The Shorter Way[]
Haverhill, Massachusetts, Chris is working on his Harley when his wife Linda and their daughter Vic return home. As her parents began to argue as they typically would, Vic headed inside the house. Once inside, Chris and Linda start arguing over a lost credit card. A loud bang is heard shortly after her mother calls her father a drunk.
Vic returns home, where her father is outside soaking his hand in the cooler. She reveals to him that she doesn’t want to be stuck in Haverhill for the rest of her life cleaning houses. Vic wanted to go to college for art, which Chris encouraged. He shared with Vic how he wanted to be a composer when he was her age. He even used to play in a band. They traveled to Boston and New York for a few gigs. When he got out of the service, he thought he was going to go to a real music school, however, that’s when Linda got pregnant and Chris found himself with new responsibilities. Vic on the other hand, has a better chance than he ever had. He gives Vic one last piece of advice, to never get married and have kids. She then gets on the back of his Harley, and he drives her to school. He drops her off out front near her friends.
Chris, Vic, and Linda spend the day at Aunt Carrie's dinner near Lake Winnipesaukee. Chris looks over Vic’s drawing journal and is amazed at her progress. She claims that she has more time to practice now because she doesn’t have any friends since Willa left for Exeter and Craig started getting high all the time and skipping school. Drawing is something that Vic can do by herself and when she really gets into it, it’s like being on a bike, she describes. She then shows her father her drawing of the Shorter Way Bridge. Just looking at Vic’s drawing brings Chris back. He recalls all the trouble he used to get into on that bridge. He helped demo it when Vic was a kid. Felt like he was blowing up his youth. The Shorter Way was one of a kind. Chris shows Linda the drawing, but she doesn’t seem to enthusiastic about it or Vic attending college. On that note, Vic decides to take off for Willa’s party at the lake house.
At Lake Side motel, Chris, Vic, and Linda, along with Tiffany Jones and several others, surround a camp fire and wait for the fireworks. Vic returns the credit card that Angela found to her mother. Vic and Linda join Chris as he plays the guitar and sing. While singing, Vic notices the bruises on the right side of her mother’s face, presumably inflicted by her father.
The following morning, Chris and Linda get into another argument over a lost watch. As the fight continues, the insults they hurl at one another worsen. When Chris calls her an ugly person, Linda questions how she could ever have a kid with a drunk, selfish, bastard such as himself. Vic barges in and the fighting stops abruptly.
Vic wakes up in her bedroom screaming. Chris is there to comfort her. He tells her that she has a fever and fainted out by the woods. However, Vic is more concerned with her father hitting her mother. He admits to this, though he blames it on the alcohol and promises her that it won’t happen again. She tells her father that she found his watch at Aunt Carrie’s and that the bridge took her there. Chris chalks this up to Vic being delirious from the fever. He reminds Vic that she can be anything she wants in the world, and lastly tells her not to get married or have any kids.
Chris then leaves Linda to move in with his Girlfriend Tiffany.
The Graveyard of What Might[]
Vic finds Chris and accuses him of leaving her and her mother behind. Chris claims that there’s been a misunderstanding, though he admittedly should’ve talked to Vic before leaving. Chris explains that he and Linda bring out the worst in each other and that they’re better apart. Nevertheless, he claims he’ll always be there for Vic, who doesn’t bother sticking around to hear the rest of his excuse.
While partying in a backyard with a topless Tiffany, spraying her down with a hose, they are interrupted by Vic. They gather themselves, and Tiffany hesitantly offers to put Vic up in her craft room. While Chris claims to want Vic around, she can’t help but feel he doesn’t want her at Tiffany’s. Chris believes that home is better suited for Vic even though Chris, unlike Linda, believes Vic is capable of succeeding in college. Vic asks if there’s a future where he could ever come home and they could be a family again. Unfortunately, Chris doesn’t see that happening. He and Linda grew up together. They had good times, but things have changed and he can never go back.
Vic, Chris, and Tiffany discuss Vic’s future and her plans to attend RISD. Linda unexpectedly pulls up and demands that Vic come home with her, though Vic refuses. Chris and Tiffany’s involvement only escalates Linda’s rage. Linda warns Vic that in staying with her father and Tiffany, the closest she’ll come to college is tending bar while pregnant next to Tiffany. Linda then confronts Tiffany, demanding to know how long she and Chris have been together. With Linda shoving Chris and him threatening to call the cops, Vic jumps on her bike and rides off.
The Gas Mask Man[]
Chris is approached by Vic, who's filling out her application for RISD, but could use his help with the financial aid. She’ll need a copy of her father’s tax return. He instantly becomes defensive. Chris hasn’t paid any taxes since 2005. All his work is under the table and if any of his earnings go on paper then the government will find out and he’ll be arrested for tax evasion. Chris suggests that Vic asks her mother for help instead.
Vic puts her portfolio together in preparation for her trip to RISD. Just outside, Chris takes a look at Craig’s bike. He offers to give him a ride to the site and help him fix his bike afterwards. Vic joins them as she awaits Willa’s arrival. Chris is proud, though Craig seems less enthusiastic.
The House of Sleep[]
Vic and Linda don’t speak on the ride back to Tiffany’s after Vic discovered Sharon Smith's body. Chris greets them as they arrive, and Vic heads inside without so much of a word. He follows Vic up to her room. Chris tells Vic that Linda’s worries about her and thinks that she needs to go see a doctor, but Vic insists that she’s fine. Hoping to take Vic’s mind off of recent events, Chris wants the two of them to take a ride up to a bike show in Plaistow. Vic agrees, though not once during the conversation does she look at her father. he assures her that cops will find Haley and catch the person responsible, though Vic knows this isn’t true. Vic locks her door and cries after her father leaves.
The Wraith[]
Chris and Tiffany enter the garage to find Vic in a trans-like state, using her linoleum to draw on. Vic finally takes a break to look at her work and it’s numerous pictures of Charlie Manx and the Wraith.
Chris gets in the truck to take Vic to school and tells Vic just how much she scared him this morning in the garage. On Chris’ first tour in Kuwait, he was a driver for an armored truck convoy. He’d been there a couple weeks when the lead truck in the convoy got blown sky high. And later, he recognized Ricky Giblin’s hand because they got the same tattoo one night when he was Vic’s age. He never talked about it and it poisoned him to keep everything inside. He wants better for Vic, who insists she’s fine.
They stop by the house to pick up Vic’s bike. Linda suggests that maybe it’s time Vic get a car. However, Vic prefers her bike. Linda turns her frustrations on Chris, blaming him for ever buying Vic the bike, which Linda attributes to her eye problem. They are interrupted by Detective Tabitha Hutter, whose been assigned to the Sharon and Haley Smith case.
Chris returns home, and Vic tells him how Tiffany was just telling her she didn’t sign up for this. She thinks Vic should be with her mother. Vic looks to her dad and asks if he feels the same. He doesn’t respond, but his silence speaks for him. And so, Vic leaves on her bike.
Given her statement, Detective Hutter wants Vic to sign a release form for conditional voluntary commitment into the hospital. Chris is in agreement. He tells Vic it’ll only be a few days, so that she can get some rest and help. He wish he had gotten help when he needed it. He thinks this would be good for everyone. Vic reluctantly signs the form.
Scissors for the Drifter[]
Chris gets a call from Vic to inform him that her mom sold her bike. Chris is aware. He tried to talk Linda out of it, but with Vic in the hospital, it was hard to argue with her. Vic questions why he never came to see her while she was in the hospital. He claims he had to work, but offers to make it up to her by taking her to Bike Week, which Tiffany isn’t enthusiastic about, as she was hoping it would only be her and Chris.
Chris and Vic arrive at Bike Week as planned. The same place they found "Big Red", Vic’s dirt bike. He said it was too big for her at first, but he couldn’t ignore how infatuated she had become with it, so he bought it for her. Vic and Chris proceed to look for a new dirt bike. Chris and Vic continue their search for a new bike. However, none of them are able to replace her old one. While grabbing a bite to eat, Chris apologizes to Vic for not stopping Linda from selling her bike. Even she has grown tired of his excuses and storms off.
Vic returns. Craig has joined them. Vic chugs a beer in front of her father and ask him why he bought her Big Red at Bike Week when she was a kid. Chris claims it was because she was so obsessed with it, but in actuality, he had just had a huge, drunken fight with Linda. A cocktail of beer, vodka, screaming, and bruises. Vic heard all of it. He brought the bike as an apology to make up for it. The bike didn’t make up for anything, nor does his "shit-faced" apology today make up for abandoning her and not showing up at the hospital. Chris looks to Vic and tells her that he hopes she never has to know what it feels like to disappoint the people that you love. Vic storms out, with Craig following behind.
Chris finds Tiffany passed out on the couch. He starts cleaning, disposing of all the empty beer cans and alcohol bottles.
Parnassus[]
Chris arrives at the party and congratulates Vic on getting a full ride into RISD. He’s offered a drink, which he turns down, announcing to Linda and Vic that as of recently, he’s quit drinking. Linda is amused and doubtful that it will last, though Vic seems to at least appreciate that her father is trying.
Chris joins Linda outside for a smoke. They watch Vic and Craig through the window. Chris is impressed and proud of Vic. However, Linda is concerned with Vic moving to such a big city like Providence. However, Chris knows Vic to have a good head on her shoulders.
Gunbarrel[]
Chris attends Craig's funeral after he died in a car explosion. Chris checks in on Vic, and she reveals that she’s pregnant with Craig’s child. Chris assures Vic they’ll figure it out.