Opening
A sunny shopping excursion on Nantucket fractures into private detours, exposed nerves, and sharp confrontations. Old flames flicker, buried fears surface, and the weekend’s glossy veneer cracks as secrets push every relationship to a breaking point.
What Happens
Chapter 21: Stone Alley
The group arrives in town and immediately splinters. Tatum McKenzie and Hollis Shaw peel off on separate errands, and Dru-Ann Jones heads to a luxury boutique, leaving Brooke Kirtley stranded with Gigi Ling and awash in insecurity. At Mitchell’s Book Corner, Gigi’s literary enthusiasm fills the aisles as she recommends serious novels and buys two for Brooke. Feeling exposed about her own reading, Brooke grabs a breezy Nantucket-set beach read; when Gigi calls it “popular,” Brooke flushes—but also feels sparked to aim higher.
At Murray’s Toggery, Brooke chases the Nantucket look with a Reds skirt. Gigi proves to be an ideal shopping ally, pairing it with a striped sweater and cheering Brooke’s reflection until her eyes sting with happy tears. Then Brooke spots Electra Undergrove on the street. Terrified Hollis will learn she’s met with her nemesis, Brooke yanks Gigi into a sudden escape down the steep, cobbled Stone Alley. Gigi, charmed, imagines secret lovers once stealing along the passage; Brooke, disarmed by her generosity, finally sees why Hollis invited Gigi.
Chapter 22: Under the Influence I
Dru-Ann, a self-described shopping snob, luxuriates at Gypsy with designer racks and champagne, using retail therapy to numb the ache of a career-ending scandal and her uneasy relationship with Nick. Her private cocoon bursts when two stylish young women—whom she pegs as influencers—recognize her and press her about her comments on golfer Posey Wofford’s mental health. One, Bex, confesses Dru-Ann was her hero—until now.
Defensive, Dru-Ann doubles down, claiming Posey faked illness. The words land with a thud. After the women leave, the shame lingers; she buys an eye-wateringly expensive leather jacket anyway, clinging to labels as her image—key to Authenticity vs. Public Persona—crumbles.
Chapter 23: Rye Toast
Hollis follows Tatum to Black-Eyed Susan’s and walks into a reunion with Tatum’s husband, Kyle, and Jack Finigan, Hollis’s high school boyfriend. A charge runs through Hollis when she sees Jack—pure Revisiting the Past. Their old rhythm reappears as Jack and Kyle nail Hollis’s unchanged order: rye toast with orange marmalade. Then Kyle mentions they ran into Tatum’s boss, Irina, last night. Tatum, sensitive about Irina, bolts in tears.
While Kyle comforts Tatum, he confides to Hollis that Tatum awaits a breast biopsy result and fears the worst—her mother died of cancer. Hollis reels, hurt that Tatum kept this from her and sobered by Grief, Loss, and Healing reshaping their friendship. Jack and Hollis share a tender moment—he jokes about the marmalade, admitting it always makes him think of her—and mentions giving Caroline Shaw-Madden a ride that morning. When Tatum returns, she refuses to discuss her health and darkly vows to put a “real snake” in Irina’s bed, telegraphing trouble ahead.
Chapter 24: Shotgun II
Back at the Bronco, tensions ignite over the front passenger seat. Dru-Ann snipes about the earlier snake prank; Tatum revives an old wedding-day grievance. Tatum yields the seat, but the car’s mood curdles, proof that Friendship and Its Evolution isn’t trending upward.
On the drive, Brooke tries to share her shopping high and gets clipped—first by Tatum’s sarcasm, then by Dru-Ann’s “tone it down.” Tatum lights a cigarette; Dru-Ann calls it trashy and inconsiderate. Tatum fires back about class differences, hitting the raw nerve of Secrets and Betrayal. Hollis stays silent, paralyzed between them, while Gigi alone remains steady. The ride, Brooke notes, is a two-star experience at best.
Chapter 25: Maybe: Sofia
Caroline wakes up alone, dissatisfied with Dylan and fixated on her affair with her boss, Isaac. She doom-scrolls the Instagram of his famous girlfriend, Sofia Desmione, and stares at a cozy photo captioned “My love.” A text pings from an unknown number saved as “Maybe: Sofia”—How’s your weekend? Panic. Caroline refuses Sofia’s incoming call and lies via text, drowning in Secrets, Deception, and Truth.
When the women return, the house goes hush and brittle. Caroline confronts Hollis about breakfast with Jack, accusing her of moving on too fast from her father and calling her a phony. She reveals Jack told her he’s still in love with Hollis, then shreds the Five-Star Weekend as a curated sham for Hollis’s blog. She threatens to release her unedited footage to expose the messiness behind the brand. The eruption slices straight through Mother-Daughter Relationships and lands squarely on Hollis’s public image.
Character Development
The shopping day strips away performances and exposes fault lines, pushing each woman toward a moment of truth.
- Brooke Kirtley: Buoyed by Gigi’s kindness, she glimpses a more confident self—then reveals her fragility by fleeing Electra.
- Dru-Ann Jones: Her armor dents. The influencer confrontation forces her to feel the cost of her scandal, even as she clings to luxe purchases as a shield.
- Hollis Shaw: Torn between nostalgic desire and present responsibilities, she loses control of the group narrative and faces the limits of her hostess persona.
- Tatum McKenzie: Her sharp edges read differently once her biopsy fear comes to light; anger masks grief and terror.
- Caroline Shaw-Madden: She moves from observer to provocateur, wielding the truth—and her footage—against Hollis’s brand.
- Gigi Ling: A calming force who steadies Brooke and refuses to engage in the group’s cruelty, she models quiet empathy.
Themes & Symbols
These chapters center authenticity: public images fray as private realities burst through. Dru-Ann’s collapse of status versus self highlights how a polished persona can’t survive real scrutiny. Hollis’s curated weekend looks hollow beside Caroline’s raw footage and accusations. The group’s bickering underscores how friendships evolve unevenly under stress, and how old grievances metastasize when left unspoken.
Secrets drive every scene. Tatum hides her biopsy, Brooke hides Electra, Caroline hides Isaac, and Dru-Ann hides the depth of her shame. The past asserts itself—Hollis and Jack’s intimacy still lives in muscle memory; Tatum’s fear is rooted in her mother’s death; and the long-standing Tatum/Dru-Ann feud refuses to die. Symbols sharpen the emotional map: rye toast with orange marmalade becomes shorthand for Hollis and Jack’s enduring connection; glossy shopping bags stand in for the facades the women try to wear—Dru-Ann’s leather jacket as pain-killer, Brooke’s Reds skirt and literary novels as aspiration.
Key Quotes
“Popular.”
- Gigi’s cool verdict on Brooke’s beach read both stings and sparks. The single word captures the gap Brooke feels between who she is and who she wants to be.
“Disappointment.”
- Bex’s label for Dru-Ann cuts deeper than any online pile-on. A former fan’s judgment forces Dru-Ann to face the human impact of her brand’s collapse.
“Tone it down.”
- Dru-Ann’s knife-edged aside to Brooke exposes a pecking order inside the friend group. Casual condescension inflames the car’s class tensions.
“Two-star experience.”
- Brooke’s private rating fractures the weekend’s five-star fantasy. The joke-as-shield marks a turning point from curated delight to blunt reality.
“My love.”
- Sofia’s caption on Instagram detonates Caroline’s panic. Two words crystallize the trap of secrecy and the pain of loving someone unavailable.
“A real snake.”
- Tatum’s threat toward Irina reveals how fear curdles into vengeance. The line foreshadows an eruption that will drag private turmoil into public view.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This stretch marks the pivot from polite reunion to open conflict. Secrets stop simmering and start boiling over; alliances shift; and the past—romances, feuds, losses—reenters the present with teeth. The revelation of Tatum’s biopsy raises the emotional stakes for everyone, reframing her antagonism as grief-adjacent fear.
Formally, the shifting close-third perspectives build dramatic irony: we see why characters act as they do even when their friends misread them. Foreshadowing clicks into place—Tatum’s threat, Caroline’s “Maybe: Sofia” text, Jack’s lingering love—signaling collisions ahead. Above all, the chapters puncture the myth of a “five-star” life, replacing it with something messier, truer, and far harder to control.