Long Island Compromise

The highly combustible polystyrene factory becomes quickly engulfed in flames. Shortly after Marjorie is apprehended, Ike arrives at the scene, followed by Carl, whom Ike hadn’t informed about the fire. Ruth arrives independently of Carl. When Marjorie sees her, she indicates that Phyllis, now a dybbuk, visited her in the form of Ruth and instructed her to destroy the factory to save it. It is later revealed that around the time of Ruth’s visit, Marjorie had taken several drugs to calm down, but this merely increased her delirium. Carl is inclined to believe Marjorie’s explanation, revealing that he has also been visited by Phyllis’s spirit, who instructed him to go to the factory to find the ransom money.

The detectives release Marjorie after they speak to the judge. Marjorie’s only cellmate at the station, a Black man who was apprehended after a police frisk, awaits his indictment. On the way home, Ruth tries to get Carl to talk about what they should do, but Carl is preoccupied with his vision of Phyllis.

Back at the estate, tents are being raised for Ari and Josh’s bar mitzvah. The participating families spend the morning preparing for the ceremony. Nathan finds it difficult to feel happy considering their financial situation. He finally tells Alyssa the truth. Alyssa is resolved to carry on with the bar mitzvah but is upset that Nathan decided to keep it a secret from her. Nathan finds his anxiety quelled now that everyone in his family understands the severity of their emergency. The last time he felt this calm was during Carl’s kidnapping.

The call that Jenny received when her mother found her in the brownstone was from a luxury rehabilitation facility called The Bluffs, which had committed Beamer after his collapse outside Mandy Patinkin’s residence. Beamer’s credit card had been denied after several weeks of payment. Noelle referred the facility to Jenny after working with the doctors to conduct Beamer’s treatment.

While undergoing treatment, Beamer experiences dissociative episodes and hallucinatory visions of his past. In his last vision, he sings with Carl after Carl finishes writing his memoir. When he wakes up from the vision, he sees Noelle looking through his phone. Noelle confronts Beamer about his secrets and informs him that she hadn’t made it in time for Liesl’s recital. Liesl was too distraught by the absence of her parents to perform. A remorseful Beamer explains that his secret life allows him to function normally for his family.

Sometime later, Beamer attempts to escape the facility, causing the orderlies to tackle him. This makes Beamer feel like he has been kidnapped, which also makes him happy. Beamer undergoes therapy with a man named Ed, who helps him outline his erotic triggers. Beamer develops a detoxification routine at the facility. He realizes that he has been trying to reenact his father’s kidnapping so that he could understand how he would have turned out if it hadn’t happened. Before he can reach any more breakthroughs, he is thrown out of the facility for failure to pay his fees. Jenny picks him up, using the last of her savings to pay for his outstanding dues. She checks him into a new, less expensive rehabilitation facility in Yellowton.

After he checks out of the Yellowton facility, Beamer and Jenny reconcile and go to the twins’ bar mitzvah together. Beamer recalls a Hebrew school lesson about the afterlife being a complete replay of one’s life, in which a person feels joy or shame for the decisions they made. At the Middle Rock estate, they greet Ruth, who reminds them that they are there for Nathan. Before the ceremony, Ruth reminisces about the day of Nathan’s bar mitzvah. The children correct her, indicating that neither of their parents attended Nathan’s bar mitzvah. Ruth is upset by this claim, while Alyssa is shocked that Nathan never told her about it.

Nathan is moved to tears during his sons’ bar mitzvah, standing among Alyssa’s family, the Semanskys. Alyssa gives a speech that affirms the individuality of her sons. Beamer and Jenny simultaneously realize that they are both defined and doomed by their family experience, just as the Semanskys are defined by theirs.

Carl leaves the bar mitzvah party unnoticed when he sees Phyllis at the entrance to the tent. He follows her outside, though she disappears. Contemplating his life, he is unable to remember a time before the kidnapping. He has struggled to maintain normalcy from the moment he was taken by the kidnappers. After he returned home, he experienced depression and anxiety. Although he knew that Ruth was trying to support him, he tried to hold back his feelings from her so that he could lead their family. He especially regrets his absence from Nathan's bar mitzvah: He experienced a panic attack that prevented him from attending, and Ruth had to look after him while Phyllis entertained the children.

The party guests notice that Carl is on the ground outside the tent. Carl wonders what they are so worried about since he feels fine. He separates from his body and ascends into the sky to follow his mother. He finds Phyllis and Zelig at a chamber that resembles his old family dining room. Zelig informs Carl that he is about to experience judgment, which he describes as “the ability to look at your life and find yourself justified” (419). He further compares it to forgiveness. Zelig starts telling the story of his life, revealing that he hadn’t been given the polystyrene formula by Chaim. Rather, he had stolen it, along with his passage out of Europe, while Chaim was still weak and dying. Zelig claims to have been forgiven through his judgment. Carl opens up about his guilt over Nathan’s bar mitzvah and justifies his reasons for failing to attend it. Zelig tells him that he is forgiven.

Carl weeps for all his shortcomings. He realizes that the only thing he should really feel sorry about is his failure to realize how much the kidnapping should have awakened him to the security of his life. Mandy Patinkin appears and forgives him. Carl wants to tell everyone that he and his body are one and the same, but Mandy says that everyone already knows. Mandy leads Carl through a door to leave Earth. Carl dies in the arms of Ike Besser, who has been hiding the bulk of the ransom money in his backyard.