Our Country Friends

Senderovsky is in the Actor’s bungalow and struggles to follow his complaints about the script lacking subtext. While he zones out of the conversation surrounded by the memorabilia in the St. Petersburg bungalow, he thinks back to his early days as an immigrant student. The Actor wants the show to be a drama even though Senderovsky’s novel and the network’s vision for it are comedic. Senderovsky, realizing that the Actor is lovestruck by Dee, wonders if her help on the script will assuage him. When they reach an impasse in the discussion, Senderovsky tells the Actor that he can leave if he wants, knowing that he will choose to stay for Dee. The Actor tells him to think about which bungalow he placed him in and think about how his emotions have impacted the project.

Nat brings Karen to the groundhog hole and they find a box in the dirt. After some deliberation, Nat tells Karen that she saw her father hide it. Karen brings Nat back to her bungalow and opens the box, realizing that its contents are Vinod’s supposedly lost novel. She remembers long ago helping a teary-eyed Vinod get over the heartbreak of Senderovsky’s rejection. She swears Nat to secrecy and then teaches the BTS-obsessed child some Korean phrases at Nat’s request. While Karen teaches Nat the little Korean she knows from her parents, she feels their legacy wash out of the phrases. The yelling and negative associations she has with them evaporate as she teaches them to Nat in a new context. Their lesson is interrupted by a scream, and Karen goes to the window to investigate. She tells Nat to stay away from the window and begins recording the scene on her phone.

Masha is meeting virtually with a patient who believes conspiracy theories about Jewish billionaire George Soros, and she thinks about Nat’s development. Then she hears screaming outside. She pauses her session and runs outside to find the Actor, completely naked, shampoo stuck in his hair. After other guests’ lengthy showers, the water runs dry and cuts out in his bungalow bathroom. He screams that the shampoo is in his eyes and stinging badly. Masha takes his hand and leads him inside to the downstairs bathroom, where she keeps extra pails of water in case of such a catastrophe. She begins pouring the water over him and washing the shampoo out of his hair. He knows that she is attracted to him and feels a sense of entitlement for her fueled by his feud with Senderovsky. He tells her not just to wash his hair but all of him, guiding her hands to his chest. As she moves to his crotch, he briefly worries that he could be ‘canceled’ for this behavior but decides he does not care. He says Dee’s name, causing Masha to flinch. He tells Masha not to stop, and she decides to continue. After he finishes, she returns to her patients, feeling as though she is wanted for the first time in a while.

Senderovsky returns home after a trip to the store, content with his rebuke of the Actor and his suggestions. He runs into the Actor who is on his way out of the house, back to his bungalow, in just a towel. He tells Senderovsky about his shower and demands he fix the plumbing. Inside his bungalow, the Actor wonders if he did anything wrong and knows that exclaiming Dee’s name was too much. Vinod comes to visit him, looking for an edition of Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov he knows is in the bungalow. The Actor likes the man’s kindness but feels an intense loneliness after he leaves, not understanding his place among all the guests.

Vinod takes the book to a meadow to read and considers his love for Karen and the relevance of Chekhov’s work to the lives of the guests. He sees clear connections between their presences at the House on the Hill and the ways in which Chekhov’s characters go through their lives, facing the drama that each day brings. He wonders what is happening to him during this strange time and alternates between believing he is in a drug-fueled dream while intubated or living in a simulation. He thinks to himself that, if he is in a simulation, he hopes whoever is controlling him will give him a merciful end. After his plea, he settles into reading Chekhov, just as Karen begins his own novel in her bungalow, both under a sky that shows signs of an approaching storm.

Ed is cooking dinner with help from Vinod and Senderovsky, who ran many errands to procure the means for such a meal. Senderovsky, trying to assuage everyone’s worries by hiding a cough brought on by severe acid reflux, is secretly coughing up blood. The dinner is a hit, although tensions rise as some now know new secrets about their fellow guests. After making a comment about being buried with an olive oil drizzle and salt sprinkle from her father, Nat begins talking about death after the conversation turns to climate change. Ed calls her a part of Generation “L,” as in last generation, causing Nat to discuss even darker topics. She sings the English lyrics for ‘Alouette,’ a song about the grim preparations of a lark for cooking. Karen steps in and brings Nat inside to get ready for bed, showing a willingness and aptitude for mothering her, much to Masha’s displeasure. Masha grows even more upset after both Dee and the Actor make comments about how different Nat is from other children her age.

The dinner continues and the Actor succeeds in making everyone uncomfortable. He asks about Masha’s education; she went to a prestigious university while Senderovsky and his friends went to city colleges. He even shares his belief that married people should have affairs, all the while slowly moving his leg closer to Masha’s under the table. He asks Vinod if he has ever loved, and Vinod replies that his one true love in life is Karen, but that their relationship is so strong as friends that he is satisfied with this unrequited love. Senderovsky cannot stop coughing, making his guests anxious, and Ed invites Dee and the rest of the guests to his bungalow to watch a Japanese reality show. Dee agrees to come, making Ed feel victorious over the Actor, who declines the invitation, although he is disappointed when Karen and Vinod agree to join as well.

In Ed’s bungalow, Karen shows the group the video she took of the Actor naked in the yard with Masha leading him into the house. Karen and Dee joke about it and speculate about what happened inside. Dee is clearly attracted to the Actor, making Ed jealous, and Vinod wonders if they should tell Senderovsky about the encounter. They decide not to and settle into watching the show. As they watch, Karen thinks of tucking Nat into bed and wants to take her away and be like her big sister.

Outside, the storm descends on the House on the Hill, and the Actor stews in jealousy over Ed and Dee. He takes his tablet and runs to the house; he connects to the Wi-Fi and checks Dee’s social media accounts, where he sees that she posted their Tröö Emotions photo. Upstairs, Senderovsky sits up in bed to combat his acid reflux before turning in for the night. He argues with Masha over the shower she helped the Actor take, though the argument results in no concessions or admissions. Later that night, Senderovsky wakes because of his coughing and finds that the storm’s wind is intense. He looks out the window, seeing dead tree branches everywhere, and notices that the black pickup truck is in the driveway. He goes out to confront it but drops to the ground in front of it when he hears repeated cracks that he thinks are gunshots but turn out to be the sound of tree limbs falling. As one falls directly toward him, he is rolled out of the way just in time, avoiding being crushed. When he looks up, the truck is gone.