Directed by Lela Swift. I love the very effective, upward-looking diagonal camera angle as Maggie teeters on the windowsill.
Roger still isn't finished sniping at Maggie. She's so distraught that she almost misses Ange's latest slip-up about how Quentin probably is walking on the beach.
Hoffman was wise to leave when Maggie was choosing a dress. She knows that Maggie has even more reason now to demand that Quentin fire her. She congratulates Ange, but Ange is too busy complaining about having to be a guest in her own home at "that fiasco of a party." She brightens up when she looks forward to hosting it herself next year. They hear footsteps in the hallway as someone goes to Ange's old room and wonder who it is.
It's Roger, who pours himself some Champagne and toasts the big portrait. Ange finds him there, and he continues taunting the absent Maggie until even Ange says he's being cruel.
Maggie returns to the drawing room, but Roger finds her and mocks her even further.
Ange tells Hoffman that she has a new plan for Maggie. Hoffman thinks Plan A is going fine, since Quentin and Maggie are separated, but Ange threatens her. However, Ange doesn't seem to need Hoffman's help. She makes the phone ring in Maggie's room. Maggie picks it up immediately, thinking it’s Quentin, but she hears hideous laughter in a voice that sounds like Alexis’s. She slams the phone down but it happens again, so she leaves the phone off the hook. She goes to "Alexis"'s room but finds her apparently sound asleep. "Alexis" explains it away by saying that she and Angelique had the same voice.
At midnight--the ball ended VERY early!--Hoffman is starting to clean up the drawing room when Roger comes in and demands to know what The Secret is. Since you returned to Collinwood, something has happened to you. Hoffman claims not to know what he’s talking about. Something is going on in the house, Roger insists, and if it’s a secret I want in. I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Collins, Hoffman says one last time. He says, Fear, I think--fear! Hoffman excuses herself to continue cleaning, but Roger is thoughtful.
Maggie returns to the master bedroom and hangs up the phone. A loud rushing wind blows the door open, and then she hears Bruno’s Ode to Angelique playing on the piano. She follows the sound to Angelique’s room, where the music plays on, even though the piano’s fallboard is down. A echoing voice calls her: Maggie! Maggie! Completely unsurprised by now that the portrait should speak to her, Maggie turns toward it as the voice laughs mockingly. I watched you all the time! the voice (well, we know who really) says. Maggie starts to run from the room, but the voice says, You can’t run away from me! Maggie sets her jaw and turns back to the portrait, declaring, Then I will stay, and I will fight you! Fight me? the voice answers with a laugh. When I have already won? No, you haven’t, Maggie says determinedly. Angelique answers, Yes, I have. Quentin loves me, not you. Maggie screams back, No! That’s not true! Angelique answers, Yes, it is. Look into the mirror! Look at what you are! Look! Maggie can’t help looking in the mirror, which reflects the oversize portrait in the background. Even at a distance, it’s far larger than Maggie’s reflection. Angelique continues: You are a poor substitute. Such a gauche, clumsy little girl that no one wants around here, even Quentin. Broken, Maggie covers her face and starts to cry. Now, look at me! Angelique commands her. Compelled, Maggie slowly lowers her hands and turns to look at the portrait, which dominates the whole room. Angelique continues to speak as we see her own face superimposed over the portrait: You saw the disgust on Quentin's face when you came down the stairs in my dress! He doesn't love you anymore. He can't bear the sight of you! That's why he ran out of the house! Maggie turns to run out again, but the door slams shut. Stop it! Stop this now! she screams, but Angelique is pitiless: Now he knows what a mistake he made! Without his love, there is nothing left for you to live for, is there? Maggie covers her ears but it doesn’t help. Go to the window, Angelique orders her. The window flies open, and Angelique orders her to go to it again. As if in a stupor, Maggie climbs onto the window seat and then onto the outside ledge as Angelique delivers her final, crushing order: Look down. It would be so easy, wouldn't it ... to end everything. Quentin and all of your suffering ... Go on, Maggie. Let go. Let go and fall. There is nothing for you to live for anymore without Quentin's love. Nothing to live for when he has shut you out of his heart. Let go, Maggie, let go! As the camera shows us a tilted view from below, Maggie’s despair overwhelms her, and she leans out farther and farther--into empty space......
