Chances Are . . .

Acting on his urge to dig more deeply into the events surrounding Jacy’s disappearance, Lincoln goes to the Vineyard Gazette office but finds it closed. As he stands outside the door, he contemplates his true purpose for visiting the island: to sell his late mother’s house and find a sense of closure. He calls his wife Anita, who corrects his faulty memory of the 1971 Memorial Day trip. She reminds him that the weekend was his idea; he had conceived of the notion after his parents cancelled their plans and left the house available. Anita points out that Lincoln ditched her family reunion to spend the weekend with his friends and that they all invited Jacy along at the last minute.

Anita suggests that Lincoln arranged the trip in order to choose between her and Jacy. Lincoln reflects on his parents’ unhappy marriage, his guilt over past choices, and his difficult relationship with his domineering father. When he sees a woman arrive to unlock the Gazette office, he takes this as a sign to continue his search for information about Jacy’s disappearance.