All the Dangerous Things

Isabelle tells Waylon that she is sick so she can avoid interacting with him. She locks herself in her room and watches baby monitor footage, looking for instances of her sleepwalking. When Waylon goes to bed, she goes through his briefcase. Isabelle finds an old copy of Mason’s case report, much older than the one she gave him the week prior. She also finds a recording of an interrogation that took place between her and Detective Dozier in the early days of the investigation. She uses Waylon’s laptop and finds a file marked “X” that contains information about her and Ben, including candid shots that she has never seen before. The file also contains articles about Margaret’s death.

In the past, Isabelle sneaks out of her room to eavesdrop on her father’s conversation with the police chief. The chief comforts her father, assuring him that he is not to blame. Isabelle believes Margaret followed her sleepwalking self to the marsh and drowned.

Isabelle comes out of her memories as Roscoe growls, needing to go outside. She takes him to the backyard. She walks to Mason’s window and looks toward Paul Hayes’s house, where she sees the old man in the rocking chair. Isabelle grabs her phone and walks to his house, worried that he is a hallucination.

Isabelle introduces herself, and this time, the old man speaks to her. He claims they have met many times over the last few years, but usually, she would just wave during her nightly walks. He tells her that the last night he saw her, she was with Mason.

Isabelle rushes home, confusing memories of Margaret with memories of Mason. Waylon wakes up as she slams the door. She continues to lie to him about feeling unwell. He pushes Isabelle to trust him; she instead questions him about his interview with Detective Dozier. Waylon promises to tell her about it in the morning and returns to bed. Isabelle goes to her room and resumes watching one of her sleepwalking videos. She sees herself pick up Mason and shuts the laptop, too frightened to continue watching.

Ben once pressured Isabelle to freelance so she could continue writing for The Grit without him being her boss. They were married less than a year after Allison’s death. Although neither of them wanted children, Isabelle changed her mind after spending time alone as a freelancer. She stopped taking her birth control pills but did not tell Ben. She was alone when she discovered her pregnancy, feeling regret before feeling any joy.

Isabelle spends much of her night thinking about picking up Mason while sleepwalking. She goes to the kitchen, where Waylon has made coffee. She questions him about his progress with Detective Dozier, not revealing that she knows he has more information than he has let on. He claims he is going to pick up the recorded interviews from the station later that day. When Isabelle asks to accompany Waylon, he rejects her, citing the “integrity of the podcast” because he does not want to appear to be taking her side (219). Enraged, Isabelle reveals she knows about his lies.

Waylon lists the evidence that supports Mason being taken by someone inside the house. Isabelle banishes him from the house, hurt by his implication that she was involved in Mason’s disappearance.

Isabelle arrives at Ben’s new condo, a house in an affluent part of town. When she arrives, she hears Ben’s new girlfriend in the house. She tries to question Ben about the night of Mason’s disappearance, but he is resistant to the discussion. Isabelle pleads with him to tell the truth, even if he believes it will hurt her. Before Ben can answer, his new girlfriend steps into the doorway. Ben introduces her as Valerie, and Isabelle realizes she is the same woman involved in the church grief counseling group she met the night of Mason’s vigil. Isabelle also realizes that Ben attended the grief counseling group.

Isabelle and Ben go for a walk. Isabelle accuses him of infidelity, but he denies her claim. She finally asks if she did something to Mason, but he refuses to answer and instead returns to his condo.

After meeting with Ben, Isabelle travels to Beaufort to confront her parents about Margaret’s death. As she drives, her memories linger on different moments with Margaret. The house and property are ominous as she walks to the front door and rings the doorbell, preparing to face her parents for the first time since Mason disappeared. Isabelle’s father answers the door, and she invites herself inside.

Six months after Margaret’s death, Isabelle’s father has retired and stays at home with Isabelle and her mother. Isabelle believes her mother is afraid of her. The family goes through the necessary motions to survive but ignores holidays and other events. Isabelle’s mother gives up painting and briefly sees a therapist, who gives her pills. Isabelle begins to experience insomnia and has nightmares of Margaret’s death when she does sleep.

Isabelle and her parents make uncomfortable small talk, uncertain how to interact with each other. Isabelle ruminates on her parents’ changes since Margaret’s death, before her mother asks for the purpose of her visit. She lies and claims she is working on an article. Her parents briefly discuss Mason’s case, and Isabelle remembers their discomfort when they met Mason. Isabelle brings up the idea of visiting Margaret’s grave, using it as a transition to talk about her death. She brings up her memories of the night of Margaret’s death, but her father cuts her off by repeatedly insisting that her death was an accident.

After eating dinner with her parents, Isabelle watches the sunset while sitting on a dock. She heads back to the house, where she plans to stay the night. She pours a glass of wine and retires to the guest room that used to be her childhood bedroom. After listening to the house creak, Isabelle goes up to the third floor. The art studio is now used for storage, but some of her mother’s art supplies remain. Isabelle sits on the floor and sorts through her mother’s old paintings before finding the one she assumed depicted her the day the air conditioning broke (Chapter 18). Now, it features three female figures holding hands and walking into the marsh. Isabelle is startled when her mother enters the studio, crying.

Isabelle struggles to understand her memories as she moves away from her mother, who tries to follow her across the studio. Her mother repeats “I was sick” (247). When her mother references Ellie, Isabelle remembers that her mother experienced a late-term miscarriage and that the baby had been named Eloise. Eloise’s nursery had been off-limits, but Isabelle and Margaret investigated it after her death—this trauma being what caused Isabelle’s sleepwalking and lapses in memory, even as an adult. Margaret’s use of the name for her doll, though accidental, was a constant reminder of the miscarriage. Isabelle remembers her mother’s increasing emotional and physical distance in the weeks between the miscarriage and Margaret’s passing.

Isabelle tries to comfort her mother about her depression, but her mother cites a deeper, more extreme illness. The conversations that young Isabelle overheard (Chapter 15) had not been about sleepwalking; they had been about her mother’s mental health.

Isabelle experiences more flashbacks to the day of Margaret’s death and begs her mother for clarity. She recalls a dream-like memory of her and Margaret being guided by their mother to the marsh and Margaret walking into the water.

Isabelle’s mother admits she previously tried to kill both herself and her daughters by leaving the gas stove on, hoping they would die of inhalation, but instead started a housefire. She defends her husband, claiming the stigma surrounding mental health prevented him from arranging medical help for her. Isabelle lashes out, finally remembering her childhood as performative. She recalls her own intrusive thoughts during Mason’s infancy, comparing her imagined violence to her mother’s actions.