Birnam Wood

Lady Darvish has a long day at work and so asks her husband not to call but to text when he makes it to Thorndike so that she can sleep. The next morning, she wonders why he didn’t send a text. Lemoine calls asking if she’s heard from Owen since he was supposed to meet them at the farm that morning and didn’t turn up. Jill insists that he should be there and rushes home to check the “Find My Phone” app as Lemoine suggests. It reveals that his phone was last located near the farm. While Lemoine goes to look for him, Lady Darvish snoops in Owen’s email and finds something dated from weeks ago from Lemoine about Birnam Wood. She is surprised, as Owen usually tells her everything. She researches Birnam Wood and becomes suspicious when she sees pictures of smiling, healthy young women gardening. She thinks of the email from Tony and leaves him a voicemail asking if he knows anything about Owen. Lemoine calls back and begins to tell her that her husband is dead, but she faints before he can finish.

The narrative shifts back in time; Lemoine starts to plan from the moment he sees Darvish’s body, deciding what truths can be changed. He’s worried that Lady Darvish will learn about the circumstances and not only cancel their sale but sue him as well. It would be public, and his active extraction site in the Korowai Park would be at risk. He puts a still tripping Shelley in the van and tells her that the dead man isn’t real and to count. Mira wants to call the police. He firmly talks her out of it by reminding her that Birnam Wood is trespassing and Shelley has just killed a man. Mira admits that she hasn’t told the group that they don’t have permission to use the land, and Lemoine is gratified, knowing he can use that against her. He checks Darvish’s phone to see when he made his last contact. He erases Darvish’s latest movements from tracking devices and opens his own email to Darvish. He sets the clock to a date in the past on his phone and sends a message from himself to Darvish about meeting at the farm. He checks the message and sends a response on Darvish’s phone, set to the past as well, making it look like a meeting was confirmed. Lemoine then convinces Mira to help him move the body into the SUV and remove all trace of the accident. She hesitates, and Lemoine gets frustrated, but she’s actually working up a plausible lie that will explain Darvish’s presence to the rest of the group.

Shelley is still on acid in the van, trying to count and block out visions of the dead man. Her mind eventually quiets and she hears the van start to drive. When it stops, Mira opens the back and takes Shelley into a strange house where the shelves are stocked with unopened food. Mira says that it belongs to a friend of Lemoine’s. Mira confronts Shelley about the night’s events and yells that Shelley has killed the owner of the land and is probably going to jail. Lemoine has told the group that they need time to work out their issues before the group incorporates and he’s dealing with the body. Shelley is furious, saying that this is typical of Mira and Lemoine’s relationship: Mira has the control and power, except when Lemoine does, and Mira is clearly infatuated with him. Shelley storms into one of the bedrooms and slams the door.

Mira is afraid to turn on the TV or search the news and sits for hours. She turns on her phone and searches for news. Her phone is unusually slow and hot, but she eventually gets headlines loaded and sees that there are stories about a fatal crash at the Korowai Pass Lookout. It doesn’t identify the victim. Lemoine calls her and she lies to him that she hasn’t looked for information about Darvish’s death. Mira asks Lemoine to tell her about how he died, according to the story he’s created, and he says that Darvish was parked at the lookout, then turned around too wide and went over the guardrail. Mira sees Shelley listening. Shelley declares that they want $1 million, not the $100,000 he offered. Lemoine hangs up.

Lemoine is pleased that Mira still has no idea that he’s hacked her phone, and that she lied to him about researching the crash because it revealed her personality. He concludes that she has a stern parent side and a more insecure childish side that he can control. He’s also pleased that he was wrong about Shelley. He’d written her off, but now sees that she is ruthless and should be the one he’s working with. Mira’s ambition has limits—Shelley’s does not.

Lemoine has been awake for almost 40 hours. After he made sure that Shelley and Mira were in the safe house, he informed the rest of the group of their time away and then called Lady Darvish. He went to look for Owen, pretended to find him, and then stayed to offer support and money to the rescue crews, buying them hamburgers and offering to pay for any extra equipment needed. He finally goes to a rented house in Queenstown and makes sure that official paperwork is sent to the farm addressed to Shelley, not Mira.

The next day he calls Jill Darvish to check on her, and she asks him about Birnam Wood. He explains that it’s another conservation group in which he and Owen were going to invest. Lady Darvish objects, revealing that conservation work was never something in which Sir Darvish was interested and that she and her husband thought that it was funny that he, a pest control company owner, was knighted for that purpose. Lemoine says that it’s to keep up appearances and build a brand, but Jill doesn’t buy it. She asks Lemoine if there is another woman involved and Lemoine tells her no. Lemoine is worried and decides to start spreading the word about Birnam Wood’s relationship to Sir Darvish so that the media will convince his wife that Birnam Wood is a legitimate organization that her husband wanted to use to secure his legacy. The hired security at his current extraction site sends him footage of another infiltration. He can see a figure taking pictures of their leaching pits with a camera with actual film.

Tony has found the site and is taking photos. He doesn’t know exactly what he sees, but the environmental impact is obvious. Everything, including the animals around the covered holes, are dead or dying. When he lifts a cover, the fumes are so toxic that they made him sick. He runs all the way back to his sister’s car and sits raging to himself about how the government has once again done something terrible behind the public’s back, this time teamed with Autonomo. He feels despair and righteous indignation and at the end of his fuming thinks that he is going to be famous. He drives to the town of Thorndike where he sees the diner cook who confirms that a drone is watching them. Tony drives, trying to escape, and reaches the landslide barriers. He thinks that he has outrun the drone, but two black SUVs pull up and box him in. He makes sure that his film with the photos is safe in his waterproof bag and jumps off the side of the road and falls into the river below.

Mira is at the safehouse and sees a man arrive and replace the window of their Vanette. She and Shelley awkwardly decide to tell the group that they’ve worked out their differences. The next morning, Shelley plugs her phone into the van and sees that Lemoine has sent her a package with all the official papers for incorporating Birnam Wood. She turns down the job offer. They disobey Lemoine by not going directly back, instead heading off the road near the farm to get their windshield dirty. They see a man carrying an assault rifle who disappears when he sees them. Shelley tells Mira to call Lemoine and Mira admits that she doesn’t have his number. Shelley is horrified that the entire relationship is based on one-sided interactions. Mira’s phone immediately rings and Lemoine is furious that they disobeyed him, saying that he is watching and knows what they are doing. He calls back a moment later apologizing, explaining that there is a crazy person in the woods who is threatening his life and the man with the gun is his security.

Tony survives the fall into the water but breaks his arm and ankle in the process. He wonders if he should turn on his phone to call for help or if that will bring the government down on him. He feverishly thinks that he should send the film to his mother who will believe and avenge him. He realizes that Mira has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. He uses what supplies he has in his backpack to wrap his ankle and arm and painfully begins to walk in the direction of the national park’s main entrance.

Rosie is worried about Tony. She’s sent messages that have gone unanswered, and she wonders if his telling her that he would be “out of range” was a euphemism. She runs into Tony’s sister, Veronica. Veronica starts a conversation about how she’s unhappy that Tony hasn’t returned her car and mentions Mira Bunting. Rosie is brought up short by Mira’s name and Veronica tries to backpedal. Rosie is upset and thinks that she should delete Tony’s number, but instead searches for Mira online. She can’t find much, but then finds posts relating to Sir Darvish’s death and Autonomo. She recognizes Lemoine’s voice from the phone call that she received. She is bewildered by this and sends Mira a text. She sees her text go from “delivered” to “read” then freeze and go back to “delivered.” Rosie has never seen this happen before, assumes that there is a bug in the system, and goes to bed. When she wakes up, Mira’s message still says “delivered” and Rosie never hears back.