Bones & All

Maren washes her face at Barry’s house and hates that Lee has seen her like this, even though he has done the same thing. After she showers, she wonders if anyone besides Andy will think she’s pretty again.

Maren adds Andy’s name to her journal, and then she and Lee lay on a waterbed together. He says his first kill was also a babysitter. In the morning, someone knocks on the door and shouts for Barry. They don’t answer, but Maren can see that the woman has a child in the car. The woman slashes one of Barry’s tires and then leaves.

Lee quickly changes the tire and tells Maren that he wants her to come to Virginia with him so that they can look out for each other. He’s going there to give his sister, Kayla, driving lessons. Maren tells him about her grandparents, her mother, and Mrs. Harmon. Lee is surprised that Andy was the first time she has ever killed in a car because most people assume something different when they see steam on a car’s windows. Maren realizes that an eavesdropper might think they were talking about sex.

Lee is skeptical when Maren says Sully claimed only to eat the dead. They stop to get a new tire in Illinois. While Maren cleans the cab, Lee takes plywood from a dumpster and puts it in the back of the truck to protect them from the cold while they sleep outdoors. He also has the mechanic change the license plates.

At a state park, they lie in the back of the truck. Maren tells Lee about Samantha, and he says he doesn’t like people who break their word. Then he asks if her mother was afraid of her. When Maren doesn’t answer, Lee apologizes. She worries that her mother never loved her. The next day, they reach his recently deceased great-aunt’s abandoned house in Tingley, Virginia. Lee asks to see Maren’s journal. She lets him look at the pictures that she has taped in it, which include renderings of a famous cannibal named Sawyer Beane. In the pictures, he and a group of cannibals are eating in a cave around a fire. Maren thinks it looks cozy.

Lee wonders if Goya, the painter of Saturn Devouring His Son, was an eater. While she sleeps, Maren dreams about words dripping down a wall. She knows that her father painted the words, but she can’t read them.

In the morning, Maren finds a note that says Lee went to give Kayla driving lessons. She tries to knit and watches TV. Soon, Lee brings her breakfast. Then he notices that Kayla has followed him on her bike. Maren listens to them argue on the porch. Kayla is worried about him, and Lee tells her to go back to school. Eventually, she leaves. She sees Maren through the window before she goes.

On the drive to Minnesota to find her father, Maren asks for driving lessons. While they camp that night, Lee asks to see what’s in her backpack. It’s mostly books: Some are hers, and some belonged to the people she has eaten. He asks about Kevin, who owned The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They discuss other people and other mementos that they took from them.

Lee says that Kayla knows something is different about him. He says he ate his babysitter because she abused him. Worse, his mom knew and didn’t stop it. Instead, she apologized and claimed there was no one else to watch him. He says the rush of eating someone makes him feel like a superhero, which makes Maren jealous. Lee doesn’t believe her. He says she likes it as much as he does.

Lee says that his mother dated bad guys who abused him, and he hated her for it. When he asks Maren about her mother, she describes her cooking, her love for classic movies, and the way she colored her hair.

She drives for an hour during the trip. One evening, they hear a preacher giving a live sermon to a congregation. He talks about everyone being brothers and sisters and insists that people must forgive themselves before they can forgive others. Lee is skeptical of Reverend Figtree’s message and says he once took Kayla to a similar event. The worshippers had booed her out of the room when she said she wasn’t sure if she believed in God.

When Lee tries to change the station, Maren insists that they keep listening and wants to attend a meeting the church is holding the next night. Lee then says he’ll take Maren to the meeting if she’ll tell the preacher exactly what she is. That ends the conversation. That night, Maren dreams of being in a church. Again, there are unrecognizable words written on the wall. People sing hymns in an unfamiliar language. Finally, the reverend tells her to kneel for forgiveness, and he looks menacing.