The deeper meaning of why Bridget Sullivan changes hair colours in Monster: Lizzie Borden

The Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan we see in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is basically unrecognisable from her real life counterpart, but there’s a deeper meaning behind her propensity to change her hair colour every five seconds in the show. 

In reality, Bridget was an Irish immigrant who became a live-in housemaid for the Bordens nearly three years before the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. 

Despite how their relationship is portrayed in the Netflix series, there is no historical evidence to suggest Lizzie and Bridget were lovers – in fact, there’s nothing to suggest they were even friends. 

A lot of the theories stem from attitudes towards women at the time – the 1890s – as Lizzie never got married and had a close friendship with actress Nance O’Neil years after she was acquitted. 

You wouldn’t know this from Monster, however. In the show, Bridget (Vicky Krieps) introduces Lizzie (Ella Beatty) to a whole new world – including early prototype sex toys – before convincing her that her father and stepmother should die. 

Together, they kill Andrew and Abby, before embarking on a relationship. In the runup to the murders, Bridget is shown dying her hair multiple times, so here’s what that’s really supposed to represent in theory. 

The meaning behind Bridget’s changing hair colours in Monster

Each colour can be read as a reflection of where Bridget is in the story. She arrives with bleached blonde hair, almost like a blank canvas, but her explanation – that she learned to do it in Paris – also highlights just how unconventional she is compared with the buttoned-up Borden household.

She switches to lavender purple when introducing Lizzie to her sexuality and as they grow closer, potentially hinting at feelings of calmness or hope. Then her hair becomes increasingly orange and finally blood red as they plan and carry out the murders, before becoming black after the killings and trial – a colour associated with death and mourning.

But there is another interpretation: the colours reflect her inner world. As one TikToker theorises, yellow represents hope, which could be how Bridget was feeling when starting a new job at the Borden household. Then pale lavender, which is also associated with sorrow, perhaps to reflect the struggles Bridget was facing as a result of Andrew and Abby. 

Then the orange could be seen as a feeling of energy and warmth as she falls in love with Lizzie, while red is a visual representation of her rage. Finally, black – although typically associated with sorrow – can also symbolise calmness, which Bridget may be feeling after Lizzie is acquitted and her tormentors are dead. 

Whichever reading is correct, both seem to point to the idea that Bridget cuts her hair off once she is separated from Lizzie, indicating a reset. 

While neither the cast nor creators have explained exactly what each individual hair colour is supposed to represent, they have revealed that Bridget’s ever-changing, wildly anachronistic appearance is very deliberate.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Vicky Krieps revealed that Ryan Murphy envisioned Bridget as “almost like a Mary Poppins that comes out of nowhere” and someone “who can be anyone from any time”. His description of the show to Krieps was equally unconventional: “It’s women-driven, feminist, lesbian, dirty, unapologetic.”

This gave Krieps “almost a psychedelic, Courtney Love kind of vibe” for the character. In fact, she approached Bridget almost as though she had arrived at the Borden house from the future – hence the not-so-1890s wolf cut and constantly changing appearance.

“In the beginning, her look was really almost punk,” Krieps explained. She even refused to wear a corset, adding, “Because if she’s the future, I want her to move like the future.”

So Bridget looking completely out of place alongside everyone else isn’t accidental. Co-creator Ian Brennan similarly described her to TV Insider as “like a foreign object that gets introduced to this ecosystem, and completely turns it on its head.”

There’s an even wilder theory about Bridget’s hair

But there’s an altogether different fan theory about Bridget’s ever-changing hair colour that would completely change the entire series. It links to that moment in the finale when Lizzie’s house guests start quizzing her on who she believes killed her parents. 

One of Lizzie’s house guests transforms into Bridget in her mind, to ask her, “Theories… but what do you think?” Recalling this moment, one TikToker suggested that Bridget was entirely a figment of Lizzie’s imagination.

“Just as she becomes overwhelmed and begins to break down, a woman in green suddenly transforms into Bridget in her eyes,” they said. 

“This isn’t simply a hallucination. It suggests that Bridget was never a real person, but a second personality split off from Lizzie. The two are complete opposites. 

“Victorian-era Lizzie is strictly controlled by social expectations and her family. She is introverted and repressed, rejects men, remains unmarried, and habitually suppresses her feelings. 

“Bridget, by contrast, is rebellious… breaking free from every social restriction. Bridget’s constantly changing, colourful hair subtly represents Lizzie’s repressed sexuality, awakening her sexual curiosity and encouraging her to explore her own body.”

They highlighted Bridget’s first appearance, when Lizzie is overwhelmed with shame after menstruating on Abby’s fainting couch. She arrives with a cleaning kit and removes the stain, with the TikToker arguing that this is Lizzie’s second personality coming through and helping her to conceal the evidence.

This is, of course, nothing more than a theory – and a wild one at that given Bridget Sullivan was a real person. But so much of the real case has been changed for Monster, so anything is possible. 

Could Bridget actually have dyed her hair like this in the 1890s?

Perhaps surprisingly, Bridget bleaching her hair isn’t entirely historically inaccurate. Hydrogen peroxide was actually demonstrated as a way of lightening hair at the Paris Exposition in 1867, 25 years before the Borden murders.

Plus, the first patent for oxidative hair dyeing appeared in 1883, while further permanent dye formulas using hydrogen peroxide were patented throughout the late 1880s and 1890s. Prior to this, people had been colouring their hair using plant and mineral-based dyes for centuries.

So yes, Bridget could have technically bleached her hair during that time. But the idea of her switching between different, vivid colours is far less likely and definitely more of a Monster creation. 

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Featured image credit: Netflix