This Is Why We Lied

Sara wakes up late that night alone. She finds Will outside, sitting on a bench. He was thinking about how he once idealized the life he would have with his mother. Now he knows that she would’ve continued to struggle with addiction and recovery, and their life could’ve developed any number of ways. He brings up how Dave has the family he always wanted but is passing along the same abuse he endured. He asks Sara if it bothers her that he doesn’t have a family, and she says that she’s his family.

She suggests they go swimming, and they walk down to the lake. They’re in the water when they hear a scream. They can’t tell what direction it came from but return to shore and get dressed. Will heads toward a different area of the lake, while Sara returns to the lodge. She sees someone coming down the front steps, carrying a backpack. He falls to his knees and vomits, and Sara realizes it’s Jon, still drunk. They hear a woman’s voice scream, “Help!” and then “Please!.” Sara turns toward the lake and when she turns back, Jon is going back into the lodge.

Sara runs for the lake. She sees a cottage on fire and follows a trail of blood to the lake. Mercy lies partly in the lake, and Will is next to her, sobbing. As Sara watches, he laces his fingers together and presses his hands down on her chest. Sara sees the glint of metal and realizes that Will has impaled himself on a knife in Mercy’s chest. Sara removes Will’s hand from the knife and wants to take him to the hospital. Will, however, can tell by Mercy’s wounds that the killer was frenzied. Will urgently wants to find Dave, who he assumes is responsible.

Will enters the dining hall ahead of Sara, looking for Dave, but he isn’t there. Sara takes him to the kitchen to clean and dress his wound. She points out that Dave may not be the murderer, but Will resists that idea. He admits that even though it’s their honeymoon, he feels compelled to take investigate the murder. He’s already thinking about what needs to be done to secure the crime scene and the body before notifying the family.

Sara understands. She thinks about the suspects, ruling out Cecil because of his wheelchair and Jon because she was with him when she heard the screams. She reminds Will to remember his biases regarding Dave. Will decides to contact Amanda, his boss at the GBI, about getting control of the investigation from the locals. Although his cell phone won’t work there, he has a satellite phone.

Sara goes to their cottage to use Will’s satellite phone to contact Amanda and sit with Mercy’s body until it can be retrieved. Will rings the emergency bell outside the lodge. As people come out of their cottages, Will asks them to assemble in the yard. Gordon says that Landry is in the shower, and Will immediately goes into their cottage looking for bloody clothing. By the time he and Landry come out of the cottage, everyone has assembled.

Bitty confronts Will about lying about his profession. Will wants to tell Jon about Mercy’s murder in private but instead must tell everyone at once. He watches the family closely but sees no grief from anyone but Jon. Drew announces that he and Keisha will leave in the morning. Max and Sydney, the buyers, drove in, and announce they’re leaving immediately. Will has no legal authority to keep them there.

Monica tells them that she left a note on their porch asking for more liquor, and it was gone after ten o’clock. Mercy made the rounds that night, which means that she picked it up. Gordon and Landry return to their cottage, and Will realizes that Landry is scared for some reason about Mercy’s death.

After contacting Amanda, Sara returns and takes the family inside. Delilah remains outside and tells Will about the potential sale and Mercy’s threats. Will is surprised that Dave, as Mercy’s ex-husband, gets a vote, and Delilah tells Will that the family found Dave at Camp Awinita when he was 13 and adopted him. She also tells them that she raised Jon until he was four years old. Mercy sued for custody a year after her car crash, but Delilah didn’t believed in Mercy’s recovery and fought her. After Mercy won, she cut off all communication between Delilah and Jon.

Sheriff Douglas Harthorne, nicknamed Biscuits, arrives just as Max and Sydney leave. Will briefs Biscuits, who doesn’t want to go to the body in the rain. Will can tell he isn’t very interested in investigating. Biscuits theorizes that Dave and Mercy fought, as they often did, and it got out of control. He spoke to Amanda but refuses to hand over the investigation to the GBI. Biscuits goes inside to see Bitty. Delilah heads toward the lake to wait with Mercy’s body. Sara comes out of the lodge to tell Will that Jon has run away.

The chapter ends with a letter from Mercy to Jon, dated January 16, 2011. Mercy writes that she has submitted the paperwork to gain full custody of him. She’s only 18. Although her addiction led her to give Jon to Delilah after he was born, she has now been in recovery for six months and is working toward her GED. She left McAlpine Lodge and is cleaning rooms at a motel, saving money for an apartment. She wants to separate from her family, saying that Dave is more of a McAlpine than she is. Time will tell, she says, whether Jon is one of them or not. If he is, she’ll still love him and will always defend and protect him.

Sara shows Jon’s note to Will and Biscuits. The sheriff doesn’t seem to care, and Sara and Will are again frustrated by the inactivity and their lack of authority. She tells Will about an argument she overheard between Gordon and Landry earlier, in which Gordon called Landry “Paul.” Will, in the meantime, got a text on his satellite phone that his partner, Faith, is on her way from Atlanta.

While Will continues to search for Dave, Sara goes to Gordon and Paul’s cottage. They offer Sara a drink, and she’s surprised that the expensive-looking whiskey is so harsh. She tells them that she’s a medical examiner and begins to question them. When she asks about “Landry,” they admit that it’s a fake name.

As she leaves Gordon and Paul’s cottage, Sara sees a van pull into the parking lot. Nadine, the coroner, introduces herself. She’s happy to work with Sara, who has far more experience than she does. In return, Nadine tells Sara about Mercy, her family, and the town. She says that Mercy doesn’t come to town often because of how people treat her. As they walk to the crime scene together, Will briefs Nadine.

Delilah is waiting with Mercy’s body, and she and Nadine greet each other. Will examines the burned-out cottage and finds a backpack tucked in the back corner: Its fire-resistant fabric protected it from the fire.