House of Glass

Stella meets Ian and Rose at the aquarium the next day. Stella tries to break through Rose’s icy shell by explaining her own childhood history and experience with traumatic mutism, even noting that it is understandable that Rose might feel angry. Stella makes some progress, but when a young girl runs up, begins talking to Rose, and then gets upset when Rose won’t share her lip gloss, Rose shoves the girl. Stella sees Rose’s eyes go blank again and knows that the girl is unreachable once more.

Harriet calls and asks to speak to Stella at the Barclay home at 5:30 that evening. When Stella arrives, Harriet shares that Beth and Ian had a terrible fight the night before. She also reveals Beth’s suspicion that Ian is in a clandestine relationship with another woman. (The two had agreed not to date until the divorce was final.) Harriet appears tired and claims to want a resolution to the family’s troubles. She leads Stella inside, where Stella finds Ian, Beth, and Rose in the kitchen. She is immediately sure that this is a setup of some kind and that she is in danger.

The family invites Stella to dinner and expresses their hope that her investigation will be finished soon. They say that spending an evening with everyone might help Stella make up her mind. During dinner, Rose is obviously agitated but says nothing. Stella engages Harriet in a conversation about gardening. She is increasingly sure that Harriet has provided an alibi for Rose for the moments surrounding Tina’s death. Harriet moves slowly as the result of an old leg injury, and even she admits that it took her a few minutes to reach Tina’s body. Stella speculates that during this time, Rose was not, as Harriet claims, in the garden but was instead making her way back downstairs from Tina’s room.

Stella grows increasingly uncomfortable as the meal progresses, and she is relieved when she is finally able to leave. Rattled, she decides to head to a bar for a drink. On the way, she nearly hits a deer and thinks of her father, who died in a car accident because he swerved to miss an animal on the road and hit a tree instead. At the bar, she notices that her Montblanc pen and Tina’s earring are missing from her purse. She is sure that Rose stole them.

Stella shows up at the Barclay home the next morning at the appointed time. The family is not home, and she waits in her car for them to arrive. When they finally make it home, Beth explains that they were at the doctor. Rose has been struggling with insomnia. Beth is irritated that Stella is at her home even though she herself told Stella to meet her at 10 o’clock in the morning. Stella is struck by Beth’s extreme privilege; Beth is used to people anticipating her desires, even when she does not clarify them. Stella leaves, and they agree to meet again later.

Stella visits Detective Garcia, who has Stella’s mother’s file. As they talk, Stella reveals more about the Barclay case than she knows she should, as her reports are supposed to be confidential. She shares her suspicions that Rose may have killed Tina, and Garcia looks intrigued. Garcia then tells Stella that she has to use the restroom. Stella understands that this means she can clandestinely look at the file. The material upsets her, and after photographing everything, she runs out of the police station as quickly as possible.

Beth calls to apologize for her behavior and asks if Stella can return to the Barclay home that afternoon. Stella agrees. At home, she emails an FBI contact that Garcia gave her. She eats lunch alone and reflects on her exhaustion. Marco texted her a few days ago to ask if she would like to meet his new girlfriend, and now, she finally responds in the affirmative, even though the thought of seeing him with a new woman upsets her deeply.

Stella tells Charles about the updates in Rose’s case and in her investigation into her mother’s death. He offers to help her look through her mother’s file, and she agrees.

She mulls over Rose’s situation. She did not tell Garcia that Beth and Ian were colluding to deceive her. She wonders if Beth could have been involved in Tina’s death as well and speculates that her and Rose may have been working together in some way.

Stella arrives at the Barclay house to find the entire family ill, except for Rose. They became sick after eating oysters at lunch. Stella finds it odd that Rose is the only one unaffected, but she is grateful for the opportunity to spend time with the girl alone. Stella looks for Rose but cannot find her, so she decides to snoop in Beth’s room. There, she finds ipecac syrup, a medicine used to induce vomiting. She wonders if Rose sprinkled the syrup in her family’s oysters. She also finds an old childhood photograph of Beth and notes her resemblance to Rose. On her way out of the room, she sees Rose, who knows that Stella has been searching Beth’s bedroom.

Stella tries to talk to Rose. She finds a whiteboard and writes down a question, asking if Rose would like to split her time equally between her parents after they divorce. Rose writes, “GO AWAY.” Stella asks if Rose was happy when Tina went away, and rage wells up in Rose’s eyes, but she quickly regains control and pulls out a book. Stella knows that the conversation is over. She leaves and receives an email from the FBI agent she contacted, as well as one from the judge presiding over Rose’s case. Stella needs to come up with a recommendation soon.

Stella meets with the FBI agent whose specialty is investigating children who kill. They discuss the presence of evil in the world and talk about children who display an innate interest in violence. He believes that some children are born evil or at least turn to evil acts as a result of exposure to stressors. He posits that Rose might have killed Tina as a result of Tina’s presence as an agent “of change” in her life, believing that the nanny imperiled the family through her obsession with Ian. The agent advises Stella to expose Rose to another stressor to see if she snaps. Rose understands that she herself is now the agent of change in Rose’s life. In order to determine whether or not Rose is a killer, she must put herself at risk.

Stella thinks about how best to craft her report on Rose’s custody recommendation. She heads to Charles’s house, recalling how supportive he was when she was young. He was the only person in her life to attend her high school graduation. When she arrives, the two begin to look over her mother’s file together.

Stella and Charles examine the photographs of her mother’s case file. She does not find any information that might help her better understand her mother’s death, but she does note the names of the responding officers and medical examiner. She wonders if perhaps one of them will remember something pertinent. She reflects on how beautiful her mother once was and the woman’s deep love for her. She finds the photographs of her mother’s lifeless body too upsetting to review and tells Charles that she needs to stop for the day.

Stella crafts her recommendation for Rose’s case, designing it to inflict as much stress as possible on the family in hopes of provoking Rose. She also hopes to find out whether or not Rose is truly a cold-blooded killer. After she hits “send,” her neighbor Lucille stops by. Someone has sent Lucille a photograph of a dead, bloody squirrel. Lucille suspects Rose, and Stella agrees with her. Stella promises to figure out whether Rose sent the photo and assures her that if Rose is seriously disturbed, she will get her some help.

Stella visits the Barclay home and makes an effort to appear calm, collected, and assertive. She tells the family that she will be submitting her report soon, and she can see that Beth is unsettled by the possibility of what it will contain. Stella has a fake report in a file folder in her purse and makes sure that the family sees it. She tries to rattle everyone to gauge their reactions. She notes that Ian remains calm, and she reflects that truly dangerous people can mask their emotions.

Stella spends some time alone with Harriet in the hopes that Ian, Beth, or Rose will look at the fake report in her purse. She knows that they all noticed the file with their last name on it. On the way down to Harriet’s quarters, Stella has a panic attack in the elevator, which Harriet notices. Harriet soothingly tries to distract Stella, and Stella feels that in that moment at least, Harriet is her ally. In Harriet’s rooms, she is sure that she hears Rose yelling, “Hi!” but Harriet claims that the girl is upstairs. Stella reflects that the same thing happened to Tina on more than one occasion. She has engineered this encounter to let the family snoop in her file and provoke an enraged response, but she leaves the house feeling distinctly unsettled.