Did Nile Kill Madison? The Beast in Me Ending Finally Delivers the Truth
The Beast in Me, Netflix’s brand-new thriller from Gabe Rotter starring Claire Danes, Matthew Rhys, and Brittany Snow, premiered November 13, 2025 — and its finale finally settles the central mystery: did Nile Jarvis kill Madison?
Netflix just dropped a new limited series, and it builds to a nasty little question: did the charming guy at the center of it all murder his first wife? The Beast in Me doesn't make you wait forever to find out, but it does take a winding, messy road to get there.
The show, created by Gabe Rotter, premiered November 13, 2025. Claire Danes leads as Aggie Wiggs, a blocked writer who can't work after losing her son. Matthew Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, the glossy new neighbor with a past, and Brittany Snow is Nina Jarvis, the wife trying to keep it together while living with a man people whisper about.
- Claire Danes as Aggie Wiggs
- Matthew Rhys as Nile Jarvis
- Brittany Snow as Nina Jarvis
The setup
Aggie can't write anymore, so when Nile moves in next door, she latches onto a project that feels safe: collaborating on his biography. It stays strictly business... until it doesn't. Their partnership gets murky, fast. At one point, Aggie and Nile even tank Nina's chance at a gallery show. That blowback is immediate: Abbott — who's connected to an FBI team digging into the wider mess — turns on Aggie and blames her for Teddy's suicide. As you can tell, this isn't a polite suburban drama.
The rabbit hole
Even after that fallout, Aggie lets Nile into her house one night. Drinks, dancing, lines crossed. Nina sees where this is headed and starts looking at Nile with even more suspicion. Those doubts get louder when Aggie meets Madison's brother, Chris. He tells her Madison's parents have ties to the construction of Jarvis Yards — Nile's big development — and might be protecting him. Then he hands Aggie Madison's journal, which drops a crucial detail: Madison's so-called suicide note was written well before she vanished. That's not how a goodbye note usually works.
Aggie texts Abbott what she's pieced together. Problem: Nile sees the message while he's literally disposing of Abbott's body. Yes, that happens. And yes, Nile now knows Aggie knows.
So... did Nile kill Madison?
End of Episode 7, the show stops winking and just tells you: in a flashback, Nile kills Madison at an art gallery, snapping in a burst of rage after learning she'd been in contact with Abbott's FBI team. It's not an accident, not ambiguous — it's murder.
The fallout
Episode 8 is the cleanup. Nile admits to Nina that he killed Madison. She records the confession. Then, right as Nile is stepping up to a press conference alongside Councilwoman Benitez — the optics he's clearly chasing — the police step in and haul him away.
Bottom line: The Beast in Me answers its central mystery outright. Nile killed his first wife, and the series shows you exactly how the people around him finally put the pieces together.