- We're back outside the Mannon Estate a week later. Lavinia stands outside.
- Seth's coming up the road, singing the second verse of "Shenandoah." And he's hammered.
- Not expecting to see Lavinia, he tries to act sober.
- Lavinia's not fooled, and tells Seth that if her Dad showed up and saw him like that, he'd be in serious trouble.
- Seth thinks this means Old Man Mannon's coming back, and so he tries even harder to look and sound sober. He asks Lavinia if Ezra could really be back so soon.
- Lavinia says she supposes not; it's just wishful thinking on her part.
- Not one for subtlety, Seth asks if Lavinia has found out anything about Brant's past.
- Lavinia lies and says she hasn't. (It's a social class thing. She doesn't think it's Seth's business because he's the help.)
- Seth's still suspicious, though.
- Christine slowly opens the front door and pops out. Seth tries to give Lavinia a heads-up.
- There's a really short, but very awkward pause, and Seth leaves.
- Once again, Christine and Lavinia start getting snarky with each other.
- Christine makes fun of Lavinia for just standing outside staring at the moon, and tells her she should just marry Peter and go away.
- Lavinia says she's a confirmed bachelor(ette), and wants to stick around to help her aging father.
- Christine ridicules her for it, and implies that she, for one, is done feeling obligated to Old Man Mannon.
- Lavinia reminds her of her promise to break it off with Brant.
- Christine says she hasn't forgotten.
- After Lavinia asks her if she plans on seeing Brant again, Christine lies and says she doesn't.
- Lavinia says that Christine's lack of sadness is proof she's a cold, unfeeling, awful person who must never really have loved Brant.
- Christine says she'd just made up her mind not to give Lavinia the satisfaction of seeing her sad. She also asks when Ezra's supposed to get home.
- Lavinia isn't sure but, all of a sudden, she notices someone walking up toward the house.
- Sure enough, it's Ezra Mannon himself.
- Lavinia's so happy she starts to cry.
- Ezra, who we get the feeling doesn't like to have feelings, tells her she shouldn't cry. You can tell that he does favor his daughter.
- Papa Mannon says he's only staying for a few days, then he's got to go and disband his brigade because the war's over.
- He also pays Christine a (very awkward) compliment. It's obvious she's only pretending to appreciate it.
- Christine asks about her darling baby boy Orin.
- Ezra says that he didn't want to tell her this, but that Orin was wounded.
- Christine fears that Orin's dead, and says she blames Old Man Mannon and Lavinia for encouraging Orin to fight in the war at all.
- Mannon tells everybody to calm down, that Orin only suffered a mild head wound, but that he was briefly hospitalized with "brain fever."
- Christine's still super worried.
- Ezra tells her that he doesn't want Orin treated like a child anymore.
- Lavinia asks Ezra about the trouble with his ticker, and he says the pain feels pretty awful, but that it always passes. He's been warned that he needs to avoid excitement.
- Christine says she thinks that Ezra needs a rest.
- Lavinia jumps in and decides to bring up good old Adam Brant.
- This starts a whole back-and-forth between Christine and Lavinia, with Lavinia constantly trying to find ways to make her father mad, and Christine insisting Brant was just trying to get all romantic with Lavinia.
- Ezra says he's had enough of the arguing and doesn't want to hear anymore.
- He tells Lavinia it's her bedtime, and she scuttles off. Seriously. Like, how old is she, anyway?
- Ezra tries to talk to Christine about his feelings.
- Christine just wants to make sure that Papa Mannon doesn't suspect anything.
- Ezra admits to being jealous of the fact that Christine loved Orin more than him.
- Ezra says he just wants Christine to love him and be happy. He realizes he's been a pretty emotionally shut-down guy, and he wants to change. The war made him want to be alive again.
- Maybe they could take a vacation to the islands and rekindle something. Anything.
- Christine couldn't be less interested.
- Lavinia interrupts again, saying she couldn't sleep.
- Ezra goes upstairs to bed.
- She and Christine yell at each other some more.
- Almost so you'd think she was about to say forget it and tell Ezra everything, she yells up at the window to his room.
- He looks down and asks her what she wants, obviously upset.
- All she says is that she forgot to say "good night."
- Ezra reminds her she needs to be in bed.
- She agrees, and says "good night."