'The Lizzie Borden Story' Ending Explained & Series Recap: Do Bridget And Lizzie Reunite?

Although very little impartial information exists with regards to the gruesome murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, owing to the fact that they took place in 1892, the new Netflix adaptation of the case, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, takes far too many creative liberties to be even considered a true-crime presentation. The plot is centered around Lizzie Borden, the younger daughter of Andrew Borden, who was considered the prime suspect in the murder of her father and stepmother, before eventually being acquitted by the jury. Despite its factual shortcomings, The Lizzie Borden Story does make for a thoroughly entertaining experience, as it explores gender roles and misogyny through stories from three different decades.

Spoiler Alert

What Is The Show About?

The Lizzie Borden Story begins in April of 1892, with a young woman named Lizzie Borden preparing to meet a suitor that her family has arranged for her. Her insensitive stepmother, Abby, is the one most enthusiastic about Lizzie getting married at the earliest, for she simply wants her out of the house. Therefore, Abby carefully teaches Lizzie how to act in front of her suitor to impress him, but all of it ultimately fails as the man does not find her attractive at all, and instead breaks down at the thought of him having to marry her just to save his family from destitution. At the same time, Lizzie’s own issue with her irregular menstruation shows up, making her leave a bloody spot on Abby’s favorite fainting couch, and of course without a suitor.

Abby is frustrated at the whole situation, for her chance to get Abby to leave the house forever is now gone, while the young woman has also ruined her favorite piece of furniture, which happened to be the only item that she brought from her own family home during her wedding. She expresses this frustration on the maid, by throwing hot soup at her face and firing her, which is clearly a very common occurrence in the house. The extremely finicky Abby picks fights with all the maids and refuses to keep any of them for more than a few weeks. Although her husband, Andrew, is not very happy at her having to spend so much on looking for the perfect maid, he does not object to her wishes. 

Andrew chooses to stay busy with his casket store instead, where he secretly cheats his customers by chopping off the legs of their deceased relatives so that they can be fitted into the most expensive caskets at his store. At the store, he also looks after his set of pristine axes of various sizes and styles, which he self-admittedly loves more than his own children. Soon, the Bordens start their search for a new maid, and this is when an Irishwoman named Bridget Sullivan shows up. Bridget is different from all her predecessors, as she perfectly carries out all the chores and the cooking, giving Abby no chance to complain, while also being quite a confident and learned woman. Bridget also soon enters an arrangement with Andrew to get intimate with him in exchange for money on a regular basis, while she takes a genuine fancy to Lizzie.

Who is held responsible for the murder of Bertha Manchester?

Soon, Bridget starts to have a direct effect on Lizzie’s perspective on life, especially since she considers the protagonist to be the only good and kind-hearted member in the Borden family. The two women grow closer to each other, discovering a romantic attraction too, before Bridget comes to the conclusion that Lizzie must kill her parents in order to escape the horrible trap that is her life. At first, they think of poisoning the couple with spoiled oysters, and attempt to carry out their plan as well, but it fails. Then, when Abby slaughters Lizzie’s beloved pigeons with a hatchet, they modify their plan to use the axes at Andrew’s store to carry out the murders. But before any of that, the Bordens’ neighbor, Bertha Manchester, becomes the first victim of Lizzie Borden.

Bertha Manchester is an elderly woman who is extremely cruel towards Lizzie with her words, and she asks Abby to basically let Bridget work at her house as well. But the real intention of the woman is to torture Bridget horribly, just like she does with many of the other maids that she hires. Bertha represents the aristocratic class that no longer has any wealth left, but still believes they can ‘own’ the maids and workers who help run their houses, and therefore can torture them just for the fun of it. She does the same with Bridget, flogging her and abusing her when she goes to work at her house, and Lizzie eventually sees the marks on her beloved’s body, and decides that Bertha is to be their first victim.

Bertha’s murder is almost like a trial for Lizzie and Bridget, with the former sneaking into Andrew’s shop at night and taking an axe from his collection. The two women then head over to the old woman’s house, where Lizzie hacks her to death. The murder does not go as smoothly as planned, as Lizzie amateurishly gets her axe tangled in her victim’s intestines, and is unable to pull it back to deliver another blow. While Bridget is supposed to help out and use the hatchet in her hand to finish off the woman, she freezes on the spot, clearly taken over by the shock of the whole situation. Lizzie has to snatch the hatchet from her and finish the job, but she is unsure of Bridget’s participation anymore, which is why she momentarily decides to cancel their plan of killing her parents later on.

A clear indication of how society worked and thought at the time, the police officers who investigate the murder of Bertha Manchester are certain that such violence could have been carried out only by a man. Therefore, they believe Bridget when she states that Bertha had relieved her of her duties for a week, and Lizzie backs her up stating that they had spent all the evenings together. The officers believe that a man must have broken into the house to rob it and had killed the old woman when she tried to stop him. Eventually, a Portuguese man named Tiago, who worked as a painter and handyman in the neighborhood, is held responsible for the murder. Earlier, Abby had suspected the man of having stolen her own earbobs, which had actually been removed from her drawer by Lizzie. Tiago was clearly distrusted by many because he was an immigrant, and so the police concluded that he had murdered and robbed Bertha Manchester.

How does Lizzie kill her parents?

Finally, the 4th of August arrives and Lizzie Borden sets about executing the plan that she and Bridget had worked on for quite some time now. It is not like Lizzie had set the date from before, but this happens to be the day that she is most triggered by her stepmother’s cruel words. While Abby has decided to divorce Andrew by now, and is therefore about to leave the house forever, she genuinely has a chance to avoid the predicament that awaits her. However, she ends up hating on Lizzie like she always did, and this results in the latter hacking her to death using an axe. Andrew, on the other side, had spent the previous night away from the home, distraught with his situation, as he never loved Abby genuinely and was still obsessed with his first wife, who had unfortunately passed away from illness.

When he eventually returns home, Andrew enters the house and calls out to Abby, perhaps even willing to apologize to her and make amends to keep their marriage alive. Following the trail of blood, he walks up the stairs and finds his wife’s dead body, right before Lizzie attacks him and kills him in a similarly gruesome manner. The reason for Lizzie having finally murdered her father and stepmother is not just her desire to be with Bridget, but also the terrible manner in which they treated her throughout her life. Abby had hated her from the very time she was married into the family and had to take care of her, when Lizzie was just 2 years old. Andrew, on the other hand, was totally blind to and dismissive of his daughter, never caring to ask how she was or if she was in distress.

This is a stark departure from the original case in 1892, or at least the reports of it, in which Andrew and Abby Borden, who were both very loving and caring towards their daughters, were viciously murdered, most possibly by Lizzie Borden. While Abby Borden’s body was found in the guest room, that of Andrew was found on the sofa in the downstairs parlor. In the Netflix series, Lizzie kills her father in the guest room, but then drags his body down to place it on the fainting couch, just as she and Bridget had planned from the start. In the hours that follow, the women scrub clean the walls and stairs of the house, and also create false alibis for themselves being busy doing chores at the house. Before that, they get rid of their clothes, take a long bath to get rid of all the blood, and then finally alert the neighbors, acting surprised and terrified.

Why does John Morse help his niece?

A few days before the murder, Andrew Borden was visited by the brother of his first wife, John Morse, who happened to be a friend as well. But John had come for a very specific purpose, as he wanted a loan from his brother-in-law so he could start his own butcher shop. Being a miser, and also religious whenever it was convenient for him, Andrew refused to give the loan, stating that it was against his religious beliefs, and this infuriated John, who even threatened to kill him. Thankfully for him, nobody had witnessed John make such threats, and so he was not considered a suspect, especially since he was away visiting another relative at the time of the murders, and had an airtight alibi.

But John Morse quickly figures out that Lizzie must have committed the murders, and instead of informing the police about it, he offers to help her avoid suspicion. John promises to teach Lizzie how to deal with the police investigation if she will give him the amount he had been seeking from Andrew. More than anything else, this just shows how most people cared very little about Andrew Borden, despite him being a renowned businessman in the town. John, who had been a relative, albeit not a direct one, simply does not care if Andrew’s killer is punished, but instead uses the situation to secure the money for his butcher shop business. Lizzie has no reason to turn her uncle down, and so John becomes the only man to play a small role in Lizzie’s elaborate scheme to get away with murder, which is otherwise drawn up and executed by women.

How is Nance O’Neill of great assistance to Lizzie?

The other individual who helps Lizzie out greatly is Nance O’Neill, an actress whom the protagonist got acquainted with a few weeks before the murders. Nance had been visiting Fall River along with her theatre troupe when Lizzie and Bridget had gone to watch her perform and then also reached out to the celebrity. Lizzie had invited Nance to her family home for dinner, which was when the actress had figured out how very toxic and abusive the Borden family was. Like Bridget, Nance too had found herself romantically drawn towards the seemingly kind-hearted and helpless Lizzie, who had to tolerate the harshest behavior meted out to her by her own parents. Therefore, once Lizzie is charged with the murder of her parents and kept behind bars while the investigation takes place, Nance visits her once again, and teaches her how to perform the role of an innocent woman who is being wrongly accused of murder.

Just like John Morse before her, Nance O’Neill has no doubt that it was Lizzie who had killed her parents, but she wants to help her out nonetheless. She too makes monetary demands of Lizzie, as she wants the latter to become her patron and basically fund her acting career, but this is definitely not the only reason she helps. Nance genuinely likes and adores Lizzie, even romantically at times, and wants her to live a free life. Thus, she guides her on how she should present herself in court, try to please the jury members with her glances, act shocked and terrified at the right moment when her parents’ skulls would be presented in court, and so on.

Nance’s last piece of advice is for Lizzie to break down crying in court, and this becomes instrumental, not because it convinces the jury members, but rather her elder sister, Emma. In the Netflix series, Lizzie does not have a close bond with Emma, who had been asked to take care of her younger sister by their mother on her deathbed. In fact, Emma openly states that she suspects Lizzie killed their parents, but all this changes when she is asked about her relationship with her younger sister in court. Lizzie uncontrollably weeps at this very time, and this makes Emma emotional. The latter immediately changes her stance, stating that she totally supports Lizzie and does not believe her to be the perpetrator, which, in turn, changes the course of the trial. Thus, it is Nance’s training that helps Lizzie during the trial, which ultimately results in her acquittal. 

How does Elizabeth Bathory’s story become a parallel to that of Lizzie?

From the very beginning, Lizzie is enthralled and inspired by the story of the Hungarian noblewoman, Elizabeth Bathory, that Bridget reads to her. In real life, Elizabeth Bathory was accused of torturing and murdering young girls and women. Throughout the series, Lizzie first hears Bridget read, and then herself reads, a book on the noblewoman, and we are shown snippets of her life from 300 years ago, when she lived a life of luxury in Transylvania. Despite hailing from a wealthy and influential family, Elizabeth was subjected to the cruelty of the world at a young age, only because she was a woman. As a teenager, she was assaulted by a peasant man, and the experience not only traumatized her forever, but also left her pregnant.

Elizabeth genuinely wanted to have the child, and gave birth as well, only for the matrons to kill it upon the orders of her noble family, who wanted to avoid the shame it would bring them. As soon as Elizabeth was old enough to wield enough power in her hands, she took revenge by killing the peasant’s daughters, since he was already dead by then. This was when she first experienced a bloodbath, quite literally, and rather enjoyed it. From then on, she kept having young girls and teenage women rounded up and brought to her castle, where she killed them and then bathed in their blood. When the aggrieved and angry family members of the girls came looking, she pinned the blame on her servants at first, before eventually being caught and imprisoned. Elizabeth Bathory was imprisoned in a bricked up room where she suffocated and died a very painful death. 

By the time Lizzie is done learning about Elizabeth’s entire life, she draws parallels between their lives, long after the criminal trial is over and she has been acquitted. Lizzie starts living a life of luxury, in a mansion (named Maplecroft) that she always dreamed of, with numerous animals around her. But unfortunately, she is completely shunned by society, and has very little human company at most times. This is why she compares her own situation with that of the Hungarian noblewoman’s, stating that she too is now imprisoned in a bricked room, except for the fact that her room is very beautiful and peaceful. Essentially, Lizzie does await her death just like Elizabeth in the past, for she has nowhere to be at, than at her mansion. The confined life takes a greater toll on Emma, who eventually decides to leave Maplecroft and severs all ties with her sister.

Do Bridget and Lizzie reunite?

In The Lizzie Borden Story’s ending, Lizzie’s life is somewhat brightened, at least when Bridget returns to her after years of staying away. Bridget had initially gone away to avoid suspicion, and also to ensure that Lizzie could save herself from the law properly, having taken enough cash from the Borden house to start a new life. She had moved to the mountains and built a cabin, and despite always having been very self-reliant and independent, she had to marry an older man just to be a part of society. But eventually, Bridget comes to the realization that Lizzie is living a life of comfort only because she had pushed her to murder her family, which led to her inheriting the wealth. Thus, she returns, and starts living at Maplecroft, initially forcibly, as Lizzie is nervous about how they might be perceived. But soon, the two women become lovers again, and they take part in the suffrage movement together. The plan that they had carried out together all those years ago is finally a success now, as they get to live a life of peace and happiness together. 

Who is the woman we follow in the 1988 storyline?

Throughout sections of The Lizzie Borden Story, we also follow a storyline unfolding in Florida in the 1980s, where a woman named Aileen Wuornos lives a dangerous life working as a prostitute. We witness Aileen get assaulted by one of her clients, before she eventually takes control of the situation and shoots him dead. The woman we follow is actually a real-life serial-killer, Aileen Carol Wuornos, who was found guilty of murdering 7 men. While Aileen claimed that she had killed the men only in self-defence, after they had tried to hurt and kill her first, she was ultimately given the death sentence. In the series, Aileen is a fan and admirer of Lizzie Borden, wholeheartedly believing that she rightfully killed her cruel and abusive parents. The woman also visits the Borden house, where the murders had taken place, along with her partner at the time, and even has a hallucinatory vision of her idol. This section not only connects the two timelines through the actions of supremely violent women, but also seemingly comments on society and the legal system as well. While Lizzie Borden, who did not technically face mortal danger in her parents’ house, got away with murdering them, Aileen Wuornos, who had killed only the vilest of men and only after being attacked by them, was ultimately executed by lethal injection in 2002. At least Aileen gets to meet her idols and favorite women, Lizzie and Bridget, in the afterlife, as confirmed in the very last scene of The Lizzie Borden Story.

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