Perfect Strangers

Kelly visits Olivia at the psychiatric hospital. Before she leaves, she mocks Hemingway and praises the contemporary romance author Nicholas Sparks.

Dr. Edmond Chevalier, Olivia’s psychiatrist, tells her she had “catatonic psychosis,” so she’s been at the center for three months—the same time frame as her fantasy about Paris and James.

Chris visits Olivia. He doesn’t work for the government, and he’s not attractive. His presence prompts Olivia to remember how Emerson truly died. Olivia’s car was in the repair shop due to an accident, and she had to use Chris’s car to buy groceries. The SUV lacked cameras, sensors, or quick brakes. As Olivia backed down the driveway, she ran over something that she thought was a trash can. Olivia assumed Emerson was inside napping, but she wasn’t. She was dead before the ambulance came, and her eyes were open.

The orderly, Ernest, helps care for Olivia. He and Olivia banter about the center’s bad food and rigid schedule. He puts up a poster of the 20th-century singer and actor Frank Sinatra, whose nickname, Ol’ Blue Eyes, connects to James’s blue eyes. Kelly brings Olivia a poster of Provence’s lavender fields.

Olivia compares the center to the tyrannical psychiatric hospital in Kesey’s novel