After the second and third episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story opened with a jump ahead in time to a new month, which put us closer to the murders of the Bordens, we anticipated episode 4 would begin the same by jumping ahead. Well, the episode did begin with a time jump, just one that was not at all expected.
Trigger warning: This article mentions the topic of sexual assault.
The episode opens with a woman walking on the road hitchhiking. She manages to catch a driver’s attention, and he pulls off the side of the road and offers her a ride. It’s then that we finally get confirmation of just how far we’ve jumped ahead: Florida circa 1988.
As they drive along, the man introduces himself as Steve, to which the woman in his passenger seat introduces herself as Lizzie, Lizzie Borden. He recognizes that she’s using a fake name as he points out that that’s the axe murder, and she eventually reveals her real name to be Aileen Wuornos after he presses her for the real if they’re going to have sex. She runs through her prices for various sexual favors as he pulls the car off the side of the road.
Aileen asks him why they’re not going to a hotel, as he admits he has a wife and kid and can’t risk being seen. He then has his way with her in the field next to his car, and while she might have propositioned him, he takes things further than agreed upon. Aileen cries out for him to stop as he’s hurting her, but Steve keeps going until he reaches his climax. After they’ve finished, she asks him for a ride, but he refuses, noting that the best part of this is after he pays for sex, he can leave.
He throws the cash on the ground as she asks to grab her bag before he leaves. Wincing in pain as she gets up, Aileen gathers her backpack as he turns to take a pee in the field. She pulls out a gun and shoots him multiple times as he falls to the ground. That’s when she hears the skipping-rope chant about Lizzie Borden as the gun in her hand turns into a hatchet. Aileen then envisions taking the hatchet and swinging it into the area of the man’s genitals over and over before she snaps back to reality and tells the man she told him not to come in her ass as she fires off multiple shots into his dead body.
Following the title card, we cut to Aileen skating freely at a roller rink before approaching a woman and telling her she’s bored and ready to get back to Lizzie. The pair head to a hotel, and we come to learn that they’re in the midst of reading a book about Lizzie. Aileen is infuriated as they reach the story about her stepmother killing Lizzie’s birds and how the one man who was supposed to be protecting her did nothing to help her. Aileen spirals about how society and men just expect women to just sit back and take it, never complaining, and appreciates how Lizzie gave the world a warning. It’s one that has inspired Aileen to take action, thus tying her story to Lizzie’s.
Abby decides to leave Andrew as Lizzie prepares for their murders
This is when we return to the past and to Lizzie’s story. The month is now August, and it seems Abby is beginning to grow dissatisfied with her joyless life. In all the years with Andrew, not once did he manage to fulfill her sexual needs; however, he’s had no problem getting his kicks with several of the maids. This inspired her to look to others for sexual satisfaction but always left her feeling empty, her latest dalliance coming with Andrew’s brother-in-law, John.
Maggie comes home to find Lizzie in her room reading the book about Elizabetta, or at least the parts she’s picked up on from their readings of the book. She asks about a particular word, which Maggie informs her means rape. Maggie asks Lizzie to continue reading the story as we go back in the story of a time when Elizabetta, at just 13, caught the eye of a peasant during her first solo journey into the town on her own. This man attacked her in an abandoned alleyway, pulling her into a building where he raped her three times, and she fell pregnant.
She’d give birth to a daughter and was forced to watch as the handmaids drowned her newborn before she even had a chance to name her. When her father’s land and title finally fell to her, she was able to seek her revenge. Elizabetta tracked down the daughters of the man who raped her and had all five killed, but with her rapist dead not by her own hand, she was left feeling unsatisfied.
After putting the book away, Lizzie reviews their plan one more time. Maggie will use Charolette, while she will use Myrtle, two axes from her father’s collection. They’ll hide the axes in the home as Lizzie instructs Maggie to learn from Martha’s death by not aiming for Mrs. Borden’s gut as she reminds her to allow Lizzie to go first. Maggie assures her she will not freeze this time.
In town, Abby heads to Andrew’s workshop and informs him that she wants out. She’s asking for a divorce. To her surprise, he agrees to grant her her request. She informs him that she wants half of his earnings, but he refuses. He presses her on what she would do, and she shares her wishes to become a patron of the arts, where strangers will become her dearest friends and her life with him will become but a distant memory. He points out how it would be a scandal, this divorce, and he’s glad as he quips that perhaps he can be with his one true love.
Abby assumes he's talking about one of his mistresses, but he surprises her by admitting that every time they were intimate, he was thinking of his dead wife, and now he’d be free to be with her. She wishes him peace as she exits and heads home. Abby calls out for Lizzie, and Lizzie heads downstairs, greeting her stepmother in the kitchen. Abby informs Lizzie that she’ll be leaving on a train to New York City and will be taking 50% of her father’s worth. Of course, she can’t pass up the opportunity to make it clear that she won’t miss Lizzie at all, as she never brought anything to her life, as she coldly lays into Lizzie, calling her a debt she’ll never recoup, calling it a life wasted raising her.
Lizzie confronts Abby before she can flee town
Abby prepares to take her leave as Lizzie asks if she might be allowed to say something. She can’t find the words, noting that her just leaving isn’t how she pictured the day going, and there is something almost unsatisfying about it. Abby pushes past Lizzie and begins making her way to the door as Lizzie calls for her to wait. She asks about the fainting couch, calling it ugly.
Lizzie admits it hurts to know how Abby thinks of her, which feels very wrong. She confronts Abby for making her feel like there is something wrong with her all of her life, but Abby is what is wrong. She remarks that she did not deserve the love she gave her.
That’s when Lizzie pulls out the hatchet and slices Abby’s face. Maggie arrives to block her from leaving, but Lizzie stops her from taking a swing, as she makes it clear that Abby is hers to kill. Abby races up the stairs and locks the door behind her as she then attempts to flee another direction. Abby pleads for Maggie to help, but Lizzie just takes another swing, this one proving fatal. She then chops away, delivering blow after blow, bashing Abby’s head further.
After, the pair bury Abby’s bag and the blood-soaked clothes Abby was wearing before returning to the home where Maggie gives Lizzie a sponge bath to wipe away the blood. Her mother dead, Lizzie sets her sights on her next target, informing Maggie that now it's her father’s turn, as the episode cuts to black.
If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse or assault, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at RAINN.org.
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