The Grandest Game

Frustrated by their lack of progress on their riddle, Rohan tries to give motivate his and Savannah’s thinking by creating a wager with uncomfortable stakes: Whichever player solves the riddle first gets to hear a confidence from the other. Savannah will have to tell Rohan why she wants to win the game so badly, and Rohan will have to tell Savannah what his mysterious job is.

Lyra notices that Odette is in pain, but when she and Grayson move to try to support her, Odette brushes them off. Grayson tells her that he thinks she’s a lawyer, and Lyra asks her why, if this is true, she told them that she was a housekeeper. Odette explains that she has lived a long time and had many jobs. Lyra has a sudden memory of blowing out candles on her fourth birthday, and it triggers an epiphany: Their riddle is referring to a mouth.

In the bathroom, Gigi writes the riddle on the mirror and perches on the sink to study it. When she figures out some of the trickier wording, she hops down, misses her landing, and breaks the necklace she found on her initial search of the island. Inside the necklace, she discovers a listening device.

Gigi suddenly realizes that the game’s designers didn’t hide the bag of scuba gear, the knife, and the necklace. More likely, one of the “sponsors” Brady told her about hid them for another player to find. Suspecting that this player was Knox, she storms out of the bathroom to confront him. Knox says that he and his sponsors had nothing to do with the hidden bag, and Brady reluctantly admits that he thinks Knox is telling the truth. Gigi speaks into the bug, telling whoever is listening that she knows they’re there. Knox points out that the wetsuit she found was damp, and they realize that someone uninvited may be hiding on the island.

Rohan realizes what’s “not right” about “88 LOCKS”: The riddle really means “88 keys.” He deduces that the correct answer is “piano” at exactly the moment when Savannah figures it out and dives for the phone. They struggle with one another, and Rohan tells Savannah he works for a secret society; taking advantage of her lowered guard, he grabs the phone before she can react and gives their hosts the correct answer. The walls of the chamber move again, revealing another doorway. Savannah admits that Rohan may have solved the riddle first, and she gives him the answer to his question: She’s playing the Grandest Game for her father.

In another new room, Lyra’s team watches a video that begins with a series of symbols and the instruction to “CIRCLE THE BEST ANSWER” (206). A rapid montage of scenes follows, including a man shooting a gun and a bloody body on the ground. This triggers a flashback for Lyra. She recalls her father’s death in much more detail than before, including a symbol drawn on the wall in his blood. Grayson touches her and speaks gently, pulling her back to reality. When she says she’s fine, he tells her that she doesn’t have to be: He spent his whole life pretending to be fine when he isn’t, so he knows the cost. Lyra feels this deeply but pulls away and looks for a button to restart the film, determined to keep playing the game. The button she finds doesn’t restart the film, however: it opens another, much larger part of the room.

Gigi tells Knox and Brady that she thinks she should tell their hosts about the scuba gear, the knife, and the listening device. They argue that the hosts might stop the game and that, in any case, whoever left the gear on the island won’t come near the house. Gigi decides to find time to talk to Avery privately in the morning to ensure that even if the game is stopped, they’ll find a way to help Brady’s mother. She tells her teammates what she figured out about the riddle while she was in the bathroom, and together they deduce that the answer is “night.” Gigi calls in the answer.

Rohan mulls over what he learned about Savannah’s motivations; as far as he knows, her father disappeared to avoid ongoing investigations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He and Savannah step into a room filled with board games stacked on shelves along every wall. In the room’s center are a circular recessed floor and a mahogany table. They begin looking at the names of the games, searching for a clue.

The newly revealed area of the room contains stacks and stacks of film reels. They discover that the lids bear letters from the Greek alphabet on top and years on the bottom. Odette tells Lyra that the end of the film showed another set of symbols, which Lyra missed due to her flashback, and she declares that after they look through the tins, they’ll rewatch the film. When Lyra is nearly finished examining every reel in her section of the room, she finds one with a different Greek letter: omega. It’s the same symbol she remembers drawn on the wall in her father’s blood. Grayson suddenly realizes that her father’s last words, “a bet,” is a shortened form of “alphabet,” and that what doesn’t begin an alphabet is its last letter—in this case, omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Gigi and her teammates are in the library at the top of the house. Colored lights dance across the floor. They search the shelves; Brady works close to Gigi, and she finds herself thinking again about his touch on her stomach and his meaningful smiles. She reminds herself that he might be in love with Calla. Noting Brady’s excellent balance, she asks him more about his background. He explains that after he and Knox met, the two met a man named Severin, who taught them to fight. Calla was his grand-niece, and she trained with them. When Brady was 15, Calla disappeared; he believes she was abducted by her family to break off her relationship with Knox. After an extended period without contact, Knox asked Brady to be his partner for the first Grandest Game (last year), which was a race. When they fell behind, Calla’s father, Orion Thorp, offered Knox sponsorship and a ride, and Knox abandoned Brady. Knox draws their attention to a magnifying glass he has found; when he picks it up, an ornate dollhouse rises from the floor.

Rohan and Savannah find a game that their hosts obviously created: It’s called “A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK” (234), and its logo is a diamond—the symbol for their team. The game contains eight tokens (five crowns, a spinning wheel, a heart, and a bow and arrow), a set of cards, and a game board. The game’s only instruction is “ROLL THE DICE” (236). They pull out the glass dice that they originally found in their guest rooms. They realize that the dice are loaded when, regardless of how many times they roll, the dice always come up with a combination totaling eight: Savannah rolls a five and a three, and Rohan rolls a six and a two. All the game’s cards are blank except one. It reads “THIS IS NOT YOUR CLUE” (237).

As Lyra, Odette, and Grayson talk about what the omega symbol might mean, Odette recalls seeing the symbol behind the altar at her church during her childhood in Mexico. Grayson guesses that she once worked for his grandfather’s lawyers, but she won’t confirm this. Instead, she tells them that Tobias Hawthorne was the best and the worst man she ever knew, that she knows nothing about Lyra’s father, and that she’s playing the Grandest Game because she’s dying and wants to leave a legacy for her family. Lyra restarts the film.

Grayson figures out that the symbols at the beginning and ending of the film represent the formulas for the circumference and area of a circle. Thinking that this means they’ll find a clue in one of the films marked with the letter pi, they decide to use the years marked under their lids to narrow down which ones to watch. When Odette suggests that they watch films marked with years in the 1960s, Lyra suspects that Odette knows more than she shared with the team. When they see that one of these films is called Changing Crowns, they know they’re on the right track—and Odette confirms this, telling them that she’s in it.

Gigi examines the enormous dollhouse. One side is a Victorian mansion, and the other is a castle. Gigi climbs up on the bookshelves to get a bird’s-eye view. Knox follows her, concerned about her safety. He warns her not to trust either Brady or himself. Gigi descends and notices the concentration of dolls in the castle’s room. She remembers the earlier clue about an empty throne and notices that the queen’s throne is empty. She finally locates the queen doll and places her on the throne. She removes the queen’s crown and pulls away her scepter; one of the bookshelves in the Victorian mansion makes a popping noise. They dump the books and find that each one bears a tiny number.

Rohan and Savannah are stymied and worry about time. Rohan suggests that they take their hint, but Savannah resists. She tells him that she doesn’t rely on others for help because other people make mistakes. He sees how angry she is and realizes that this idea somehow connects to her playing the game for her father. He tells her again that they need to take the hint and goads her by asking how it feels to not be accomplishing anything for her father right now. She tells him that they can take the hint but promises that when they’re no longer on a team she’ll destroy him.

To receive their hint, Rohan and Savannah must complete a task. They’re to play Truth or Dare, monitored by sensors that light up each time an answer they give or challenge they complete is sufficiently unnerving. They can choose to ask their own questions or use the preprinted cards their hosts have provided.

Savannah reads the first question to Rohan, asking what his earliest memory is. He tells Savannah about the memory of his mother humming and then dropping him in the water, where he nearly drowned. He tells her that this happened more than once. Rohan dares Savannah to let him brush her hair; both feel sexual tension as he runs a brush expertly through her long hair. Savannah then dares him to cut her hair off. In his next question, he asks why she chose this dare. She explains that her father liked her hair long and that what he liked no longer matters, but Rohan tells her this isn’t the complete truth. She replies, “I dared you to cut my hair because you don’t get to make me feel like that” (263). She explains that she’s playing the game because money isn’t the only thing the winner gets.

Odette explains that she was an actress for a time but got pregnant out of wedlock, which ended her career. She tells them that Avery personally invited her to play the Grandest Game, and Lyra thinks Avery purposely chose people who had connections to Tobias. Odette points out that the game’s designers clearly meant for her to end up in this specific room. They begin watching the movie; when it seems to skip, they pause it. Frames bearing individual letters have been spliced into the film. The letters spell out “Open the drawers” (269). A curtain drops, revealing four drawers. They contain a paintbrush, a lollipop, sticky notes, and a light switch. There’s also a door. On the knob, it says “FINALE” (270).

Using the magnifying glass, Gigi examines the titles of the miniature books. She realizes that they must find the corresponding real books in the library around them. Once they have these books, they turn to the page numbers matching the numbers on the miniature books. The common letters in the underlined words on these pages spell out “Climb the rope” (273). A rope drops from the ceiling.

Avery gives Rohan and Savannah their clue: They must take one of the blank game cards and hold it to a source of heat. This reveals the message “Say cheese” (274). Rohan says “cheese” aloud, and one of the room’s shelves swings out to reveal a larger room. This room is full of games, and Ping Pong balls cover one wall. Savannah discovers that one wall of games is nothing but chess sets. Thinking of the “empty throne” clue, they search for a set that is missing a king or queen. On the board of the set missing a king, they find that they can scratch off the black color on the square where the king should sit. They read the words “USE ME” (277). When they pop the square out, they discover that it contains a blacklight. When they shine it on the Ping Pong balls, these spell out the word “Veritas” (277). Rohan speaks the word out loud, and a hidden compartment appears. It contains a lint roller, a silk fan, some glitter, and a birthday card. They have reached the game’s finale. Rohan tells Savannah that he wants to make a deal with her.

Lyra’s team goes through the “finale” door into a mosaic-covered ballroom. Lyra sees that one wall is made of glass. They carefully examine their collection of objects and try various uses of them unsuccessfully. Lyra tells Grayson about Mile’s End and her quest to save the home. Grayson tells her that he was wrong to tell her to stop calling him last year and that he didn’t mean it.