Little Monsters

Steph buys lobsters and prepares a clambake for her parents’ arrival, honoring a tradition that began with her and Toni’s trips to Provincetown. She sees a whale from the beach. After they eat, she and her father walk together, and he urges her to move past her hurt. She prepares to argue with him. He sobs, and his knees buckle. Michael claims that only he is her father—Adam didn’t raise her. Michael can’t understand why Steph is getting to know Adam.

Abby faces the challenge of naming her painting and signing it. Her signature means she has finished the work, and she hesitates. She thinks about her brother’s molestation and how her stepmother, Gretchen, criticized Adam for not responding to the abuse. She recalls Jenny breaking her favorite mug and repairing it, turning a quotidian object into something deeper. Abby names her painting Little Monster. She signs it with her middle name, Emily, after her mother. Waking up from a nap, Abby sees David, who announces that he is leaving his wife, Rebecca. She doesn’t tell him that she’s pregnant.

Adam packs up his office at the CCIO (Cape Cod Institute of Oceanography), touching and remembering some of the mementos from his office. He recalls a piece of ambergris, which he and Emily discovered on their honeymoon, and a seahorse, which represents his lone affair with Steph’s mother. Adam considers how the CCIO has pushed him out due to his lack of grants. He bemoans their emphasis on grants—and the CCIO’s loss of curiosity for the sea. He packs up a family portrait of Adam, Ken, and a pregnant Emily and leaves the CCIO one last time.

Jenny thinks about a recurring dream she had again the night before, where she experiences her mother’s last moments. Her dream-mother has commanded her to be Jennifer Lowell.

She checks her email, noting the number of emailed RSVPs to Adam’s party from strange emails. Adam has invited people without her knowledge, and she goes to Ken’s office to enlist his help. She discovers him making a detailed model of his senior living center for Adam. He tells Jenny that he used his mother’s tools and feels that she assisted him. Jenny presses him for more information, but he demurs. He asks her to shred a tie Jenny’s father bought him to make a rug for the model.

Abby gets a call from Jenny while a famous photographer takes photos of Abby’s paintings and studio for Art Observer. Jenny tells Abby that her father is experiencing mania. After the shoot, Abby ponders her father’s condition, recognizing that she has thought mostly of herself, her pregnancy, and her artwork. Remembering how her father had disappeared for days when Abby and Ken were children, she entertains the worst possibilities. Abby searches Steph’s name online and recognizes her as the woman she’s met several times.

Steph notes that Adam texts her often but that she doesn’t know much about Ken and Abby. Toni warns her to be honest and admit her true motives. She reads through a series of texts from Adam. Adam invites Steph out on his boat to see baleen whales, which he calls by their scientific name.

Searching Facebook, she finds a post from Jenny announcing a fundraiser for the Episcopal Church. She and Toni prepare to go.

Ken and his family arrive at the church, and he confiscates his daughters’ phones. A group of boys approach, flattering Ken’s golf game and helping to carry flowers into the church. Tessa and Frannie follow the boys, and Jenny stops Ken from interfering. As Ken sits through the sermon on the Seven Deadly Sins, he analyzes himself, narrowing his sins down to pride and anger.

Steph and Toni win the bid for Jenny’s flowers. Ken notes that the lesbian couple could help him burnish his image for the 2018 election. He tries to campaign in front of them until Jenny takes a photo of Steph and Toni with her floral arrangement. They offer to include Jenny and Ken in their photo, and Tessa recognizes them. Steph tells Ken that they met Abby, and they compliment her artistic ability. Tessa recognizes the familiarity in Steph’s appearance. On the way home, Ken and his family playfully guess each other’s sin, and they all agree that Ken’s is envy.