Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story: ending explained
The finale of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story definitively connects the stories of Lizzie Borden and Aileen Wuornos through a deliberately surreal final scene. While Lizzie appears to find a new life alongside Bridget Sullivan, almost a century later Aileen is executed. The song "Carnival," by Natalie Merchant, serves as a bridge between the two eras until Lizzie and Bridget appear before Wuornos to accompany her toward a white light.But the final episode should not be interpreted as a literal reconstruction of historical events.
The Netflix season turns the real case of Lizzie Borden, played by Ella Beatty, into a dramatization in which the series does present Lizzie as responsible for the murders of her father and stepmother, even though in real life she was acquitted and the crimes were never legally resolved.
At the same time, the production connects her story to Aileen Wuornos, played by Sarah Paulson, a serial killer who lived almost a century later and who never had any real connection to Borden.
So what does the ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story actually mean?
Below we explain everything that happens in the final episode and which of those events belong to fiction.
Warning: this article contains major spoilers for the ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.
How does Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story end?
The final episode shows the aftermath of two storylines developed in parallel throughout the season.On one side is Lizzie Borden, who managed to be acquitted of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden.
On the other is Aileen Wuornos, who decades later is convicted of her own murders and ultimately executed.
The series uses their opposite fates to draw a comparison between two women who became extremely well-known criminal figures.
Lizzie walks free.
Aileen receives the death penalty.
But the episode ends up connecting them symbolically.
What happens to Lizzie Borden after the trial?
After being found not guilty, Lizzie receives part of her father's inheritance and leaves the house where the murders took place.She buys a new home that she names Maplecroft.
At first, the place seems to represent everything Lizzie wanted: independence, money, and freedom from the life she had with Andrew and Abby Borden.
However, that freedom ends up being much more limited than she expected.
Maplecroft becomes another prison for Lizzie
Lizzie fills Maplecroft with animals and finally has a large house of her own, but she remains practically isolated.Outside its walls, the trial has turned her into a macabre celebrity.
Although she was legally acquitted, society continues to associate her with the murders.
When she leaves the house she discovers that books have been written about her and that children even dress up as Lizzie Borden.
Her name no longer fully belongs to her.
She has become a pop culture figure.
That is why Maplecroft, which initially seemed to represent her liberation, begins to function as another form of imprisonment.
What happens to Emma Borden?
Lizzie's sister, Emma Borden, played by Billie Lourd, also cannot escape the consequences of the case.Emma blames the murders and Lizzie's notoriety for destroying her chance at a normal life.
She explains that no one wants to hire or marry a Borden, and she finally decides to leave.
Emma hopes to settle in another city, use a different name, and start over.
Lizzie is left alone at Maplecroft.
This part of the series has a partially historical basis.
In real life, Lizzie and Emma bought Maplecroft after the trial and lived there together for several years. However, Emma left the house in 1905, more than a decade after the acquittal.
The two sisters remained estranged for the rest of their lives.
Did Lizzie Borden really live at Maplecroft?
Yes.Maplecroft really existed, and Lizzie Borden lived there after her trial.
After being acquitted in 1893, Lizzie and Emma bought a larger house in an upscale area of Fall River, Massachusetts.
Lizzie continued living there for decades.
Although she had enough money to live comfortably, she never fully managed to escape the fame generated by the murders.
Public suspicion continued to follow her despite the not-guilty verdict.
Lizzie died at Maplecroft on June 1, 1927, at age 66.
What happens to Bridget Sullivan in the ending?
The series also offers its own continuation of the story of Bridget "Maggie" Sullivan, played by Vicky Krieps.After separating from Lizzie, Bridget is shown living in a small house in the mountains alongside an older man she has married.
Her life is not happy either.
Bridget appears trapped in a routine where she cares for a husband who treats her more like a servant than a partner.
The marriage again represents the very thing she and Lizzie tried to escape throughout the season: a life limited by social expectations.
Bridget finally decides to leave him.
Bridget returns to Lizzie
Before leaving, Bridget uses an axe to terrorize her husband, a clear reference to the murders that defined her relationship with Lizzie within the fiction.Afterward she arrives at Maplecroft.
When Lizzie opens the door, Bridget tells her she intends to stay.
The two try to start a life together once again.
However, Bridget believes Lizzie is still emotionally trapped by what happened to her father and stepmother.
To move forward, she must confront her past.
Lizzie asks Andrew and Abby Borden for forgiveness
Bridget tells Lizzie she needs to ask for forgiveness.Lizzie then walks into the woods behind her house.
There she prays and asks for forgiveness from Andrew Borden and Abby Borden for having killed them.
This scene is important because the series leaves little ambiguity about its own version of the case.
Within the universe of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Lizzie was responsible for the murders.
This directly contrasts with historical reality.
Lizzie Borden was tried for the crimes and acquitted in 1893. No one else was ever convicted of the murders, and the case officially remains unresolved.
Therefore, the emotional confession presented by Netflix belongs to fiction.
Do Lizzie and Bridget end up together?
Yes, within the series.After Bridget returns to Maplecroft and Lizzie asks forgiveness for her past, the two begin a new chapter together.
The series shows Lizzie and Bridget growing closer to the suffragist movement and building new relationships with other women.
In this way, the ending turns their relationship into a kind of personal liberation.
But there is a fundamental difference from the real story.
Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan really a couple?
There is no conclusive historical evidence that Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan had a romantic relationship.The Netflix production uses that possibility as one of its main fictional elements.
It also presents Bridget as Lizzie's accomplice during the murders.
That is likewise not supported by the historical record.
In the real investigation, Bridget Sullivan was the Bordens' maid and was in the house on the day of the murders, but she was never accused of taking part in them.
The romantic and criminal relationship between Lizzie and Bridget is, therefore, a dramatic construction of the series.
What happens to Aileen Wuornos in the ending?
In parallel, the series continues the story of Aileen Wuornos.Throughout the season, Wuornos becomes increasingly fascinated with Lizzie Borden.
For Aileen, Lizzie represents a woman who managed to do something she herself never could: be accused of murder and walk free.
Wuornos interprets Lizzie's acquittal as proof of society's contradictions and of how factors like gender and class can influence the way a person is judged.
But Aileen's fate is completely different.
Aileen Wuornos is sentenced to death
Wuornos is convicted of murder and receives the death penalty.In the final episode, the moment of her execution arrives.
Aileen is strapped to the gurney while different people watch from the other side of a glass window.
Before the lethal injection begins, she asks to hear a song.
The song is "Carnival," by Natalie Merchant.
The execution begins and Wuornos loses consciousness.
But the series does not end there.
Why does "Carnival" play in the ending?
"Carnival" becomes the element that connects Lizzie's and Aileen's stories.While the song plays during Wuornos's execution, the narrative shifts back to Lizzie.
Lizzie is at a celebration related to the suffragist movement.
The women are celebrating, drinking champagne, and listening to music.
Suddenly, the song Lizzie is hearing turns into "Carnival."
Her expression changes.
While the other women keep celebrating, Lizzie seems to disconnect from everything happening around her.
Then the series cuts back to Aileen.
Did "Carnival" have a real connection to Aileen Wuornos?
Yes, although Netflix alters the context.In real life, Aileen Wuornos had a known connection to Natalie Merchant's music and listened to her album Tigerlily while on death row.
Wuornos requested that "Carnival" be played at her funeral.
Natalie Merchant herself later spoke about this.
The series transfers that musical connection directly into the execution scene and turns the song into the narrative bridge between Aileen Wuornos and Lizzie Borden.
The final scene of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story
After losing consciousness during the execution, Aileen opens her eyes again.But she no longer seems to be fully in the real world.
She sits up and finds two women standing before her:
Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan.
Lizzie tells her they have come to accompany her to the next place.
Aileen appears frightened and vulnerable.
Lizzie and Bridget reassure her.
Then a door opens.
Behind it there is only an intense white light.
The three women walk through the door together.
Does Aileen Wuornos die at the end?
Yes.Immediately after that seemingly supernatural scene, the series returns to the real world.
Aileen's body remains on the gurney.
The officials present during the execution certify her death.
The sequence confirms that the appearance of Lizzie and Bridget occurs after Aileen loses consciousness and is dying.
The series deliberately leaves open what that encounter exactly means.
What does the ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story mean?
The ending can be interpreted in several ways.Lizzie and Aileen are spiritually connected
The most supernatural interpretation is that there truly is some kind of bond between the two women.Lizzie seems to hear "Carnival" decades before Aileen is executed.
Later, she and Bridget appear to receive her after death.
From this perspective, the series would be creating a kind of spiritual connection between women it considers marked by violence, abuse, and social rejection.
Everything could be happening in Aileen’s mind
There is another explanation.The Lizzie we see throughout most of the season could represent, on some level, the idealized version of Lizzie Borden that Aileen Wuornos has built in her mind.
Throughout the story, Aileen feels a deep fascination with Borden.
Lizzie represents, for her, a woman who supposedly managed to escape the consequences of killing.
So, as she is dying, Aileen might be imagining exactly the person she had turned into a symbol of freedom.
The scene works mainly as a metaphor
The most important explanation is probably thematic.The series doesn't need Lizzie and Aileen to be literally connected through some supernatural element.
Their encounter allows the season's central idea to come full circle: how different eras judge and transform certain women into "monsters."
Lizzie and Aileen had completely different legal outcomes, but the series tries to examine how violence, abuse, gender, class, and fame contributed to shaping their respective public images.
Why does Lizzie seem to hear "Carnival"?
This is one of the most ambiguous details of the ending.Aileen's execution takes place in 2002, while Lizzie Borden died in 1927.
Therefore, Lizzie could not literally hear the same song at a celebration decades earlier.
The scene deliberately breaks chronology.
That indicates the moment should be interpreted symbolically or subjectively.
The music temporarily erases the distance between the two women.
Time stops mattering, and the two stories come to occupy the same narrative space.
Why do Lizzie and Bridget lead Aileen toward the light?
Within the episode's visual language, the light clearly represents some kind of passage after death.But the meaning may be broader.
Aileen has spent much of her story obsessed with Lizzie.
In her final moments, the woman she had turned into a kind of role model finally appears before her.
Lizzie does not come to condemn her.
She comes to accompany her.
The scene thus gives Aileen something she almost never had in life: acceptance.
Co-creator Ian Brennan has explained that while Lizzie gets something like a happy ending within the fiction, Aileen cannot escape the consequences of her crimes. The final scene allows her to be given, at the very least, an emotionally satisfying resolution.
Why compare Lizzie Borden with Aileen Wuornos?
The two women had no historical relationship whatsoever.Lizzie Borden was born in 1860 and died in 1927.
Aileen Wuornos was born in 1956 and was executed in 2002.
They could never have met.
The connection belongs entirely to the series' framing.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story uses Wuornos to expand its reflection on women, violence, and the way society turns certain criminals or suspects into cultural figures.
Lizzie became a legend despite having been acquitted.
Aileen became one of the most well-known serial killers in the United States after being convicted.
The series places both stories face to face.
Did Aileen Wuornos really admire Lizzie Borden?
The series presents an intense fascination Aileen has for Lizzie.However, this connection should be understood mainly as part of the dramatization.
There is no historical relationship between the two women comparable to the one Netflix constructs.
Wuornos's presence functions mainly as a narrative device to examine different eras and different social and legal responses to women linked to violent crimes.
Did Lizzie really kill Andrew and Abby Borden?
Historically, it cannot be stated that Lizzie Borden was the perpetrator of the murders.She was accused and put on trial.
However, the jury found her not guilty in June 1893.
No one else was ever convicted.
That is why the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden remain one of the most famous unsolved cases in American criminal history.
Netflix makes a different narrative choice.
Within the series, Lizzie does directly take part in the murders together with Bridget.
The production thus constructs a fictional answer to a mystery that was historically never resolved.
Why was Lizzie acquitted?
The series especially emphasizes the gender biases present during the trial.The idea that a woman of Lizzie's social standing could commit such a violent crime was difficult for part of late 19th-century society to accept.
In reality, the case against Lizzie also had problems.
The prosecution relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, and certain information was excluded from the trial.
There were also flaws in the police investigation that have since been widely debated.
In the end, the jury acquitted her.
Nance O’Neil didn’t really help Lizzie during the real trial either
The series presents actress Nance O'Neil, played by Jessica Barden, helping Lizzie shape her public behavior during the trial.This is also a dramatization.
Lizzie met Nance O'Neil after the trial had concluded.
In real life, the two later maintained a friendship that generated speculation and that reportedly contributed to the tensions between Lizzie and Emma.
The series moves this relationship earlier to weave it directly into the trial storyline.
Which major parts of the ending are fiction?
The finale uses numerous historical elements, but much of its story is dramatized.Among the elements that should not be taken as proven historical facts are:
- That Lizzie killed Andrew and Abby together with Bridget.
- That Lizzie and Bridget were lovers.
- That Bridget later returned to live with Lizzie.
- That the two of them started a new life together.
- The connection between Lizzie Borden and Aileen Wuornos.
- The appearance of Lizzie and Bridget during Aileen's death.
- The use of Nance O'Neil as Lizzie's advisor during the trial.
What really happened to Lizzie Borden?
After her acquittal, Lizzie continued living in Fall River.She and Emma bought Maplecroft.
Despite having money and having been found not guilty, Lizzie continued to be the subject of suspicion and public curiosity.
Emma left Maplecroft in 1905, and the sisters remained apart.
Lizzie died in 1927.
She was never tried again for the murders of Andrew and Abby.
What really happened to Bridget Sullivan?
Bridget Sullivan later left Fall River and eventually married.There is no solid historical evidence that she returned to start a new romantic life with Lizzie.
Nor was she ever accused of taking part in the murders.
The Bridget shown as Lizzie's accomplice and lover belongs largely to Netflix's reinterpretation.
What really happened to Aileen Wuornos?
Aileen Wuornos was convicted of several murders committed in Florida between 1989 and 1990.She was sentenced to death and spent roughly a decade on death row.
She was finally executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
She was 46 years old.
Her story had no known real connection to Lizzie Borden.
Will there be a follow-up after the ending of Lizzie Borden?
Monster works as an anthology.This means each season can focus on entirely different characters and cases.
Therefore, the ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story does not need to set up a direct continuation of Lizzie, Bridget, or Aileen.
A future installment of Monster could take on a completely different story.
Frequently asked questions about the ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story
How does Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story end?
The ending shows Aileen Wuornos's execution while "Carnival" plays. After losing consciousness, Aileen sees Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan, who appear to accompany her through a door filled with light. The series then returns to Aileen's body as her death is certified.Does Lizzie Borden die at the end?
Not within the main timeline shown in the episode. Historically, Lizzie Borden died in 1927, at age 66.Does Aileen Wuornos die in the ending?
Yes. The series shows her execution by lethal injection. In real life, Aileen Wuornos was executed on October 9, 2002.What does the door of light mean?
The scene can be interpreted as a representation of the afterlife, a fantasy Aileen has while dying, or a metaphor connecting the stories of the three women.Why do Lizzie and Bridget appear before Aileen?
Aileen has idealized Lizzie throughout the series. Their final appearance can represent acceptance, companionship, or the materialization of the image of Lizzie that Aileen had built in her mind.Why does "Carnival" play at the end?
"Carnival," by Natalie Merchant, serves as a link between Lizzie and Aileen. Wuornos also had a real connection to that song and requested it be played at her funeral.Do Lizzie and Bridget end up together?
Yes, within Netflix's fiction. Bridget returns to Maplecroft and the two begin a new chapter together.Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan really lovers?
There is no conclusive historical evidence of a romantic relationship between the two. This part of the series is a dramatization.Did Bridget Sullivan help Lizzie commit the murders?
There is no historical evidence proving that Bridget took part in the murders. The version in which they act together belongs to the series.Did Lizzie Borden really confess to the murders?
No. Lizzie Borden never made a confession like the one Netflix symbolically shows. She was acquitted and maintained her innocence.Did Lizzie Borden really kill her father and stepmother?
It's not known. She was accused of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, but the jury found her not guilty, and the case was never definitively solved.Did Lizzie Borden and Aileen Wuornos ever meet?
No. Lizzie died in 1927 and Aileen was born in 1956. Their connection belongs exclusively to the series' narrative.What happened to Emma Borden?
Within the series, Emma leaves Lizzie in an attempt to start a different life. Historically, Emma left Maplecroft in 1905 and remained estranged from her sister.The true meaning of the ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story
The ending of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is not simply trying to explain what happened after the trial.Its purpose is to bring together the main ideas developed throughout the season.
Lizzie gets what Aileen never could: a not-guilty verdict and a life after the trial.
But Lizzie's freedom turns out to be incomplete.
Although she can buy Maplecroft and live comfortably, she remains trapped by her own legend.
Aileen, on the other hand, is convicted and executed.
The song "Carnival" finally breaks the temporal distance between the two.
When Aileen opens her eyes after losing consciousness and finds Lizzie and Bridget waiting for her, the series definitively abandons any pretense of historical realism.
That moment might represent the afterlife.
It could also simply be a fantasy created by Aileen as she dies.
Or it can be understood as a metaphor for the way stories of women turned into "monsters" end up connecting in cultural memory.
Netflix deliberately leaves the answer open.
What is clear is that the final scene is not claiming that Lizzie Borden and Aileen Wuornos were actually connected in real life.
The connection belongs to Monster.
And that is precisely the key to the ending: the season does not try to definitively resolve who Lizzie Borden was, but rather to show how a real woman ended up turning into a myth that other generations reinterpreted again and again.
Sources
People:https://people.com/monster-lizzie-borden-ending-explained-12127760Netflix Tudum:https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-ending-explained
People — fact vs. fiction in the series:https://people.com/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-fact-vs-fiction-12127514
