the trick of [writing] this anthology. You have to look at the source material as clearly as you can and make a decision. And for me, that was very clear.”

“You take these people that could be a footnote in history, or for Lizzie, a nursery rhyme, or for the Menendez Brothers, a joke, essentially. [But] these were human beings,” adds Winkler. “They were a product of their time, and they did what they did in our retelling of it. They did what they did for a reason.”

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Premiere, Thursday, September 17, Netflix