Two Can Play Recap Part 22: The Test

This Two Can Play recap part 22 covers chapters 522–550, with spoilers. We skip the book's mature scenes and keep the ending general.

"You have fallen in love with Scarlett"

Sparrow can't answer his own question, what are you doing to me?, so he calls the one man he trusts. Other women "might as well be chairs," he tells Dominic. When Scarlett is angry he can't breathe until he's fixed it.

Dominic laughs, the first real laugh Sparrow has heard from him in months. "You have fallen in love with Scarlett."

Sparrow's first question is how to get rid of it. Dominic's advice is to find out whether she feels the same. Instead, Sparrow breaks his own rule and eats the lunch Scarlett cooked. He invites her to Dominic's engagement party, and at her insistence, Tasha too.

When Tasha apologises for the night before, he is blunt: "Scarlett is the only woman I desire… you would never be a second choice."

Granny's plans

Granny has two ideas for getting Tasha the husband she married. The first is to slip something into Sparrow's food. Tasha refuses outright: "I will never stoop so low."

The second is Lucia, the glamorous great-granddaughter of Granny's late best friend. Lucia signs Tasha up for a secret class at a fitness centre, "The Art of Subtle Seduction", and helps her spend Sparrow's black card, starting with a red Porsche. Then, over ice cream, Tasha tells Lucia everything, and Lucia plants the idea that ruins the week. What if Scarlett's love is an act? Put her to the test.

The tests

The first test is the car, and Scarlett is thrilled for her. The second is the ugliest dress in the shop, and Scarlett cries because it's the first gift Tasha has ever bought her: "I am going to keep this until the day I die."

Lucia wants something harsher. At the hotel before the party, Tasha texts Scarlett to come to the pool, and tells her to kneel. She does. Lucia's friends laugh at her. Lucia opens Lynette's locket and mocks the photo inside. Scarlett cries without a sound.

The bride

Then a woman in an elegant dress walks along the pool. Egged on by Lucia, Tasha threatens her: my husband is the most feared man in this city. The woman slaps her. It's Celeste, the bride.

Scarlett stands up to apologise for her niece. Ordered back down, she kneels again. Then Lucia throws the locket into the deep end, and Scarlett, who always said she couldn't swim, dives in after it and swims like a professional. The "weakness" was a cover she used inside Bryan's house.

Sparrow arrives and believes Celeste over his own contract wife: "Ms. Adams… does not raise her hand to anyone without a reason." Celeste tells him marrying Tasha was a very big mistake. He fastens Scarlett's necklace back on, puts his jacket around her, and dresses her in black to match his suit. Tasha is sent home. The bride doesn't want her there.

Before they leave, Scarlett slaps Tasha for the first time in her life. The woman in the locket, she tells her, is Tasha's mother. She calls Lucia and her friends vipers. Tasha answers that Scarlett just wants to control her.

Room 20

Lucia takes a heartbroken Tasha to a club in a wig and a borrowed dress, with a reckless plan we won't repeat. A charming stranger gives Tasha a room key. In room 20, the man stepping out of the shower is Big Bryan. "Hello, caged bird." He sedates her before she reaches the door.

Her last thought: I am sorry, Scarlett. You were right.

What we noticed

• Tasha refuses Granny's worst idea. It's an important moment: she's lost, not cruel.
• Lucia's "friendship" follows the same script as Cara's with Seraphine: flattery, a secret, a test, and a trap.
• Scarlett's non-swimming act is a great payoff. She hid a strength inside Bryan's house and never needed to explain it until now.

Previous: [Part 21](/posts/two-can-play-recap-part-21-blessings-and-sentences) · Next: [Part 23](/posts/two-can-play-recap-part-23-my-treasure).