52 pages • 1 hour read
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Ellie reunites with Willa and tells her that she is going to help her escape. Willa tells Ellie that Hannah is still alive. Ellie opens Hannah’s room and tells her that they are escaping in the car that she parked in the woods. As they make their way through the clearing, Ellie says that she checked that the kennels were locked but that she let out Star. As they stumble toward the car, David, or West Abbott, steps out of the shadows with Michael, or Doug, who holds a gun.
Chelsey parks near Ellie’s car. She tells Danny to wait with the police radio on so that he can call for help. Before long, Chelsey reaches the compound and sees Ellie, Willa, and Hannah standing in front of Doug and West. Chelsey cocks her rifle and approaches them, telling them to get on the ground. Doug raises his gun, but Chelsey shoots him. West charges Chelsey and tackles her. West strangles Chelsey, but she gouges his eyes and pushes him off. Chelsey hears a growl and sees a dog out of the corner of her eye. West whistles for the dog, but the dog does not move. Ellie whistles for Star, and Star jumps into action, attacking West. As Star mauls West, Chelsey jumps up and knocks West out with her weapon. Star releases him.
Chelsey approaches the shaking girls and tells them that she is going to help them get home. Chelsey hears a door slam, and Hannah explains that it is Serendipity, who is not one of the missing girls. Chelsey chases Serendipity through the forest. She shoots at the woman and hits her in the leg. Serendipity collapses, and Chelsey zip-ties the woman’s wrists. As Serendipity turns around, Chelsey freezes because she realizes that it is Lydia.
Ellie follows David outside the compound, and he tells her that he will send her messages. He says he will let her know when it is time and that if she tells anyone about what she has experienced, he will kill Willa. Ellie gets into the station wagon with Michael, and they drive away. After a while, Michael lets her out and gives her the package with the gunpowder and pipe. He tells her to bury it and come back for it after the attention dies down. After Michael leaves, she buries the package and then wanders down the trail, thinking about how she must protect Willa.
After Chelsey arrests Lydia, the EMTs take Chelsey to the hospital. She is in shock with the knowledge that Lydia is not dead. Chelsey learns that Abbott resigned and sees that he has been calling her, telling her that he had no idea what his sons were doing.
After a few days, Chelsey visits Lydia at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. In the waiting room, the news discusses Lydia’s reappearance and the surrounding events: Oscar’s family asks for their son’s name to be cleared, as West set up the supposed murder-suicide of Lydia and Oscar.
When Chelsey is brought to see Lydia, Lydia says that their father must be proud of Chelsey being a detective, but Chelsey explains that their father died a year earlier. Chelsey says that their mother lives in Arizona and is coming to visit Lydia. Chelsey tells her that she has not touched the house and that everything, even Lydia’s room, is the same. Lydia says that she hated that house, which surprises Chelsey. Lydia especially hated living with their father because he was so mean to their mother.
Lydia changes the subject and asks about Chelsey’s husband. Lydia says that she is married to West; she would not have had sex with him otherwise. They met at the precinct picnic, and Lydia says that West never hurts her unless he is angry. She shows Chelsey a bald spot under her hair—the result of West’s response to her going out with Oscar to make West jealous. West bashed in Oscar’s head and pulled out her hair to leave with Oscar’s body. Lydia says that West’s father told them that they had to leave evidence to make the set-up believable. Chelsey realizes that Lydia is telling her that Abbott was involved. She asks Lydia if she understands what West has done, but Lydia says that West loves her and that he had to kidnap the girls because Lydia could not get pregnant. Chelsey leaves, calls Noah, and apologizes to him.
Ellie sits with Cerise in the psychiatric hospital where she has been recovering. She shows Cerise the journal containing the statement that she promised to give to Chelsey. Ellie is glad that the prosecution is not pressing charges against her. She asks when she will get to see Willa, and Cerise says that she does not know. When Ellie continues to worry about Willa, Cerise says that she must let her go.
Ellie says that she wishes that she could have saved Gabrielle, so Cerise asks Ellie to participate in a mental exercise with her. She tells Ellie to close her eyes and picture herself at the compound with Gabrielle, Hannah, and Willa. She then tells Ellie to take the girls by the hand and free them. Ellie imagines walking into the woods with Gabrielle, Hannah, and Willa. Her fear washes away as she laughs with them. Ellie tells Cerise that she does not want to leave them, so Cerise tells her to bring the girls to her home and make them their own room. Ellie pictures a room where the girls can rest without fear. Ellie tells Gabrielle that she is sorry, and Gabrielle tells her that she does not have to be. Ellie cries and says that she wants to believe that Gabrielle forgives her.
After their session, Jimmy picks Ellie up from the hospital. He takes her to the precinct, and Ellie gives her journal to Chelsey. As they drive away, Ellie wonders if she will ever stop mentally replaying her captivity. Nevertheless, Ellie feels hopeful that one day she will heal.
Three months later, Chelsey puts the last of Lydia’s items from her parents’ house into a box she labels “Freedom.” Chelsey thinks about the upcoming trial of West, Abbott, and Lydia. Chelsey knows that Abbott says that he knew nothing about what happened at the compound, but Chelsey no longer cares. Instead, she cares about saying the names of the victims of the compound—especially those of Brittany, Theresa, and Gabrielle, who did not make it.
Chelsey walks through the house, saying a final goodbye. She thinks about her father and how it is only through Lydia that she has begun to recognize how controlling and obsessive he was. Chelsey quit the force after closing Ellie’s case, hoping to find a new life and a new path with Noah. As Chelsey leaves, she sees the ghosts of herself and Lydia as children in the house. Chelsey carries the box of Lydia’s items with her into the car and tells Noah that it is the only thing that she wants to take with her.
Besides serving as a plot twist, the revelation that Serendipity is Lydia ties together Chelsey’s past and Ellie’s present while developing The Psychological Impact of Trauma. Chelsey initially struggles to understand whether Lydia is complicit in West’s crimes or not but soon realizes the trauma her sister has experienced at West’s hands: Lydia has hardly changed from her 15-year-old self, which Chelsey learns from the way Lydia speaks about West. Just as Chelsey recognizes that Ellie’s involvement in the bombing plot stems from emotional manipulation, she comes to understand that Lydia’s defense of West’s actions stems from years of emotional and physical abuse. Harder for Chelsey to swallow is the revelation that Lydia’s experiences living with her and Chelsey’s father primed her for this kind of abuse. Lydia echoes Noah’s grievances with Chelsey’s father, describing how cruel their father was to their mother and to them and forcing Chelsey to recognize her father’s misogyny, which she blocked out because she was desperate to cling to someone after the uncertainty of Lydia’s disappearance. This conversation furthers Chelsey’s character development, helping Chelsey to come to terms with how she has used her cases to mask her trauma and paving the way for her reconciliation with Noah. However, it also underscores that the kind of misogyny Abbot, West, and Doug represent is not an anomaly but rather something that permeates women’s lives, influencing who they become.
However, Ellie’s final mental exercise with Cerise emphasizes that it is possible to grow beyond this trauma, furthering the theme of Identity and Transformation. In imagining herself freeing Hannah, Willa, and Gabrielle before West can hurt them, Ellie finds some peace and displays her character development; she is at least willing to entertain the possibility that she deserves healing, even if she cannot yet fully believe in Gabrielle’s forgiveness. Moreover, her sense that she can now “run headlong into her future, carrying the loss in one hand and hope in the other” implies a newfound faith that she can control her life (295). Ellie’s mental exercise has helped her regain a sense of autonomy and self by allowing her to rewrite the narrative of her imprisonment, which had stripped her of both.
Chelsey’s character development reaches a similar conclusion with her decision to box up her parents’ house. Chelsey’s decision to label the box containing Lydia’s things “Freedom” shows that she understands that releasing the past will allow her to grow and be happy. Chelsey’s final action—saying goodbye to the ghosts of herself and Lydia as children—reinforces this symbolism. Chelsey knows that she can never find healing living in a house or working in a job that will constantly remind her of her trauma and pain. Instead, Chelsey releases her obsession with the past and pursues healing with Noah in a place far away from her ghosts.