4. Security

Olive goes to New York to visit Christopher and meet the family he is building with his new wife, Ann. The visit revives the habits that have kept mother and son apart. Olive criticizes the household and bristles at attempts to understand her. Christopher finally tells her how painful it was to grow up with her anger. She leaves early, still struggling to acknowledge his experience.

Back in Maine, she learns that Henry has died while she was away. The marriage that once frustrated her is now an absence she cannot fill. Her connection with the widowed Jack Kennison offers company, though they initially quarrel rather than comfort each other.

After her dog dies, Olive's isolation becomes a crisis. She goes into the woods intending to end her life, but neighboring children interrupt her. The moment returns the story to the danger glimpsed at the beginning of the series without treating her despair as a settled ending.

A message from Ann tells Olive that she has become a grandmother, even though Christopher has not called her himself. Olive reconnects with Jack. This time, she can begin admitting how her treatment of Henry and Christopher contributed to the distance in her family; Jack also has regrets of his own.

Their final scene offers companionship rather than a complete repair of everything that has happened. Lying beside Jack, Olive finds that she still wants to live in a world she often cannot understand. The series closes with that renewed willingness to stay, while her relationship with Christopher remains something she will have to work on.