That Night

Frannie offers to turn herself in. She confesses the full truth about Will’s death: After she first hit him with the car, he sat up and yelled at her, threatening to call the police. In a panic, Frannie intentionally struck him a second time, killing him. Cathy is horrified to learn that the act was a deliberate murder, not an accident as she had been led to believe. Cathy, feeling betrayed by Frannie’s earlier lie about the crime, is speechless. Reflecting on her intense loyalty to her siblings and her new relationship with Tom, Cathy resolves not to sacrifice herself any further—despite having been on the verge of taking the blame for Frannie only the day before. Joe stops Frannie from going to the police, arguing that it is too late and that they would all go down for the cover-up crimes already committed. Furious with Frannie for the position she has put them in, Joe storms out of the house.

The narrative shifts to the present day, with Cathy on the witness stand during the first day of her trial. The courtroom is somber, and Frannie is notably absent, a fact that pains Cathy. The barrister questions her about the events following the discovery of Will’s remains. Cathy explains that the police investigation itself was not what destroyed them; rather, it was their own escalating actions, born out of the fear of being discovered, that led to their downfall. She states that, in the end, they unraveled on their own.

Lydia confronts Joe, telling him she feels he prioritizes his family over her. Joe confirms that they are being blackmailed by Evan and intend to pay him off with a stake in the business. Horrified by the escalating criminality, Lydia says she cannot bring a child into the situation and gives Joe an ultimatum: Choose her or his family. Joe becomes angry, kicking a table and startling her. He begins to say she cannot understand family because she does not have one, but Lydia walks away before he finishes the sentence. Hurt and angry, she realizes that she now holds the power to expose their secret.

Distraught after his fight with Lydia, Joe goes to his study and amends the veterinary practice’s partnership deed. He adds Evan Sawyer as a partner, granting him a 20% stake in the business for a nominal fee of £1. He notes that his mother, Maria, must also sign the document, recognizing it as a problem he has yet to solve. He rationalizes his actions as a necessary sacrifice to protect Frannie.

Cathy spends the night and the following morning at Tom’s house. During her stay, he cooks for her and reveals that he is divorced. Cathy feels her connection with him deepening into a serious relationship. As she leaves, they kiss, and he asks to see her again that night. Driving away, Cathy questions what she is doing and wonders if she could ever trust Tom with her secrets.

At the vet practice, Joe calls his mother, Maria, and lies that Evan will be observing partnership meetings because he has been feeling “pushed out.” After hanging up on a suspicious Maria, Joe forges her signature on the partnership deed amendment. He then presents the document to Evan, who gleefully accepts the offer. Annoyed by Evan’s triumphant attitude, Joe makes a veiled threat, warning him not to cross the family. Evan accepts the arrangement but notes that he still awaits the other signatures from Cathy and Frannie.

Before the first partnership meeting including Evan, Cathy discovers that Joe forged their mother’s signature on the deed and is horrified. Joe bullies her into signing it as well. During the meeting, Joe tells Maria that Evan is only there to observe. Evan realizes Maria is being kept in the dark and smirks. He makes a comment about getting “the most out of a situation” (302), which Cathy interprets as a sign that he will eventually blackmail them again.

Back at the trial, Cathy testifies that the siblings’ desperation to fix their initial crime led them down a path of increasingly immoral acts. She remembers a final, sinister meeting in Frannie’s shed just before everything fell apart. When the barrister asks if this escalating desperation is what led to a “second murder,” Cathy quietly confirms that it was.

At the practice, Cathy and her mother, Maria, share a healing moment where Maria finally absolves Cathy of her childhood guilt over Rosie’s death. Later, Evan tells Maria he has become a partner, then quickly retracts the statement in front of Cathy, who realizes he is playing mind games to assert his power. Later, Cathy intuits that Frannie has broken their pact of silence by confiding in her friend, Deb. That evening, Joe grabs Frannie’s phone mid-call, hangs up after hearing Deb reveal she knows about Will, and explodes in a rage, cornering Frannie. He makes a chilling remark that he would have to commit mass murder—specifying two extra people, or five counting family—to silence everyone who now knows their secret.

Furious, Joe returns home, where Lydia confronts him for having paid Evan’s blackmail. Citing his anger and misplaced priorities, she leaves him. Devastated, Joe begins drinking heavily. Cathy comes over to console him, and he admits to feeling consumed by rage and worried about what he might do to the people he cares about most—sidestepping Cathy’s direct question about whether he means Frannie. He reveals his plan: to tell Evan that the partnership agreement is legally worthless until registered and threaten to tear it up if he demands more.

Cathy stays late at the practice, trying to distract herself with work. While using Frannie’s computer to sync their appointment systems, she notices that her sister’s email is still open. On impulse, Cathy navigates to the deleted items folder and is shocked to find a series of emails between Frannie and William McGovern.

Reading the emails, Cathy discovers the full truth: Will was the father of Frannie’s son, Paul, and had been harassing Frannie for custody using increasingly aggressive emails. A document he produced named a Joseph Plant—which Cathy now understands referred to their son, whose full name is Paul Joseph Plant, not Joe. Realizing this creates a direct paper trail between Frannie and her victim, Cathy immediately goes to Frannie’s house to confront her, where she finds Joe also present.

Cornered, Frannie confesses everything to Joe and Cathy. She explains that Will had threatened to use Italian courts to get full custody of Paul. The confrontation at the market—which she previously attributed to his blowing cigarette smoke on Paul—was actually him confronting her with the Italian court document detailing his custody suit. Later that night, he called her, drunk, to say he was coming to the villa. She met him nearby to talk him down, but he threatened to get full custody. Panicked, Frannie killed him. She insists there is no real paper trail, as she deleted the emails from Will’s phone after his death and discovered that his legal documents were faked using an online site, meaning he never had a legitimate claim to Paul. Joe is enraged that Frannie let him and Cathy risk everything without knowing the full truth. He grabs her wrists, accuses her of ruining their family, and storms out.

Later that night, Cathy watches from her window as Joe and Frannie talk quietly over the fence separating their gardens. She feels a deep sense of dread, sensing that despite their apparent reconciliation, the cracks in their family are growing into “chasms.”

In the garden, Joe and Frannie reconcile. She apologizes, and he asks if she would do it again. Frannie immediately says no, because of the pain her crime put her siblings through. Joe tells her that Lydia has left him. He ruffles her hair as he used to do when she was little—as he once did with Rosie—and feels relief that their bond is restored. The mood lightens briefly when Frannie adds that Will “was a twat,” drawing an unexpected laugh from Joe.

Lydia sits in her car across the street from her home, debating whether to go back to Joe. Her decision is made for her when another car unexpectedly arrives late at night. She watches as Joe answers the door and something unfolds that leads her to conclude that she has married someone just like her violent father and that her line has finally been crossed.

A drunk Evan arrives at Joe’s house, demanding more. Joe challenges him by citing his own criminal exposure and noting that the partnership deed is a meaningless piece of paper. In response, Evan begins to call the police, stating that his new demand is 51% of the business. He explains that if the siblings are arrested, their partnership stakes will be voided, and he will inherit everything. Joe snatches the phone and hangs up the call, but Evan’s triumphant expression is the final straw, and Joe leads him into a dark, empty field.