The Butcher Game

Wren wakes up to a call from Corinne Matthews, a friend from college who works for the Salem Police Department. Corinne thinks that Jeremy dropped a victim in Salem, outside a bakery with a New Orleans theme. The victim is barely alive and has ligature marks consistent with Jeremy’s previous methods of murder. Corinne asks Wren to come to Massachusetts and help with the case, and Wren agrees. Wren tells Richard that Jeremy probably strangled and resuscitated the victim numerous times—something he often does.

Wren confesses to Richard that she briefly had a crush on Jeremy when he was pretending to be Cal in med school; one night, they even kissed. Richard tells Wren that she has nothing to be ashamed of: Jeremy is extremely manipulative, and Wren developed feelings for the person he was pretending to be. Richard accepts all parts of Wren, and Wren feels lighter having told Richard the truth.

Jeremy wakes up in a stranger’s house. He took his boots off to sleep, but he quickly puts them back on, as he does not want to be caught without his shoes on. He thinks back to his mother, who emotionally manipulated and mistreated him when he was a child. He’s glad that his mother is gone and that she was unable to instill shame in him for his obsessive tendencies. He thinks that shame is a useless emotion and refuses to feel it. He wonders if Wren is close by, but he knows that he would feel her proximity: They’re tethered because of their killer-victim relationship.

When Wren wakes, she and Richard pack for Massachusetts. Richard looks up the very low crime statistics in Salem and thinks that Jeremy will do real damage there, as the police will be unprepared for a serial killer. Wren reframes his thoughts: Perhaps Jeremy will stand out in Salem in a way that he didn’t in New Orleans, where violence is more frequent. Wren thinks that he’ll be reckless, and she wants to catch him so that she can move on.

Jeremy finds an abandoned fairgrounds site that he imagines is haunted. He locates a spot to bury some objects, beneath a spray-painted pentagram that he imagines the police will interpret as a sign of Satanic activity and be confused.

He walks through Great Barrington, Massachusetts, holding a bouquet of flowers from Connecticut. The flowers are magnolias, which Wren had in her bridal bouquet. Jeremy thinks that this choice was symbolic for Wren, as the magnolias are hardy and resist death even as their season ends. He compares the flowers to Wren’s survivability. Wrens are also birds, which Jeremy links to Wren’s decision to change her name. The flowers could also be a nod to Louisiana or a symbol of her hope for good fortune in her marriage. Regardless, she chose them, and now Jeremy has chosen them, too.

Jeremy leaves a flower on each doorstep that he passes, hoping this will get back to Leroux or Wren, drawing Wren closer. A woman on a walk stops and compliments his flowers; Jeremy lies and says that they’re for a proposal. The woman is unafraid to walk at night, and Jeremy realizes how safe the community feels. He wants to change that, feeling exhilarated at the power.

Wren sleeps soundly on the flight to Massachusetts. She and Richard get in their rental car and drive from Logan Airport to the hospital in Salem. Wren looks out of the car into the windows of buildings, and she and Richard imagine what the people inside are doing. Their game is interrupted by a call from Leroux, who tells Wren that two more bodies have been discovered in Tyringham, Massachusetts: a man and a woman shot by a crossbow. Wren realizes that this is Jeremy’s work. Still, she promised Corinne that she’d look at the Salem victim, though she now thinks it may be the work of a copycat. Leroux will be on the next flight to Massachusetts.

Jeremy goes to a bar full of locals. He looks around until his gaze settles on a woman sitting with her friends. He listens in on her conversation to glean personal details about her, makes small talk with the bartender, and asks to send the woman a drink. The bartender is clearly suspicious of Jeremy’s intentions and tries to stall him by asking for his ID, but in the end, he sends an Aperol Spritz to the woman on Jeremy’s behalf. The woman approaches and thanks Jeremy for the drink. She introduces herself as Charlie. Jeremy chats with Charlie all evening, using a slightly antagonistic approach to pique her interest. Charlie’s friends leave the bar, taking Charlie’s phone with them. When the bar closes, Jeremy asks Charlie to explore the abandoned fairgrounds with him. She’s hesitant since it’s three o’clock in the morning, but Jeremy appeals to her risk-taking nature, and she agrees. She warns him that she has mace, but he says that she won’t need it.