Final Girls: A Novel

Sheila is defensive, but Quincy presses on with questions about Lisa. Lisa claimed to be worried about Quincy, so Sheila told her about her work and her relationship with Jeff. Lisa also wanted to know if Quincy could remember anything about Pine Cottage. Quincy wonders why Lisa didn’t call her directly. Sheila admits her assumption that Quincy wouldn’t be honest with Lisa. Part of this assumption came from Lisa’s insistence that Quincy had recovered from her trauma sooner than the other Final Girls did.

Sheila had attempted to reach out to Quincy to tell her about Lisa, but Quincy never returned her calls. When Quincy criticizes Sheila over shielding her from the truth, Sheila explains that all she wanted was for Quincy to be happy and normal. This upsets Quincy, who claims she can never be normal again. She calls her mother out for forcing normalcy on her, which has resulted in the cracked foundations of her seemingly normal life.

Thinking about how Sam allowed her to see these cracks, Quincy asks what Lisa sounded like over the phone. When Sheila points out that Lisa would take frequent breaks while speaking, Quincy realizes that Sheila hadn’t been talking to Lisa, but to Sam, who was smoking throughout their call. Quincy decides to confront Sam, booking the next flight to New York. She withholds her true reasons for going home from Jeff. Quincy suspects that Sam killed Lisa. On the way home, she finds it difficult to recognize her own reflection in the plane window.

Craig starts taking his clothes off. Quincy panics when Craig opens her legs. She tells Craig to stop, which frustrates him. She explains she just wants her first time having sex to be special, which leads Craig to reveal that his first time wasn’t special. Quincy is disappointed because she thought Craig was a virgin too. She realizes that she doesn’t mean anything to Craig. When Craig puts his clothes back on to leave, Quincy urges him to stay with her. Craig leaves, bringing Quincy to tears.

A tired Quincy returns home. She prepares herself to confront an armed Sam but is instead surprised by the sound of romantic music playing through the guest room door. Sam and Coop are inside, about to kiss. Quincy forces Coop to leave.

Quincy looks for Janelle but can’t find her in the cabin. She goes out and follows the trail to the hilltop. There she spies Janelle and Craig having sex. Quincy runs away in tears.

Quincy accuses Sam of coveting her relative normalcy and happiness. Sam retorts that what Quincy did to Rocky speaks to her instability. She then explains that she seduced Coop as insurance against Hernandez. Quincy claims she wouldn’t stoop so low as to seduce Coop to ensure her freedom, but Sam argues that she has by emotionally relying on him all these years.

Quincy confronts Sam about meeting Lisa. Sam admits that she had stayed with Lisa for a week, after which Lisa turned her away. Quincy accuses Sam of killing Lisa. Sam denies it. Coop texts Quincy to ask if they can talk.

Quincy returns to the cabin in denial. She finds Joe reclining on her bed. Joe senses that Quincy isn’t okay and connects it to Craig and Janelle. He consoles Quincy by telling her she is better than both of them. Quincy kisses Joe and proceeds to have sex with him. Joe checks in on her throughout, wanting to make her feel good.

Quincy visits Coop’s hotel room. Coop explains that Sam had called him over to talk about Quincy. Their intimate moment had happened unexpectedly. Coop says he is often lonely. Quincy is unmoved by his confession, but then Coop reveals that he called Quincy to the hotel to confess his feelings for her. He elaborates that everything he’s done over the last 10 years is out of devotion to her. Quincy expresses that she doesn’t feel the same way, but when he moves close to her, she kisses him. They have sex.

Quincy leaves while Joe is asleep. She heads to the kitchen and thinks about taking revenge against Craig and Janelle. She sees her grieving reflection in the kitchen window and doesn’t recognize herself. She leaves the cabin with a knife.

Quincy wakes up in Coop’s hotel room, hungover with the realization of what she’s done. She finds a note from Coop, who has left, apologizing for his confession and asking for some distance. This angers Quincy. She then remembers Jeff and becomes so anxious about breaking his trust that she decides to never tell him about it.

Quincy answers Jeff’s concerned messages by acting as though she’d fallen asleep at home. She then gets a call from Jonah asking her to meet at once.

Quincy plans to scare Craig and Janelle. She hears someone following her and sees Joe. Joe discourages Quincy from following through with her plan, expressing that he had done something similarly regrettable in the past. Quincy shares her pain with Joe. Joe asks her to return to the cabin. Quincy drops the knife in the woods and leaves.

Quincy meets Jonah, who has connected the name “Tina Stone” to a news report about a man being stabbed to death by his stepdaughter. Quincy recognizes the report as the other one included in Sam’s folder and deduces that Tina is the stepdaughter.

Quincy tries to work out why Sam would have adopted Tina’s name. When Jonah produces Tina’s medical history, Quincy compares it to the timeline Sam had given about her supposed name change. She realizes that Sam and Tina are two different people. Moreover, Tina Stone is listed as having been a patient at Blackthorn Psychiatric Hospital, putting her there at the exact same time as Joe Hannen and the Pine Cottage killings.

Quincy hears Janelle’s screams from the cabin. Craig arrives and tells Quincy to run. The others come out of the cabin to investigate. Craig informs them that Janelle is dead. Janelle finally arrives at the cabin, bleeding from a slash to her neck. She collapses in Quincy’s arms. The others urge Quincy to run when a figure emerges from the forest, wielding the knife. The killer stabs Quincy in the shoulder, sending her to the ground. The killer consoles Quincy through her pain. Quincy no longer remembers what happened next.