Love, Mom

Tonya claims that Elizabeth is capitalizing on her painful memories through her novels and believes that she is owed money as a result. She convinces Ben to marry Elizabeth before her first novel is published so that he has access to her profits. Ben wants to be with Tonya but is anxious about the responsibilities that come with being a father. Tonya promises him that she will take care of everything.

Elizabeth appears at Tonya’s cabin, having followed them from the airport where she dropped Ben off after he claimed to be visiting his mother. She breaks up with Ben angrily. Elizabeth’s anger causes her to go into labor. Ben tries to take Tonya’s car to drive Elizabeth to the hospital, but Tonya insists that it’s too far and that Elizabeth needs to have the baby at the cabin.

Tonya explains that if Elizabeth delivers the baby at a hospital, she will prevent Ben from ever seeing it and will refuse to marry him. She insists on delivering the baby at the cabin and then keeping Elizabeth there until she agrees to make a deal with them about her future earnings. The labor is difficult, and although the baby is born healthy, Tonya worries that Elizabeth might die. Ben drinks heavily to numb his feelings.

Tonya’s familiarity with childbirth and caring for a newborn confuses Ben, but he allows her to take the lead. Tonya acknowledges that something is wrong with Elizabeth, who can barely speak or move, but refuses to take her to the hospital. She insists that Ben learn to care for the baby so that she can go into town to collect the clothes, diapers, and supplies that Elizabeth has purchased. Ben honors Elizabeth’s earlier decision to name the baby Mackenzie.

Tonya grows increasingly annoyed with Ben, whom she considers useless beyond his connection with the now seriously ill Elizabeth. She considers telling Elizabeth the truth about the barn fire: that she convinced her boyfriend Brandon’s two best friends to assault her and that she later drugged Brandon and the others when she learned that he joined in the assault. Although she saw Elizabeth start the fire, she has no proof of it, as she claimed.

The narrative reveals that Tonya killed the prior owner of the cabin, an older woman she was caring for. Throughout her relationship with Ben, Tonya has been focused solely on exacting revenge on Lizzy. She travels into town, passing a sign with a picture of a giant garfish, an aggressive type of fish living in the lake. While sneaking into Elizabeth’s apartment, the superintendent, Grunger, whom she previously had sex with to access the apartment, stops her.

Tonya reluctantly has sex with Grunger to access Elizabeth’s apartment, as she has been doing for months, to move things around and make Elizabeth feel like she is losing her mental stability. She makes a mental note to report his drug dealing to the police to get rid of him. Inside the apartment, she steals the manuscripts for Elizabeth’s two novels-in-progress and fantasizes about what it would be like to be her.

Elizabeth’s agent calls the apartment, and Tonya answers. Tonya quickly realizes that the agent has never heard Elizabeth’s voice or seen her in person. The agent explains that Elizabeth has been granted a two-book deal and a hefty advance and asks if she can fly to New York to iron out the details. Tonya decides to steal Elizabeth’s identity and fly to New York herself. She considers how to get rid of Elizabeth.

When Tonya returns to the cabin, she sees that the powerful sedatives she has been giving Elizabeth have succeeded in keeping her calm and in bed. Ben insists that they take her to a doctor, but Tonya claims that the most important thing is getting the baby registered. She dyes and cuts her hair to look more like Elizabeth to steal her identity.

Ben quickly grows miserable with the new arrangement. He cares for the baby while Tonya runs errands and spoon-feeds Elizabeth, who has recovered physically but is still mentally incapacitated. Tonya insists that they need Elizabeth to make money and reveals her plan to step into Elizabeth’s life and act as Mackenzie’s mother. Ben is disturbed by her physical resemblance to Elizabeth after dying her hair.

Ben and Tonya drive into town and find the police arresting Grunger. Tonya registers Mackenzie at the local hospital, acting as Elizabeth. She calls Ben’s parents and arranges for them to help with the baby while she is in New York securing the book deal. When Ben asks what Tonya plans to do with Elizabeth, Tonya insists that she is Elizabeth. Ben is disturbed when Tonya explains she plans to get rid of the real Elizabeth.

Tonya flies to New York, leaving Ben in charge of Mackenzie and Elizabeth. Disturbed by Tonya’s threat to get rid of Elizabeth, Ben attempts to take her to the hospital. However, Elizabeth refuses to get out of bed, and Ben eventually gives up. He goes for a swim in the lake, hoping that the legendary garfish will kill him. The sound of Mackenzie cooing at him convinces him to follow Tonya’s plan to secure their happiness.

When Tonya returns from New York, Ben is disturbed to find that she plans to live as Elizabeth. The two return to the lakeside cabin to find that Elizabeth has left her room and written mostly incoherent sentences on scrap paper. To Ben’s relief, Tonya suddenly decides that they can keep Elizabeth—whom she now calls Tonya—alive, as long as she continues to write stories for them to publish.

With Dianne’s help, Mackenzie realizes that Tonya replaced her mother at some point after her birth. EJ assures her that since her “mother” (Tonya) is dead, there is no way for her to prove her true identity. Mackenzie realizes that the only way to find out if her biological mother is still alive is to confront her father. EJ warns her not to push him too hard in case he tries to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital.

When Mackenzie returns home, she finds her grandmother Evelyn, her mother’s literary agent, and the mystery man from the funeral arguing with her father. The mystery man warns Ben that he will soon be caught out and leaves. The literary agent quickly follows him after ordering Ben to settle his affairs. When Mackenzie asks her for an explanation, her grandmother dismisses her concerns, raising Mackenzie’s suspicions.

Mackenzie’s grandmother leaves her alone with Ben, who insists that the mystery man is a nobody trying to take advantage of Elizabeth’s death by spreading lies. Mackenzie attempts to point out the photo of him on the wall but finds that it is gone. Her grandmother returns with wine and attempts to get Mackenzie to drink. Mackenzie suspects that her grandmother may have been in control of everything.

Evelyn forces Mackenzie to drink wine, insisting that she needs it to handle this grown-up conversation. She claims that Tonya was Ben’s affair partner who began stalking Elizabeth and acting as her in their college town. She explains that Tonya died in a car crash shortly after the affair ended. Mackenzie knows that this can’t be true, as Dianne identified the woman in the photo as Tonya. Before she can explain, she passes out.