At the farmhouse, Merritt angrily contemplates their financial situation, resenting Lydia for extorting money from Luca. As she prepares cauliflower soup, a dish Luca dislikes, she reflects on how she underestimated Lydia: She, not Merritt or Luca, had the upper hand all along. Merritt regrets not poisoning Lydia on one of their lunch outings; she could have easily spiked Lydia’s drink, driven her to the forest, and slit her throat. She only resisted because it would implicate Luca.

Merritt meticulously shaped Luca into her ideal partner by making him believe she found him desirable. By the day of their wedding in Waikiki, he’d become her “masterpiece.” She picked Luca because he was the opposite of her wealthy, domineering father, and she didn’t want to end up divorced like her mother. Feeling her control return, Merritt resolves to decide his fate.

At the police station, Lydia pleads her case to Detective Nolan Rhinehart, who recalls being a recruit during the original search for her. Privately, Lydia wonders how to describe her situation: She was a missing person, now she’s “unmissing.” She presents the life insurance policies as evidence of Luca’s plan to kill Merritt and the children, but Rhinehart explains he needs probable cause of an imminent crime before he can take action.

He takes a DNA sample from Lydia for identity confirmation, a process that could take weeks, and instructs her to stay away from Luca. Delphine is in the waiting room, and Lydia thinks about her praying to the angels. While leaving her contact information, Lydia re-reads Luca’s last text and realizes the coordinates he sent are a real location, likely a lure.

Later that evening, the Coletto family eats soup in tense silence. Merritt reflects on their shared past and how they used the insurance money from Lydia’s presumed death to build their restaurant empire. Coletto’s by the Sea was originally a rundown boathouse, but they turned it into a chic destination. Merritt followed her father’s advice that it takes money to make money. This worked until she had children and the business slowly crumbled.

Realizing her control over Luca is gone, Merritt solidifies a new plan: After a doctor’s appointment to remove her incision staples on Friday, she will leave him permanently, taking the children with her.

On Wednesday morning, Lydia uses a computer at Luca’s restaurant to look up the coordinates. She recalls the previous night, when she and Delphine went to a pancake house after the police station, and Delphine ranted about police incompetence. Lydia had never seen Delphine so upset. Lydia still wears the protective necklace Delphine gave her, not because she believes in “that stuff,” but because it comforts Delphine.

The coordinates’ lead to a remote farmhouse in Willow Branch, Oregon. When Lydia discovers it’s owned by the Colettos, she knows why Luca didn’t tell anyone where he was going. Recalling Luca’s message about a “fresh start,” Lydia concludes the farmhouse is a trap. Despite the danger, she resolves to go, determined to get evidence and prepared for the confrontation.

During a fierce windstorm that night, Merritt is awake with the baby when she hears the old house creaking. She imagines the former owners, the Jamesons, haunting the house because their children sold it soon after their deaths. Merritt’s children would never do that. She hears footsteps and calls out for Luca, but he doesn’t answer.

She takes a sleeping Everett to check on Elsie, who is asleep upstairs. She thinks about leaving the dilapidated farmhouse and taking the children to Manhattan, where Adair lives. They will stay at her apartment until Merritt can get back on her feet.

Elsie is fine, and Merritt thinks about how children love their mothers unconditionally. Unwilling to be in bed with Luca, Merritt takes Everett back downstairs. Her own childhood was dysfunctional: Her mother sent her away to boarding school, forgot her birthdays, and overconsumed alcohol and sedatives. Nevertheless, Merritt loves and misses her. As she dozes in a recliner, she hears a door shut upstairs, followed by Luca’s voice and the voice of an unknown woman.

Lydia confronts a waking Luca in the primary bedroom, restraining him with zip ties, and threatening him with a knife from Delphine’s kitchen. She used Delphine’s phone to call a ride share, and the back door was only partially locked when she arrived, making it easy to break in. She recalls that Luca had used her blood and hair to fake a crime scene, convincing police that someone had killed and disposed of her. He insists he didn’t want to kill her, only to prompt her to disappear.

Merritt enters, and Lydia shows her the life insurance policies. Feigning shock, Merritt confronts Luca, who retaliates by claiming she orchestrated Lydia’s original abduction. Merritt convincingly denies this, gaining Lydia’s trust. Lydia helps carry the children to the car, and Merritt instructs her on how to start it while she finishes packing. Lydia is surprised by Merritt’s sudden calm, “robotic” tone but assumes it’s a coping mechanism.

As she helps Merritt with the suitcases, Merritt attacks her from behind with a bookend, knocking her down. As Lydia gets up, Merritt admits she planned the abduction and murder. She strikes Lydia again, knocking her unconscious.

Merritt confirms Lydia is unconscious before turning to Luca, who admits he lured Lydia there to kill her. He denies that he planned to kill Merritt and the children for the insurance money, but Merritt realizes he’s lying. He’s no longer in good shape, no longer playing her perfect husband. For nine years, he got sexual satisfaction from raping Lydia while Merritt built him a respectable life. After his second wife and children died in a tragic fire, he’d be seen as the grieving widower, secretly $5 million richer. Merritt underestimated Luca but still blames him for the failed restaurants and for forcing her to become a single mother.

Merritt stabs Luca in the neck with Delphine’s butcher knife, killing him. She cleans up the extra zip ties (Lydia planned on restraining Merritt too) and returns to find Lydia still unconscious. Merritt takes off Lydia’s protective necklace to keep as a souvenir of all her hard work.

She spreads kindling just outside the fireplace and lights a fire, arranging the scene to look like it will destroy all evidence. Merritt leaves with her children and begins to formulate an alibi, framing the “deranged” Lydia for Luca’s murder.

On her way to the police station, she dumps her phone at a gas station to explain why she didn’t call 911. Thirty days after the supposed murder-suicide, Merritt will cash in the life insurance policy that she took out on Luca years ago.

Just before dawn, Lydia regains consciousness in the burning farmhouse. Disoriented and injured, she tries to crawl downstairs. As she is about to collapse from smoke inhalation, Delphine appears in a flowing white dress and drags her to safety. First responders arrive and treat her injuries.

Two weeks later, Lydia is recovering at Delphine’s home when Detective Rhinehart visits. He informs her that a $70,000 reward fund will soon be hers. Delphine explains she found Lydia by tracking the coordinates from a rideshare notification on her phone. Merritt is in custody; her story collapsed when she was arrested wearing Lydia’s protective necklace on her wrist. So far, no one has claimed Luca’s body or paid for Merritt’s bail. Lydia reflects that Luca’s body remains unclaimed. She finds some peace knowing she saved the children from being raised by “sociopaths.”