The Irish Goodbye

After Maggie and Isabel leave the Folly, Nora wonders aloud if the family caused the fight between Maggie and Isabel. Alice’s harsh tone sends Nora to the kitchen. Alone with Cait, Alice asks her why Luke needed to be there. Cait stops her and asks if she is pregnant, referring to the pregnancy test that Augustus found. Alice flinches and asks Cait not to tell anyone.

As Cait leaves, Alice compares her current pregnancy to the experience of carrying Finn. Her first pregnancy had felt wanted despite happening right after Topher’s death. On the morning of Topher’s memorial, Alice had gathered her sisters to plan their parents’ care. Nora had grown distant from Robert, blaming him for settling the Larkin lawsuit. Before Alice could announce her pregnancy, Cait revealed that Bram had proposed and that she would move to London in two months.

At the memorial, Father Kelly eulogized Topher, omitting the darker parts of his decline—dropping out, drinking, drifting, and the fact that Topher left no suicide note, only a torn sheet instructing Maggie to get help. Outside the Folly, no one from the grief-stricken family wanted to be the first to scatter Topher’s ashes.