Middle of the Night

Early the next morning, Ethan rushes over to the Chen’s house to ask if they noticed anything suspicious or encountered an intruder the night before. Russ’s wife Jennifer asserts that she and Russ had an unremarkable evening; they’re not aware of anything amiss in the neighborhood. This is supported by Detective Cassandra Palmer, who is making her way through neighborhood interviews and has stopped by to speak with the Chens.

Ethan discusses his new theories about Billy’s case with Cassandra, and she agrees that the employees of the Hawthorne institute are unlikely suspects. Cassandra confides in Ethan that she has narrowed her investigation to only one potential suspect: Billy’s mother, Mary Ellen.

This interlude returns to the day of Billy’s disappearance and introduces the perspective of Mary Ellen Barringer, whose third-person narrative reflects her struggle with undiagnosed anxiety. Mary Ellen’s overwhelming fear of the world traces back to her childhood memories, and she recalls her mother telling her that everyone in their family feels things too deeply. Mary Ellen senses that Billy is like her, and she worries about how he will cope with the world.

She is desperate to protect him from everything—physical harm, bullying, a lifetime of anxiety similar to her own. She often wants to grab the other neighborhood mothers and shake them until they tell her how they seem to navigate life and motherhood so easily.

Mary Ellen recalls that, even as a child, she was obsessed with protecting the things she loved—especially her favorite doll, Stacy. Because Stacy was a porcelain doll, Mary Ellen was terrified that the doll would break, so despite her longing to cuddle and hold Stacy, Mary Ellen rarely touched her. But after years of anxiety over Stacy’s safety, when Mary Ellen turned ten, she became unable to cope with her worry.

Mary Ellen distinctly remembers the moment when—in a desperate effort to end her anxiety—she gave Stacy a tender kiss, hugged her close, and then smashed her into pieces.

Back in the present, Ethan mulls over his conversation with Detective Palmer and acknowledges that she might be right. If Billy encountered his mother that night, he wouldn’t have screamed or run from her. Instead, he would have gone with her willingly. Ethan wonders if this is why he can only remember the tent’s scratching sound instead of a scream.

His belief that he saw something new in his dream encourages Ethan to hope that he caught a glimpse of Billy’s killer. This, along with the baseballs and the words written in the notebook, prompts Ethan to believe that Billy is sending him messages from beyond the grave. He becomes convinced that Billy is urging him to remember what he saw and share it with others so that Billy’s spirit can finally rest.

Ethan decides that he needs to re-enact the night Billy was kidnapped. He calls Russ and tells him that he needs to buy that orange tent.

Ethan painstakingly assembles the tent, talking out loud to Billy as he does so. He feels crazy and acknowledges that he is quite literally talking to a ghost, but for reasons he cannot explain, he feels that he has to do this. He feels that Billy has been haunting him for a reason. Ethan waits for nightfall, climbs into a sleeping bag within the tent, and waits for sleep, hoping that this night in the tent will help him uncover his memories.

As Ethan lies awake in the darkened back yard, he hears a rustle in the grass and a “ping” signifying that the camera has been activated. He feels a shiver run up his spine and assumes Billy has arrived.

In this flashback to the night of Billy’s disappearance, Ethan once again lies awake in the orange tent in his dark backyard. He is surprised that Billy agreed to sleep over as planned after Ethan abandoned him at the Hawthorne Institute. He feels guilty about leaving Billy behind and wonders if Billy will ever forgive him.

He also feels angry with Billy for going on a secret adventure to the Hawthorne Institute without telling him. Ethan ponders the future of his friendship with Billy and reluctantly admits to himself that he and Billy are very different people. Billy believes in ghosts and is comfortable being different; Ethan is skeptical and wants to fit in. He wonders if they will stay friends or if the events of this day will ultimately divide them.

In the present, Ethan checks the trail cam app on his phone, afraid to see what is on the screen. He wants to know if Billy is there, but he is also afraid; if Billy appears, it will mean that ghosts are real, and Ethan is uncertain about how he will cope with that information. But instead of Billy, he sees Henry Wallace. Ethan invites Henry inside and they have a pleasant chat until Ashley runs into the yard, frantically searching for Henry. She is afraid he has gone missing and the sight of the orange tent has triggered her memories of Billy’s case.

Ethan takes Ashley aside for a private discussion about his attempt to recreate the night of Billy’s disappearance and recover his memories. Ashley tells Ethan that his efforts and his belief in Billy’s ghost are nonsense. She implies that the mysterious things that have happened—the baseballs, the flickering lights, the writing in the notebook—are either the work of Ethan’s imagination or something more sinister. Horrified, Ethan asks if she believes he hurt Billy, and Ashley admits that while she doesn’t suspect him, she knows Ethan’s memory is unreliable.

To prove her point, she tells Ethan that she knows the truth about Claudia. The chapter concludes with the revelation that Ethan and Claudia are not divorced: Claudia is dead.

The next chapter resumes Ethan’s first-person perspective in the present as he grapples with the horror of Ashley’s words. As Ethan reflects on his relationship with Claudia, he reveals that he always knew she was dead, but he tries to block the memory out. While he and Claudia did disagree about having children—and even fought about it the night she did—Ethan never had any doubt that they would work through the disagreement.

He observes that even their fights were more amicable than other couples’, fueled by their mutual love and respect for one another. On the night she died, Claudia took a break from their conversation by going for a drive to clear her head. While on the drive, she died of a sudden heart attack.

After he lost her, Ethan was distraught; without Claudia, he no longer had ties to the Chicago area, so he returned to Hemlock Circle. Claudia’s death therefore served as the catalyst for his return home and his obsession with Billy’s case. It was easier to revisit childhood memories than to cope with his recent loss, so Ethan has been using Billy’s case as a distraction.

He admits this to Ashley and confesses that, deep down, he hopes ghosts do exist. If they do, he might have a chance to reconnect with both Billy and Claudia. Ashley comforts him and encourages him to find closure in practical, realistic ways. Following this advice, Ethan goes inside and finds the box where he keeps all his memories of Claudia. He turns on her old cell phone and dials her number from his own phone so he can pretend she’s on the other end of the line.

For an hour, he talks through his feelings as if Claudia were there to listen. When he’s finished, he deletes Claudia’s contact information from his phone as a way of reminding himself that she is truly gone. He feels comforted and heartbroken at the same time but acknowledges that this gesture might be the closure he needs.

This flashback finds Ethan and Billy together on the night of their sleepover. They are playing Uno in the tent, and the atmosphere between them is tense. After an awkward card game, they argue about the events of the day. Billy admits that he feels hurt and betrayed after Ethan abandoned him. Ethan is unable to admit that he feels hurt too; he doesn’t understand why Billy kept his adventures a secret. To Ethan, that secrecy is also a type of betrayal.

Instead of sharing these feelings, he argues with Billy about the existence of ghosts. When Billy tries to insist that they are real, Ethan yells at him, telling Billy that he should die and become a ghost. As soon as he says the words, Ethan instantly regrets them and apologizes. Billy half-heartedly forgives him but Ethan insists that what he said was unforgivable. He wants Billy to understand how deeply he regrets it, but Billy just shrugs and says, “Hakuna matata, dude.”

In the present, Ethan recruits Cassandra Palmer to help him recreate his dream. He asks her to stab the tent, and she agrees. When Ethan settles into the sleeping bag again and hears the scratching sound, it awakens his memories, and Ethan realizes that he did see someone at their tent the night Billy disappeared. Horrified by his revelation, he runs across the street and pounds on his neighbor’s door. Russ Chen answers and Ethan declares that he knows Russ killed Billy.

This flashback finds 10-year-old Russ seething because Billy and Ethan have excluded him from their sleepover. He thought he and Billy had connected earlier that day when they explored the Hawthorne Institute, and Russ had hoped that Billy and Ethan would begin to include him.

But instead, Russ feels left out as usual. Enraged by the unfairness and pain of his exclusion, Russ decides to get revenge by scaring Ethan and Billy. He steals a kitchen knife and sneaks into Ethan’s back yard, where he pierces the tent with the knife.

In the present, Ethan—gripped by anger and loss—attacks Russ. They fight while Ethan accuses Russ of lying for 30 years, of pretending to be his friend, and obstructing an investigation when he was Billy’s killer all along.

Cassandra Palmer interrupts them when she bursts into the house, looking for Ethan, and realizes that Ethan’s reenactment has triggered a memory of Russ harming Billy. Ethan tells Cassandra that Russ was the killer; Russ counters by admitting the truth: As a child, he was jealous and angry. He wanted to frighten the other boys but he didn’t harm them. He says that he would produce the knife to prove his innocence, but he has never been able to find it.

At that moment, Russ’s elderly mother comes down the stairs and confesses that she hid the knife to protect Russ.