Ward D

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses drug misuse, child abuse and neglect, and stigmatizing tropes that connect mental health conditions to criminal behavior, which Ward D portrays.

“But the thing that sticks with me most—the thing I will never forget—are the words she spit out at me just seconds before I ran out of the unit, swearing to myself I would never return ever again:

You should be the one locked up here, Amy.”

As Amy prepares to spend the night in Ward D, she recalls the last time she was there. This quote foreshadows her revelation that the young girl who told her to do bad things when she was 16 is a delusion. Such delusions call her mental state into question, a question that will not be resolved until the end.

“‘What if,’ I say quietly, ‘at the end of the night, they get confused and think that I’m one of the patients there and they don’t let me out?’”

Amy asks this question of her roommate, Gabby, and Gabby laughs. This is the first time she openly questions her mental health, and she is brushed off, reinforcing her reluctance to do so again. This quote further foreshadows the reveal of the young girl as a real delusion.

“While I’m standing in the middle of Ricardo’s, trying not to stroke the forbidden sweater, I notice a little girl standing on the other side of the clothing rack. She is about six or seven years old, wearing a pink dress that is the same color as the sweater, and with blond curls around her face. She is adorable, especially when she offers me a gap-toothed smile.”

Amy describes the first appearance of the young girl from her delusions. The girl is nonthreatening, a reflection of Amy’s subconscious that contrasts with her later suggestions to steal and cheat.