The Cutting Season

Caren believes that Raymond lied to her about knowing nothing about Jason’s disappearance. She returns to the Bell Vie archives room, now seeing the missing files as a sign of intentional cover-up of Tynan’s involvement in the Jason case.

Back at the apartment, Eric begins to talk to Caren about what happened between them, but he’s interrupted with news that they’re arraigning Donovan. They rush down to the courthouse and see Donovan, conspicuously unshaven and tired, with an unfamiliar lawyer who looks too expensive to be court-appointed. The judge reads the charge: homicide, not trespassing as Caren had believed, leaving her stunned. Donovan pleads not guilty. Caren realizes his videotapes from the night of the murder will provide evidence and shouts after him, asking where they can be found. As he's led away, he shouts back to find his grandmother and tell her he’s innocent.

Caren goes straight to Donovan’s grandmother Betty Collier’s house, where the octogenarian is gardening on her knees, complaining that policeman had trampled everything while searching her home. She’s deeply upset about everything. She seems to sadly believe the charges against Donovan. She tells Caren that Raymond provided him with a lawyer, for which she’s grateful. As Betty pours herself some whiskey, Caren looks around the small house she shares with Donovan and easily finds the tapes she was looking for—two DVDs on Donovan’s floor.

Back home with Eric, Caren watches the videos. She’s deeply moved by Donovan’s work in progress, which brings Jason’s history to life—played by the Belle Vie cast, of course. The last 35 seconds of footage, however, are from the night of the murder. As Donovan is waiting around for the no-show cast and shooting B reel, he zooms in, with great surprise, on a distant pair of headlights in the fields right near where Ines was found.