The Family Game

Eleanor gives Harriet a tour of the house. She tells her about the new wing, which was reconstructed after a fire. They overhear Robert angry on a business call. Eleanor tries to excuse the Holbeck temper, which is curious to Harriet, who doesn’t find Edward temperamental at all.

Harriet locks herself in her room for the privacy to listen to the remainder of Robert’s cassette tape.

On the tape, Robert instructs Harriet to accept the Christmas invitation to The Hydes, where he will reveal to her what favor he wants her to do for him. He also tells her that on Christmas Eve, the Holbecks play another game, a treasure hunt. Robert notes that Edward will try to get Harriet to play with him, but Robert insists that she play alone. Robert says that at the end of the treasure hunt, if Harriet follows all of the clues, then she will figure everything out. He asks her to wear a flower from the vase in her room at The Hydes to signal to Robert that she’s listened to the tape. He also tells her that the childhood bedrooms of Edward and his siblings have never been changed and he encourages Harriet to look around those rooms to learn more about the Holbeck family.

Though Harriet has accidentally deleted much of the tape, Robert’s confession to killing five women is still on the tape, so she records it onto her phone.

Edward tells Harriet that on Christmas Eve, the family plays a game but says that no one expects Harriet to play because she’s pregnant. Harriet insists that she wants to play. She knows that she must play the game to figure out what’s going on with Robert. Harriet asks Edward why he never told her the truth about Bobby’s death. He explains that he’s ashamed of Bobby’s death and has a difficult time expressing his emotions.

Edward takes Harriet on a tour of the snowy grounds. He takes her to the elaborate maze on the grounds and teaches her how to win simple mazes by keeping her right hand on the wall and following that wall until she reaches the end of the maze. He explains that complex mazes, with bridges and unconnected walls, can be solved using the Trémaux’s algorithm. They run into Lila, who is flustered because Milo doesn’t want to stay at his father’s house. She’ll have to go pick him up and bring him back to The Hydes, so she won’t return until Christmas morning.

Harriet realizes that the nearest town is too far away for her to run to. She asks Edward to show her the hunting hiding places.

At cocktail hour, Robert takes Harriet aside. He reminds her that it is imperative that she play the Christmas Eve game alone.

At the Christmas Eve dinner, Harriet wonders if any of the other Holbecks know about her past through investigations. After dinner, they begin the game. Robert reminds them of the rules. If the player finds their present, they get to keep it. The first clues are on cards marked with each player’s name. There are three clue cards in total, each containing a riddle. The first person to find their present wins the whole game; they keep their present, but no one else keeps theirs. However, all the losers of the game are told what their present would have been. These presents are usually personal and much needed, such as gambling debts paid off. Harriet is worried that her secret will be revealed if she doesn’t win the game. Robert explains that the point of the game is to test the family by seeing whether or not they would help each other if they win, thus rectifying power imbalances within the dynamics of the family.

Harriet opens her first clue, which reads: “Up the wooden hill to Bed-ford-shire, Heading for the land of dreams. When I look back to those happy childhood days, Nothing is quite what it seems” (272). Harriet figures that her riddle is pointing her toward one of the childhood bedrooms in The Hydes. Harriet finds a bedroom she at first believes to be Edward’s but then finds is Bobby’s. She notices photographs of Bobby and Edward as children, noting the physical similarity between them. Harriet wonders if Edward and Bobby were always similar, or if Edward became more like Bobby after Bobby’s death. She finds Edward’s bedroom, which is decorated in ways she never expected of Edward. In Edward’s bedroom, she finds her next clue, which reads: “You know me well, but not well enough. Come look harder, though you scramble and scuff. Peer into my darkness, it’s cold and deep, But to win you must find the secrets I keep” (276). Harriet quickly realizes that her next clue is at or in the water well on the estate.

Before going outside in the dark and cold, Harriet gets a flashlight and her paperweight. Outside, she runs into Fiona. Fiona can tell that Harriet is desperate to win, which means that Harriet has a secret she doesn’t want the others knowing about. Fiona tries to make a deal with Harriet, promising that Fiona and Oliver will protect Harriet if they win under the condition that Harriet aborts her baby and has no children with Edward. Fiona doesn’t want Harriet and Edward’s child taking away from Fiona’s children’s inheritance.

Harriet makes it to the well. She reaches inside and feels what she believes is human hair, but is actually hemp rope with a double-claw hook. Harriet figures out that she has to climb down the well for her next clue.

Harriet lowers herself down to the bottom of the well and wades in the freezing-cold water to reach her third clue. The third clue reads: “You’ve come so far, you’re almost there. The next clue is something she would wear. You can sense her, she’s right here, Reach out and check, Your present is under what’s around her neck” (287). Harriet realizes that the dead body of one of the murdered women is in the well with her. Harriet fights through her disgust to pull out a dead body, which she recognizes as Melissa. From around Melissa’s corpse’s neck, Harriet pulls off a diamond star necklace.

Harriet runs back toward the house but finds Fiona’s discarded boot and scarf stuck on the entrance of the maze. Worried for Fiona, Harriet enters the maze. Harriet finds spatters of blood. Harriet discovers Fiona in the maze, in a shallow grave, bloodied and dead. Harriet calls Edward, who says that something bad is happening inside of the house too. They agree to meet in their room, and Edward warns Harriet to make sure that no one sees her in the house. Harriet has a sudden suspicion about Edward. She asks Edward where he was the day Bobby died, and Edward informs her that he was on the top floor of the building from which Bobby jumped. Edward says that he knows what Harriet did, but he still loves her. Harriet realizes that Edward has known or even committed all of Robert’s murders. Harriet realizes that Robert wants Harriet to stop Edward; she’s suspected the wrong Holbeck the entire time. Harriet realizes that she never knew the real Edward, and Edward must have thought that he and Harriet were kindred spirits because she has killed, just like him.

Harriet sneaks into the house. She finds the maids, passed out but still alive. She finds Eleanor and Matilda in the kitchen, passed out from drugs and the gas stove, but still alive. Harriet revives Matilda and instructs her to go to one of the hunting hides with Eleanor. Harriet gives Matilda her iPhone so that, if Harriet can’t fix what’s going on by morning, Matilda can call the police. Harriet finds Stuart locked behind the security door of the entrance to another wing. He’s bleeding and slumped over. Stuart has also been drugged but is awake enough to point after Edward. Something or someone hits Harriet over the head, and she blacks out.

Harriet awakens in a hallway. She smells gasoline all around her and sees that the fire in the fireplace is blazing. She’s bleeding from her head. She wants to call the police but realizes that she’s been set up to look like the murderer. She sees Oliver lying dead nearby. Oliver has a fire poker in his hands, so Harriet figures it’s Oliver who hit her over the head.

Harriet makes her way to the sitting room. Robert is unconscious in his armchair, and Edward is standing by with a gun pointed to Robert’s head. Edward tells Harriet that he knew about the murder she committed after vetting her early on in their relationship, but that really, he had sensed her strength all along. Edward claims that he didn’t kill Bobby, but that he gave Bobby drugs without Bobby realizing it because Bobby was going to ruin the family’s company with his new, progressive ideas. Edward passed responsibility of the company onto Oliver so that no one would suspect him of being involved in getting rid of the first heir, Bobby. He killed Lucy because she had been present for Bobby’s death and knew too much. He killed his college girlfriend Alison because he told her about Bobby and Lucy, and she tried to run from him. He killed Gianna because he couldn’t be sure that Alison hadn’t told her everything.

Harriet asks Edward if he’s going to kill her. He reveals that he knows about Robert reaching out to Harriet through the tape-recording. Robert comes to and asks Harriet if she’s found her final clue. Edward asks Harriet if she still wants to be in a relationship with him. Harriet realizes that her gift, which is under a star, as symbolized by the diamond star necklace, is the star on top of the Christmas tree. Harriet asks Edward what happens if she says she still wants a relationship with him. He explains that they will claim to be the survivors of a tragic accident at The Hydes and inherit everything. Edward notices Harriet’s hesitation. He instructs her to sit in the armchair opposite from Robert, but Harriet knows that she urgently needs to get her gift under the start of the Christmas tree, which is right behind her.

Harriet sees that her present is a mini canister of Ronsonol, a lighting fluid. Robert silently lifts his fingers for a countdown. When he reaches three fingers down, he attacks Edward while Harriet grabs the lighting fluid. In their struggle over the gun, Edward shoots Robert in the thigh and hits him in the face with the butt of the gun. Edward needs to reload the gun to shoot Harriet, but she gets to him first. She pushes him toward the fire in the hearth, pours the lighting fluid on his body, and sets him on fire. The fire spreads, and Harriet shoots Edward to death to spare him the pain of burning alive. Harriet pulls Robert away from the spreading fire. Harriet makes it outside with Robert and instructs him to get to the hunting hide where Matilda and Eleanor are hiding while she goes back into the burning house for Stuart. Robert encourages her not to go in, to think of her baby, but Harriet needs to prove to herself that she’s a better person than she once was.

Harriet runs in the house but can’t find Stuart. She remembers the maids, Sylvia and Anya, and helps them get out of the burning house.

Harriet gives birth to Iris. Harriet recalls the night of Christmas Eve.

Because Harriet won the Christmas Eve game, Robert has guaranteed financial support for her and Iris for the rest of their lives. Harriet insisted that everyone else get their gift too. Fiona got a trust for her sons, Oliver got a company stake for his sons, and Stuart took over Oliver’s position in the company. The fire at The Hydes that killed three people was blamed on a gas leak, a staged excuse through Robert’s power and influence.

Harriet promises Iris that even though she will never know her father, the Holbeck family will be a loving and doting presence. Unlike Harriet, Iris will grow up with a family no matter what. Iris will inherit the Holbeck family legacy because she is the first-born child of their eldest child. Harriet vows to protect Iris along the way and ensure that she does not feel the pressure of the Holbeck legacy.