The Last One at the Wedding

Abigail has head lice, and Tammy coats her hair in mayonnaise to kill the bugs. Exasperated with both Tammy and Abigail, Frank heads out to go canoeing with Maggie. He tries to talk to Maggie seriously about Aidan, the Gardners, and marriage, but Maggie laughs Frank off and tells him that everything is fine. She also brushes off his concerns about Aidan’s absence from the previous night’s festivities and Catherine’s illness. On their way back in, they are surprised to see a group of people gathered in the cove. Frank is even more surprised when he realizes that the people are looking at a body floating in the water. It is a woman with long red hair, just like Gwendolyn’s.

The body in the water is Gwendolyn. Maggie tells Hugo that she saw Gwendolyn walking alone toward the lake at about 11:30 pm the previous evening. She adds that Gwendolyn was a regular drug user and that perhaps she was high. She clarifies that she means “hardcore” street drugs, not the THC gummies that everyone else was taking. Frank notices two, quarter-sized red marks on Gwendolyn’s neck, but Hugo dismisses them as having been caused by rocks in the lake.

Rumors of Gwendolyn’s drug use have begun to spread like wildfire, although Frank remains unconvinced. She seemed perfectly sober to him during each of their conversations. Against the backdrop of a police investigation and general uproar, Abigail gets stuck in a tree. She will not jump down on her own, and Frank has to help her. He hurts his back and is worried that the injury will cause him to miss work—he cannot lift heavy packages with a bad back.

Frank is upset by everyone’s willingness to malign Gwendolyn for a drug habit that he thinks is fabricated, and he worries that Aidan is involved in her death, too. He also worries that Errol is covering for Aidan. He reaches out to Vicky, whose daughter died due to substance addiction. She tells him that parents instinctively try to protect their children and that no parent ever truly knows their child or their capabilities.

The rest of the guests get ready for a group hike, but Frank decides not to accompany them. He retrieves his jeep from Hugo, noting the way that Hugo tries to stop Frank from leaving the property by offering to procure him whatever he wants to purchase in town. Instead of heading to town, Frank seeks out Dawn’s mother. Her trailer, far from the squalid hovel that Maggie characterized it as, is a well-maintained, new double-wide modular home. Dawn herself is a polite and well-mannered elementary school teacher. Frank bristles at Maggie’s mischaracterization of this woman. 

Dawn’s mother tells Frank the story of Dawn’s relationship with Aidan. The two had dated for an entire summer, although Aidan would never be seen in public with Dawn or meet her friends and family. Dawn was embarrassed to introduce Aidan to her mother and kept Aidan away. Dawn’s mother then tells Frank that she found a pregnancy test in Dawn’s garbage and assumed that she’d gone to confront Aidan on the day she disappeared. Because she was tracking Dawn’s cell phone, she knows that Dawn drove to the camp. The blue light indicating her location had turned off not long after Dawn arrived there. Because of this, she is sure that the family moved Dawn’s car. She notes that most of the area police work off-duty for the Gardners and asserts that they covered up Aidan’s role in Dawn’s death.

Frank recalls a scandal during which one of Maggie’s friends was caught selling exam answers, and the girl claimed that Maggie was the real mastermind. Frank thinks that Maggie was duped by this friend and worries that Aidan is also manipulating her. He confronts Maggie with the new information that he learned from Dawn, hoping to convince her that Aidan might have been involved in both Dawn’s and Gwendolyn’s deaths. At first she is angry, but then she suddenly grows calm. She tells him that Gerry had the photograph of Aidan and Dawn analyzed and found that it was photoshopped. She points out the flaw to Frank, who has a copy of the photo with him: In the image, Aidan has two left hands.

The wedding rehearsal goes off without a hitch. Frank is somewhat surprised to learn that the officiant is a human resources employee with an online certificate of ordination, but he tries to remain positive. Because the photo has been proven to be photoshopped, he feels guilty for having believed Dawn’s family over Maggie. He vows to be a better father going forward.

Frank is distracted during the rehearsal dinner. He cannot shake the feeling that Dawn’s mother and uncle were telling the truth. He wonders if Dawn, who had been gifted a nice camera and computer by Aidan, had created the image herself. Had she done so because Aidan refused to show her off in public or take photos with her? Had she wanted some proof of the relationship that she knew was real but to which Aidan wouldn’t admit?

Frank surreptitiously steals Aidan’s phone from the table and uses it to unlock the lodge where Catherine is staying. Catherine is very drunk and pours Frank an entire glass full of gin. She pours herself one also, and Frank is astonished to see her drink it down in just a few sips. He asks her about Dawn, Aidan, and Maggie, and posits that perhaps Dawn was seeing Errol, not Aidan. Catherine freely admits that she was. She explains that her husband believes that wealthy, powerful men should sleep with as many women as possible and that he’d engaged in short-term affairs with a string of much younger women. He’d dated Dawn all summer after meeting her when she helped Aidan change his tire, but he had gotten bored and broken things off. Dawn contacted Aidan and Catherine when she found out that she was pregnant. Catherine relates the girl’s demand for money and her “disturbing” list of Errol’s sexual proclivities and tells Frank that she threw a large battery at Dawn’s head. She tells him that Dawn, bleeding profusely, then fell down the stairs as she tried to escape. Catherine asserts that Maggie had a role in this event, but Hugo and Aidan burst in and interrupt before she can tell Frank. Frank asks Aidan for clarification. Aidan admits that Maggie has known all along about Dawn’s death.

Aidan and Frank talk more outside. Frank asks Aidan about Maggie’s involvement in the coverup of Dawn’s death, and Aidan cryptically tells him that Maggie was getting exactly what she wanted and that he shouldn’t worry about her. He also shares that Hugo worked for the family in the Kinshasa cobalt mines that they use to source raw material for their company’s batteries. He was forced to flee the area because of an investigation into possible human rights violations and trafficking in the mines, and he is hiding out on the family’s property. Aidan asserts that he is dangerous and very loyal to Errol. He warns Frank to remain quiet for the rest of the wedding and then to leave quickly. He refuses to say more. Confused and looking for answers, Frank heads to his daughter’s cabin. When he walks in, he is surprised to find Maggie having sex with Errol. Maggie begins screaming. She rushes at Frank and injures his shoulder. Just before he loses consciousness, he sees Hugo enter the room.