By: Malasha Parker
Masha (Nicole Kidman) asks Helena (Lena Olin) if David (Mark Strong) is playing her but she is unsure because of how she sees her daughter in him. Helena says that as much as she wants to rectify her story with meaning, sometimes things are just meaningless. She needs to let it go or she can choose to forgive him. She tells Helena that forgiveness isn’t solely hers to give.
Matteo (Aras Aydin) covers his ears and begins to breathe heavily when two fighter jets pass over him as Masha watches from the window. Imogen (Annie Murphy) and Tina (King Princess) wake up in the middle of the ballroom floor. They tell each other they had a good time walking to each other as Matteo comes inside wrapped in a blanket asking where Victoria (Christine Baranski) is currently. Matteo rushes into the room to ask if Victoria is okay. She says she is but she can’t get up because she can’t move. She cant move her arms or legs, but she can move her pinky a little. Matteo looks worried and asks if she needs medicine or a doctor. She says no that she will be fine in an hour. He helps her to sit up on the bed and when he asks if she needs help again, she says there is nothing anyone can do for her. He asks when she will tell Imogen about her condition, but she says she can just keep thinking she isn’t a good mother. He tells her she can’t go on forever like this, and she says, “Luckily, I don’t have forever.”
Brian (Murray Bartlett) wakes Agnes (Dolly De Leon) up with a string puppet show. She screams when she puts her glasses on and it scares her. He gifts her one of her own and the two begin to play with the puppets. Martin (Lucas Englander) and Masha are in the lab mixing drug ingredients. Martin asks how it went with David and she says it worked really well. He looks at her knowingly and asks again. She says that it went well and the device is ready to be used on the others. She says Peter should be the one to use it first.
David is walking around outside with Peter (Henry Golding) as he recounts what Masha told him the night before. Peter doesn’t believe what Masha said and thinks she is trying to take advantage of David’s money. Peter says he doesn’t want to see them advantage of. David tells Peter that Masha hasn’t asked for anything and that his burdensome inheritance is still in place. Pete gets frustrated and goes to his one-on-one with Masha. The scene changes to David and Peter’s mother telling him that they are splitting up while he plays video games. Peter starts asking questions. When he asks David if the reason he is splitting up is because of him, David doesn’t respond. Looking at blurry figures, Peter asks who someone is that appears in the doorway. David turns and leaves with the blond haired person as Peter calls out for him. Then back in the present, Peter shoots up on the table with a mouth guard in his mouth distressed to Masha telling him to breathe. He’s looking for his father and wondering what it is that Masha gave him in the device to bring his memories back. Masha tries to calm him, but he insists on finding his dad.
Victoria is down at breakfast when Matteo brings her food over. He begins to elo her prepare to eat it while Victoria moves her hand under the table. Tina watches the two curiously. Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) comes to see if she slept well and where she slept. Tina doesn’t tell her but they are interrupted by Brian and Agnes still playing with their string puppets. Imogen joins the group and greets her mother. Peter comes running into the room in his robe telling everyone that they have to leave quickly. He tells them that Masha is insane and that she brainwashed his father. In the middle of explaining what she did to him, he sees the marionettes and tells them she hates them and wants them to burn. Martin tells him he needs to remain calm, but he says he never wanted the good stuff to be injected into him. Martin says everyone signed a contract to have it and that is all that is happening. Peter continues to say that Masha is manipulating everyone, then Agnes says that she’s seen the cameras that are all over the house. Everyone starts wondering where the cameras are located. Martin tells Peter his father is fine when he continues to look for him. He tells Peter that things will be fine because the dosage he used is just a higher dosage than before. He continues to freak out when Masha comes into the room to explain what she gave to him and how it works. She says that this is the next phase in her therapeutic work. The larger dose helps to bring a memory that may have been forgotten back to the forefront to allow them to have a different response to the memory. She asks who wants to go next and different people raise their hands. Masha picks Matteo even though he didn’t raise his hand, but Imogen suggests she and her mother go instead. Victoria says that she fell asleep waiting for her but Imogen doesn’t believe her and believes she did it on purpose. Victoria asks Masha if she can just be a support for Imogen while she gets the new dosage, so Masha says Martin can guide her through it so as not to compromise her sobriety. Peter continues to ask about his dad and Masha tells him, “David is on the other side.” She walks off and Martin tells David to explore the spa on the other side of the hotel if he wants to find his father. Peter immediately leaves and grabs the portrait of the property with him as a map.
Wolfie, Tina, Brian and Agnes stand in the doorway trying to decide what to do next. They don’t know where everyone else went, so they decide to explore as well. Wolfie mentions the spa and then Tina walks off. Wolfie tries to convince Tina to forget about how their last conversation went because things were heated and a lot was said. Tina doesn’t want to just brush over things so quickly, but Wolfie says it will be better to react at the spa. Agnes doesn’t have a swimsuit, but they all try to convince her to swim anyway and she suggests finding a gift shop.
Masha places the device onto Matteo while Martin begins to deliver a larger dose of medicine to Imogen with the same device while Victoria is present. Victoria prefers a different way to view and deal with your emotions instead of using psychedelics. Martin tells her to think of something intentional and Imoge says she wants to go back to when she was little and her family was together. Victoria says she doesn’t want her to go there alone. So, Martin decides to grab another kit for Victoria. She hugs Imogen while Martin leaves.
The four in search of a gift shot step outside and see Peter running across the snow-filled lawn with the portrait still in hand. They yell across the field and Peter tells them he has a map and to follow him. Everyone takes off behind him.
Imogen views her past as she is a little girl moving into a new house while her father is recording her. As she runs through the house, Victoria comes into view and tells her that the house has a pool and a young Imogen runs up the stairs. Meanwhile, Matteo goes back to when he was getting treated by Agnes. He is confused when she gives him a bear that talks for comfort.
Victoria and Imogen lay in a bed together. The scene switches from a younger Imogen and the present day Imogen as the two have a conversation about Imogen’s father. Imogen says she is happy in her new home and Victoria tells her that her dad is a hero. He is building a very special satellite that is keeping people safe so that it can find anybody. She tells Imogen that she is always safe with her. Peter has made it to the other side and is inside of a different facility still in search of his dad. A man tells him that his dad is just resting. He goes outside and his father rises from a pond of mud. Peter runs to hug him. Imogen is still unconscious. She searches for her dad to go swimming with her, but she is an adult at this time. When she makes it downstairs to her father he is staring at the television with a drink in his hand unmoving. He is looking at a news report about Signal OP drone striking a country that has resulted in countless casualties. The screen transports back to Matteo at the hospital they are showing on the screen. He is a child but quickly changes to a man again. He and Agnes discuss his parents. The screen shows the medical area and a banner for The Sharpe Foundation with a Signal OP logo on it is shown while Matteo lightly chuckles at it. He’s smiling at butterflies floating around.
Wolfie, Brian, Agnes and Tina are sitting in a small pool of red wine playing a game. They’re playing a game when Brian asks if the retreat is helping or fixing them yet He says the dreams made feel like he was reliving his past again but everything feels fine now. He just thinks it helped him see things he did in hindsight. Wolfie says a part of her is waking up as she holds onto Tina. They have a group hug and Brian says this is the first time in a long time that he has had friends. Tina tries to sound like Brian’s puppet and they start to splash water on each other in the pool.
David brings Peter a drink and the two start to discuss the situation with Masha again. Peter still doesn’t trust Masha but David is just convinced that Masha is on the verge of something that can change the world with what she invented. He says she is just trying to clear a debt but she is not trying to take money from him. He wants to move forward with everything and he tells Peter he is so proud he is there.
Imogen goes downstairs to find her mother on the couch sleeping. She goes to the pool and jumps in. When she exits the pool, she is her younger self again and she sees a dark figure from below the water. She comes up to find her mother in all black with a veil over her face. She continues to walk out of the pool and up the stairs without saying a word to her mother and with a worried look on her face.
Matteo wakes up to look at the same butterflies and Masha asks him what he is calling beautiful. One lands on his finger and Matteo says it’s so perfect they are here now. Masha tells him to tell her because she doesn’t understand what he means. Matteo tells her that the butterflies are symbols, the souls of the dead. He says he asked his parents about them and they told him about the story. He thought the poster was special that he saw because they had butterflies on them. Masha says he needs to face his pain, but Matteo doesn’t want to get rid of his pain. He wants to remember and feel that pain so he can remember his parents. He was a boy that was loved and he has no fear from that loss because he’s already lost. There is only one him. Masha removes the device from his chest with tears in her eyes completing the session. She tells him the session was perfect.
Young Imogen walks down the hallway to open her father’s door. What she sees inside causes her to start crying and Imogen wakes back up. Victoria begins to seize while still in the dreamstate just as Imogen wakes back up. She starts to cry and Masha sees everything transpiring through the video feed. She immediately calls Martin to see what is happening and he tells her she asked to be put under. Masha tells him that the dose was not calibrated for her and Martin gets mad because he wasn’t told anything about it not being able to be used for her as well. The ambulance is on the way and Victoria is still breathing, but she is unconscious. The four from the wine pool hear the ambulance as they are walking back inside. The doctor asks Imogen about her mother’s medications and Matteo steps in to tell them that Victoria has ALS. This is Imogen’s first time hearing about this and she begins to react to the news. Helena tells her she needs to cancel her grand finale because she has gone too far. Masha says she can’t do that. Masha tells her she will keep ruining everything just like she ruined her family and Masha starts to scream for her to stop it. Masha covers her ears and yells, then as she sits down everything silences. The chairs in the room are covered and only the desk where Helena was sitting is empty. It seems Helena was never there. A portrait of Helena on the wall shows that she died in 2022. Masha looks towards the desk again and says, “Helena, don’t leave me.”