After admitting he killed his mother, Ethan grows calmer and explains the history behind the crime. He describes Gail Wiley as paranoid, alcoholic, and cruel, saying she constantly accused him of stealing and told him he was worthless. Needing money and knowing she had an insurance policy, Ethan finally acted when Gail was drunk and berating him: he pushed her down the stairs, left the scene, and waited a day before calling police so she would already be dead.

Tricia comforts Ethan instead of recoiling, and Ethan fears she must hate him. When Ethan says he hid the truth because he thought she would leave him, Tricia reveals that she already knew. Realizing she can no longer keep her own secrets, Tricia tells Ethan everything from the beginning: Cody and Alexis, her time as Dr. Adrienne Hale’s patient, Hale’s blackmail, the identity of the body under the floorboards, what happened to Hale, and why Tricia came back to the house during the blizzard.

Ethan listens in silence as Tricia confesses to multiple deaths and her role in the larger chain of crimes. Tricia worries she has made a terrible mistake and that Ethan may now turn her in. Instead, after thinking it over, Ethan decides that the immediate problem is Luke Strauss, because Luke knows too much. Ethan then takes Tricia’s hand and makes clear that he intends to help her handle Luke.

United by their shared crimes, Ethan and Tricia rise together to act. Ethan retrieves the carving knife he had left on the bookcase, and the two speak as if the house might become their home after all, signaling Tricia’s acceptance of this new future with him. Before joining Ethan, Tricia finds the cassette tape with her initials in her coat pocket and throws it into the fireplace, destroying one more piece of evidence and symbolically severing herself from her former self.