We Are Okay

In New York, a winter storm descends on the campus. The girls are snowed into Marin’s dorms. Mabel naps, but Marin lies awake because of her anxiety and guilt. She knows Mabel has come all of this way, even after Marin’s silence and distance, and she feels terrible that she cannot say yes to Mabel’s family’s kind offer. Eventually, she goes to the kitchen to make quesadillas for them. Later, Mabel suggests that they put Marin’s plant into its new pot, but Marin stops her before she can go into the bag and see the bell. She tells Marin that she has a present for her, too, but that she’ll have to come home to California to get it. When Marin avoids her gaze, she asks if there’s some huge secret she doesn’t know about. She shows Marin a picture of a bedroom door that Ana has painted Marin’s name onto; they have redone a bedroom to be officially Marin’s.

Marin, still unable to speak of her feelings, asks Mabel to talk about anything else. Mabel brings up her art history class and her growing appreciation for Mexican art, particularly Frida Kahlo. She describes and then shows the painting The Two Fridas to Marin, and they discuss possible interpretations for the painting. Marin suggests several complex possibilities and asks if it wouldn’t be better if the answer was clearer and simpler. Mabel quickly denies this, saying she loves the painting more now. She again questions Marin’s new interest in Natural Sciences, but before Marin can answer, the lights in the dorm go out.

The girls try to adapt to the blackout by putting on jackets and blankets, lighting candles, and turning off their phones to conserve the batteries. As Marin goes to turn hers off, she gets a call from the groundskeeper, who has driven to the dorms. He invites the girls back to his on-campus housing, where he has a fireplace, an oven that heats the house, and a fold-out couch. Marin thinks about how long it’s been since she’s been in a home and studies all the personal touches and items. She thinks, too, about the sentimental possessions she left behind in California after she left, wondering if someone kept them.

The groundskeeper, Tommy, offers supper and then retreats to his bedroom to wrap presents and go to bed early. Marin thinks about Ana and Javier and wonders why she can’t just say yes to their offer. She thinks that if she could do it over again, she wouldn’t have gone out the back door of the police station and disappeared.