Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Part 4 opens with a police report on an incident at the Westin hotel where the Griffins are staying. The report details how Audrey called the police complaining about a noisy party in an adjacent room, then assaulted the responding officer when he traced the noise and the smell of pot to Kyle’s room instead. The report is followed by a breezy and upbeat email from Audrey to Soo-Lin announcing she will be taking up the latter’s offer to be her houseguests. Soo-Lin, absorbed by Elgin’s personal crisis, tries in vain to put Audrey off. Elgin thanks Soo-Lin for her support during his meeting with Agent Strang and includes her in his plans for an intervention with Bernadette, which Dr. Kurtz of Madrona Hill will stage.

Meanwhile, Elgin writes to administrators at Choate, asking that Bee begin classes midyear, rather than completing the year at Galer Street. Elgin also arranges for his brother, Van, to fly in from Hawaii to be with Bee while Elgin attempts to have Bernadette admitted to Madrona Hill. Dr. Kurtz requests authorization from her employers to meet with Elgin in Seattle to discuss a possible intervention. Dr. Kurtz question’s Elgin’s “motives and credibility” (198) but notes that evidence of Bernadette hoarding pills with a possible intention of suicide overrides those concerns. 

Bee describes her father returning home unexpectedly to announce Van’s impending arrival, supposedly to dog-sit for Ice Cream, which comes as a surprise to Bee and to Bernadette. Elgin leaves just as abruptly after discovering that Bernadette’s suitcase for the Antarctic trip is still empty, though she has packed for her husband and daughter. 

Dr. Kurtz describes her meeting at Microsoft with Elgin in her notes. Elgin shares the FBI file on Bernadette, which now includes notes on the events surrounding the Prospective Parent Brunch and the mudslide, as well as Bernadette’s confrontations with Audrey Griffin and the erection of the billboard. Dr. Kurtz agrees that Bernadette is suffering from mental problems but feels that outpatient therapy would better address them. When Elgin presses her, she suggests letting a specialist in drug addiction stage the intervention, based on Bernadette’s apparent dependence on pills. Elgin tells Dr. Kurtz that no one else can be privy to the information in the FBI file. Dr. Kurtz, who is impressed by the atmosphere of the Microsoft campus and has recognized Elgin as “the man in the TEDTalk!” (205), finally agrees to conduct the intervention herself. She notes that Soo-Lin has arranged for Elgin to sleep in a hotel and will drive him there herself.

Bee’s narrative describes her drive with her father to the airport the next day to pick up Uncle Van. Elgin tells Bee about his plan for her start at Choate after the holidays, which Bee refuses to consider. He alludes vaguely to a future in which he’ll be “around more” (207), starting with the trip to Antarctica. He talks about the good time the two of them will have on the trip, prompting Bee to say he means the three of them and ends the conversation. 

Dr. Kurtz submits a report to her employers explaining that she will employ “the Johnson Model of ‘ambush-style’ intervention,” as opposed to the more current “motivational” (205) intervention model, due to the level of secrecy dictated by the involvement of the FBI. 

That evening, Bee goes with Kennedy and her youth group to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes. Bee finds the Rockettes corny and uninvolving but finds herself unexpectedly caught up in the moment when a live Nativity scene takes the stage, accompanied by a choir singing “O, Holy Night.” The audience responds rapturously, and Bee is swept along in the wave of emotion. Bee identifies with the baby in the manger, thinking of her infant self: “[I was] surrounded by the surgeons and residents and nurses who helped me stay alive when I was born blue […] it was because of them that I was in this magnificent wave of people and music” (213). She feels a wave of love for her family and for everyone else in her life, and she regrets having been short with her father in the car. The next morning, Bee plays her flute for the kindergarteners as they sing their Japanese nursery song in the World Celebration Day concert and perform the choreography Bee has created for them. Bee looks up and sees Bernadette watching her from a doorway. When she looks up again, Bernadette is gone. 

Bee’s description of these events is followed by a brief letter from Dr. Kurtz to her employers at Madrona Hill, in which she submits her resignation “in light of the tragic and mysterious events” (216) surrounding Bernadette’s intervention. The letter is followed by a report on the intervention and a transcript of the audio tape Dr. Kurtz made as events unfolded. 

The plan is to conduct the intervention at the office of the dentist scheduled to remove Bernadette’s wisdom teeth while Van takes Bee to the zoo. However, when Dr. Kurtz arrives at the Branches’ house, she finds Agent Strang already there, accompanied by the police. Agent Strang explains that the Branches’ stolen airlines miles have been used to purchase a one-way ticket from Moscow to Seattle. 

As they are leaving for the dentist’s office, Bernadette appears, announcing that she’s cancelled the appointment and will be going with her family to Antarctica and asking why the police are there. Elgin accuses Bernadette of lying about going to Antarctica. When Bernadette mentions Manjula, Elgin asks Agent Strang to explain to Bernadette that Manjula never existed, though Agent Strang complains that conducting an intervention is outside his pay grade.

Dr. Kurtz continues to “present reality” to Bernadette. Bernadette is devastated to realize the danger she has exposed the family to through her involvement with Manjula, but she vehemently denies ever considering suicide or self-harm. She reacts angrily to the presence of Soo-Lin, whom she refers to as “the gnat” and “the admin.” After spotting a pair of panties sticking out of the leg of Soo-Lin’s jeans, Bernadette demands that she leave the house, referring to her contemptuously as a “Seattle-born secretary” (222).

Elgin angrily confronts Bernadette with his own feelings of betrayal, saying she has shut him out and developed contempt for him while still secretly mourning the loss of the Twenty Mile House. Bernadette says she will attempt to make it up, beginning with the family trip to Antarctica. Elgin and Dr. Kurtz reveal that they want Bernadette to go to Madrona Hill instead. The realization that Elgin intends to put her away in a “loony bin” infuriates Bernadette. She also recognizes a detective with Agent Strang as a man she thought was following her, offering this as proof that she is not crazy. She storms out and shuts herself in the bathroom.

Elgin, suddenly contrite, finds that Bernadette’s suitcase for the Antarctic trip is packed. He asks Bernadette to come out of the bathroom, but she doesn’t respond. After several minutes, the group breaks down the door, only to find the bathroom empty, the water in the sink still running. As the bathroom is set high above a steep slope, Bernadette could not have jumped without injury. Elgin attempts to search the basement but injures himself on the blackberry brambles that have taken it over. Dr. Kurtz ends her report by describing how Elgin was rushed to the eye clinic at a nearby hospital, and that even a later search by a K9 team failed to reveal any trace of Bernadette.