The Beast In Me Episode 5 Recap: Did Madison Really Kill Herself?

The fifth episode of The Beast in Me is titled “Bacchanal,” which means a Roman ritual dedicated to the god of wine, frenzy, and vitality – Bacchae, who is also known as Dionysus in Greek. Essentially, the followers of Bacchae would get drunk on wine, have endless copulation, and sometimes even engage in murderous activities in ancient times, according to lores and myths. Nile Jarvis seems like a perfect contemporary revision of the concept when he finishes off Brian Abbott and then hits Aggie’s house with a charming aura to drink away the night. Jarvis is exceptionally bold and flirty and gets Aggie drunk just the right amount for her to spill her secrets. Let’s see how much one drunken night costs Aggie.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens on the Night Aggie and Nile Drink?

Nile is a cold-blooded murderer for sure. Right after making a kill, he does not hesitate to do a little celebration to keep his mind off things. When asked about the bruises on his knuckles that he got from fighting Abbott, Nile coolly answers that someone jumped on him and he taught them a lesson. It is curious to see how Nile always answers in half-truths, which is more dangerous than lying. The night progresses as Nile keeps topping off Aggie’s glass while measuring his own drink; at one point Aggie even lets loose and walks into the trap of talking about her relationship with Shelley. In a while, Nile asks to use the washroom and ventures upstairs. When Aggie goes to find him, she sees him in his son Cooper’s bedroom—a spot that she has avoided since his death. Nile invites her to sit on the floor, and she starts talking about how she planned a future with something concrete (since she never had that as a child with a perpetually unstable father), but it turned out like a hollow promise with Cooper dead and Shelley gone. This is Nile Jarvis tracing every weak spot in Aggie’s mind, which I am sure he is going to weaponize very, very soon.

Aggie falls asleep on Nile’s shoulder (Nile has been actively trying to seduce her despite her sexual orientation), and Nile puts her to bed before leaving. When he arrives at his house, Nina is awake and furious. She confronts him, but Nile tells her that maybe she liked living a life of lies rather than the current reality. The fight turns ugly before it turns into an act of lovemaking—another insight into the masochistic psyche of Nile, who likes to be hit again and again before he can seek pleasure. Nina’s character looks dynamic; she does protest about having no autonomy but also turns a blind eye to the large bruise on the side of her husband. She finds it wise to question Rick on it later, who has no satisfactory answer for her, but she never confronts her husband. 

How Does Violence Break Out in Benitez’s Rally?

Councilwoman Olivia Benitez’s claim to fame is the Jarvis Yards; one of her agenda items is to bring it down in order to have a smooth political case for herself when she fights for mayor. Olivia Benitez so far has shown ethics, determination, and leadership in turning down Nile’s proposal of being bribed with land in order to leave Jarvis Yard alone. However, the very same night, Martin Jarvis comments that if she is not taking the carrot, it is time for the stick. The stick thing happens as Martin gets Rick to pay off a group of protesters and an agent from the NYPD. The next day when the rally is active, a violent protest breaks out, attacking multiple people in the rally. The protesters all wear “Right to Home” t-shirts, automatically pointing fingers towards Olivia Benitez, whose grassroots non-profit foundation it is. Although she tries her best for damage control, surely she has lost leverage over the plot. 

Did Madison Really Kill Herself?

Well, this is a seminal question, and you surely understand that episode five is too early to answer it, but there is quite a reveal in this episode. Aggie comes across a piece of evidence that says Madison may, after all, not have committed suicide. Aggie, in this episode, is guilt-ridden after the drunken night with Nile. She suddenly realizes how much she misses Shelley (Nile egged her on that she has not moved on) and goes over to her apartment. Shelley does not open the door but listens from behind as Aggie goes on all confessional about how self-centered and obsessive she has become after Cooper’s death, punishing herself, Shelley, and also Teddy. Shelley listens, is overwhelmed, but is not moved. I guess she understands that sometimes it is okay to miss things and not have them back, and she tells Aggie to figure things out for herself as she closes the door shut in tears. Overcome with emotions, Aggie walks out of the building and gets a call from Christopher Ingram, who is the brother of Madison Ingram. Now, the Ingrams painted a picture that the brother does not really want to talk about Madison, but the brother indeed does. He opens up a whole new Pandora’s Box for Aggie when they meet and literally hands her over a box of Maddie’s belongings. He wants Aggie to see his sister for who she was and not for what his parents and Nile have presented her image to be. He adds that his parents are in denial, not out of love or gratitude towards Nile, but for a certain financial gain.It turns out that the Ingrams have helped Nile in paying off half of a 200 million debt that he took out to construct Jarvis Yards. The project has to succeed for the Ingrams to get their money back, since a considerable amount of people, including Christopher, depend on the trust from where it was taken out. It leaves the Ingrams with no options other than not accusing Nile of a murder and letting him just finish his project.Aggie goes home with this information and starts digging up Maddie’s stuff. There is a birding journal she finds with sketches of birds and small notes beneath them. She comes across one page, which is torn from the middle, and it catches her eye. Aggie fishes out the suicide note that Mr. Ingram had given her, and it fits perfectly like a puzzle piece, which gives away that Maddie, after all, wrote the note two years back when she overdosed herself on pills. The note is real, but it was outdated, and Nile merely used it to make it seem like Maddie killed herself. Like Teddy, did Maddie just disappear and is being held hostage, or did Nile really kill her?

What Happens to Brian Abbott?

Or shall I say, the corpse of Brian Abbott lying in the boot of Nile’s car? Nile drives into a junkyard to get the car destroyed, takes out all his IDs, and throws them in the river. However, before he throws his phone away, a message from Aggie pops up. This is Aggie letting Brian know that Maddie may not have committed suicide. Aggie writes that she has evidence on Nile that it was a murder. Nile writes back to her to not tell anyone about it until they meet and then throws the phone away in the water.Brian’s disappearance has not gone unnoticed; Erika is looking for him. Meanwhile, Erika’s husband, Frank, with whom she is undergoing separation, tells her that he knows about Brian and Erika. Erika tells him that she is not in love with Brian, but she sure seems worried about his prolonged absence. With Nile wiping away Brian’s existence and now having the knowledge of Aggie and Brian’s exchange, I think the plot is going to intensify in the next episode. Nile is surely someone who likes to manipulate the plot and then ambush people point-blank, and I am waiting to see how it unfolds this time. Episode five of The Beast in Me is aptly titled “Bacchanal,” as it pushes the series into its most chaotic and intoxicating phase, descending into moral and emotional delirium. Nile’s charm, cruelty, and calculated seduction of Aggie are where control and destruction start building. As Aggie’s guilt deepens and her isolation grows, she is becoming more and more prone to breaking—and guess what, more than you and I, Nile is certainly aware of it!

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