The Butcher Game

Dr. Wren Muller wakes from a terrible nightmare about the night Jeremy hunted her in the swamp. In this iteration of the dream, she refused to run, so Jeremy stabbed her brutally. She wakes in the arms of her husband, Richard Muller, who attempts to reassure her that Jeremy is gone. However, Jeremy is not gone—he escaped the police by using a decoy body in the swamp. 

Wren is on medical leave and supposed to be focusing on her healing, but as a creature of habit, all she wants is to return to work. Richard makes her a coffee before he goes to his own job. Wren drinks it while staring out the window. Everyone wants her to recover slowly, but what she wants is to bring Jeremy to justice.

Jeremy walks through the West Virginia woods until he finds the boulder he’s looking for. He takes out a small trowel and digs until he uncovers the emergency stash he buried in case he ever needed to go on the run. Inside a bag are two guns with ammunition, piano wire, a knife, a scalpel, zip ties, hair dye, and $10,000 in cash, leftover from his mother’s life insurance payout.

Jeremy dyes his blonde hair brown and goes to a restaurant. He sees a young man with dark hair who is the right age and appearance to be a decent double for Jeremy. Jeremy fakes a phone call, pretending that his girlfriend is in labor with their baby, loud enough for the other man to overhear him. The man, Tom, asks if Jeremy is in a bind. Jeremy lies and says that his girlfriend is in labor at home in a town 10 minutes away but that his car is broken down and he can’t get to her. Tom offers Jeremy a ride, and Jeremy gratefully accepts. In the truck with Tom, as he plots to kill him and assume his identity, Jeremy asks if Tom often picks up hitchhikers, wondering aloud when it became dangerous to stop to give someone a ride.

Wren attends therapy with her long-time therapist, Dr. Roy. When Wren begins to dissociate during the session, Dr. Roy works to reground her. Wren thinks that therapy is a waste—she cannot be helped until Jeremy is brought to justice. Dr. Roy asks if the game-like aspect of Jeremy’s escape reminds Wren of the fact that Jeremy also often structured torturing her as a game. Wren acknowledges that it does, but this time, the game is in a bigger arena that she cannot fully visualize or understand. Dr. Roy tells Wren that her feelings are normal and that she isn’t starting over on her healing journey even though some of the feelings from her first encounter with Jeremy are coming back. Her mind has worked through a lot, and this experience is “pressure-testing” what she has not fully resolved (20). Dr. Roy promises that Wren will come out stronger on the other side.

Wren cries in the bathroom after her session and then receives a call from Detective John Leroux. He thinks that she should come with him to do the final sweep of Jeremy’s house. Dr. Roy agrees. Wren is hesitant but agrees to join him. She calls a ride-share app car to pick her up and confirms the driver’s identity before she gets in the car. The driver, Paul, seems like a friendly, disarming grandfather, but Wren knows that looks can be deceiving and wonders if the teddy bear he keeps on his dashboard is to make people feel at ease before he attacks them. She keeps her guard up until he drops her off. She asks if he has kids as she leaves, and he says no, which makes her wonder about the teddy bear.

Wren walks through Lafayette Cemetery, briefly overwhelmed by the memory of failing to save Emma, a girl that Jeremy buried alive. In the section of the cemetery called the Secret Garden, there are the graves of four friends: philanthropists said to have chosen to be buried together along with their families. Wren finds the story comforting. She sits in the garden to recharge and prepares to face Jeremy’s house again.

Tom seems uneasy about Jeremy’s question about hitchhikers and safety, asking if Jeremy is implying that it’s not safe to give Jeremy a ride. Jeremy is exhilarated by Tom’s fear, but he tries to hide his joy. He deflects, telling Tom that historically, in the 1950s and 1960s, people used to hitchhike safely, but something changed in the 1970s and the practice became unsafe. Tom posits that the lack of safety is the result of the breakdown of society. He says that people no longer follow Jesus Christ’s teachings and that women “forgot their place” of subservience to men (32). Tom again asks if Jeremy is unsafe and calls him a “freak.” Jeremy points out that Tom offered him a ride freely, hoping that when he attacks and kills Tom, Tom considers the situation his own fault.

Jeremy guides Tom to an ominous-looking house. Jeremy can tell that Tom is nervous, which thrills him. In the driveway, Jeremy thanks Tom for the ride and offers him a handshake. Tom hesitates but accepts the handshake. Jeremy uses the leverage to pull Tom forward and attack him. Tom is strong and fights back, but Jeremy grabs his knife and stabs Tom over and over until he dies. He then takes Tom’s wallet and unloaded gun. On the dark, empty street, there are no cameras or streetlights; if anyone saw what just happened, they’ll look the other way. Jeremy drives the truck down an abandoned road near the house, finds a crevice in the natural environment, and stuffs Tom’s body into it. He feels at home in the swampy environment and finds it similar to Louisiana. Jeremy stumbles upon a shack with various oddities, including animal parts in jars, inside. Upon further investigation, he finds a rotting corpse and realizes that another killer operates in these woods, which thrills Jeremy. He cleans the truck and moves on.

As Wren eats a cheeseboard and sips a gin cocktail at a restaurant near the cemetery, Leroux calls, reminding her to meet him at Jeremy’s house. She finishes her food and listens to a couple fighting near her. The man texted his ex-girlfriend, and his current girlfriend is angry at him. Before she leaves, Wren tells the girlfriend that she can do better.

She meets Leroux at Jeremy’s house. Leroux is still on crutches from an arrow wound that he got in his calf during their last standoff with Jeremy. He guides Wren into the house and explains that the stench is root rot, as Jeremy overwatered his plants before he left. One plant still lives; Leroux compares it to Wren, as both survived Jeremy. He tells Wren to take the plant, and she reluctantly agrees. As they continue their search, Wren finds locks of hair and a large pile of jewelry, which confirms her suspicion that Jeremy takes trophies from his victims. Leroux plans to look into older, unidentified cases to see if the jewelry matches reports.

Wren then ventures into the swamp and is briefly overcome with memories of escaping Jeremy; she imagines the ghosts of his other victims calling out to her for justice. Wren realizes that the only way to heal is to get her hands dirty. She puts on her latex gloves and goes back inside.

Jeremy hides the truck nearby, knowing that he will need it again soon. He has made it to a town in Massachusetts. As he walks down the street looking at the dark houses, Jeremy remembers Philip, his childhood best friend. Philip’s family often spent time outdoors, hiking and camping, while Jeremy was only allowed outside to hunt and kill.

Jeremy finds an empty house and breaks in. He dislikes the red paint on the walls. Looking at the family photos, he sees a middle-aged couple, who he assumes own the house. He then showers, brushes his teeth, and borrows fresh clothes. While snooping, he finds a pornography magazine and imagines the husband looking at it while the wife isn’t home. On the coffee table, he sees a book about the 1969 Berkshire UFO incident, in which over 250 people in Berkshire, Massachusetts, claimed to have witnessed a UFO. Jeremy thinks that the strangeness of the incident is a good omen for his plans.

Wren stands in her library, looking at the books on her shelf until she settles on Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, which Richard wanted her to read after their first date and which she eventually read on their first wedding anniversary. The novel is set in Massachusetts. Prompted by this coincidence, Wren goes online and researches Jeremy, finding only articles guessing that he’s either dead or has traveled west. Wren knows that he’d never go to the West Coast, and she can feel that he’s alive. She researches Philip Trudeau and finds his public Facebook profile and that of his ex-wife, whose posts hint that she and Philip had an acrimonious breakup, perhaps fueled by infidelity. Philip also seems to have many female devotees as a pastor, which raises Wren’s hackles.

She texts Leroux to confirm that she’s not crazy for thinking Jeremy is alive or that Philip could be more than a red herring. He reassures her and tells her to focus on her healing journey. Wren knows that she cannot heal until she finds Jeremy.