Abhiroop Das
Created by Gabe Rotter, Netflix’s ‘The Beast in Me’ charts an unlikely connection between novelist Agatha Wiggs and real estate mogul Nile Jarvis, where both are equally curious about, and wary of, each other. Once the talk of the literary world, Agatha now finds herself unable to deal with writer’s block, until Nile Jarvis moves in next door, carrying a psychological baggage of his own. Faced with the opportunity to parse through his mysterious past and capture it in ink, Agatha finds her creative prowess slowly returning to her, but that comes with a cost. As the truth about Nile threatens to shake up her core belief system, the investigative journey also takes a turn inwards, revealing a traumatic past that has stunted her emotional growth since. Her dynamic with Teddy Fenig is central to this mystery, and his fate ultimately ends up tied to her own. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Nile Jarvis is Behind the Abduction and Death of Teddy Fenig
In the final moments of episode 6 of the show, we learn that Teddy Fenig was suffocated to death by Nile Jarvis, following days, if not weeks, of torture at his hands. However, the cruelty does not stop there, as his body is then placed inside Agatha’s home in order to frame her as an abductor-murderer, further blurring the hopes of Fenig finding justice. While we never see the exact moment of Fenig’s passing, it is implied that Nile killed him by placing a plastic bag over his head, following which he called Rick for help with relocating the body, as well as the other evidence. With this, while the mystery surrounding his disappearance is solved at last, the tragedy only multiplies and ripples out into the rest of the narrative. While initially Fenig’s case is ruled as death by suicide, Agatha is the only one to believe otherwise, which makes her being blamed for the crime all the more ironic.
In episode 1 of the show, we learn that Fenig was partially responsible for the car crash that took Cooper’s life, as he was recorded being inebriated, albeit under the limit, during the drive. However, Agatha believes that Fenig intentionally delayed the breathalyzer test to avoid incrimination, and continues antagonizing him for years, until a restraining order is issued against her by Fenig’s mother. In the show, Agatha recounts this experience while having lunch with Nile, and not long after, a chance encounter with Fenig on the street shows that her rage is still as potent as ever. Nile, who watches all of this unfold, is likely motivated to kidnap the teen, and a plan follows soon after. Given that the entire abduction occurs off-screen, we have only minor clues that come together to form a plausible chain of events.
It is possible that Nile abducted Fenig on his way back home and later forced him to write a fake suicide note. Following this, Nile might have taken Fenig’s car to the nearby seashore, along with his clothes and the note, to paint a picture of Fenig voluntarily walking into the ocean to take his own life by drowning. As the day is marked by torrential downpours, the sea current is likely much stronger than usual, and that gives Nile’s plan more credence. He also makes use of Fenig’s lingering mental health issues, in large part due to trauma surrounding the car crash and Cooper’s death. While on the surface, this appears to be a believable suicide, the only two people to doubt otherwise are his mother and Agatha. While the former points out the sudden and unexpected nature of his apparent suicide, Agatha recalls her conversation with Nile in an ominous light and fully believes that he had something to do with the disappearance.
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Agatha and Brian’s Combined Efforts Help Bring the Truth About Fenig to Light
While trying to connect the dots, Agatha notices that, just like Nile’s wife, Madison, Fenig seemingly vanishes without a trace, with only a single suicide note to explain the circumstances. Looking further, she notices that the note itself was written with trembling hands, and claims that he was likely coerced into writing the words. Although Detective Brian Abbott, the former lead investigator in the Madison case, agrees to help Agatha off the record, even he isn’t convinced by the evidence at hand. However, that changes when he recovers encrypted files from Nile’s laptop, which leads to a livestream feed. To his absolute disbelief, Brian finds Fenig, barely alive and tied up. Given that the location itself is untraceable, it is likely that Nile keeping a video record has less to do with surveillance and more to do with his twisted sense of pleasure.
Although Brian is never able to pinpoint where Fenig is held captive, it is possible that the location is Jarvis Yards, as it is consistent with how Nile dealt with his other major crime in the story, the murder of Madison Jarvis. While he dumped her body underground during phase one of the construction project, Fenig was likely trapped inside one of its buildings. Later, when Nile learns that Agatha has been working with Brian, however, he switches plans, ruthlessly killing Fenig as a part of his larger ploy. Throughout the story, he tries to frame his actions against the teen as an expression of karmic justice, and later, as merely an extension of Agatha’s deepest desires. However, in both those cases, he is merely concealing and warping his homicidal intent, and his confession about killing Fenig illustrates exactly that.
