Pretty Girls

Lydia is tired. Paul has been torturing her for the past 12 hours while Claire was at the police station. Paul finds Claire’s Percocet in Lydia’s purse and tempts her to take it, scheming to end her hard-won sobriety. She can see that torture arouses Paul. He increases the emotional torture by showing her Sam’s notebooks and years of letters he intercepted from Helen written to Lydia. Paul explains how Sam tried to lure him to the apartment to talk about what happened to Julia, but he anticipated the ruse and poisoned Sam with vodka and sleeping pills. He tied up Sam in a noose, and then they watched Julia’s snuff tape together. He enjoyed Sam’s screams before forging the man’s suicide note. Lydia cracks, requesting the Percocet, and Paul relents, but not before waterboarding her again.

Claire feels total despair as she recognizes the lack of hope in Lydia’s voice. Helen asks what she can do to help, since Fred and Mayhew told her of Paul’s embezzlement. Claire drifts off in the lobby, and Helen lets her rest for an hour. Helen tells Claire she knows about the tape but kept it a secret from the girls for years because she was trying to protect them. She admits she practiced motherhood uniquely for each of her daughters, and there were times when she failed. The moment is heartfelt, but Claire is still on a mission; she tells Helen to drive to Wells Fargo to distract Paul from tracking her whereabouts. Helen takes care of all the details, including buying a prepaid cell phone to set up call forwarding to trick Paul, and securing some cash to buy bullets. Claire prepares to confront Adam and pick up the USB. She suddenly realizes that the USB must hold Paul’s international client list, if he was pretending to be an informant.

She walks into Adam’s office, and he apologizes for overreacting by calling the FBI over the embezzled money. He mentions that he even paid it back himself, and Claire realizes that the stolen $3 million represents the three times she and Adam had had sex. Armed with the USB from Adam, and convinced he knew nothing of Paul’s other illicit activities, Claire logs into Paul’s computer and locates 16 excel spreadsheets of contact information for members of the snuff film ring. She finds pictures of Johnny Jackson and Carl Huckabee standing next to trussed up bodies, one of them Julia’s. Fifteen-year-old Paul is in the photos, giving a thumbs-up to the camera. Claire realizes that Lydia’s time is almost up.

After taking the Percocet, Lydia indulges in the old feeling of being high. She struggles to pay attention to Paul’s actions as he talks on the phone to Johnny and tracks Claire on her iPhone. As her concentration ebbs and flows, Paul starts lining up torture tools on a rolling cart, foreshadowing his intended actions.

Claire waits for Paul’s next phone call at an office supply store. She bought bullets for the gun earlier and is now getting help moving the USB files to alternative storage. She uploads the files to an email prepped to be sent to every media outlet and police officer. When Paul finally calls, Claire can hear Lydia faintly, so she is reassured that her sister is not yet dead. Paul threatens to abduct Dee if Claire doesn’t meet him back at the farmhouse. Claire updates Helen, who finally explains how she first knew about Julia’s tape: Helen was the one who found Sam’s body, and of course she was curious to see the last thing he had watched.

Claire drives down the highway toward the Fuller house until she runs out of gas. While filling the tank, she notices some flares and waterproof matches. She remembers that Paul’s one fear is the thought of being burned alive. Claire finally has a plan.

Claire loads each of the bullets she bought into the gun, fully prepared to confront Paul at the Fuller house. She plans to pour gasoline throughout the house and then set it on fire because fire was the only thing that has ever scared Paul. Then she plans to dash into the house to save Lydia. She envisions that Paul will escape to the yard, where she will put five bullets in him, one for each of her family members.

When Claire arrives, the garage’s metal door is padlocked shut; she assumes this is where Lydia must be. As rain falls, Claire lights a flare and sparks up the gasoline trail she spilled throughout the house. As the black smoke rises, Claire realizes Paul must have upgraded the house with his trademark over-the-top insulation, so he must not hear or smell the smoke. Claire calls the house phone and confronts Paul, saying she knows that he’s the masked man. He puts on a concerned farce as he steps outside, seeing Claire. They kiss passionately, and then Claire pulls the trigger. Paul’s knee explodes from the hollow-point bullet. Claire leaves him screaming on the ground as she dashes into the flaming house in search of Lydia.