All the Dangerous Things

Isabelle leaves her parents’ house the next morning before sunrise. Her mother gives her an envelope to help her understand the summer leading up to Margaret’s death. Isabelle imagines the night of Margaret’s death from her parents’ perspective as she visits Margaret and Eloise’s graves. She connects her sleepwalking to the trauma of Eloise’s death. She believes her father’s covering up of Margaret’s murder was to protect both the family and his political legacy.

Isabelle sits beside her sisters’ graves for a long time before returning to her car, where she reads the contents of her mother’s envelope. It contains evidence of her mother’s postpartum psychosis diagnosis. Isabelle grows distressed as she reads about the hereditary nature of the condition, leading her to once again question if she is responsible for Mason’s disappearance. She thinks about Ben, remembering their conversation from the day before. She has a sudden spark of clarity and realizes that the man who interrupted her kiss with Ben at Allison’s memorial was Waylon. She pulls to the side of the road and does an internet search on her phone, discovering that Waylon is Allison’s younger brother.