The Summer Guests

The Martini Club goes to see Jo at the police station. They tell her that they have discovered that the Conovers, the Greenes, Arthur Fox, and Vivian Stillwater all worked for a secret CIA program called MKUltra, in which the US government tested various brainwashing techniques, using drugs like LSD on its own citizens. The group moved to Maiden Pond around 1967 and tested drugs on Purity locals, including Sam Tarkin. It was one of those drugs that caused his psychotic episode in 1972. After the massacre, Dr. Greene and the Conovers arranged the settlement so that the Tarkins would not go public with what they knew. The event caused Vivian Stillwater to have a change of heart about her role in the program, and she tried to leave. To prevent her from blowing the whistle on MKUltra, she was dosed with a drug that caused her fatal accident.

Maggie speculates that the body in the pond is another victim of a coverup of the program. Initial lab results confirm that the skeleton’s dental filling dates to 1962, which would align with the timeframe. They think that Elizabeth Conover may have tried to kill Zoe when she discovered the skeleton.