The Crash

Tegan Werner, 23, is outside her studio apartment. She’s 8 months pregnant and has sciatica, a spinal nerve injury that causes shooting pains in her leg. Up until recently, she didn’t know who the father of her baby was. Tegan has nicknamed the baby “Little Tuna” because it seems to give her tuna cravings.

Jackson Bruckner, an attorney and business associate of hers (and not the father), is waiting for her outside and has ordered dinner to share. He also has a gift for Tegan, an adorable onesie for the baby.

As they head inside, her elderly next-door neighbor Evangeline Walden comments disparagingly about her having a man over and condescendingly expresses concern over having a baby around.

Once inside her apartment, Jackson brings out a contract for Tegan to review, which is why he is there. Once signed, it will result in Tegan receiving a large amount of money that should set Tegan up for life financially. This situation came about because eight months ago, Tegan had been visiting her brother Dennis on the slopes where he works as a ski instructor and they’d gone out at night for drinks. Tegan had been approached by a handsome businessman — who she later learned after seeing him on TV three months later was Simon Lamar, a real estate developer — which eventually resulted in them going back to her hotel room and her current pregnancy.

She reached out to Simon, only to learn that he was married. However, he did offer to pay her enough to support her and the child and then some in exchange for her signing a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent her from disclosing who the father was to anyone other than him (and Jackson).

Tegan trusts Jackson and believes he has her best interest in mind. Simon originally said he wouldn’t give her any money until the contract was signed, but Jackson has been bringing by extra cash which has helped her a lot, and she wonders if he’s giving it to her himself.

Tegan’s brother Dennis calls and she considers going to visit him. Their father was a businessman who died when he was 40 and Dennis was 12 and had to step up to help out in the house. Their mother died of pancreatic cancer 8 years later. Dennis is protective of Tegan.

The day of the contract signing, Tegan has her reoccurring dream of Simon hovering over her where she feels scared yet again. Simon and Jackson show up at her place at 5 o’clock. Simon reminds her that the non-disclosure means that she can’t even tell the unborn child about her parentage. As they talk, the smell of Simon’s cologne makes Tegan realize that her nightmares are of Simon forcing himself on her, and Tegan realizes he must’ve slipped something into her drink that night since she’s never been blackout drink before.

She accuses Simon of raping her and she runs into the bathroom. Jackson goes to talk to her and urges her to sign the contract, but Tegan refuses saying that she wants to go to the police and tells the men to leave.

Afterwards, Dennis calls and Tegan tearfully tells him that she didn’t sign the contract. Dennis encourages her to come visit him so they can talk.

Tegan is soon packed and ready to head out on the drive to see Dennis. As she drives, a snowstorm starts, and she gets a call from Jackson. He starts telling her something about Simon and the police when Tegan crashes into a tree.

After the crash, Tegan’s left ankle is injured, but she’s alive. She tries to call 911, but there’s no connection. She’s also very cold. Then, she sees the headlights of another car, and a large man comes towards her. He’s holding a shovel and asks if she’s okay. He introduces himself as Hank and helps carry her to his car. He also gets her purse and duffle bag. Then, he tells her he’s taking her to his house because the nearest hospital is 10 miles away and they won’t make it in his truck in the storm.

When they arrive, Hank tells her that his wife Polly is a nurse. The power and phone lines are down, but their basement was converted into a hospital room when Polly’s mother was sick, and she can help take care of Tegan there. Tegan asks for pain meds, but Polly says the only thing she has that’s safe during pregnancy is Tylenol. Tegan is a little afraid of Hank and asks Polly to see to her instead and Polly agrees.

The basement is cold and dark. After taking the Tylenol, Tegan notices a bruise on Penny’s wrist and worries whether Hank is a dangerous man. She tells herself she’ll be able to leave in the morning, but she notices that the pepper spray is missing from her purse. as is her cell phone.

Because of the pregnancy, Polly assumes that Tegan is married, and Tegan doesn’t correct her. Instead, when Polly asks, Tegan lies and says her husband’s name is “Jackson”.

Polly brings her a tuna sandwich, and Tegan pleads for pain meds, despite her pregnancy. She also refuses to let Polly remove her boot to disinfect her foot because it hurts too much. Polly reluctantly agrees and brings her a few pills of Dilaudid for the pain, but Tegan thinks again before taking them and decides not to in fear of hurting the baby.

Tegan sleeps poorly, and in the morning Polly informs her that the phone lines are still down. By lunchtime, the snow plow still hasn’t arrived. Tegan talks to Polly who tells her that she no longer works as a nurse because Hank prefers that she stay home.

They play gin rummy and then Tegan takes a nap. When she awakes, it’s 8 o’clock at night. She wonders if Polly slipped something into her lunch to put her to sleep. When Polly comes down, she’s told that the snow plow still hasn’t come yet. Tegan’s leg is in bad shape and she wonders if they’re intentionally keeping her there and if she’ll die there.

(The narration jumps to Polly’s POV and goes back to the day before the crash, before Tegan ended up at Polly and Hank’s house.)

Polly is in the kitchen when Sadie Hambly, a neighbor’s 7-year-old daughter, shows up asking to help her cook since her father’s not home yet. Polly invites her in, and after she runs a bubble bath for her. Polly notices a bruise on Sadie, and she’s noticed other bruises on her before. Polly assumes her father, Mitch Hambly, must’ve gotten too rough with her. When Hank gets home, he is disapproving of Polly hanging out with Sadie, knowing that Mitch would be unhappy if he found out.

Polly thinks back to an event she thinks of as “The Incident” which cased her to lose her job. The upside was that she was available to care for her mother during her breast cancer battle, which is why they have the hospital bed in the basement.

Polly gets a call from her friend Angela, who she used to work with at Roosevelt Memorial Hospital. Angela tells her the news that she’s pregnant. Polly expresses her happiness for Angela, but she still finds it painful to hear when someone is pregnant. When they get off the phone, Polly blocks her number.

Shortly after, Mitch shows up at her door, drunk and angry. He knows that Sadie was at her house and he’s furious about it. Mitch threatens her and grabs her wrist, but before things can escalate further, Hank shows up and puts a stop to it. Afterwards, Hank tells Polly to stay out of the Hambly’s business, reminding her that they already called CPS regarding Polly’s suspicions about Mitch’s abuse and there wasn’t anything else they could do.

When Hank comes home from work later, he tells her that he’s picked up an injured woman who was in an accident, Tegan, and he asks Polly to help care for her. When Hank brings her inside, Polly sees that Tegan is pregnant she feels envious.

As Polly cares for Tegan, she rifles through Tegan’s stuff. She finds a flask in her purse and thinks of Tegan “chugging whiskey” while heavily pregnant (from earlier chapters, we know that Dennis asked Tegan to bring it and it spilled in her purse). She also finds Tegan’s cell phone which Polly turns off and puts in her pocket. She takes the pepper spray from Tegan’s purse and pockets that as well.

Polly also suspects that Tegan is lying about being married. She angrily thinks about Tegan as a single unmarried mother, irresponsibly driving in a blizzard while drinking. As for herself, Polly has struggled through three rounds of IVF and a failed adoption. Polly thinks painfully about the teddy bear that Hank had bought for their unborn child when Polly had been one month pregnant, but later miscarried.

Back downstairs, Polly gives Tegan Benadryl instead of the pain meds like she claims, and Polly is glad Tegan did the right thing in refusing them.

Polly thinks about how before she’d lost her job (“The Incident”) she’d been moved to the overnight shift at newborn nursery wing at the hospital. After The Incident, she wasn’t jailed, but she and Hank were disqualified from adopting.

Now, Polly thinks about how their family will soon finally be complete.

The next morning, Hank plans to drive Tegan to the hospital since he has a snow plow attachment for his truck that he can use to clear the snow. However, Polly disagrees, saying that Tegan is in too much pain to be moved and that they should wait for the phones to come back up so the paramedics can be called to do it properly. Of course, Polly thinks to herself that she has no intention of Tegan ever leaving.

Polly puts Benadryl in Tegan’s lunch to help her sleep. She thinks about how Tegan is young and irresponsible and could never be a good mother. She also thinks about how Sadie is too skinny and how Mitch is a bad father. Polly then decides to make a sandwich and take it to Sadie. Sadie refuses to open the door according to her father’s instructions, but Polly leaves the sandwich outside the door for her.

When Hank gets home, the phone lines are running again and Polly initially lies and says that Tegan was picked up by the paramedics, but later she admits that Tegan is still there. Polly tells him that Tegan doesn’t have insurance and can’t afford to go to the hospital, but Hank doesn’t buy it and insists on calling 911.

However, Polly threatens to tell them about something unsavory from their past if he tries to let Tegan go. Polly reassures him it’s just temporary though she doesn’t mean it.

The next morning, Hank is cool towards Polly, and Polly checks up on Tegan who thanks her for her care. After Polly serves breakfast, she’s alarmed to find the police at their door, and Hank is surprised by it as well.

Polly thinks about the tax return that she had to lie on in order to tide them over financially after Polly lost her job. She and Hank both signed it, since he trusted her to do their taxes, but Polly knows they could both face jail time if she revealed their lies to the authorities.

The officer introduces himself as Officer Malloy. He says he’s there looking for a missing woman, Tegan Warner, since her car was found nearby. Polly says she hasn’t seen her, and Hank also reluctantly does as instructed and denies it as well. The officer checks their yard and then leaves.

In the basement, Tegan worries that her baby feels weak. She asks Polly about the roads, and Polly admits they are mostly cleared but says that Hank isn’t here and she isn’t able to carry her up the stairs. Tegan starts feeling alarmed and insists on leaving. She checks her purse and remembers that she has a lighter in there that Jackson had given her for her birthday.

With Tegan insistent on leaving, Polly begrudgingly lies and says that she’ll call for an ambulance. Hours later, however, Tegan seems to have guessed that she never did it. Tegan then takes her dinner fork and stabs Polly with it. When she goes back upstairs, Hank sees the blood and insists on going down to see Tegan.

Tegan fears that Polly is doing what Hank wants her to by keeping her there. When Hank comes down, Tegan pleads with him to let her go. Hank is unresponsive. When Tegan threatens to hurt Polly again, Hank threatens her, saying that they’ll let her go soon but she’ll regret it if she hurts Polly.

That night in bed, Hank tries to reason with Polly and they talk about how Polly hopes to keep the baby. He encourages her to call Dr. Salinsky, her shrink.

In the basement, Tegan tries to get up herself to escape but she feels dizzy and the pain is intense.

By the next morning, it has been three days since the crash. When she sees Polly, Tegan asks whether Hank is hurting her and making her do this, but Polly insists Hank would never hurt her.

Back upstairs, Polly researches how to induce labor, though sex and long walks are the main pieces of advice. She finds a recipe for a “Midwives Brew” that claims to work within 24 hours. Polly heads to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients. When Polly returns, there’s an unfamiliar man waiting at the door.

Downstairs, Tegan works on a plan to get out of there. Using the lighter, she lights some papers on fire, hoping to set off a fire alarm.

At the door, the unfamiliar man introduces himself to Polly as Dennis Werner. He says he’s looking for his lost sister, and Polly invites him in for a cup of coffee. There’s a loud noise from downstairs, but Polly says it must be their cat. She soon ushers Dennis out. She then heads downstairs and realizes there’s a fire.

Polly goes to check on Tegan, who admits that she was hoping to set off the fire alarm, but Polly tells her there’s no fire alarm down there. Polly confiscates the lighter and, again, refuses to take Tegan to the hospital.

Later, Sadie shows up at Polly’s door, saying that they’re out of crackers at her house. Polly makes Sadie a sandwich. When she goes to fetch some Oreos as well, she comes back to see the basement door open.

Polly catches up with Sadie as she’s a few steps down and as Tegan calls out from downstairs. Polly quickly pulls Sadie back upstairs and shuts the door. Polly tells Sadie that it’s her cousin who she’s taking care of and that she shouldn’t go down there because she could get sick. She also tells Sadie not to tell anyone about it since she doesn’t want visitors since they could also get sick.

Around lunchtime, Polly comes and encourages Tegan to move around and helps her into a wheelchair to move around the basement. When Polly leaves, Tegan decides she should use the opportunity to look for a weapon of some sort. The room doesn’t have much, but she finds two syringes and a needle.

Upstairs, Poly mixes up the Midwives Brew. Hank comes home early to check on things, and Polly reassures him that everything is fine. She then goes back downstairs, and Tegan drinks the mixture, but she asks again to be taken to the hospital. When Polly refuses, Tegan threatens her with the syringe and needle. However, Polly tells her there’s no phone down here so there’s nothing Tegan can do. She takes the syringe away.

That night, Hank tells Polly she should let Tegan go, but she reminds him that he said he’d give her three days to convince Tegan to let them keep the baby. When Polly refuses, Hank insists on taking Tegan to the hospital himself until Polly threatens to kill herself.

Polly thinks back to the Incident when she had been holding one of the newborns and had refused to leave even after the other nurses and a security guard had shown up. Hank had to eventually come and coax the baby away from her, and after that she was asked to resign. That night, Polly had taken all the pills she could find in the house in an attempt to kill herself.

Downstairs, Tegan can hear Hank ordering Polly to get out of the way and it comforts her that Polly must be intervening on her behalf. When Polly comes back, Tegan tells her that she won’t tell anyone what happened if she lets her go.

That night, Hank is upset and concerned that Polly plans to kill Tegan since he doesn’t know how else they’re going to get out of this. He warns her that he doesn’t want to hurt Tegan. Polly reassures him, but deep down she assumes that if she kills Tegan he’ll go along with it. Instead, Polly worries about how to ensure Tegan doesn’t get away before she has the baby. Polly goes to get a hammer and goes into the basement, planning on breaking Tegan’s kneecap, but she changes her mind and doesn’t do it.

By now, it has been four days since the crash and Tegan is feeling very unwell. The baby feels weak. She calls for Polly who sees that she has a fever, and she finally takes off Tegan’s boot to see that her foot is very purple, bent at an odd angle and clearly infected. She needs antibiotics.

Polly feels angered, thinking that Tegan should’ve let her disinfect the foot days ago. She needs to get antibiotics, but has no intention of letting Tegan go to the hospital. When Hank leaves for work, she calls a prescription for antibiotics and for a blood thinner in case Tegan has a blood clot into Walgreens, claiming to be a doctor she previously worked with, Dr. Passaro. When she gets off the phone, Polly feels okay thinking that an antibiotic is unlikely to raise red flags that could lead to the actual Dr. Passaro finding out about it.

Shortly after, Tegan is very weak, and she sees that Hank is standing at the foot of her bed. He tells her that he’s taking her to the hospital. He picks her up and takes her outside, but Tegan sees that Simon Lamar is in his truck. Tegan struggles and says that Simon wants to hurt her, but Hank is confused. Tegan looks around again and there’s no one there and Tegan thinks she must have imagined him.

Tegan keeps protesting, thinking that Hank is lying about taking her to the hospital, but they soon arrive and Tegan is loaded onto a stretcher.

When Polly returns from the pharmacy with the medicines, she sees that the basement door is unlocked and Tegan is gone. Polly panics, and Hank tells her that he took Tegan to the hospital. Polly is instantly upset and refuses to speak to him. She wants to be left alone, but Hank doesn’t want to leave, fearing that she’ll hurt herself. Finally, Hank goes downstairs to call her shrink and contact a lawyer.

At the hospital, Tegan speaks to an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Tewari, who is tending to her foot. The doctor tells her that her ankle is fractured and that the police want to speak with her. He says they think her car was tampered with prior to her accident.

Dennis is at the hospital and comforts Tegan. Jackson is there, too, but Tegan doesn’t want to see him.

Back at Polly’s house, she waits until Hank is out chopping firewood to make her move. She plans to go the the hospital while the nurses are doing their shift change in the evening. When Polly arrives at the hospital, she heads for the labor ward on the third floor, wearing her old badge.

When Dennis goes to get food from the cafeteria, Jackson enters Tegan’s room. She asks him to leave, but he wants to talk. He apologizes for how he handled the situation with Simon, saying that he was surprised at what Tegan said and didn’t know what to do. He apologies, but Tegan doesn’t believe him and calls for a nurse. Jackson wants to say something to her, but their conversation is interrupted by Dennis.

Jackson leaves, but insists he still wants to talk to Tegan tomorrow. With him gone, Tegan and Dennis talk about Dennis’s own car accident years earlier where he had broken his leg and which ended his professional skiing career. At the time, he had been driving to see Tegan after Tegan had just been dumped by her boyfriend, Brian.

Dennis says that it might be a good idea to take the money from Simon to pay for her medical expenses and car accident, but Tegan says she’ll never take it though she neglects to mention why since she doesn’t have the energy to get into everything at the moment.

As Polly heads towards Tegan’s room, she gets a text from Hank telling her to come home. At the nurses’ station she sees that Tegan is in room 308. Outside the room, Polly can see that Tegan is sleeping inside. Meanwhile, there’s a man in there with her that’s trying to hook something up to Tegan’s IV, and he’s clearly up to no good. She recognizes the man as the one who introduced himself as Dennis, Tegan’s brother. Polly goes in and stops him, and he recognizes her as well and tries to run.

Polly yells for someone to stop him and another man grabs him and pins him to the wall.

Afterwards, Jackson talks to Tegan and explains that Simon Lamar paid someone to tamper with her brake hose, which caused her accident. Dennis knew about it, which is why he suggested that Tegan drive out to see him. He says that Dennis and Simon were business partners and planning on launching some ski resorts together. They’d just finished a business meeting together when Tegan and Simon met.

As he talks, Tegan realizes that Dennis must’ve resented her for his car accident this whole time.

Polly leaves the hospital, realizing that she ended up saving Tegan’s life. Hank is outside waiting for her. He’s concerned by all the cops outside, but Polly reassures him that they’re not for her. As they head home, she thinks about how Hank is her family and he loves her and their family is complete.

But when they pull up to their house, the police are there. Polly initially thinks that Tegan must’ve said something, but instead they quickly realize that the police are here for Mitch Hambly. Polly is worried about Sadie when they see blood in the show outside, but it turns out that Sadie is okay and Mitch simply had a drunken fall and hurt himself.

Back at the hospital, Tegan gives birth to a baby girl who she names Tia Marie Werner. She’s told the police she doesn’t remember what happened to her after her accident, though Detective Maxwell asked her to reach out if she remembers anything.

Jackson shows up to tell Tegan that he’s arranged for Simon to start paying child support and that he’s going to help her make arrangements for a physical therapist, nanny and housekeeper. Tegan also sees that Polly has left her a teddy bear wishing her well. Jackson asks about Polly, and Tegan knows that’s her opportunity to talk about what happened, but Tegan can’t bring herself to get Polly and Hank in trouble after how things played out so she says nothing.