What would you do if an infamous real estate tycoon accused of killing his first wife moved in next door? If you’re like Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes), a renowned writer who has receded from public life after the tragic death of her young son, your instinct is to uncover the truth, even if it costs you your sanity.
Over the course of the eight episodes of Netflix’s The Beast in Me, Aggie and Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys) professionally court each other, sussing out what will make the other flinch. As Aggie gets to know Nile under the guise of writing a biography about him, she presses in closer on the skeletons in his closet, threatening to bring down both his real estate empire and his life. But she’s not entirely innocent either; she’s holding a grudge against a young man named Teddy Fenig (Bubba Weiler), whom she blames for the car accident that killed her son—an event that also ended her marriage to Shelley (Natalie Morales), an amateur painter. Nile’s close proximity gives him access to her secrets, weaponizing that information to get what he wants.
By the end of the mystery series, Aggie thinks she has pieced together the truth about Nile’s involvement in his first wife Madison’s disappearance. But two steps ahead, Nile has seemingly already planted evidence that would incriminate Aggie in Teddy’s disappearance. So how does the cat-and-mouse game end? Was Aggie right about Nile’s sinister streak, and does she succeed in bringing him to justice? Read on to find out how The Beast in Me concludes.
It's unclear whether Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys) is innocent or not until the end of The Beast in Me.
Did Nile Jarvis actually kill his wife Madison in 'The Beast in Me?'
For most of the eight-episode thriller series, the jury is out on whether the real estate mogul really killed his late wife, Madison (Leila George). But in the penultimate episode, a flashback to Madison’s final days, we find out that everything exonerating Nile—like support from his former in-laws and his supposed devotion to Madison—was simply him stacking the deck in his favor.
In episode 7, “Ghosts,” we see that Nile did, in fact, murder Madison after Nina (Brittany Snow), a junior gallerist working under Madison, tips him off that his wife is leaking information about his real estate business’s shady practices to the FBI. While Nina didn’t have the best relationship with her boss, her intention wasn’t to have Nina killed; she was acting in her own self-interest because Nile thought she was the mole.
Both Nina and Madison are acutely aware that upsetting Nile would put their life in danger—Madison even goes so far as to beg FBI Agent Abbott (David Lyons) to arrest Nile because she feels her life is in danger. And it turns out, she’s not wrong. Once Nile knows about Madison’s betrayal, he doesn’t hesitate to confront her. The accusatory interaction turns from verbal to physical quickly, and soon, Nile has Madison pinned to the floor as he bashes her head in with a blunt object. Most disturbingly, a smile creeps across Nile’s face as Madison’s blood splatters on his face—almost like he got a thrill out of it.
After Madison's death, Nile got remarried to Nina (Brittany Snow), who was a colleague of his late wife's.
Is Nile Jarvis punished for killing Madison in 'The Beast in Me?'
Though it was Aggie’s legwork that turned the spotlight onto Nile in a serious way, she needed some help to actually bring him to justice. Just as police are circling Aggie for the murder of Teddy, which Nile sadistically staged in her late son’s bedroom, she arrives at Nina’s gallery to plead for her help. (Nina is now married to Nile, a loose thread that is explained away as a desire to get ahead in her career.) Aggie tells her about the only evidence she has (the truth behind Madison’s suicide note), and initially it seems like Nina is content to live in ignorance—especially as she recently found out she’s pregnant.
But later at home with Nile, she goads him into admitting to both Madison and Teddy’s murders, all the while secretly recording him. She meets Nile after a press conference in relation to his latest real estate development, telling him to check his phone just as the police descend upon him and he’s publicly arrested. The final sequence of the Netflix series notes that he did one final interview with Aggie for her book from jail before being murdered by fellow inmates, organized by his uncle (seeking retribution for Nile’s hand in his father’s fatal stroke).
Teddy Fenig's (Bubba Weiler) death is another mystery in The Beast in Me.
Did Nile Jarvis kill Teddy Fenig in 'The Beast in Me?'
In the taped confession, Nile admits to also killing Teddy Fenig, the missing boy who was involved in the car accident that killed Aggie’s son Cooper. Teddy’s fate was first discovered by FBI agent Brian Abbott via the files extracted from Nile’s computer mid-season. The files revealed a security video of Teddy tied up and gagged, and held captive in an unknown location. But before Abbott can act on this discovery, Nile kills him.
After murdering Abbott, Nile realizes that Aggie has uncovered the truth about Madison’s disappearance when she texts Abbott’s phone explaining her discovery of the suicide note’s origin. Knowing that she no longer goes into Cooper’s bedroom, Nile and his cronies frame Aggie by staging the room as the place where Teddy was held captive and ultimately died.
Shelly (Natalie Morales) and Aggie's (Claire Danes) relationship became even more fractured after their son Cooper died.
Where do Aggie and her estranged ex-wife, Shelley, end up at the end of 'The Beast in Me?'
The finale gives Aggie some much-needed personal closure. Though Nile’s methods were extreme, his interference in her life forced her to reckon with the role she played in Cooper’s death—that is, that she was distracted while driving, prioritizing an interview for her work instead of focusing on the road. For so long, she had scapegoated Teddy as the singular force behind the greatest tragedy in her life, and this new realization also helps her thread the needle for the conclusion of her Nile Jarvis biography.
The series ends with Aggie reading an excerpt from the book at her book launch, acknowledging the monsters that can live in all of us. Her ex-wife, Shelley, is there to support her with a new partner, and the former couple seems to be happy for each other, even though their lives are no longer intertwined.
