Dominic immediately decides that Rowan is lying about something, though he cannot yet tell what. Remembering how his grandfather taught him to recognize deceit, Dominic works his suspicions out physically by hitting a punching bag and considering what Rowan’s survival might mean for the family. He sees two possibilities: Rowan could become useful help during the island’s final difficult weeks, or she could bring danger, depending on what she is hiding.

Later, Dominic finds Raff in the laundry hand-scrubbing Rowan’s bloodstained sheets. Dominic asks Raff for his impression of Rowan, and together they watch Orly entertaining her outside. Raff says Rowan seems rough but understandable under the circumstances, then adds a more troubling detail: when he told Rowan that the researchers had already left Shearwater, she seemed worried in a way that suggested the news was unexpected. That reaction confirms Dominic’s unease, because it implies Rowan may have come to the island expecting to find other people there.

As the weather worsens and Rowan and Orly come back inside, Dominic thanks Raff and thinks about how little time remains. With only six weeks left before the island closes, Dominic wants nothing more than to keep his family stable long enough to reach the end of this failed season. Rowan’s unexplained arrival feels like a dangerous disruption to that fragile plan.

That night, Dominic pushes himself into extreme exhaustion because hard labor helps blunt both grief and worry. In bed, he imagines his dead wife beside him, hearing her comfort him and answer his fears. He wonders whether Rowan has come because she knows something, and he also worries that Orly is becoming attached to her by sleeping at the end of her bed. Dominic reveals another strain in the household when he thinks about sending Raff to bring dinner to Fen because he is too afraid of hurting Fen further if he faces her himself. Even as imagined intimacy with his wife finally carries him toward sleep, Dominic’s last thought remains fixed on Rowan and the unanswered question of why she is really on the island.