The Rosie Project

Don travels to Columbia with Rosie on Tuesday. He had previously emailed a work acquaintance at Columbia, David Borenstein. Rosie meets with Mary Keneally to discuss her dissertation research topic, the environmental origins of early-onset bipolar disorder. Mary encourages Rosie to switch to medical school and introduces her to the dean of the school of medicine, David Borenstein. They all have lunch together, and David tells Don that there is a job for him at Columbia any time he chooses.

That night, Rosie tells Don that she did actually get a 74—an extremely high score—on her medical school entrance exam. Don doesn’t understand why she didn’t choose to go to medical school. Rosie’s answer doesn’t make much sense, but Don doesn’t challenge her on it.

On Wednesday, Don escorts Rosie through the Museum of Natural History, explaining the exhibits and trying to make the visit interesting for her. Rosie loves the exhibits, and they stay until the museum closes. She takes his hand as they leave and holds it all the way to the subway.

Don and Rosie have one last task in New York: collecting a DNA sample from Max Freyberg, a plastic surgeon. They are posing as a journalist (Rosie) and a photographer (Don), who want to interview Freyberg for a series on successful graduates of their university.

The interview goes wrong, and Freyberg suspects that they have an ulterior motive. Don escapes to the bathroom, where he is able to collect a DNA sample because of Freyberg’s terrible hygiene. Don texts Rosie to get out, while he escapes by climbing out of the window and using his rock climbing skills to scale down the side of the building. Rosie is waiting for him at the bottom. Freyberg thought they were private detectives investigating him on behalf of disgruntled patients.

Back at the hotel, Don goes to Rosie’s room when she takes too long to get ready for dinner. She answers the door wearing only a towel. Don and Rosie discuss the value of appearances, with Don saying they don’t matter while Rosie thinks that it’s important to the ego to look good.

Rosie kisses Don. Don assumes that she wants to have sex, and he says he’ll be right back. They agree that the sex will be a one-time thing. Don showers and consults the book of sexual positions that Gene gave him for the trip. Returning to Rosie’s room 43 minutes later, he confesses that she should be the one to choose the position and hands her the book. When Don admits that Gene gave him the book, Rosie says that she’s changed her mind about having sex. Don is worried that he has done something wrong; Rosie reassures him that he hasn’t. He leaves.

Very confused, he calls his baseball friend, Dave, and they go out for pizza.

The next morning, Don manages to get himself on the plane to Los Angeles. He is completely overwhelmed emotionally and needs time to think through all that has happened, particularly why he sabotaged his opportunity to have sex with Rosie. On the long flight, he figures out that he would not be able to deal with the emotional consequences of having sex with Rosie.

Other than asking how he is, Rosie leaves him alone. They change in Los Angeles for the flight to Melbourne. Rosie cries at the end of the movie Bridges of Madison County, and she asks Don if he cries at movies. He says he doesn’t appear to be wired that way.

Back home, Don goes to dinner at Gene and Claudia’s on Sunday. They grill him about Rosie. Gene reveals that he was the one who took the photo of Rosie’s mother’s graduating class, and though he identifies Rosie’s mother by name—Bernadette O’Connor—in the photo, he does not seem to realize that she is Rosie’s mom. He also tells Don that Geoffrey Case killed himself and had bipolar disorder. Don swabs Gene’s glass when he leaves the table, thinking that he may be Rosie’s father.