This Must Be the Place

Following his mother’s death in 1986, Daniel’s father takes all of Teresa’s things to the thrift shop without giving Daniel an opportunity to take anything for himself. After a drunken argument with his father, Daniel storms out, determined never to come back. He spends several days with friends and family, drowning his sorrows and visiting the thrift shop daily to try to find his mother’s belongings. On the day he is arrested, he takes a comb that he believes belonged to her accidentally without paying. He goes to the cemetery and sees a man, likely Johnny Demarco, standing at his mother’s grave. The man looks at him with understanding even though Daniel is staggering, dirty, and in ripped clothing. After trying to call Nicola from a phone booth and hearing Todd’s voice instead, Daniel is arrested. His eldest sister bails him out the next day.

In the present, Daniel goes to Paris, where Claudette has taken the children. When he arrives, he spends the night in a hotel and calls Claudette’s mother’s apartment the next morning. Claudette answers, and he asks to meet. She yells and hangs up on him, but he goes anyway.

Ari, Calvin, and Marithe arrive first, with Claudette following. He explains everything about Nicola, initially omitting the other woman that caused their breakup. After Claudette extracts that last bit of information, she is unsure of how to feel about him and their marriage. He desperately tries to show her that he loves her and is committed to her as the children arrive, hungry and bored.

Back in the past, Nicola and Daniel sit together at a London café just before she has the abortion. Daniel asks her about a recent interview, initially avoiding the issue. He gets closer to her and tells her that she doesn’t have to do this, that they can have the baby. A part of her wants to agree, but her pragmatic side wins out.

On the gurney in the clinic, she tells the nurse and the anesthesiologist that she’s changed her mind, but they continue with the procedure.

In 2013, Niall goes to Donegal after Phoebe has been killed in an armed robbery. He arrives at Claudette’s house after a long climb, following the map that Daniel gave him at the funeral. When he gets there, Marithe comes around the house, shocking Niall in how similar she looks to Phoebe. Marithe tells Niall that Daniel lives in London now and gets her cousin, Zhilan, who suggests that he leave his number so that Claudette can call him. He collapses from grief, shock, and dehydration. They bring him inside, and Claudette makes him tea and tells him that he’s welcome and can stay as long as he likes.

In 2013, Claudette and Daniel have separated. While Niall takes Marithe and Calvin on a trip, Claudette wanders through the empty Donegal house thinking of Daniel and what went wrong in their marriage. She finds a packet of his coffee and falls to the floor in tears. She walks on the beach with the dogs and remembers how Daniel taught Ari to skip stones the first day they spent together. She calls her mother, who counsels her to move to Paris and not get back together with Daniel until he’s gotten better. Finally, she calls Daniel in London.

At the same time, Daniel is still reeling from the grief of Phoebe’s death and his separation from Claudette. He’s on compassionate leave from work. He wakes up with a splitting headache and finds some homeopathic pills that Claudette gave him when Phoebe died. He goes to the grocery store but leaves without buying anything. He sits on a park bench, drinking whiskey and taking the pills. His first thought when he found out that Phoebe died was that it was his fault for the way he treated Nicola. Ari came to see him, cleaned his kitchen, and stocked his refrigerator. He goes home and hears the phone ringing but can’t find his keys. When he finally does, the phone stops ringing.