I cried during this episode of Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.
asserted
I → cry → Monster
First I cried when Aileen Wuornos described her childhood of brutal physical and sexual abuse to her hallucinated idol, Lizzie Borden.
asserted
Wuornos → cry → idol
Then I cried when Bridget and Lizzie shared one last dance to “Smalltown Boy,” Bronski Beat’s mournful dance classic about an ostracized young gay man leaving home, while Aileen Wuornos and her girlfriend Shelby somehow join in.
asserted
Wuornos → cry → home
I found this material deeply affecting.
asserted
material → find → ?
It made me sad to think about how some people have to feel the way these people were made to feel.
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people → make → way
It made me think how beautiful any moment of escape can be, whether through music or sex.
asserted
moment → make → music
(Murder is just the Monster-verse’s misguided attempt to find that kind of transcendence through violence.)
asserted
Murder → find → violence
I thought these scenes were beautiful.
asserted
scenes → think → ?
They moved me to tears.
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They → move → tears
I’m saying all this up front
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I → say → this
just so you know if you’re in the right place or not.
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you → know → place
If you find this kind of true-crime material distasteful, if you find Ryan Murphy (who does not appear to have been particularly involved in this season, certainly not as a writer) distasteful, if these factors are enough to preclude you from enjoying the show, I understand.
asserted
I → find → show
I also disagree, and that’s the perspective from which I’m writing.
asserted
I → disagree → which
Monster is a surreal exploration of life as an outsider as reflected in the lives of famous killers, their victims, and the legends surrounding them all; it moves me to tears, and to me, that’s worth both examining and celebrating.
asserted
that → reflect → me
This episode’s Lizzie-centric material concerns her and Bridget’s attempts to cover their tracks in the wake of the Bordens’ deaths.
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material → concern → deaths
Some of this she does rather effectively — faking a nervous breakdown so convincingly she’s given multiple morphine doses to calm her, colluding with her uncle John Morse to devise an alibi together in exchange for a loan for his butcher business.
asserted
she → do → business
Other elements, like the bloody handkerchief she passes off as a feminine napkin and burning her bloody clothes in the oven while the house is full of cops, she pulls off with less aplomb.
asserted
she → pass → aplomb
For a while, at least, the killers have sexism on their side.
asserted
killers → have → side
An initial examination of the bodies leads the police to conclude from the ferocity and number of axe blows incurred that only a man, maybe even only multiple men, could have committed these crimes.
uncertain
man → lead → crimes
Lizzie’s inconsistent statement about the events of the the day are swallowed hook, line, and sinker, even as Lizzie herself comes to regret her father’s death.
asserted
Lizzie → swallow → death
(Not Abby’s, though: “Cunt,” she spits at her corpse.)
asserted
she → spit → corpse
But the misdirection only works for a while.
asserted
misdirection → work → while
A gratuitously, gloriously gruesome sequence shows the bodies of Abby and Andrew Borden (Rebecca Hall and Charlie Hunnam are frightfully good sports) getting hacked to pieces, boiled, flayed, scraped, and generally manhandled.
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Hall → show → pieces
It’s disgusting.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
If you’re the right kind of horror person, it’s awesome.
asserted
it → ’re → person
Whatever the Harvard boys responsible for this forensic examination dig up, it’s enough to pin it on Lizzie, who’s so prepared for her own arrest she already has her things packed.
asserted
things → dig → arrest
Bridget, meanwhile, has flown the coop — somewhat literally, as the last place she and Lizzie meet is the dovecote where Lizzie cooped up her beloved birds.
asserted
Lizzie → fly → birds
That’s where they dance to “Smalltown Boy,” to my eternal gratitude.
asserted
they → ’ → gratitude
(Ryan Murphy projects know their way around early-‘80s electro-pop.)
asserted
projects → know → pop
This gets us back to the episode’s central conceit and main attraction: an entirely apocryphal visit to the Lizzie Borden house, rendered here as a bed and breakfast, by Alieen Wuornos and Shelby, the show’s name for her girlfriend.
asserted
This → get → girlfriend
You can tell right away this is a transcendent experience for Aileen.
asserted
this → tell → Aileen
She’s eager to see everything, touch everything, smoke and fuck in every room in the house.
asserted
She → ’ → house
The smoking is technically forbidden, not that it stops her, but there’s nothing in the rulebook that says you can’t fingerbang on the legendary fainting couch.
asserted
you → forbid → couch
As their visit progresses, Aileen shoots up in honor of Lizzie’s morphine doses, then has Shelby read to her from her Lizzie biography.
asserted
Shelby → progress → biography
Shelby tells the story like a tale of ghosts around the campfire, leaning hard on the thrills and chills, as well as the doomed romance.
asserted
Shelby → tell → thrills
It’s really rather charming.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
It builds to the episode’s most moving scene.
asserted
It → build → scene
Stopping storytime to go take a leak (I applaud Monster’s commitment to the aspects of human existence we hide behind closed doors), Aileen encounters and communes with the beatific spirit of Lizzie herself.
asserted
Aileen → stop → Lizzie
Lizzie cries single tears as Aileen explains who she is, what she does for a living, whom she’s killed and why, and whom she never had the chance to murder even though they treated her even worse than Lizzie’s did: her family.
asserted
Lizzie → cry → family
Everyone she knew beat or raped her, not just her father and stepmom, but her brother, even her granddad.
asserted
she → know → her
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
