Birnam Wood

Owen and Jill Darvish discuss the conversation with Tony. What he says about radiometric work arouses Owen’s suspicions. A survey done years ago by Autonomo’s drones on behalf of the government found nothing. Jill tries to explain it away and get her husband to eat his dinner and take a bath. While he does, she muses on their life together. She thinks about her own success as a businessperson and a mother; she feels that men are inferior to women and so tend to need coddling, something that her husband appreciates. She notes that since he’s met Lemoine, however, Owen seems different. He is unsatisfied, unsure, and unsettled. She doesn’t like that he took Tony’s information seriously. Later, Owen buys a plane ticket to check out for himself what is happening in Thorndike. His impulsive action is completely out of character and baffles her.

Lemoine is annoyed by Sir Darvish’s behavior toward his deal with Autonomo and considers ways to scuttle their agreement. He also doesn’t like that Darvish called his bluff during the original business deal and seemed to get the better of him until Lady Darvish stepped in. During a private conversation when her husband was in the bathroom, Jill confided to Lemoine that Owen just wanted to be sure that he didn’t look like he was neglecting the local Thorndike community and that Lemoine should leave it to her to move the project to a place more to Lemoine’s liking. Lemoine is gratified but also notes that Jill’s casual betrayal of her husband was something for which Lemoine would kill his wife. Lemoine returns to California. He reflects on his childhood. A grandmother who experienced paranoid delusions raised him, and he rarely saw his mother, who worked for the State Department, and never saw his father, who was a JAG Corps attorney. For eight weeks when he was a child, he was convinced that he was being followed and was paranoid to the point of going to bed with a gun. His mother later told him that she and his father were both spies for the CIA and that they often had to send people to protect him, confirming his fear about being followed. His revenge on everyone was to become rich, powerful, independent, and unknowable, and he enjoyed snubbing his father in later years.

He gets a phone call from the special ops soldiers whom he’s hired telling him that they’ve had a second security breach from a man saying that he was hiking and birdwatching. They’d like more manpower because their technology isn’t enough. Lemoine pulls up the data that they’ve collected, traces Rosie’s number, and finds her call to Tony. He calls Rosie pretending to be someone from work asking for Tony’s whereabouts. She’s suspicious and doesn’t say more than he’s out hiking. Lemoine sees an email come in from Owen and deletes it without reading it.

Tony hears a drone. It’s methodically moving back and forth over the forest, searching for something. Tony hides and begins to research “radiometric survey,” “Autonomo,” and “drone” and finds the survey commissioned by the government saying that nothing special had been found in the national park. It happened at a time when the New Zealand government was considering changing laws so that mining could happen in the national parks; Tony had been part of the protests. He finds no mention of work of any type in Korowai, which is suspicious considering he saw something with his own eyes. His suspects that the reports were faked by the government who are now covering up mining activity. Tony is even more excited by the idea of exposing the government than an evil billionaire. He imagines himself as the hero who breaks the story. He hears the security guards refer to looking for someone and knows it’s himself. He finds a good place for reconnaissance, and while he hides, he daydreams about collecting awards and being interviewed. He turns off his phone to avoid being tracked and regrets not communicating with Rosie but thinks that she isn’t radical enough for him anyway. He begins to write the exciting opening of his article.

Shelley is frustrated with Mira, who won’t engage in their usual light philosophical banter. Shelley suggests it’s too hard to know what’s right and wrong, and to her annoyance, Mira simply agrees. To Shelley, this is clear sign that Mira is keeping things from her. She doesn’t like Mira’s obvious infatuation with Lemoine. She asks Mira straight out if she’s slept with Lemoine, and they both laugh at how terrifying he is, but Mira doesn’t answer the question. Shelley begins to feel that Mira is a liability to the organization because she has so much power over decisions and opinions, many of which go against Shelley’s practical ideas. Shelley begins to feel bitter and becomes angry with herself for being complacent.

She decides to take action when she sees Mira smiling and walking toward the airfield where Lemoine’s plane is landing. She catches up to Mira who tries to play off her disappointment at Shelley’s presence. Lemoine says that he’s come back to meet everyone in the group. He has brought food and acid as presents. Mira is against doing the drugs, but Shelley is intentionally enthusiastic and helpful to Lemoine. She leaves a sulky Mira with Lemoine and takes the food and drugs to the others who are surprised and excited.

Mira feels her attitude against the drugs came across as immature and petulant and she’s embarrassed. When she says that she’s not a Puritan or a cliche, Lemoine advises her to become a cliche since people will underestimate her. Mira says that she’s worried that there’s no official agreement between Birnam Wood and Lemoine. She doesn’t like that he changed the gate code without telling them. He counters with a story about being hounded by the press after his wife died, and Mira feels bad that she criticized him. He agrees to draw up an agreement.

Shelley flirts with Lemoine, and Mira feels odd seeing him act normal. Shelley makes Mira more uncomfortable by loudly proclaiming that Mira isn’t going to participate with the drugs. When Mira goes outside to light the barbecue, Lemoine comes out to be with Mira, saying that he’d rather keep her company. When he goes back inside, Shelley publicly confronts him about wanting to sleep with Mira, saying that it may hurt their cause. The conversation is awkward. Two other members go outside to help Mira with the grill and see that she’s overheard everything.

When the drugs start to kick in, Lemoine motions for him and Mira to leave for the Darvishes’ house. Mira is nervous and excited, but they find the house freezing cold. While Lemoine goes to turn on the heat, Mira sees a car idling outside of the gate. Lemoine sees that he missed a call on the intercom 20 minutes ago. Mira is surprised to see him open an app with surveillance of the entire farm. They see Mira’s Vanette drive by, out of control, and hear it crash. When they catch up, they see the body of a man and Shelley behind the wheel. She’s tripping on acid, and has killed Owen Darvish.