- We can still hear Orin calling for Christine, and we've entered the "sitting room" inside the Mannon home—we like to think of it as The Hall of Creepy Dead Relatives.
- The study is decorated with paintings of 3 Mannon men, including Ezra's father Abe, and 2 of their wives (also dead).
- In the middle of all of this sit Hazel and Peter.
- As they both listen to Orin calling for his mommy, they talk about how rough things have been for the Mannon clan as of late, especially for Lavinia and Christine.
- Hazel, for obvious reasons, is especially worried about Orin and how sickly he looks.
- Orin and Christine show up, prompting Peter and Hazel to stop talking.
- Sounding a whole lot like a grumpy spoiled child, Orin asks where Christine went when she left.
- Lying—which is what she does best—Christine says that the joy of seeing her son again was too much for her, and she almost fainted, so she needed to get some fresh air.
- Ever the dutiful son, Orin says that maybe Christine should get some rest.
- Hazel agrees, but Christine refuses, saying she doesn't want to disappear minutes after her beloved son just got home.
- Christine turns the tables on Orin, and starts coddling him, sitting him in a comfy position and sticking a pillow behind his head.
- Trying to keep things fun and light, Peter remarks that life on the frontlines sure wasn't like this, and Orin agrees.
- Joking, Orin says that they better get Lavinia in there to put a pillow behind Peter's head before he gets jealous.
- Hazel says, meaning to be funny, that she can't see Lavinia being so "soft" or gentle.
- In a way that suggests it really ticks him off, Orin mentions that Lavinia's always fussing over Ezra.
- This shocks Christine, because Orin's talking like Ezra is still alive.
- Orin admits it's hard for him to remember that Ezra is dead.
- For reasons only we (and maybe Lavinia) can understand, this makes Christine uncomfortable.
- Hazel suggests that Orin not talk about his dead father.
- Remarking how nice Hazel has always been, Orin agrees.
- Christine asks if Orin's wound still hurts, and puts her hand on his head.
- He says it doesn't hurt at all when she touches him that way (super creepy), and then says that he thinks that Christine has changed somehow—that she's gotten more beautiful. Something's different.
- This makes his mother extremely uncomfortable.
- Orin starts talking about the really nice send-off to war he and the others got from Hazel and the other women, how they all said he and his pals were heroes.
- He goes on to say that they should have sent the women up to the front for a while, so they could see what it feels like to brutally kill people, and see if they still feel the same way about men who fight in wars being heroes.
- Peter and Christine tell Orin to back off. He does, and apologizes, especially to Hazel. He was just venting.
- Everybody basically agrees to move on, but Orin just can't shake the weirdness.
- He asks Hazel if she still sings, and tells her that, during the war, he would "hear" her voice singing softly at strange times, like when a bunch of people were dying really horrible deaths.
- Pretty much the worst compliment of all time.
- Christine begs Orin to stop being so obsessed with death.
- Before he can answer, Lavinia shows up.
- She tells him to go take a look at his dead father's body, which has been laid out for viewing in another room.
- Orin agrees, saying "Yes, sir," because he was convinced that it was actually Old Man Mannon himself talking to him.
- Christine acts all hurt that Orin is leaving her sight after only being home for a little while, and asks him to stay. She's trying to avoid him having the chance to talk to his sister,
- Orin agrees and sits back down.
- Lavinia tells him not to forget what she told him. Christine silently freaks out.
- Sensing that things have gotten more than a little awkward, Peter and Hazel leave.
- Orin and Christine get to talking. Orin's wondering why Christine is so big on Hazel all of a sudden.
- Christine admits that she wasn't a fan of Hazel in the past because seeing how much she liked Orin made her jealous.
- Orin says he only pretended to like Hazel to make Christine jealous.
- He also says he's mad that, now that he's home and Ezra's dead, Christine is trying to marry him off and get rid of him.
- Christine gets upset, and says that she missed him terribly and wrote to him all the time. All those letters must have been lost in the mail.
- Orin said he only got two letters from her in the last six months. No one else's letters managed to get lost. The tension in this conversation is ramping up fast.
- Then, Orin finally gets the courage to confront her about Brant, worked up as he is into a weirdly jealous rage.
- Christine says that all of Orin's suspicions are nonsense, and also lets it slip that Lavinia also wrote to Ezra about Brant.
- When Orin asks, Christine just says that Ezra laughed it off.
- Christine goes on for quite a while about how Lavinia's willing to say all sorts of awful things about her and even believe that some of them are true.
- There's a brief period where Orin and Christine admit that neither of them liked Ezra, and always felt especially close to one another.
- Christine says she's worried that Lavinia will make Orin believe all sorts of terrible things about her.
- When Orin asks exactly what she means, Christine starts lying shamelessly.
- She denies ever having any interest in Brant, and says that Lavinia was probably in love with him at one time.
- And Christine doesn't stop there: she mentions that Lavinia's convinced she saw her meet Brant in New York, which she says also isn't true (at least, that's what Christine wants Orin to think).
- Orin thinks this is what might have killed his father---it's Lavinia's fault!
- Finally, Christine lets the big one drop, saying that Lavinia's even convinced that she poisoned Ezra.
- Orin's shocked by all of this, and says Lavinia should be put away in a mental hospital.
- Christine asks Orin not to be fooled, and to protect her from Lavinia, who she says has gone crazy with grief.
- Orin agrees, which should come as no surprise given his weird relationship with his mother.
- He says he can forgive anything—anything except Christine fooling around with Brant, that is.
- Christine asks him to stop talking about that.
- Orin starts gushing on about how much he missed his mamma, and even thought about running away from the army to go see her.
- Even more mommy-and-me weirdness ensues as Orin and Christine reminisce about all of the ways they showed affection with each other that made Ezra jealous.
- Orin says he doesn't want Hazel—he only wants mommy. Freud would have had a field day with all this.
- Lavinia pops back in and reminds Orin he still hasn't looked at Ezra's body.
- Orin grumpily agrees to go.
- After he leaves, Christine tells Lavinia that there's no way Orin will ever believe anything she tells her now that they've talked. She's managed to convince him that his sister is nuts.
- But Christine makes a big boo-boo: she tells Lavinia that Orin basically said he would kill Brant if he found out she was fooling around with him.
- Lavinia doesn't say anything, but smiles in a way that tells you she's got a plan.
- Left all by herself after Lavinia leaves, Christine realizes she's got to warn Brant.