Sunday, 28 July

On a bleak Sunday, Alix remains at home with her children while news of the unfolding case spreads. Roxy messages from the hospital that Erin is still unconscious and critical. Pat O’Neill then calls Alix, saying Roxy has told her about Josie’s claims and insisting Alix needs to hear Pat’s version to understand Josie.

Pat visits and gives a stark account of Josie’s childhood. Pat admits she was an unprepared and often inadequate mother, but describes Josie as intensely needy, possessive, and hostile to Pat’s boyfriends. Pat reveals that Walter had been Pat’s lover when Josie was a teenager, and claims Josie later fixated on him, drew his attention away from Pat, and began a relationship with him after turning eighteen. Pat rejects Josie’s story that Walter groomed her, arguing instead that Josie wanted him and took him without regard for anyone else.

After Pat leaves, Alix tells her mother that she believes Nathan is dead and that Josie’s behavior was deliberate rather than damaged or desperate. Alix reasons that Josie knew about Erin’s money, arranged the hotel trap, targeted Nathan because Josie believed Alix would be better off without him, and may have taken him to kill him. In the documentary framing, police explain that honeymooners Tim and Angel identified Josie as the woman who gave them Fred in Ambleside, leading investigators to a lodge Josie had booked online and abandoned.

That night Roxy calls from the hospital and says Erin’s vital signs are improving. Alix tells Roxy that Pat revealed the history with Walter, and Roxy apologizes for Josie dragging Alix into the family’s chaos. Alix accepts responsibility for ignoring her instincts, admitting that boredom, marital resentment, and recklessness made Josie’s story feel like a distraction from Alix’s own life.

After the call, memories of Nathan make Alix revisit old podcast recordings. She finds the interview in which Josie pressed Alix about loving Nathan, argued that true freedom required a clean break, and invoked Mari le Jeune’s idea that death offers a final, unambiguous ending. Alix realizes Josie had been stating her distorted belief system all along and that Alix failed to recognize it.

Near 1 a.m., DC Sabrina Albright calls: police have entered the Ambleside lodge, found evidence Nathan was held there by force, and discovered tracks leading to Lake Windermere. Alix and her mother begin the long drive north while a water search begins. Before police officially notify Alix, Josie sends a voice message apologizing, claiming she only meant to show Alix life without Nathan and had planned to release him, while still insisting she is not evil and asking Alix to defend her. The documentary then confirms Nathan’s body has been found in shallow water near Lake Windermere, and Josie remains at large.