The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

Nolan questions Baldwin about events surrounding Wayne’s disappearance. However, admissions to the hospital and deaths on the premises are reported to general practitioners; as a psychiatrist, Baldwin has no knowledge of Wayne’s movements. Sage asks what they want her to know about Eddie; Baldwin wants to show her rather than tell her.

They drive to House Thirteen, an adult ward for patients who have outgrown the child wards. Baldwin leads them into a consultation room and an attendant brings in a resident—Eddie. Nolan tells Eddie that Sage said he went to her apartment and spent the night. Eddie doesn’t confirm it. Baldwin explains that Eddie was left in Grand Central Station when he was nine with a sign around his neck asking to bring him to Willowbrook. He has been a resident ever since. He was never taught to drive, so he couldn’t have been driving Sage in a car. Sage begs Eddie to tell them the truth, but he claims not to know what she’s talking about. As Sage gets increasingly upset, Baldwin suggests she be admitted for a couple of days. She begs Nolan not to leave her there. Baldwin sends Eddie out and tells Sage he wants to help her.

Nolan leaves the room to find out what the patrolman learned from the diner waitress. The waitress is out of town, so Nolan decides to leave Sage in Willowbrook while Social Services finds her a foster home. Sage faints.

Sage wakes in a small private room. She runs to the door and pounds on it, begging to be released, but no one comes. Eventually, she hears a key in the lock and Eddie opens the door.

He’s stolen the keys for every door in Willowbrook, so he comes and goes as he pleases. He’s defensive when she confronts him—he only lied so they wouldn’t take his keys and his freedom. Even though he can leave freely, he has an obligation to help everyone at Willowbrook by trying to expose its atrocities, and by killing residents to release them. He murdered Rosemary because she couldn’t stand life at Willowbrook anymore. He killed Evie because she was cheating on her husband, who was a father figure to Eddie. He killed Alan and the other people outside of Willowbrook because they were cruel to their children or others. He says Sage should call him Cropsey; he uses that story to try to get Willowbrook shut down. He blackmailed Evie to move Rosemary’s body; he was going to frame Wayne for Rosemary’s death, but killing him served his purpose more effectively.

Sage begs him to let her go, but he tells her to choose one of his closed fists. The one she points at has a switchblade that looks like lipstick. Eddie attacks Sage, knocking her onto the bed and slashing her arms. She bites his hand, sticks her thumb into his eye, and kicks him until he drops the knife and falls off the bed. She scrambles for the knife and stabs him in the side. When he comes for her again, Sage stabs him in the neck. Eddie falls to the ground, unconscious and bleeding. She examines her wounds, searches his body for the keys, and opens the door.

Later, in Willowbrook’s hospital, Sage pushes away the food on her tray, looking at the bandages covering her stitched-up arms. Nolan comes in and she begs him to get her out. He promises she won’t be committed, but she needs to spend the night to receive IV fluids. The police have found the stolen Mustang, whose owner was murdered. Eddie is in a coma. Sage tells Nolan that Eddie considered himself Cropsey and that he is responsible for many missing kids in addition to the recent murder victims. She asks what will happen to Baldwin; Nolan says there’s a possible class action lawsuit from parents of residents.

A social worker from Children’s Aid of New York comes to help figure out where Sage will stay when she leaves Willowbrook. Sage suggests they contact her father, though she doesn’t know his address or phone number. Until they find him or find a foster family, Sage will have to go to a children’s home. Sage panics even after she’s reassured that children’s homes aren’t like Willowbrook.

Sage waits in the hospital room the next morning to be released. Nolan comes in with Dawn and Heather, who hug her and apologize for not coming to find her and for what they said about Cropsey. Sage says it’s not their fault and that she should have told them where she was going.

Then, Sage’s father comes into the room. Nolan found him and told him what happened. Her father explains that he fought for visitation, but her mother prevented him from having a relationship with her and Rosemary. When Sage’s mother died, her father was working overseas; because he’d never gotten a response to the letters he’d sent, he thought Sage didn’t want anything to do with him. Sage can live with him and his wife for as long as she likes, and her friends can visit any time. Sage breaks down into tears of relief, but also guilt that she has been rescued while the thousands of residents at Willowbrook are still stuck there.

Four months later, Sage, her father, and her stepmother Cathy visit Rosemary’s grave. Sage feels the loss of her sister deeply. She has decided not to think of Rosemary as suffering in Willowbrook, but to remember how she was before she was sent away. When her father bends to say goodbye to Rosemary, Sage knows they can heal together.

The narrative flashes 15 years forward.

Sage looks out of her window, enjoying the fresh air. A lasting effect of her time at Willowbrook is a need for clean spaces and access to the outdoors. Her husband has taken their sons and daughter out to give her the morning before they all go to celebrate Cathy’s birthday. Sage is deeply grateful to Cathy for helping her through the grief and trauma, and for encouraging her to go to college.

Sage opens the paper and reads an article about the final dismantling of Willowbrook, named the Staten Island Developmental Center in 1987. After a lawsuit in 1972, the state agreed to decrease the number of patients significantly and to rehouse all patients into new facilities by 1992. As a social worker, Sage has spent her career finding safe foster homes and healthy placements for former residents of Willowbrook.

She reads a second article about the suicide of Eddie King, who had murdered over 90 people. She hopes that now that he’s died, her nightmares and fear will fade. She throws the article away and prepares to go buy a gift for Cathy’s birthday.

The narrative flashes forward to the time after Sage’s death at 89.

Sage’s obituary shows that she lived a long and successful life both personally and professionally. She is survived by her husband, four children, and five grandchildren. She spent most of her professional life fighting for the former residents of Willowbrook, even when she encountered significant adversity.