Five Survive

Reyna screams, and Simon and Oliver run back to the RV. Oliver pushes Reyna in. Red, traumatized, stays frozen on the spot. Reyna declares she needs to go out and help them, and Oliver tells her they are dead. Arthur has his face pressed to the wall, shaking. Red walks into the back bedroom and screams into a pillow. When Red returns, Oliver asks her how she knew this would happen, and Red reminds him that the sniper told them what he would do. The sniper lets them know it was their fault, and Oliver shouts that they didn’t need to die.

The sniper warns them: “This is all about one of you, inside the RV. Give me what I want and your friends don’t have to die” (199). Oliver asks which one of them has the secret, and the sniper laughs and says whoever has the secret knows. Red thinks about her secret but is sure that this cannot be about her.

Simon points out that they could use Joyce and Don’s car to escape, and Maddy reminds him that not everyone will make it. Oliver supports Maddy, and as he is talking, he has a realization. Oliver turns on music and explains in a quiet voice that the only way the sniper could know their plan is if someone bugged the RV.

Everyone discusses when the sniper could have bugged the RV. Oliver warns everyone not to speak when the music is off, which they have to do to ensure the sniper is not suspicious. Oliver points to each person and assigns them a specific part of the RV to investigate.

Arthur uses the checkboxes Red draws on her hand to ask if she is okay, and she replies “NO.” He tells her that she did everything she could to help Joyce and Don, but Red still feels guilty, though she does not say this to Arthur. By the time everyone finishes checking the RV, none of them has found a bug. Oliver asks Arthur to help him check the light fittings. Still, no one finds anything.

Maddy explains that she found a photograph at the front of the RV of a man, a woman, and three girls. She asks Simon if that’s his uncle, and Simon says it isn’t. Maddy asks why someone else’s picture is in the glove compartment of Simon’s uncle’s RV.

Maddy interrogates Simon about the photograph, asking if Simon’s uncle is a stalker, and Simon assures her that the RV is likely secondhand and the picture just stayed. She asks why he is acting weird, and he eventually confesses that his uncle sells stolen cars. He also confesses that he helps his uncle sometimes. Maddy asks why he would do something like that when his parents have money, and he replies that not everyone is as rich as Maddy and Oliver. If Simon decides to go to theater school, he will have to fund it himself.

Oliver, thinking about himself and his mother’s career, asks if they are in a stolen RV, and Simon says it’s possible. Oliver becomes angry, asking if Simon knows how badly that could reflect on the Lavoys, especially Catherine. Simon also confesses that his parents don’t know that the RV is from his uncle, and when Maddy admonishes him, Simon replies that she asked him to keep everything as cheap as possible for Red.

Red is embarrassed, and Simon apologizes, but she waves it all away, pretending that she is fine. Simon apologizes to everyone for not telling the truth and then says that no one is trying to kill them for a stolen RV, so the sniper is not after them because of that. Oliver agrees but says that it could be about Simon’s uncle’s business. Simon reassures him his uncle is a low-level criminal, and killing them for his uncle’s actions would not be a punishment for him since he does not care.

Suddenly, Red realizes that she cannot hear the walkie-talkie and that she left it somewhere. Maddy asks her to retrace her steps, and Red finds it in the bathroom. The sniper is saying something, and Red replies that they understand. Oliver asks why Red did that, and she explains that otherwise, the sniper would know they were not listening.

Oliver theorizes that the bug is inside the walkie-talkie, and Red offers to check. She remembers how she used to take apart and rebuild her mother’s walkie-talkie after her death to find her voice inside it. Red confirms that there are no bugs inside the device. Oliver asks how she knows, and Red explains everything is in place. Oliver accuses her of lying, and she thinks about how the officers investigating her mother’s death also thought she lied because she said she heard a doorbell in the background of their phone call just before she was killed. However, her body was found in an abandoned power station, where there were no doorbells.

Reyna asks Oliver what he means, and Oliver deduces that one of them is working with the sniper because otherwise, the sniper could not know their plans.