In this section, the novel’s many long-simmering conflicts reach their peak, signaling a low point in the life of each main character. Garrett and Charlie’s friend Brig suffers a stroke, reminding Garrett of the health concerns shared by other friends and of his own mortality. He is surrounded by reminders that he is aging and that the life he has in front of him is short. Charlie also feels hopeless and frustrated by this truth: Him distancing himself from his friends at the reunion shows his inability to connect with them in the way he once did. Their lives have developed in ways that have pushed them apart. While many of the men enjoy one another’s company, Charlie’s discomfort is palpable, as is Garrett’s. For the first time ever, many years after the fact, Charlie lashes out against Garrett for “stealing” Cece from him. Garrett’s response suggests that he finds this confrontation inevitable, as though he has been certain that Charlie could not be kept from confronting him forever. Garrett responds to Charlie’s rage with peace and compassion, indicating that he respects and cares about Charlie and that he accepts a degree of blame for hurting Charlie with his decision to marry Cece. Charlie’s confession to Garrett that he and Cece had one-time sex a few years prior also brings a kind of relief to Garrett, as if this transgression on Charlie’s part balances out the transgression that Garrett committed years ago by marrying Cece. Such hurts are part of Commitment and Its Costs: To stay in each other’s lives for the long term, they have had to accept that they will cause each other pain. In a manner of speaking, they are now “even,” and the slate is wiped clean: They can move forward and begin to truly heal their damaged friendship.

Garrett and Cece meet their 24th wedding anniversary with trepidation, as each separately wrestles with The Evolving Purpose of Marriage. There is an air of unease between them, which each experiences but neither addresses explicitly. A kind of disconnect has developed between them, and neither can identify its source. The fact that they are visiting Charlie on their anniversary feels somehow wrong to both Cece and Garrett, but simultaneously, they feel that they owe it to Charlie—who has never been rageful or cruel to them about the way they have hurt him—to attend the reunion anyway. Prioritizing the needs of Charlie and their other friends over their marriage feels right to them, and yet they both experience a kind of guilt about this. When Cece gives Garrett a silly gift at the end of the night—a reminder of an earlier stage in their marriage—it is her way of conveying to him that her love for him is still present, despite the divide. Garrett is relieved by this and assured that they have made the right choice—not only in marrying in the first place but also in remaining married.

The theme of commitment is developed not only through the connection between Charlie, Cece, and Garrett but also through the secondary characters of Lana and Jasper. Charlie never gives up on Jasper, despite the personal struggles that Jasper experiences as he shifts between periods of addiction and sobriety. Charlie humbles himself by asking Lana for help. Jasper feels resentment toward his father for divorcing his mother, and this anger extends to Cece, Garrett, and Lana. It is as though Jasper can sense that Charlie’s loyalty and true feelings reside with Cece. Jasper feels that his father has abandoned him, and when Charlie tries to reach out to him, Jasper refuses to connect.

Finally, readers are reminded of Human Impacts on the Environment as an aging Garrett continues to track the dwindling wolverine population. He himself is growing older and less physically equipped to trek through the rugged Montana landscape. Though Garrett knows, logically, that the wolverine he is tracking is most likely dead, he cannot help but track it anyway. He is driven by a stubborn hope that the will of the wolverine is stronger than its physical environment. When Garrett is presented with the truth, however, in the form of the dead wolverine, he refuses to look at it. To do so would be to admit his own looming mortality. Similarly, the loss of his voice from the wildfires is an indication of nature’s power—this force is also one that impacts the camaraderie of the reunion at the Margolis cottage. The smoke-polluted air, making it difficult to breathe and speak, symbolizes the emotionally fraught atmosphere between these old friends. By providing a hostile force that the friends must rally against, it also helps bring them together. In the end, when they decide to go swimming anyway, they symbolically resist the smoke, returning to the place where they have historically felt closely connected: in the lake.