Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Beast in Me’ follows an intriguing relationship between a writer and the subject of her new book. Aggie Wiggs has been struggling to find a story worth writing about when she crosses paths with Nile Jarvis. He is a real estate mogul whose name has been tarnished by several scandals over the years. The one that most particularly haunts him is the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Madison. As Aggie tries to uncover the truth about what may have happened to Madison, she also seeks to understand Nile and his true intentions. Over the course of eight episodes, we become privy to his twisted nature, and all the information revealed about his past points towards him being a very dangerous individual. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Nile Jarvis’ Past Shows a Dangerous Behavioural Pattern
When Nile Jarvis is introduced in the first episode of ‘The Beast in Me,’ he is presented as a highly entitled, arrogant person who is used to getting things his own way. He does not accept no as an answer and is ready to do whatever it takes to get it. The fact that he is suspected of the murder of his wife, Madison, adds a criminal layer to his nature. And this feeling of something dangerous about him is exacerbated when Aggie watches him eye Teddy Fenig. She is horrified the next day when it turns out that Teddy is believed to have killed himself, though there is no dead body, much like there was no dead body for Madison. This makes her wonder if he killed Teddy, which is all the more shocking because he, personally, had no beef with the young man.
Over the course of the next few episodes, it becomes clear that despite the sense of danger around him, Nile has an uncanny ability to charm almost everyone around him. He is very skilled at manipulating people, especially Aggie, who initially shows extreme disdain for him but ultimately forms a strange connection with him. He can sense the darkness within her, as well as in other people, because he is so profoundly connected to his own. At the same time, he doesn’t seem to care about how others feel or are impacted by his actions, and any sense of right or wrong doesn’t really exist for him because he is not capable of the self-reflection that allows him to see his mistakes. He is also revealed to be impulsive, and his violent tendencies end up coming out in the most inopportune moments.
Considering all this, it seems that Nile has antisocial personality disorder, or in simpler terms, he is a sociopath. This fact was confirmed by the show’s writer and showrunner, Howard Gordon. In an interview with Vanity Fair, he described Nile as a “sociopath,” calling him a tricky character to write. He added: “On one hand, he’s charming and seductive; on the other hand, there’s a flash of something that we’re not quite getting.” Matthew Rhys, who plays Nile, also leaned into this aspect of the character, encouraged by director Antonio Campos. All this proves that Nile is a bona fide sociopath, and though he is not properly diagnosed in the series, he, most likely, exhibits a higher score on the psychopathy scale.
Nile’s Past Hints at More Victims Than Previously Assumed
The definition of a serial killer suggests that a person has to have killed three or more people. When Nile is introduced, he is suspected of having killed his first wife, Madison, though he was never officially accused of it. In fact, Madison seems to have disappeared without a trace, leaving only a note to suggest that she has killed herself. Eventually, this is what almost everyone comes to believe, though conspiracy theories about Nile’s involvement sustain over the years, even as he gets married to another woman and moves away from the city. By the end of the first episode, Aggie becomes convinced that Nile has also killed Teddy Fenig.
It isn’t until the penultimate episode, when the show gives us a flashback to the time before Madison went missing, that we discover that this strange tendency of people disappearing around the Nile isn’t new. Over the course of their marriage, Madison noted this pattern. It started after one of the young artists that she represented was brutally killed in what looked like a random attack on the street. She notes that this happened soon after Nile suspects her of having an affair with the artist, though it never really happened. This incident led Madison to dig deeper into Nile’s past, and she discovered that people have been going missing or dying suddenly around him since he was a teenager. She shares this information with FBI Agent Brian Abbott, for whom she turned into an informant to bring down Nile once and for all.
It’s not clear whether Nile himself killed all these people or if he had someone else do the job for him, but given the circumstances, it seems that he bloodied his own hands. Despite the corrupt picture painted of Nile’s father, Marty, it becomes clear that he doesn’t like the fact that his son is a killer. Yes, he has helped clean up his mess and protect him from the law over and over again, but it doesn’t bring him any joy to know that his son has a twisted, violent side. In fact, when he finds out about Teddy’s death, he has a stroke, which he never recovers from. This proves that Nile has killed several people over the years, thanks to his impulsive violence, which blinds him to his actions, at least for the time being, and can, in fact, be considered a serial killer.
Read More: Where is The Beast in Me Filmed?
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