Bloodbath

The hour opens on the killings the rhyme already decided, then rewinds into the household that produced them: Andrew's miserliness, Abby's contempt, and Lizzie boxed into a life with no exit. Bridget Sullivan — called Maggie in the house — arrives as the new maid and becomes the first person who treats Lizzie as someone other than a problem to manage.

The series marks its method early. Maggie brings Lizzie the story of Elizabeth Báthory, and the episode's title becomes a ritual the two of them stage with cherries rather than blood. It is invention, not a court record: a bond, a shared vocabulary of power, and a promise that the house will not stay as it is. The documented 1892 case starts on a summer morning with two bodies. The show starts by deciding who those bodies will belong to.