Bret makes an appointment to speak to Dr. Croft about Robert. He assures Dr. Croft that he’s not on drugs. Bret tells Dr. Croft why he believes Robert is the Trawler, but Dr. Croft is skeptical. Liz called him and said Bret and Terry were in a relationship. Bret calls Liz a “sick drunk” and denies it. Robert has talked to Dr. Croft, and Robert claimed Matt and Bret had a relationship. Dr. Croft brings up an early draft of Less Than Zero that Bret shared with his English teacher. He thinks Bret is lonely and has a personal grudge against Robert.

Angry with Dr. Croft, Bret drives to the house in Benedict Canyon. It’s unlocked; the first floor is empty, and on the second floor he finds a room full of Robert’s belongings, like books from school and pornographic magazines. A desk has countless articles about Katherine.

In the basement, Bret finds food for dogs, cats, and birds. There are cages to move animals, empty fishbowls, and an iguana in a glass cage. Outside, Bret spots the beige van. When he tries to confronts the driver, the van drives away. At home, Bret sleeps through six phone calls that result in silent messages

Before school, Bret takes a Quaalude. During school, he speaks to Thom about New York and about what happened to Terry. Debbie claims Terry was too “blitzed” to remember what occurred. Bret wonders if he was pushed.

On the bleachers, Bret says Robert was in Palm Springs at the same time as Susan, but Bret claims not to know if they were together. Nevertheless, Bret doesn’t think Robert is gay. At lunch, Thom questions Robert about Palm Springs. He claims Robert sounds “weird,” and Susan says Thom sounds “weird.”

After school, Bret buys drugs from Jeff in Jeff’s car. Jeff won’t attend Robert’s birthday dinner due to the “weird vibes.” At home, Terry calls Bret and sends him to Malibu to check on Spirit and be his witness. At the Windover Stables in Malibu, there’s a station wagon, police officers, and the owner. Bret sees Spirit dead—someone cut off his ears, pulled out his tongue, and cut open his stomach.

Terry tells Debbie that Spirit had a “heart abnormality,” which prompted a deadly seizure. Unconvinced, Debbie drives to Malibu and confronts the owner, who also lies about Spirit’s death. Debbie wants to see Spirit’s body, but it’s already gone.

Robert cancels his birthday dinner, but he wants to “clear the air.” Thom says Susan wants to go on a “break.” Thom suspects there’s someone else, and Bret says the someone is Robert. Bret confronts Robert for implying to Dr. Croft that he was involved in Matt’s death. Susan tries to calm Bret, but Bret mentions the tape and calls Robert a “sick creep.” Thom accuses Robert of having sex with Susan. She breaks up with Thom, while Bret imagines kissing Thom and staying faithful to him.

At Bret’s home, the lights are on, Shingy is missing, and on Bret’s bed someone has laid Matt’s underwear and the cassette tape. In Debbie’s home, her dog, Billie, is missing, and she keeps receiving silent phone calls. Though the pool lights are out, she goes swimming in her pool until someone tries to drown her. There’s blood in the grass, and Debbie contacts authorities, but they’re detached.

Debbie plans to stay at Susan’s house. Before she leaves, she sees a manila envelope with her name on it—the handwriting is Liz’s. The envelopes contain explicit photos of Terry and Bret at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Debbie calls Bret and excoriates him before collapsing on the floor. In the morning, Debbie and her BMW are gone.

Bret takes a Quaalude and realizes he has no control over his situation. Steven and Susan call and tell Bret about Debbie’s disappearance. Neither knows about the photos of Bret and Terry. At school, Thom isn’t there, and Liz interrogates select Buckley students in Dr. Croft’s office via his speaker phone. The answers suggest Debbie is a “slut” who has become involved with the “wrong people.” Bret feels like the “pantomime” is almost over.

Terry blames himself for the pictures before Liz gets on the phone and calls Bret “sick” and orders him to stay away. Robert suddenly arrives in Bret’s gym. Bret threatens to call the police. He believes Robert has a link to the Trawler and kidnapped Debbie. Robert tells Bret to “get a grip.” In Bret’s room, Robert and Bret kiss and touch before Bret realizes Robert isn’t truly aroused. Robert calls Bret an anti-gay slur, and Bret cries.

Through police reports and witness accounts, Bret describes what happens to Susan on November 7, 1981. She feels safe in her mansion until she notices that the backyard lights have been turned on, and the sliding glass door leading from the backyard to the dining room opens and shuts. She calls Thom and tells him there’s someone in her house. Thom tells her to call Robert.

A person in a black ski mask assaults her and cuts off her right breast. Thom arrives and fights with the intruder, who stabs Thom. Susan bites the intruder’s forearm until she tastes blood and the intruder vanishes. Robert appears and drives them to the hospital. As Bret prepares to move to a motel, Susan’s father calls Bret and tells him what happened. A blood-covered Robert spoke to police before returning to his condo.

Bret enters Robert’s building without questions from the doorperson. Using a key he found in the Benedict Canyon house, he opens Robert’s condo and breaks the doorknob so Robert can’t get out. Robert leaves the shower and sees Bret, who has a butcher knife. Bret demands to know where Debbie is, while Robert claims Bret is one of the “freaks” who follows him. Robert has a butcher knife too, and he and Bret fight.

Unable to leave through the front door, Robert goes on the balcony and screams for help. Bret and Robert fight on the balcony until Robert falls down onto the balcony that juts out below. Bret jumps onto the balcony and demands to know where Debbie is. Robert slashes Bret’s chest, and Bret slashes Robert’s arm. Losing his knife, Bret grabs Robert’s throat. Robert breaks away and tries to jump to the balcony below, but he misses the jump, hits the garage roof, and dies.

Bret cries for help. A glass door opens, and although Bret can’t see who he’s talking to, he says Robert died by suicide; Robert killed the four girls, attacked his friends, and tried to kill him, but Bret loved him.

Bret tells police that Robert called him after taking Susan and Thom to the hospital. He was upset and wanted to see Bret. He claims Robert took apart the doorknob and tried to trap him. Bret emphasizes Robert’s past and the “timeline.” Only a few people question Bret’s story.

Bret leaves the hospital Sunday afternoon. He inspects his bruises in his bathroom. Thom’s leg is damaged, and Susan needs reconstructive surgery. On the local news, Bret watches footage of police searching the house on Benedict Canyon and finding Audrey’s extremely mutilated body.

Debbie comes back on November 9. She was with a musician, Shore Lanes, who plays guitar in a local band. She did drugs and hung out with other teens, including Riders of the Afterlife members. On TV, she saw pictures of Thom, Susan, and Bret, which prompted her to return. Bret’s parents come back, and Bret gives his mom an emotional hug.

Bret visits Susan in Susan’s home. There’s a manila envelope with photos of Robert and Susan, and Susan asks Bret if he took them, but he denies it. She knows Bret loved both Thom and her. She hopes they didn’t hurt him. She wanted to marry Bret when she first saw him in seventh grade. She admires Bret for playing his role “so well,” but she wants to know what truly occurred. She notices a bite mark on Bret’s forearm, throws up, and turns away. Bret asks Susan if his secret is safe with her. As Susan finishes her senior year at a different school, he never sees her again until 40 years later, outside the Palihouse Hotel.

At school, Bret gains heroic status: He supposedly defeated a serial killer. The Trawler abducts and kills his fifth and final victim, Leslie Slavin, and Abigail releases the obsessive letters that Robert received. Due to Abigail and Leslie, people realize Robert wasn’t the Trawler but one of his victims. Bret becomes a “pariah” and gets envelopes of photos with his name misspelled. There are pictures of him and Robert, him leaving Matt’s pool house, his aunt’s empty house in Palm Springs, Matt in Crystal Cove, a mutilated Shingy, and the beige van.

Bret attends Bennington—a Northeast liberal arts college—and becomes a famous novelist. On a book tour, he reunites with Thom, who says Susan noticed the bite mark. Susan said Bret was the Trawler, but Thom thought Susan was “crazy” due to painkillers. Thom notes that authorities never concretely identified the Trawler. Bret and Thom never see each other again.

Reflecting on his work, Bret realizes the story is really about Matt’s haunting personality, his own intricate desire for Susan, and his love for Thom. Bret notes that Ryan lives with his partner in San Francisco. Recently, he saw a beige van in a 7-11 parking lot. While writing the book, Bret drank more and listened to ‘80s music on YouTube. Bret admits that the dream isn’t exactly as he made it out to be.