The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

During the interview with Agent Huang, Lucy explains why she thinks that Louise is not their mother’s real name. When visiting Ohio State, a woman approached Louise and called her “Patty.” After at first saying that she didn’t know the woman, eventually Louise gave in and hugged the woman. Agent Huang confirms that the woman called Louise “Patty” and wraps up the interview.

Tanner wakes up hungover, and Louise is gone. She looks around and asks about Louise at the lobby, but no one has seen her. She calls the mechanic; he still has the Jaguar and hasn’t seen Louise either. Three hours later, Louise returns. She left and walked two miles to a hair salon to get her hair done, which amazes Tanner since Louise is physically fragile and it is so hot outside. In a state of frustration, Tanner shouts at Louise to stop calling her “girlie.” Louise looks at Tanner in a new light. She understands anger. She had anger at her mother for not leaving her abusive stepfather who used to leer at her, prompting Louise to lock her door at night to be able to sleep. She thinks that anger would’ve consumed her without George. Louise takes Tanner outside behind the motel and takes out her gun. Tanner panics and apologizes for yelling, which makes Louise laugh. She tells Tanner that it’s time to conquer her fear and teaches her how to shoot the gun.

Tanner finds shooting the gun exhilarating, even though she at first resisted trying it. At the Cobra Lounge, Louise then tells Tanner that the money she’s going to give her is from Ken’s life insurance policy and is not stolen. Leonard returns and flirts with Louise again. While Tanner and Louise wait for their drinks they talk again about anger, and Louise tells Tanner that she isn’t worried about angry women but instead the ones who aren’t furious, because that means they aren’t paying attention to the world. Louise tells Tanner that she needs to take a lover and have sex, which Tanner rejects. Leonard returns, and Louise leaves him a key to a second motel room that she booked. After dinner, Tanner returns to their original room and Louise waits for Leonard. While she waits, she thinks about how she misses Ken but also misses sex, the moment free of loneliness through the touch of another. When Leonard arrives after his shift, they have sex. Afterward, as he holds her, Louise tries not to think about Ken, George, or Salvatore D’Amato.

Three days after Louise was reported missing, Tanner’s parents, Jim and Candace, talk to each other at home. Candace feels that Tanner’s disappearance is her fault and that she was too hard on her daughter. Jim tries to console her, but her anxiety about her missing daughter lingers. Marty calls Candace and asks if there’s updates on Tanner and then bursts into tears, worried that something has happened to Tanner. Candace consoles her and asks if she knows Tanner’s phone passcode. Marty tells her that it’s 7719, the date the US Women’s Soccer team won their fourth World Cup. Marty thinks Tanner is predictable, but Candace is not so sure.

Tanner drives the duo west toward Kansas in the fixed Jaguar. She feels surprised by her adventure so far and how she’s stepped outside her comfort zone. Hope is now blooming inside her chest instead of anger. Louise is in a good mood from her evening escapade, but after a few hours of driving she starts to snap at Tanner to drive faster. Once they reach Kansas City, Tanner wants to stop for barbecue, but Louise rejects the idea. When Tanner pushes the issue, Louise shouts at her that George is going to die. When back on the road, Louise tells Tanner that they’re not on the run from the police. The sirens that they saw the night they left were for her neighbor, who calls the police twice a month because of her boyfriend’s abuse toward her. Louise waved the gun in his face to try to scare him off, but the neighbor always takes him back. Tanner asks if George is sick, and Louise says yes. Tanner asks about George and Louise’s relationship. Though Louise thinks that George is her soulmate, she simply tells Tanner that she decided a long time ago that George didn’t agree with. She thinks back to the incident—to the gunshots and blood. She tells Tanner that she made a mistake, and she must make it right. 

Tanner wants to ask Louise about the news broadcast and if she did the heist in the ’70s, but she has empathy for Louise’s sense of regret, so she doesn’t push further. Louise directs her to stop once they reach Nebraska, and they check into a Holiday Inn Express. Louise’s hip is bothering her, so Tanner gives her a massage that she learned from her soccer trainer. Tanner thinks back to the massages that her mother gave her after her leg injury and finds herself tearing up at the memory of her touch, feeling bad for being so difficult to her mother. When she finishes the massage, Tanner asks if she can call Louise by her first name. She says no and then gets into bed. The pair sleeps, until Tanner wakes to a scream.

Tanner looks around to find the source of the scream, before seeing Louise sitting up in bed with her hands on her face before she screams again. Tanner jumps out of bed and shakes her gently to wake her. When Louise wakes, she is still shaking, which Tanner questions. Louise tells her that she suffers from parasomnia, or night terrors, as a result of her Parkinson’s disease. Tanner chides her for not sharing the diagnosis with her but softens and asks Louise if she is scared. At first Louise refuses to talk about it or answer the question, but eventually she admits that she is afraid. Touched by her vulnerability, Tanner shares her fear. She’s afraid that soccer was the only thing she’s good at and that she’s a broken person who doesn’t know how to exist in the world anymore. Louise makes a joke about struggling to think of what Tanner is good at, but then she says that she doesn’t think Tanner is broken—just human. Louise ends the conversation by saying, “Aren’t we a pair” (211), which makes Tanner feel less alone. 

During breakfast at the continental buffet, Tanner sees a TV broadcast with her and Louise’s faces on them and the words, “MISSING—CALL WITH ANY INFORMATION” (213). They then change to say that the pair are wanted for questioning in connection to a cold case. Tanner turns to Louise and says that it was her on the news, which Louise doesn’t understand. Tanner explains the news broadcast she saw back in Atlanta, and Louise asks her what they said. Tanner tells her that the news says that she stole jewels from a hotel. Louise begins to panic. The broadcast knows about the Jaguar, even though she didn’t transfer the title from James when she purchased it. She tells Tanner that now they are on the run from the police, and George is still dying.