On Monday, Christos returned to school recovered, but his mother had forbidden him from seeing Mabel. Mabel accepted this as confirmation that good things weren’t for her and resolved to ensure that her father met a similar fate.

Three months later, Tessa confessed to Mr. Loukas’s murder. She had struck him with a fireplace poker and staged a car accident after discovering the flat tire. Despite the confession, Elliott continued spreading rumors that Mabel coerced Tessa or committed the murder herself.

Mabel overheard Cess telling Ness that a neighbor believed Mabel was guilty simply because Elliott said so. Cess expressed understanding for why Mary died by suicide after being married to such a man. When Mabel apologized for causing them distress, Cess and Ness explained that this feeling was a gift that came from loving someone and that its absence was worse. Mabel didn’t understand.

Elsie continues telling her story to Adeem and Libby. After Adeem answers his wife’s call, Libby suggests a tea break. While checking the mail, Elsie finds Persephone sitting in the gutter beside a “Forthcoming Auction” sign that she’s pulled from the lawn. Persephone confronts Elsie about selling the house, asking who will look after her, make her apple pie, and be her “grandma.”

Elsie sits down beside her. As Persephone sobs, Elsie feels a sudden, intense emotional pain and embraces the child, recognizing this as the pain of loving and being loved that Cess once described.

After returning inside, Adeem and Libby prepare to record the crucial part of Elsie’s story. As Elsie prepares to recount the day of the murder, the past feels as though it slips into the room beside her.

On the day of the murder, rain fell relentlessly. Feeling unwell, Mabel skipped the library and headed straight home. She found her father’s car in the driveway and heard him inside shouting at Cess and Ness, calling them “filthy whores,” saying that they were “[e]ngaging in […] unnatural behavior” (305), and claiming Rosehill as his own. While silently climbing the stairs, Mabel noticed his silver-handled umbrella outside Cess’s room.

Through the open door, Mabel saw Cess and Ness together on the bed, their romantic relationship unmistakable. Cess confronted Elliott and listed his cruelties: blaming Mabel for Kitty’s death, ruining her reputation, bullying Mary to suicide, and spreading lies about Mr. Loukas’s murder. When Mabel flinched at Elliott’s shouted claim that Mabel was “mad,” everyone saw her on the landing.

After stammering that she came home early because she felt ill, Mabel fled as Elliott ordered her to pack. She ran through the rain to find Daphne and cried as she tried to explain what she witnessed, finding refuge in Daphne’s comfort.

An hour later, Mabel returned to Rosehill and found her father’s car still in the driveway. Upstairs, she pushed open Cess’s bedroom door to discover Cess sprawled naked on the floor, her head at an impossible angle, clearly dead. Elliott stood over the body, his shirt damp with sweat.

He turned calmly to Mabel and told her that she would be blamed for killing Cess. Mabel gripped the handle of her father’s umbrella, which was still leaning against the wall. As Elliott smiled smugly, she raised the umbrella and drove its steel tip into his upper chest. Before he could recover, she regripped the weapon and struck his skull, splitting skin and bone. She brought it down repeatedly until her limbs trembled and blood covered her.

Mabel knelt and confirmed that he was dead. She reflected that if she was “Mad Mabel,” he was the one who made her that way.

After Elsie finishes her account, Libby summarizes: Elliott killed Cess, Kitty’s death was an accident, and Mary’s death was a suicide. Elsie contradicts her, insisting that her father was indirectly responsible for all their deaths due to his destructive influence.

Libby notes that during the trial, the court found Elsie’s journal remarkably detailed and accurate regarding weather, dates, and specific events. The only element that couldn’t be verified was Daphne.

After confirming her father’s death, Mabel covered Cess’s naked body with her blue silk bathrobe, placed a pillow beneath her head, and smoothed her hair. Though these actions later looked suspicious in court, she never regretted them. She left her father in his blood.

Mabel went to find Daphne to say goodbye. Knowing what would happen to her, she tried to be brave, joking about being “Mad Mabel.” Daphne refused to smile, saying that she hated that name and would always think of her as “Maybelline.” They embraced, and then Mabel left. As she waved to Daphne at the window, she recalled how Daphne first appeared in kindergarten when she desperately needed a friend and appeared again during her hospital stay—seeming to materialize whenever she was most needed.

Adeem asks who Daphne is. Tearfully, Elsie says that Daphne is her friend. Libby reveals that records show that a real Daphne Barton attended kindergarten with Elsie, but they can find no evidence of her returning to Australia after moving to England. Adeem mentions that the court diagnosed Elsie with “multiple personality disorder,” allowing her to serve five years in a psychiatric hospital instead of prison He tells her that he believes she was “perfectly sane” then and remains so now.

Elsie hesitates at calling Daphne merely fictional, explaining that while she can’t see, hear, or touch her, Daphne’s presence was essential to her survival and thus utterly real. She concedes that Daphne could be called an imaginary friend but notes that such distinctions are irrelevant when that friend is the only one a person has. Adeem and Libby correct her, saying that she has real friends now and offering their own friendship, which Elsie accepts.

They discuss Rosehill’s fate—it went to Mary’s second cousin in England, who leased it to the council—before Libby asks about the child Elsie bore while incarcerated.

Peter arrives, upset about the “Forthcoming Auction” sign. Elsie explains that she’s selling because her presence causes problems for neighbors. She’s particularly concerned about this now that Persephone lives on the street. Peter protests that Kenny Lane is her home and reminds her that his mother made him promise to look after her. When Elsie suggests that was before he knew who she was, Peter replies that she would be surprised what he knows. With tears in his eyes, he embraces her and calls her “mum.” Elsie leans into the hug, telling him that he has no choice about her leaving.

Roxanne finds Elsie on her porch and reveals that she encountered Shane the previous night when returning from work. He asked to reconcile, but when she refused, he became enraged and mentioned Persephone for the first time—which Roxanne interprets as a threat to hurt her through their daughter. She also discloses that Shane once threatened her with a gun before she left him. Though she reported this to the police that morning, they only instructed her to call emergency services if he returns. Roxanne warns Elsie to stay vigilant since she sometimes cares for Persephone. Elsie promises to keep Persephone safe but feels powerless to protect Roxanne, who works overnight shifts.

The documentary Magnificent Mabel premieres, with a screening in Adeem’s apartment. Elsie attends with Peter. The documentary reframes Elsie’s story, arguing that she wasn’t “mad” but sad, failed by her father and society. Peter holds Elsie’s hand through her tears.

The documentary goes viral, reaching 7.5 million views within a week. Public support floods in: A hand-painted sign appears at Elsie’s door declaring that there’s nothing “mad” about Mabel, flowers and heartfelt apology notes arrive daily, and an aircraft pulls a banner across the sky with a public plea for forgiveness addressed to her. The police sergeant apologizes for his earlier inaction and provides his private number, though he goes silent when Elsie asks if he would offer Roxanne the same support.

The next morning, Elsie wakes to find Persephone on her bed, having let herself in with Roxanne’s emergency key. Persephone says that she’s now famous at school for living near the “crazy murderer-lady” and requests autographs for her friends (331). She asks why Elsie had an imaginary friend, saying that she would have chosen the name “Daisy” instead of “Daphne.”

Elsie explains that as a child, she had no real friends and a vivid imagination, so she created a friend. When Persephone asks if Elsie still talks to Daphne, she replies that she does sometimes, but less and less lately. Persephone concludes that this is because Elsie now has her as a friend.

At 1:11 am, Elsie wakes to a tinkling sound and looks outside to see Shane on Roxanne’s porch holding a limp Persephone, her shattered bedroom window behind them. Elsie runs outside in her nightgown with Nugget following. Shane, drunk and holding a gun, tells her to leave them alone. When Persephone stirs, Elsie orders Roxanne to call the police. Lights come on in neighboring houses as Joan and Peter emerge.

Elsie tells Shane that Persephone is a human being, not a tool for revenge. Shane drops Persephone, who scrambles away after biting his arm. Enraged, he points the gun at Persephone’s head. As Roxanne screams, Elsie lunges in front of the child. The gun fires. As everything goes black, Elsie feels fortunate to hear the voices of Joan, Roxanne, Peter, and Persephone calling her name.

In a documentary transcript, Elsie reveals that three months after entering the psychiatric hospital, she gave birth to a son. She labored while attended by a kind nurse named Maureen, while Ness waited downstairs. Though she could have held her baby, she chose not to, knowing that he would be taken away. Still, she felt an intense pang of love the moment she heard him cry.

After her release five years later, Elsie became a librarian and worked at Ness’s home for war widows and unwed mothers. Though not naturally maternal, she found herself drawn to one particular baby boy whom Ness had adopted and continued visiting him even after moving to Kenny Lane. His adoption file indicated that his birth mother was a teenager who delivered in a psychiatric hospital. The boy’s name was Peter.

A newspaper article announces that Rosehill has a new owner: Mabel Waller’s biological son, whom she bore while incarcerated and later put up for adoption. Through a loophole in the Forfeiture Rule, which prevented Mabel from inheriting the property herself, she retained the ability to pass it to her children. The estate is valued at over 20 million Australian dollars. A second series of Magnificent Mabel is in production, and Mabel has been officially exonerated of involvement in Ishaan’s death since it was found to be caused by a vitamin overdose.

Three months after Elsie’s death, Persephone talks with her friend Daisy in her new bedroom. Peter shared money from Elsie’s inheritance with Roxanne, allowing them to move into a new rental. Though Persephone is still grieving and misses Elsie deeply, Daisy notes that this is the first time she has mentioned Elsie without crying. Nugget remains constantly in Persephone’s lap.

When Persephone worries that feeling better means she no longer loves Elsie, Daisy reassures her, reminding Persephone that she wasn’t the only one who knew her. Persephone realizes that she had forgotten that Daisy also knew Elsie. Daisy smiles and reveals that when she knew her, Elsie used to call her Daphne.