Eileen and Rebecca drug and abduct Mrs. Polk

Eileen Dunlop and Rebecca Saint John drug and abduct Rita Polk in a hurried attempt to carry out Eileen’s plan. When Rita’s resistance makes it difficult to move her, Eileen produces medication from her purse; Rebecca administers it, and the two wait for it to take effect. With Rita asleep, Eileen persuades Rebecca to proceed with a plan that would involve Eileen’s father, then they carry Rita out of the house and load her into a car. The episode makes their alliance consequential: what begins as a response to an immediate obstacle becomes a coordinated removal, with Eileen’s proposed escape and her father’s vulnerability shaping what follows.

Context and Immediate Obstacle

The scene unfolds after Rita has been brought to the basement. Eileen is considering how they can transport her without attracting attention, while Rita’s continued resistance prevents the women from moving her as planned. Rebecca tries to quiet her, but the effort does not work. Eileen watches and turns a gun over in her hands, confronted with a logistical problem as well as the consequences of the situation they have created.

Eileen’s response comes from her purse rather than from a plan prepared in advance. She finds a bottle of her mother’s pills and offers them as medication for pain. Rebecca recognizes that they may be tranquilizers, takes the bottle, and asks what else Eileen has brought. Eileen initially misses the sarcasm in the question. The brief exchange establishes how improvised the next step is: Eileen supplies a possible means of calming Rita, while Rebecca quickly understands its practical use.

Administering the Medication

Rebecca approaches Rita again with greater caution and succeeds in getting her to take the pills. Eileen observes from a short distance rather than directing the attempt. Her attention shifts from the immediate task to Rebecca herself: she wonders where Rebecca learned to handle a crisis so coolly, but also acknowledges that she is becoming less concerned with making Rebecca’s background fit a coherent explanation. In the moment, cooperation matters more to her than understanding.

The medication does not produce a sudden reconciliation. Eileen describes the three of them waiting together in the basement, with Rita still rejecting their presence. As the pills take effect, Rita’s voice loses force and her breathing slows; she eventually falls asleep against the wall. The change creates an opening for action, not agreement. The women have quieted Rita sufficiently to move her, but nothing in the scene suggests that she has accepted their intentions.

Eileen Persuades Rebecca

Once Rita is asleep, Eileen and Rebecca speak quietly. Eileen says that her father is a drunk and argues that the police would already have had reason to deal with him. She speculates that, if he were implicated in a killing, the authorities might find Rita and suppress the matter rather than pursue it fully. She presents the possibility of their being left alone as a reason they could be safe. These are Eileen’s claims about what might happen, not a confirmed account of how the authorities will respond.

Rebecca hesitates before agreeing. Her decision matters because the plan depends on more than Eileen’s willingness to take a risk: the two must work together to remove Rita and manage what happens next. Eileen’s persuasion also reveals the plan’s compromised logic. Her father’s alcoholism is treated as a possible means of directing suspicion, even though Eileen is proposing to involve him in a dangerous situation. The scene gives the proposed escape an immediate human cost: Rita is to be moved without her consent, and the plan relies on uncertain assumptions about how others will react.

Carrying Rita Out

After Rebecca agrees, the women untie Rita and lift her from the basement floor. The task proves physically demanding. Eileen supports Rita beneath the shoulders while Rebecca takes her feet, and they move her up the stairs in stages. Eileen’s arms burn and her knees shake by the time they reach the top. She asks to pause, but Rebecca urges them to keep moving, emphasizing that speed and cleanup now matter to their shared plan.

Rebecca says they should get Rita out first, then directs Eileen to go ahead to her father’s house and prepare him, while Rebecca remains behind to clean up and remove evidence. Their roles are therefore divided even before Rita leaves the house: Eileen is assigned to involve her father, while Rebecca takes responsibility for the scene they are leaving. Together they continue through the front door. Rebecca covers Rita with her robe, and the women carry her down the frozen steps and along the path to the sidewalk. The movement is awkward and difficult, and they have to keep adjusting their hold as they go.

At the car, Eileen pauses to catch her breath before Rita is placed inside. The successful removal resolves the immediate obstacle but does not resolve the larger danger. Rita has been taken from the house, Rebecca is responsible for cleaning up, and Eileen is expected to go to her father. The episode ends with the plan in motion rather than with safety secured.

Significance of the Episode

The abduction marks a shift from discussion to coordinated action. Eileen does not merely propose using her father as part of an escape; after Rebecca agrees, she and Rebecca physically carry Rita out and divide the tasks required to continue. The steps are practical and incremental—finding pills, waiting, lifting, moving, and assigning responsibilities—but each makes the consequences of the plan harder to reverse.

The scene also contrasts with Eileen’s earlier habit of concealing emotion at Moorehead. At work, she practiced a composed expression in the mirror and used it to hide what she felt while performing routine duties. During the visitation process, she was assigned to check women visitors, including mothers who came to see imprisoned boys; the work required her to remain outwardly controlled despite her discomfort and her sense of being unnoticed. Here, however, the pressure cannot be contained by a composed face or a familiar routine. Her exhaustion, her effort to persuade Rebecca, and her participation in moving Rita make her involvement concrete. The episode links Eileen’s planned escape not to a clean break, but to an act that binds her more closely to Rebecca and to the consequences of their choices.