If there is one thing that fans should learn by this point in your viewing experience, it’s that Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story loves to skip around, and no episode begins where the previous episode left off, the exception so far being episode 6—though that episode was quite a ride on its own with the narrative choices.
Anyway, episode 7 begins with Lizzie’s sister, Emma, rushing to the house in search for her father. She enters the house just after a photograph of the crime scene is taken and is stunned when she sees her father’s body on the couch, rushing to it and breaking down as she holds her father’s hand and weeps on the floor beside him.
Maggie enters the kitchen to find Lizzie showing officers how to make thumbprint cookies before Emma comes to the door. Emma gradually begins closing the space between them before she attacks her sister, calling it all her fault. She then turns her attention to Maggie and calls her out for being in on the scheme before Emma is carried out, as she shouts that she’ll prove her sister is a liar.
We return to where episode 6 left off with Lizzie being brought into the jailhouse following her arrest. When they arrive, there are protestors lined up waving signs in Lizzie’s defense as she’s escorted through the crowd up to her room at the jail and meets Ms. Meade, who will be looking after her. Ms. Meade informs her meals will be sent daily from the nearby hotel and a newspaper will be delivered to her as well. Much to Lizzie’s pleasure, the room has a window that looks out into a garden, which she remarks is where she’ll spend most of her days.
This is when we jump ahead ten months, as Lizzie is still in jail awaiting her trial, which is to begin in one week’s time, as the paper informs us. Ms. Meade brings her breakfast, and Lizzie asks if Bridget has called to check on her, to which Ms. Meade informs her it she hasn’t; however, there is someone who has requested to see her: Lizzie’s sister, Emma.
Lizzie’s trial begins with Emma questioning her innocence
Emma comes to visit Lizzie and says she’s going to ask her one last time: did she do it? She presses her sister for an answer as Lizzie maintains her innocence. Emma admits she’s arrived at an impasse, as she believes Lizzie killed their father. She recalls being called to their mother’s bedside when she was dying and making a promise to protect Lizzie, and that is what she is trying to do. Emma notes that Lizzie’s inquest is a disaster and her lawyers can’t even begin to craft a narrative from it because each time she told the story, it was different, as we cut to Lizzie’s depositions in which her original story changes over and over again as she tells it.
Emma encourages her sister to just tell her it was Maggie and she can give her an alibi to save her life, but Lizzie refuses. She remains steadfast that it wasn’t her, nor was it Maggie and she will not change her story just to please Emma as she sends her sister away. Before she leaves, Emma makes it clear her sister will live to regret this as she takes aim at her sister’s beloved cherry trees and begins to cut them down one by one.
Having picked up on an officer making notes of the sisters’ conversation at the jail, Ms. Meade arranges for Lizzie to meet with her lawyer somewhere more private, taking her to her family home. She thanks her for her help as Ms. Meade remarks that anyone with eyes can see she is innocent. Once inside, Lizzie talks through the home before heading outside to find what’s left of her garden, which has been destroyed.
Nance O’Neil prepares Lizzie for her day in court
As the trial prepares to begin, Nance O'Neil makes a surprise return to town to visit Lizzie. Lizzie sends away her lawyers so that she and Nance can speak. She admits to her that she knows more about her case than she should, as she slept with the bailiff for information, and it’s not good news. She informs Nance that she is in serious trouble, as her inquest was insane.
Lizzie admits she was very confused as she was on drugs from the doctor and distraught after finding her parents’ bodies. Nance sees through the lies, calling her a bad actor. She’s convinced that Lizzie is guilty and knows she had her reasons for wanting her parents dead, having seen how they treated her. She claims to sense her rage within Lizzie, and it is what drew them together.
Nance tells Lizzie how she slayed viewers with her performance as Lady M in the great Scottish play by basing her performance on Lizzie. She was a Lady M who was quiet and burning with anger as a woman who was so desperate to murder. Nance knows that without her help, Lizzie doesn’t stand a chance. In exchange for her help, she asks Lizzie to be her benefactor, which Lizzie happily agrees to.
With Lizzie on board, Nance begins to coach Lizzie, beginning with how to best make a grand entrance as a vision of mourning so that when she enters the courtroom, she puts on the character the world needs to see. She then walks her through the best way to take her seat and the posture to hold while sitting in the courtroom. Once she is seated, she encourages her to look only to the jury and treat them as her audience and win them over before turning away to remind them they have a job to do.
Lesson two: Lizzie must be prepared for the evidence that will be presented. When she sees the skulls, it is crucial that Lizzie faint, as it’s the most sympathetic and vulnerable thing that a woman can do. It suggests to the jury that she is innocent. After all, if she can’t stand the sight of it now, how could she have done it then and kept chopping? When the moment comes in the trial, all of Nance’s coaching pays off as Lizzie believably faints, creating quite a scene that sends the courthouse into disorder.
Third, Lizzie cannot take the stand, so she must show them just once that she is flesh and blood: she must cry. Nance works to coach her on doing so believably, as we see Emma take to the stand to testify.
Lizzie is found not guilty of her parents' murders
This is the moment when Lizzie deploys the tips that Nance taught her, putting on a performance that moves her sister as she proclaims that there is no way her sister could have killed their parents.
Emma tells the jury she saw a man trying to break into their home weeks before, as she notes that Emma was the one who invited Lizzie on the fishing trip. When the prosecutor points out that this contradicts everything in Lizzie’s inquest, Emma cries out about how the doctors gave her morphine, and the drugs resulted in her misremembering the circumstances. This sends the courthouse into madness, and the prosecutor cries out for a recess, and the judge calls for an order in the court.
When the jury assembles, they all agree that Lizzie is innocent and agree to kill an hour of time to make it seem as though they took time deliberating before calling the judge back. When the court is called back into session, the jury returns a not guilty verdict, which comes to the final piece of advice Nance gave her: be gracious and grandiose, and wish each member of the jury well. Before Nance leaves, she gives Lizzie a kiss on the lips.
After being released, Lizzie thanks everyone outside the courthouse and expresses her hope for her and her sister to be able to usher in a season of healing and kindness for people and for animals. She announces her desire to make her heart, soul, and home a place where no living creature feels fear.
As she makes her way to the carriage, she’s surprised to see Bridget among those in the crowd as she gives her a nod of approval before Lizzie is put into the carriage and rides off.
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