‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ Reveals What Really Happens to Lizzie After Her Trial

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true crime anthology has returned with a season built around one of America’s oldest unsolved mysteries. Premiering on Netflix on September 17, the fourth season focuses on the 1892 axe murders of Lizzie Borden’s parents, Andrew and Abby Borden, and the historic trial that ended in her acquittal. The show marks a shift in tone for the franchise, trading the modern serial killers of its earlier seasons for a Victorian courtroom drama soaked in gothic dread.

‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ is the fourth season of the anthology series, created by Ian Brennan for Netflix, and it centers on murder suspect Lizzie Borden, played by Ella Beatty, who was tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Viewers who finish the season are often left wondering exactly how the show chooses to resolve Lizzie’s story, and how closely that resolution tracks with the historical record.

The Verdict That Defined Lizzie Borden’s Fate

The season also stars Vicky Krieps, Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, Jessica Barden, Joey Pollari, Billie Lourd and Sarah Paulson, and it is the first installment of the anthology to focus on an alleged female perpetrator. That framing matters because the show does not treat the murders themselves as its central mystery so much as the question of what made Lizzie capable of them in the first place.

The series depicts Lizzie as put upon and abused by her strict parents, father Andrew, played by Charlie Hunnam, and stepmother Abby, played by Rebecca Hall. She finds a new lease on life when the family employs a new housemaid, Bridget Maggie Sullivan, played by Vicky Krieps, who ultimately inspires her to commit and assists her with the crime that will define the rest of her life.

Historically, the case never reached a tidy conclusion. Andrew and Abby Borden were found murdered in their Fall River home in August 1892, and Lizzie was arrested and tried for the axe murders, but was acquitted in 1893, with the case never solved. No one else was ever convicted, leaving the murders officially unsolved, a fact the show leans into rather than resolving for the audience.

The Tudum team behind Netflix’s own coverage put it plainly. No one knows for certain whether Lizzie was guilty, although the available evidence points to yes. That ambiguity is the engine of the series rather than a loose end it tries to tie up.

How Monster Season 4 Portrays the Trial’s Aftermath

The Variety review describes the season as Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s fourth installment of the Monster franchise, one that takes the anthology in a new direction with its first female killer, set in Fall River in the late nineteenth century. The reviewer notes that Lizzie is portrayed as a peculiar young woman suffering under the hand of her cruel stepmother, whom she refers to by a formal title rather than any term of affection.

Beyond the murders and the trial, the show stretches its timeline considerably. The narrative moves from Lizzie’s childhood in the mid nineteenth century up through the 1990s, following how the Borden murders echo through the decades and influence another infamous killer. That later timeline belongs to Sarah Paulson’s Aileen Wuornos, whose story runs in parallel rather than intersecting directly with Lizzie’s own.

Historically, life after the acquittal was not a happy resolution for the real Lizzie Borden. After winning what was called the trial of the century, Borden chose to stay in Fall River, bought a new house she named Maplecroft, and began going by Lizbeth, only to find that her friends abandoned her and children pelted her house with gravel and eggs. Public opinion had already turned against her in part because the judge at her preliminary hearing had pronounced her probably guilty.

The rift within her own family became part of that later life as well. Lizzie and her sister Emma lived together at Maplecroft until 1905, when Emma moved out, reportedly over Lizzie’s friendship with actress Nance O’Neil, and the two sisters never spoke again, though Emma continued to publicly defend her. That friendship with O’Neil, played in the series by Jessica Barden, becomes a meaningful thread in the show’s final stretch.

Ella Beatty’s Take on Playing Netflix’s First Female Monster

Casting the role required an extensive search. Co-showrunner Ian Brennan has said the production cast a wide net and could not find the right fit until Beatty auditioned, describing how quickly it became clear she had the role. Beatty had previously appeared in Murphy’s ‘Feud, Capote vs. The Swans’ before taking on the first female lead in the Monster anthology.

Beatty has described feeling lucky to be the first woman cast as a Monster, noting that every season of the show has been an exercise in understanding whether a person is born or made into a killer. That question, rather than a definitive answer about guilt, is what the actor says drove her performance.

Preparing for the role meant diving into decades of true crime coverage. Beatty has said that when the audition came up, she listened to every true crime podcast she could find in order to learn the facts of the case before translating that research into the fictionalized version of Lizzie built for the show. Her co-star Charlie Hunnam, fresh off playing Ed Gein in the franchise’s prior season, reportedly offered her guidance on stepping into a complicated killer’s psychology, according to remarks Beatty shared with Netflix’s own Tudum.

Brennan has also spoken about why Hunnam was brought back for the role of Andrew Borden. He has said it was crucial that the character not read as simply and stereotypically awful, and that casting Hunnam ensured audiences would understand and even like the father despite his cruelty. That choice shapes how the show frames Lizzie’s motivations heading into its final episodes.

What the Ending Means for the Real Lizzie Borden’s Legacy

The historical trial itself remains a touchstone for why the case still fascinates audiences more than a century later. Lizzie Borden’s trial began on June 5, 1893, and lasted thirteen days, with the jury acquitting her of all charges on June 20, 1893, after which she returned to Fall River and lived there until her death in 1927. That unresolved verdict, historically and dramatically, is exactly what ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ uses as its emotional foundation rather than something the show tries to definitively settle.

The series had its New York premiere on September 16, 2026, ahead of its global streaming debut the following day. Industry attention around the season has also focused on how it fits into the broader Monster brand, given how much viewership the franchise has generated with its previous true crime subjects.

For the show’s creators, the appeal of Lizzie Borden was always about what her story reveals about the era she lived in. Brennan has said the job of the season was to portray the cage that any woman living in that time and place would have felt, particularly a strange young woman who loved animals and lived in a repressive household. That thematic throughline, more than any single courtroom scene, is what ultimately defines how the season chooses to leave Lizzie’s story.

Whether Lizzie Borden actually swung the axe remains as unanswered now as it was in 1893, and ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ seems content to let that mystery linger rather than hand viewers a tidy resolution. What do you make of the way this season chooses to leave Lizzie’s guilt unresolved after everything she goes through with Maggie and her parents.