The Wife Upstairs

Sylvia styles Victoria’s hair and puts makeup on her face in an attempt to hide her scar and make her look beautiful for Thanksgiving. Victoria manages to tell her to be careful. When Sylvia looks around the bathroom, she finds a black bag of Victoria’s medications. She finds medicines that are not used to prevent seizures—medications like Valium, antipsychotics, and other substances that would make Victoria groggy. She doesn’t understand why Adam is giving her those medicines. Adam enters after Sylvia puts the medicine back and reminds her to cut Victoria’s nails. Sylvia agrees, but after he leaves, she just puts the nail clippers back in the drawer.

Thanksgiving dinner is almost ready, but when Adam tries to bring Victoria downstairs, she fights him violently. Adam gives up and puts Victoria to bed early, talking to her like a child. Sylvia puts the food out on the table after looking at the dented wall again, wondering about the truth. She’s worried that Adam will become angry when he sees that she put the food out without him, but instead, he’s grateful. As they sit down to eat, Adam says that only one thing would make the meal better, hinting at his continued desire for Sylvia. She rebuffs his advances again, and he takes the rejection well. She wonders if this is who he truly is or if something darker is hiding beneath the surface.

After Adam goes to bed, Sylvia purees some pie and brings it upstairs to Victoria, who is too tired to eat. Though she’s groggy, she asks Sylvia to get Adam’s gun. Sylvia says that she can’t and returns to her own room.

Sylvia reads Victoria’s diary dated December 20, 2017. Victoria struggled to find routine in her life, as Maggie did all the cleaning and Irina did all the gardening and cooking. She sat around watching TV, wishing that she could join a group or take a class, but Adam forbade her, claiming that she would use it as an opportunity to meet men. He returned from work, cruelly judging her for watching TV and wearing sweatpants. He revealed that he had purchased a gun, which frightened Victoria. He reminded her about how isolated the house was and how long it would take the police to come if someone broke in. He pointed the unloaded gun at Victoria while wondering aloud if she’d like a strange man to break in and have sex with her. Victoria begged him not to point the gun at her, and Adam insisted on teaching her to use it. They went outside and shot the gun at a tree, with Adam hitting the tree and Victoria missing by hitting the side of the shed. She still felt uncomfortable about the gun, but she had no say in the matter.

Sylvia is deeply disturbed by Victoria’s experiences with Adam in her diary. She wonders for the first time if Adam pushed Victoria down the stairs. Sylvia goes outside and investigates the tree and the shed, finding bullets exactly where Victoria described them. Sylvia doesn’t want to read more, but she feels obligated.

Sylvia reads Victoria’s diary dated December 28, 2017. Victoria put on a nice outfit for the day of Adam’s new book release and the arrival of Peter with the first copies. Peter got to the house while Adam was still upstairs, so Victoria quickly grabbed a copy to look at it. She was horrified to find that the book was titled The Vixen, with a woman who looked remarkably like her on the cover. It was about a wife who was unfaithful to her husband. Adam came downstairs, excited about the book, but Victoria confronted him about the similarities to her. He called her “crazy” and went to show Irina, which only further upset Victoria, as Irina passionately threw her arms around Adam.

Victoria took the book upstairs and read it, becoming even more upset when she realized that the main character was named Nicki, which rhymes with Adam’s nickname for her (Vicky), and cheated on her husband with a man named Jack, which rhymes with Mack. Nicki was an unfaithful gold digger, so her husband murdered her and got away with it. Victoria realized that the book was a warning from Adam, a reminder to stay in line or else.

The next entry is dated January 9, 2018. When the weather was bad, Adam let Irina stay over. Irina stayed over one night, and Adam never came to bed. Victoria went to look for him and heard Irina whispering and giggling with a man in her room. The only man it could be was Adam, which confirmed her suspicions about his infidelity. Humiliated, she went back to bed. When she woke again, Adam was in bed. He attempted to initiate sex with her, but Victoria confronted him about Irina. He gaslit her, convincing her that what she saw was a dream. Victoria went to the kitchen to make breakfast and found Irina, who told Victoria that she overheard her conversation with Adam. She confirmed Victoria’s memory and told her that she did have sex with Adam while Victoria was sleeping, shaming Victoria for what Irina perceived as Victoria’s laziness in staying around the house, when, in reality, Adam didn’t let Victoria go out and pursue her interests. Victoria fired Irina, but Irina ran screaming to Adam, who told Victoria that she could not fire anyone, again calling her “crazy.” Victoria felt trapped.

Sylvia researches Adam’s third book and finds that Victoria’s observations about The Vixen are accurate, as the protagonist’s wife Nicki’s behavior does bear remarkable resemblance to Adam’s false accusations against Victoria. Sylvia tries to feed Victoria, but she struggles. Sylvia promises Victoria not to use the feeding tube if she eats more, and Victoria tries. Sylvia tries to talk to Victoria about Irina, and Victoria manages to say Irina’s name and Glen Head again. Adam interrupts to give Victoria her medicine. Sylvia chooses not to warn him that she hasn’t cut Victoria’s nails in a week. When Adam tries to put the medication in the feeding tube, Victoria lunges at him.

Victoria scratches Adam viciously, making him bleed and scream before he runs out of the room. Afterward, Victoria is calm. Sylvia goes to check on Adam, who is upset. She lies and claims that she cut Victoria’s nails when Adam asks. She offers to give Victoria her medications, as she predicts that Victoria will fight her less. Adam agrees but tells her to be careful. Sylvia returns to Victoria. Sylvia shows Victoria as she pours the medication out the window. For the first time, Victoria smiles at Sylvia.

Sylvia reads Victoria’s diary, dated January 13, 2018. Mack texted Victoria, telling her that he was coming to Long Island to see some friends and asking if he could stop by and see her. Victoria was thrilled at the idea of seeing Mack again, but she tried to seem nonchalant as she invited Mack to visit on Thursday, when Adam had a meeting in the city. She deleted the texts before Adam could see them. She worried that Adam might find her diary, but she kept it well hidden. She let excitement bubble up for the first time in a while.

An entry dated January 17, 2018, says that Victoria dressed up nicely for Mack, worried that he would judge her for her new appearance. When Mack arrived, he told her that she looked great and hugged her. As Victoria gave him a tour of the house, Mack revealed that he had been accepted into medical school. Victoria was thrilled for him, hugging him again before kissing him. The kiss was passionate, but Mack pulled back. He refused to kiss her because of her marriage. Victoria broke down and told Mack everything about her marriage. He was upset, begging Victoria to leave with him. He also told Victoria that he wasn’t visiting a friend; he came specifically to see her after Carol told him what happened during dinner with her and Jeff. Victoria refused to leave Adam without a plan. Before she and Mack could plan, Adam returned from his meeting.

Seeing Mack, Adam was angry but hid it well. Mack tried to call an Uber, but Adam insisted on driving him to the train station. Victoria was worried about Mack, but she knew that he would be strong enough to fight off Adam if need be. She did worry that Mack would punch Adam and lose his spot in medical school. Mack quietly offered to stay with Victoria, but she knew that wouldn’t work. Before anything else could happen, Mack and Adam left.

The next entry is dated January 18, 2018. After Mack’s visit, Victoria expected a horrible fight with Adam. Instead, when he returned, he made Victoria a candlelit dinner. It made Victoria wonder if she was making a mistake in planning to leave, but she still contacted Mack to plan her departure. However, she could not reach Mack, who hadn’t texted her back in days. Regardless, she texted Mack to rent a car for next Friday. She was going to leave Adam.

Sylvia unpacks her groceries as Maggie warns her that a big snowstorm is going to hit Montauk. Maggie again offers to let Sylvia stay with her, but Sylvia refuses to leave Victoria. She wonders why Victoria never left Adam or if she never got the chance. She watches as the first snowflake falls outside.

By dinner, the snow is falling heavily. Sylvia is making dinner for Victoria when Adam arrives and offers Sylvia extra blankets for when the heat goes out. She promises to give Victoria her medication, even though she hasn’t given her the medicine in over a week. When Sylvia feeds Victoria, Victoria struggles to speak about the snow and then tells Sylvia that she needs to get Adam’s gun. Sylvia tells her again that she can’t and tries to continue feeding her.