Spoilers for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Episode 4 follow. Lizzie kills Abby before Andrew because the series treats Abby as the first person standing between Lizzie and a final reckoning with her father. Netflix’s dramatized version has Lizzie strike Abby first, then carries the plan into the next episode, where Andrew becomes the second target.
This is the show’s fictional answer, not a historical finding. Netflix’s own ending guide says Episodes 4 and 5 are devoted to the two murders and that its creators extrapolated from the limited record around Lizzie and Maggie’s connection.
- Release date: September 17, 2026
- Episode: Season 1, Episode 4
- Genre: Historical crime drama
- Streaming on: Netflix
Abby becomes the first target in the drama’s plan
Episode 4 does not present Abby’s death as an isolated burst of violence. It is part of the alliance the series constructs between Lizzie and Maggie. The show has Lizzie take the first blow against Abby, establishing that she is an active participant in the version of events the drama has chosen to tell.
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By placing Abby first, the series makes the household conflict feel staged around access and control. Abby is Andrew’s wife and Lizzie’s stepmother, so removing her changes who is left inside the home and clears the path for the confrontation the next chapter will bring to Andrew.
The episode separates the two killings for dramatic pressure
The two deaths are historically linked, but the series uses the gap between them to create tension. Abby’s killing is the irreversible step that makes retreat impossible. Once it has happened, Lizzie and Maggie have to live with the fact that Andrew’s return will turn their plan from an idea into a second act of violence.
That structure matters because it prevents Andrew from becoming only a final plot point. The delay leaves the household suspended between an act that has already happened and the larger crime the audience knows is coming.
It also concentrates the episode on the cost of decision. Lizzie and Maggie cannot claim that events simply overtook them after Abby’s death. The pause before Andrew’s murder makes their continuing choice, and the fear surrounding it, the source of the episode’s pressure.
The show’s certainty is not the historical record
The Netflix season offers a definite solution inside its own story world: Lizzie and Maggie commit the murders together. The real case ended differently. Lizzie Borden was acquitted, and the legal record did not establish who killed Andrew and Abby.
That distinction makes Episode 4’s choice legible. It is an interpretation designed to explain motive and sequence, not evidence that settles an unresolved historical question. Does the episode’s decision to separate Abby and Andrew’s deaths make the story more compelling, or too certain? Let us know in the comments.
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