Check out our episode here! There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
There is an egg-shaped timer on the welcome mat when Haley Whitehall gets home. That’s strange, both her mother and father are out and when she picks it up, there is a faint warmth on its surface. Haley is then distracted by her phone ringing, her friend Brooke calling to find out how rehearsal went with the very enthusiastic drama teacher for the production of Sweeney Todd. Short answer: messy. As Haley is chatting and preparing a snack, she notices a single butter knife in the dishwasher and no other dirty dishes either in the machine or the sink. Strange. On her way to her room, she kicks the egg timer, now on the bottom step of the stairs. Placing it on the counter, Haley decides she needs a nap, so she ends her call with Brooke and heads to her bed. Haley is woken by the egg timer going off on her bedside table.
The next morning the school is buzzing about Haley Whitehall’s murder and Ollie Larsson's pink hair. Apparently in small town Osborne, Nebraska, a boy with pink hair is as newsworthy as a brutal slaying. Makani Young and her friends Darby and Alex are discussing the rumors including Ollie using the blood of his victim to dye his hair. Despite Makani knowing that’s not how hair dye works, she doesn’t like the murders being linked to Ollie because, since her arrival in Osborne, she’s had a thing for him, and her friends know it. In fact she had a fling with Ollie last summer, and her friends don’t know about that. Ollie is a loner so the rumor mill surrounding him is rife. Makani knows something of being the center of the rumors herself and, for self-preservation, she avoids most of her classmates. She recently moved from Hawaii to Nebraska to live with her grandmother as her parents go through a very messy divorce. But that’s not the whole story.
The only topic of conversation is speculation on who killed Haley, a serial killer? Ollie with his pink hair? A secret boyfriend? Her understudy in the show? A family member? A fellow student? It’s scary because Haley’s death doesn’t seem real, but at the same time, it could happen to any one of them. A fight during lunch by some jocks showcases the tension everyone is feeling, and while everyone seems to be watching the jocks, Makani spots Ollie, alone again. She goes over and speaks to him for the first time since school started, and since their summer together. Though it isn’t smooth and really they should have talked long before this, when Makani turns away, Ollie reaches out to her and takes her arm.
After school, Makani finds her grandma working on a jigsaw puzzle waiting for the news to hear updates on the murder. We learn about grandma’s “problem,” ever since her husband died she has had episodes of sleepwalking. The last one, which spurred Makani’s parents into sending her to Nebraska, involved the neighbors' walnut tree at 3am, sharp pruning shears and the neighbor losing the tip of his nose... But that was over a year ago and she’s not had an episode since. Makani’s grandma also insists she is not the one leaving the kitchen cabinets open so it must be Makani and she should show some respect, though Makani denies responsibility too. Makani also isn’t the one misplacing tools and unlocking doors. *Pointed glare at Grandma.* Makani likes to be needed though, however, it backfired in July.
July was the start of her… whatever it was… with Ollie. Makani had gone to the grocery store where he works. All through her shop they gave each other looks but when she’d loaded up her grandma’s car with the purchase and caught him seemingly laughing at her, Makani called him out. Turns out he was laughing at himself for being too nervous to speak to her. They start talking about the travel book he’s reading and then Makani starts volunteering to do the weekly shopping. They made out every week on top of the milk crates until it rained and it moved to the backseat of her grandma’s car. The last time they met up, they drove to a cornfield for privacy while they had sex.
As Makani and her grandma sit down to dinner, Makani’s phone buzzes with a message. It’s Ollie. Lying to her grandma about who it is, Makani leaves the table to “talk.” In their exchange, Makani realizes they’ve both been dumb and made assumptions about each others' feelings. When Ollie tries to call, her grandma catches her and calls her out. No, it’s not your mom or Alex, who is it? Reluctantly Makani tells her it’s a boy, Ollie. Her grandma taught Ollie’s older brother who is now a cop and Ollie’s legal guardian after their parents died in a car wreck. Her grandma doesn’t seem to have a problem with her granddaughter seeing Ollie, though she wants to meet him. Later that night, after what was most likely cats in the yard leave Makani unsettled, she talks to Ollie again. Yeah, they’ve been real dumb, but now they’ve declared that they like each and they want more than just sex.
They end up talking for hours, really getting to know each other where they hadn’t bothered before. In the morning, Makani tells Alex and Darby everything. They are wary of Ollie, especially since he got her number from his cop brother rather than just asking for it, but they extend an olive branch when Ollie sits with them before Haley’s memorial and again at lunch. Alex grills Ollie over what he knows about Haley’s death, and it's not good. He found out, by snooping through his brother's police files and overhearing conversations, that Haley was found with a smiley face with Xs for eyes cut into her throat, severing her vocal cords. Haley didn’t struggle and thankfully wasn’t violated.
Later, Alex and Darby warn Makani to be careful around Ollie. They don’t know him very well, but they don’t actually know Makani fully either because they don’t know what happened back in Hawaii. Ollie drives Makani home after school and meets her grandma. She seems to really like him and invites him over to complete jigsaw puzzles anytime. They end the evening making out on the hood of Ollie’s decommissioned Crown Vic (his brother's old car and a gift from the department after their parents died) in front of an ocean of corn fields.
Matt Butler, star football player, is sick and tired. Coach Hooker is hounding him, the Principal is on his back, his teammates are being dicks, his girlfriend is playing on the death of Haley to get attention. To top it all off he’s not sure if it’s stress or CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, causing him to misplace his stuff. Alone in the locker room, Matt heads to his locker after his shower stepping over his dirty practice clothes on the way, but when he gets to his locker his combination lock is missing, and so is his duffle bag. Searching around, he can’t see anyone or anything else misplaced. Then he can’t find his dirty clothes. Grabbing a landline telephone off the wall, Matt tries to call home for assistance but gets the answering machine. Suddenly everything goes silent, then someone whimpers. At the far end of the locker bay a lone figure wearing a hoodie sits with their back to the room, it looks like they’re crying. As Matt sees their face, a knife cuts through his abdomen. Collapsing to the ground the figure looms over Matt before plunging the knife into his skull. The figure shows Matt a newspaper cutting, one he’d carried in his backpack until it went missing a few weeks ago. The last thing Matt knew was a large sawtooth hunting knife carving the circumference of his head before his brain was slashed to mush and his skull neatly replaced.
Matt was killed during Haley’s memorial so nearly two hundred people saw the emergency services arrive. The next day the only topics of conversation at school are the murders and speculation as to who committed them and why where the victims chosen? Love triangle? Secret relationships? Being popular? Competition? The police are questioning everyone from admin to faculty to students. Makani is one of the last and Officer Chris Larsson specifically asked to interview her because he wanted to meet the girl his little brother has a crush on. The questions are pretty standard, so you know the victims, have you ever talked to them, where were you between 6pm and 7pm yesterday (making out with your brother). The only question that seems to make Makani uncomfortable is if she has any familiarity with hunting and hunting knives. She doesn’t, but her memories make her sick and she rushes to the washroom after Chris lets her go to calm down. Outside, Ollie is waiting with her backpack. They’re going to cut out the last twenty minutes of school together.
Making it to Ollie’s car through the barrage of reporters asking dumb questions, Makani confesses that she doesn’t want to head home yet so Ollie takes her to his place past the cornfields that once belonged to his family’s farm. Makani flicks through some of the police reports on the murders, but it’s gruesome reading and the pictures are horrific. The police think someone smaller than Matt is the killer as the stabs to the abdomen were possibly meant to bring Matt down to the killer's level. Leaving any thoughts and conversation over the murders downstairs, Makani and Ollie head to his room where Ollie finds out Makani had a boyfriend back in Hawaii but that didn’t last and Makani finds out Ollie has never had a girlfriend, sex yeah, but not a girlfriend, and his room is cluttered with books. As things start to get hot and heavy, Chris walks in. Awkward. However Chris is more worried about Ollie and Makani not being where they should be with a killer running around than any hanky-panky they may be trying to get up to.
Makani later has a very infuriating phone call with Darby where he, on behalf of himself and Alex, wants to again highlight Ollie’s creepiness such as getting her number from his brother. Also, that she should be careful he isn’t using her for his grand murderous master plan, after all Matt humiliated him in front of everyone a few days ago and Haley rejected him when he asked her out four years ago! Whilst Makani respects and appreciates them looking out for her, she doesn’t like their shit-talking behind her back or these ridiculous accusations. Makani stomps around the house, picking up yesterday’s shoes which somehow were on the bottom step and yesterday's socks lying beside the closet door. When Ollie comes over before his shift at the grocery store, he helps Makani’s grandma with her jigsaw puzzle while the local news plays in the background. As bored as Makani is, she appreciates Ollie spending time with her and her grandma, and when she sees the boy she likes high-five her grandma over a jigsaw piece, Makani knows there is no way that boy could also be a murderer.
Rodrigo Morales finally has the house to himself. Parents are in Vegas for the weekend and all his older sisters have all moved out. The TV is his all his, so it’s zombie killing time. Chugging an energy drink while texting a friend who's somewhere watching anime, Rodrigo heads back to his game, headphones on and volume up high. An hour later, Rodrigo is fast asleep. He suddenly wakes up with the sun streaming in and death metal roaring in his ears and knocks a can of energy drink onto his mum's expensive rug. He doesn’t remember bringing one through… or completely re-arranging the furniture. What is going on?! Rodrigo thinks it could be a prank but also considers calling the police. He doesn’t have the chance though as a figure in a black hoodie is standing unnaturally still in his kitchen. The figure lunges and plunges a knife straight through Rodrigo’s heart and back out. Then again, and again, and again. Rodrigo lies on the ground like a slaughtered animal before the figure drags him into his gaming chair, slices off Rodrigo’s ears before stuffing them into the headphones and placing them around Rodrigo’s neck. They then pick up the controller and resume the game. They’ve got time.
After Rodrigo’s murder, everything changes. School is closed and the students are urged to group together or stay with a parent. Businesses turn their signs to ‘closed,’ the streets are quiet and families stay home together. Every student is a potential target and the news goes national with a serial killer on the loose. Ollie calls at noon, he’s at the station doing paperwork for Chris as both punishment for skipping out of school early and so his brother can be sure he’s safe before his shift. He updates Makani on what he’s heard about Rodrigo. The killer left a footprint and butt-print in Rodrigo’s blood as they sat for five hours playing on Rodrigo’s PlayStation. The police think all the victims knew their killer. That afternoon Makani and her grandma visit Alex and Darby at work. Makani wants to check on Alex who had a huge crush on Rodrigo and also mend things since their fight. It’s a welcome gesture but it's clear to Makani that Alex and Darby still suspect Ollie.
After some former-teacher debate, Grandma Young sends Makani into school so she may see a sleep specialist in Omaha. The classrooms are half empty, it feels melancholy, and social boundaries are crossed as grief is displayed in all sorts of ways. While Darby and Alex aren’t in school, Makani notices others seem to keep their distance from Ollie. Is it just low attendance or distrust? When Makani gets a check-in text from her Grandma, Ollie tells her how Chris and the other officers worked in complete silence at Rodrigo’s house with only the constant sound of calls and texts on Rodrigo’s phone filling the silence. It was eerie. During last period, the principal announces over the loudspeaker their gratitude to those who came in, and says that school will remain open. They also announce a little bit of good news! Rosemarie Holt won the barrel race last weekend at the Sloane County Championship Rodeo. Ollie comments that she needs to watch out because the killer seems to like their victims to be talented.
Grandma Young is going to be late getting home so Makani asks Ollie to come over, not Darby as Grandma asks. They also leave his car at school for a sneaky getaway and walk the short distance to her house. The irony is not lost. As they go upstairs to her room, Ollie looking somewhat wistfully at the incomplete puzzle on the coffee table, Makani receives another text from her Grandma who is stuck in traffic, leaving them plenty of time to have sex. Later, while Ollie is sleeping, another text from Grandma comes through. She is still stuck in slow moving traffic and at least an hour away. A powerful thirst sends Makani to the kitchen for a glass of water where she finds the cutlery drawer open. It wasn’t open before, was it? Wary now, she goes to pee, and when Makani comes back to the kitchen she finds the drawer is open again and her water glass is empty. Makani feels very afraid. Refilling the glass, Makani turns to head upstairs and notices the jigsaw puzzle has been completed. Convinced her Grandma must be home, Makani slams the glass on a counter and calls out, but it’s silent. When she turns back, the glass is gone. Makani now starts looking for her Grandma’s car outside and checking the rooms. The glass is back on the counter though and all the cupboards and drawers are open. Makani knows the killer is there, and knows the killer has been gaslighting them. Stumbling towards the stairs, a figure wearing a hoodie and holding a large knife steps out from behind the grandfather clock.
Makani screams loud enough to rattle the pictures on the wall causing the figure to jump. The killer comes for Makani and she lunges away, screaming again. Ollie comes barreling down the stairs, naked, startling the killer who obviously thought Makani was alone. Makani slams into the killer, knocking him to the floor, knocking the knife out of his hand, and revealing his face. She knows it, but can’t place it. The killer thrashes and kicks and all three grapple. Then a fourth joins the fray as Grandma Young has returned. Unfortunately, the killer has retrieved the knife and plunges it into Grandma’s abdomen. While Makani tries to protect her Grandma further, the killer breaks free and then makes a run for it. Ollie calls the police and tells them the killer is David Ware, Rodrigo’s best friend.
The rest of the evening seems to pass in a blur of blazing lights and questions as emergency services and reporters arrive. Grandma Young is rushed to surgery as Makani is interviewed by the police. Makani feels the karmic cycle of life has circled back and she’s receiving her final punishment from what happened in Hawaii. For hours, Makani waits alone in the hospital while her Grandma is in surgery. She has no phone so she can’t contact Ollie or her friends, and the police have been trying to contact her parents with no luck. The TV was a bad idea as it’s filled with the attack, pictures of David splashed about and interviews with her neighbors. At last, Grandma Young is out of surgery and doing well, though she will be in the hospital for three weeks. When Makani is allowed to see her Grandma, Chris and Ollie come to visit soon after with a bunch of balloons. Chris thanks her for helping Makani and Ollie, but Grandma Young emphatically says Ollie was the real hero. Finally Makani gets her phone. There are a lot of messages and voicemails, Alex and Darby are hugely apologetic for ever suspecting Ollie, social media has exploded and her name is being splashed everywhere. Right now, Makani can’t deal with it all. There are however no messages from either of her parents. Thankfully Chris invites Makani to stay at their place.
Makani doesn’t sleep well that night and is very jumpy, which makes sense considering a serial killer wants her dead. Ollie sneaks into bed with her and holds her until morning. At dawn, Makani and Ollie give up trying to sleep and head to the kitchen where Chris is making coffee and tells them they still haven’t found David yet. Makani tries to recall David, but he was a nothing guy. Everyone who knows him, though, is blindsided. Chris gives Makani and Ollie detailed plans for where they should be all day because he can’t take any chances of them being attacked again.
At Grandma Young’s house, the reporters are swarming and the police are everywhere, but Makani is able to pick up essentials for her stay at Chris and Ollie’s house. At the hospital, Grandma Young is looking better though she’s besieged by phone calls from reporters and her church group. As Makani and Ollie arrive, she’s just ended one call telling her of the plans for a memorial service on Main Street that afternoon. Makani and Ollie think it sounds brave, and it is, but Grandma Young thinks efforts should be made to catch the killer first then celebrate.
Makani has a terrible phone call with her mom, who basically victim-blames her and treats her as an inconvenience. Even Grandma Young knows her own daughter is a raging narcissist who married an asshole. It’s a good thing Makani has her and can always depend on her. Ollie leaves them to have a moment together but it’s interrupted by Alex and Darby who are happy to see Makani alive and squeal at Ollie for helping save her life. They even brought doughnuts! Moving their group to the waiting room, they talk about the Ollie running naked after a murderer but more seriously how they would never have suspected David as he seemed so normal and boring but he must be angry and hurt. Something must have made him snap. But why did he go after Makani? Makani takes a deep breath and tells her friends her name wasn’t always Makani Young…
Back in Hawaii, her name was Makani Kanekalau and was on the varsity swim team who had a tradition of hazing the rookies. Makani and the others new to varsity were kidnapped and taken to the beach. Typically you would be given the heads up and dressed appropriately as parents are informed, but Makani’s parents are assholes. Makani was made to take off her pajama shorts, exposing her underwear to everyone. The veteran teammates wrote derogatory words on the rookies’ foreheads: SLUT, NYMPHO, CUNT, BITCH and WHORE, and those were the only names they were to respond to from then on. If they failed, then they had to drink a shot of alcohol. They were forced to perform the exercises from swim team while the veterans tried to trick them and make them take shots of vodka with every mistake. Makani felt resentful toward her best friend Jasmine who was kidnapped looking great and dressed appropriately. It must be nice having parents who actually care. Things get worse when one of the veterans runs to get a knife to open a can of dog food which they mix with the vodka and sickly sweet honey to smear on the rookies. The concoction makes Makani sick and her resentment towards Jasmine keeps building. The trials continue to get worse as hot sauce is poured into Makani’s eyes while she performs sit ups, which is excruciatingly painful. Someone pours water into her eyes and, with blurry vision, she sees another bottle between the bonfire and the knife. Jasmine reaches for the bottle before Makani can get to it and swats her ponytail across Makani’s eyes. Makani snatches up the knife, grabs Jasmine's ponytail and slices it right off.
Makani tells her friends that Jasmine was so drunk that she almost drowned. In the chaos of what was going on, Jasmine freaked out and ran into the ocean, and Makani didn’t go to help her. The Captain, as drunk as she was, finally saw what had happened, dove in and performed CPR. Makani was taken to the police station and was nearly charged with third-degree assault, was suspended from school and kicked off the swim team. Because Makani was a minor, her name was kept out of the news, but she lost her best friend, her boyfriend, and she received threats of rape, scalping and death. The DA got the charges dropped and her record expunged, actually using the phrase “kids will be kids,” but everyone turned on her and she had to leave Hawaii for Nebraska.
Alex and Darby take Makani’s revelation in stride and don’t think what Makani did is in any way comparable to David’s actions. Jasmine may hate Makani for the rest of her life, but she has a life. One bad night does not make someone a bad person. The assumption at this point is that David found out about Makani’s past and tried to get vigilante justice? But that doesn’t make too much sense with his other victims. Rodrigo was an internet troll to women in gaming though he’d recently stopped. Matt was the ringleader of the jocks and didn’t stop them from being assholes but what about Haley? Then they start thinking about who David’s next victim might be and Zachary Loup is top of the list. He’s a little like Ollie in that he’s a loner, but Zachary is definitely an asshole.
Ollie drops Chris a text with their suspicions, meanwhile Darby drops Alex off at school for band practice. Chris reports that Zachary is home safe with his mom’s boyfriend; however, Darby swears he just saw him at the school. Deciding to check it out themselves, Makani and Ollie head to the school, leaving a not-lie lie at the nurses’ desk for Grandma Young.
Zachary Loup was stoned and avoiding his mother’s latest loser boyfriend by coming to the memorial, but memorial is a loose term for the spectacle around him. Zachary used to be friends with David back when they were neighbors. He always remembered that David would hold his anger until he snapped and had seen David in a rage. Getting a GET HOME NOW text from his mom which he ignores, Zachary spies a very pretty girl heading straight for him. Meanwhile, Caleb Greeley, son of the pastor, overachiever and marching-band member, can’t find his plume. The marching band is about to go and they need to look good. He must have left it in the grocery store!
Zachary is standing with Katie Kutzman, one of the smart and friendly girls at school. She’s also hot. Some guy spills a slush over her arms which doesn’t really bother Katie and he does apologize, but Zachary calls him out for it anyway. Katie gives Zachary the last memorial candle from her box and tells him she has to head home to look after her little brother and sister. After he’s finished being an asshole to Katie, too, and she’s walked off, Zachery sees a flash of camo in the store across the street but puts it down to his stoned and addled mind. Inside the store, Caleb can’t see his plume anywhere then he hears the drums start. He needs to get back outside and stop thinking this is about him, it’s not. The memorial is to show school pride and is for the victims. But then, everything suddenly is about him.
Zachary is bombarded by Makani, Ollie and Darby who are making sure he’s still alive. He is, and points out that Makani and Ollie are fucking, and asks why they hell are they here again. They think he will be the next victim because he’s an asshole though Zachary doesn’t think that likely since he and David go way back. In the store, David is standing in front of Caleb with his missing plume in his hand. Caleb tries to run as the band plays the school's graduation song, but David reaches him before he can get to the exit. The knife goes into his back and is ripped downward. No one can hear the screams or the pounding on the glass. David drags Caleb from view to finish his work.
With Zachary on his way home and Darby dropping Alex off, Makani and Ollie have a few moments of quiet together before Chris comes to pick them up. We now learn about Ollie’s secret past. After his parents died, he was lost in booze and weed at age sixteen. He ended up having an affair with a twenty-three year old he met at the local bar where if you weren’t a regular, you weren’t allowed. Chris was seriously pissed about it and stopped it, however Ollie was still abusing drugs. It wasn’t until he tried to kill himself in the river that he realized he wanted to live and took the professional help Chris got him. Taking comfort in each other, Makani and Ollie start to kiss when Makani spots blood on the doors of the grocery store and Ollie sees movement inside. Makani calls Chris on Ollie’s phone as they head inside to find Caleb indecently displayed on top of the football team’s merchandise stand slashed up, his hands removed, laced together and placed over his heart. Chris is screaming at them over the phone while Makani whispers David Ware just went out the back exit.
Katie is now in her basement about to clean the spilled slush off her sweater when something makes her pause. An empty tuna can is on the windowsill making it seem like someone had been sitting there eating the contents and listening to Katie and her family while they were upstairs. Deciding against this particular chore right now, Katie leaves but not before putting a can of paint on the windowsill instead. Saying ‘goodbye’ to her mom who is leaving for work at the hospital, Katie heads to the bathroom to pee and change her tampon. As she’s sitting, trying to reach the box, Katie notices all her stuff has been pushed to the back. Ugggh. Her mom has been guilt cleaning again. As Katie is getting changed she hears a thump from downstairs but dismisses it as her siblings. Once the twins are safely in bed, Katie sits down to her college applications when she hears a noise coming from the basement steps. She instantly thinks it must be David Ware and starts to call the police. Katie and David throw themselves at the basement door at the same time, unfortunately David managed to open it a crack and was able to bust through. They struggle together but David plunges his knife into Katie’s liver, his rage fueling him. He shouts in her face, why won’t you scream but Katie can’t utter her response that she doesn't want to wake her siblings. When Katie is dead, David cracks open her ribs and cuts out her heart placing it on top of the college brochures. Katie had set her heart on going to college.
The call about Katie comes in when Makani, Ollie and Chris are at the Larsson house. Her mom found her when she came home to check on them since Katie wasn’t responding to any texts. The twins were still asleep upstairs. As Chris needs to help the investigation, he drops Makani and Ollie off at the hospital to sit with Grandma Young who is asleep on pain meds. The latest murders are all over the news as well as footage showing David getting out of Katie’s stolen car at a truck stop then climbing into a cab of a truck headed back to Osborne. Similar to his previous escape, David went up river, not down as the police suspected, then doubled back to the grocery store and snuck in with a key he’d stolen from Caleb a while back. Makani and Ollie can’t figure out the link between the murders because Katie was the nicest person.
Soon it’s All Hallows’ Eve. Makani and Ollie sleep on Chris’s bedroom floor and Chris sleeps in his bed. The corn maze has been turned into a haunted maze with proceeds going to the victims’ families, and the national guard has been called in to help security at the football game. When Chris has to leave for work, Makani and Ollie are to stay with Grandma Young at the hospital. En route, a panicked call from Alex diverts them to the school. Fuck everything, Alex can’t be normal when there is a fucking serial killer on the fucking loose. Together they drive to the hospital and meet Darby in the car park. Before going in, they wonder if the victims are actually based on overachieving, or being the best because that would put Rosemarie Holt, rodeo queen, in David’s crosshairs. She lives on the other side of the cornfield from the Larsson house so together they head over.
Rosemarie is in the stables calming the horses from all the loud noises the rednecks decked out for Halloween are making in the cornfields. It’s ridiculous, a killer is at large. Rosemarie has always considered herself unflappable, but this situation is different and not like a few months ago when her new saddle strap broke and she was hurt in a fall doing a trick. It was the strangest thing. As Rosemarie starts mucking out the stables, she notices a pitchfork has moved, her bucket is gone, and there is someone else in the stable with her. David Ware steps out of the shadows, his huge knife gleaming. Rosemarie tightens her grip on the pitchfork. She isn’t about to be killed by a pathetic boy with a stupid knife. She lunges the pitchfork forward and into David who is stunned and turns to flee. Rosemarie cautiously steps forward, pitchfork first. Just past the door, David grabs the handle and tries to wrestle the tool from her, but he put the knife down to do so and Rosemarie makes a grab for it, taking a slice across her thigh. Everything turns into a daze then as bright lights hit both Rosemarie and David straight on as a car comes barreling toward them.
Ollie took his Crown Vic off road to get to Rosemarie’s stables. The crowds of tourists wanting to get to the cornfield Halloween festivities had hampered them and blocked the roads. The spotlight on the Crown Vic highlights Rosemarie and David locked in a struggle. Alex throws herself screaming into the fray as Makani comes in from the other side. It’s all arms, legs and a slashing knife. As they come apart and David runs into the corn maze, Ollie chasing after him, Darby and Makani realize Alex is dead, her vertebrae are clearly visible and her head is nearly completely severed.
Makani and Darby give chase leaving a still alive Rosemarie to contact the police. The maze is filled with David Ware costumes and people thinking Makani and Darby are part of the show. They’re finally able to convince someone that David Ware is loose in the maze which starts the panicked clear out. Makani and Darby manage to find Ollie and David grappling. Makani screams and kicks David in the head which separates them for a moment before David charges her. Brooke, Haley’s friend, pours a bucket of fake blood over them trying to help. David points at Darby telling him he had considered killing him before Makani came to town, then he lunges forward and lashes at Darby causing him to go down as a wound appears in his chest. Ollie covers Makani and suffers the same fate. Ollie and Darby are dead. David screams that they’ll be stuck in Osborne forever now while he gets to escape, he’ll be famous as he raises the knife toward Makani.
Makani ducks and runs for her life with David chasing her all the way. She runs through the carnival style grounds and toward the corn pit, diving in and swim-running though. David stands on the edge, watching her. He doesn’t see Darby running though holding an iron folk-art skeleton or the blow to the head he delivers knocking David into the pit. Is he dead? Darby runs for help while Makani wades toward the body. She sees his knife and picks it up as David turns over on his back, his eyes unfocused. He tells Makani she doesn’t have it in her as she raises the knife. He doesn’t know her.
But… Makani isn’t a monster. One bad night didn’t make her a monster. David is a monster. As he lunges for her, Makani drives the knife into his back. He can’t escape. He was jealous of all those people who would be able to leave their small town. He didn’t rip the community apart, he died in Osborne and will be buried in Osborne. Chris and the rest of the police arrive and he rushes off to find Ollie. As Makani is being pulled from the pit, Chris comes through on the police radio and says that Ollie is still alive.