Lizzie, Aileen and Bridget in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story
News Monster Netflix Now Showing Ryan Murphy True crime TV

Monster creator explains why Aileen Wuornos sees Lizzie Borden in that bizarre final scene

It's the closest Monster will get to a happy ending

Daisy Phillipson
22nd September 2026, 17:57
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The very final scene at the end of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story sees Aileen Wuornos being ushered into the afterlife by Lizzie Borden and Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, and now the co-creator of the Netflix series has explained why. 

The real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos is portrayed by Sarah Paulson in the latest installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true crime show, and she’s shown to have an obsession with the life and (alleged) crimes of Lizzie Borden. 

But the truth is there’s no historical evidence that Aileen ever mentioned Lizzie throughout her life, which came to an end in 2002, when she was killed by lethal injection after being convicted of the murders of seven men between 1989 and 1990. 

Lizzie, meanwhile, was accused of killing her father Andrew and stepmother Abby in 1982, although she was acquitted the following year. The reason their stories are tied together in Monster is due to the wider theme explored throughout the season: female rage. 

That’s also why Elizabeth Báthory – known as the Blood Countess – is brought into Lizzie’s story, despite there being no evidence the real Lizzie was actually inspired by her. As Brennan told Netflix’s Tudum, “It points to this thread of rage that runs through the female experience from history to now.”

All of this culminates in a final scene that takes place during Aileen’s execution. After she dies, she wakes up to find the spirits of Lizzie and Bridget, who say, “We’re here to take you to the next place.”

They reassure Aileen, telling her it’s “some place safe.” Lizzie then says, “All is forgiven. All is understood.” Aileen thanks them, and they open the door to reveal the bright light of the afterlife. 

The Wrap directly asked Brennan about the meaning of this final scene and what he and Murphy wanted viewers to take away from it. 

“You always run the risk of, with this show, lionising a monster, but in this case, it never felt that way. I feel like all three of those women got a raw deal,” Brennan explained. 

“We wanted to tip our hat and hope that someplace these women – particularly Lizzie and Aileen Wuornos who were real tortured souls – hope at some point they found some peace.

“There’s a lot of Aileen Wuornos footage that’s viewable, which Sarah [Paulson] did such a brilliant job of drinking in, completely metabolising and then making it her own. A lot of that stuff – all the courtroom stuff – is verbatim.”

This is very much true – Aileen had one of the most tragic upbringings of anyone in history, having been abandoned or abused by everyone who should have protected her before ending up homeless by the age of 15. She slept in the woods, where she would support herself with sex work. 

Nick Broomfield’s documentaries – Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer and Life and Death of a Serial Killer – are well worth watching to learn more, and you’ll also see the court footage Brennan references, which shows just how closely Paulson studied her for the role. 

Brennan went on to say, “I just feel for her [Aileen]. I think she’s hilarious. She did horrible things, but she had horrible things done to her. If a 10th of what was done to her was done to me, who knows what I would turn into? So that was the motivation: to send them off, in a way.”

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Featured image credit: Netflix