The Lake House

Sadie is back at her flat, and it looks like no one has been there for longer than the two weeks she’s been away. Her plant is dead, the one she’d bought to spite an ex-boyfriend who had said, “You’re so used to being alone you couldn’t even care for a pot plant” (283). Sadie sits down and powers on her computer. She had been so sure that Theo was Rose’s son that she’s having a difficult time grasping the truth. After the computer is finished booting, she types in the words “shell shock.” Sadie finds a paper by one Dr. W. H. R. Rivers outlining his theories based on his observations of soldiers. One word jumps out at Sadie: “violently.” The idea that Anthony might have inadvertently had something to do with Theo’s disappearance forms in Sadie’s mind.

Sadie remembers what Clive said of Anthony, how caring and protective he was of Eleanor during the entire investigation, and she wonders if he had been placating Eleanor somehow. She also remembers that Clive said Eleanor had continued to secretly visit Loeanneth in the following years. Sadie wonders if the annual visit wasn’t a vigil but rather a memorial, because she knew that Theo was dead.