The Long Goodbye recap

Philip Marlowe befriends Terry Lennox, a scarred veteran married to the wealthy Sylvia Potter. When Sylvia is murdered, Marlowe drives Terry to Mexico without asking questions, then endures jail rather than assist the police. Terry is reported dead by suicide with a confession. Later Marlowe is hired to find alcoholic novelist Roger Wade and becomes entangled with Roger, his wife Eileen, and their hostile servant Candy. Roger dies by suicide beside the swimming pool, and Marlowe links the Wade household to the Lennox case. Sylvia had been involved with Roger, and Eileen killed her; Eileen later dies after leaving a confession. At the end Terry returns under a Mexican identity, revealing that his death and confession were staged through powerful connections. Though cleared of murder, he has accepted corruption and allowed Marlowe to bear the consequences. Marlowe sends him away, ending the friendship.

Philip Marlowe meets Terry Lennox outside an expensive Los Angeles nightclub, where Terry's wealthy wife Sylvia has left him drunk and nearly helpless. Marlowe takes him home and later helps him through another period of poverty. Terry's scarred face, careful manners, and reluctance to discuss his wartime past make him an unusual companion. After Terry and Sylvia reconcile, his circumstances improve, but the friendship with Marlowe continues over occasional drinks. One morning Terry arrives at Marlowe's home with a gun and asks for a ride to Tijuana. Marlowe notices signs that something serious has happened but deliberately avoids demanding an explanation. He leaves Terry across the border and returns to Los Angeles, accepting that his act of loyalty may have legal consequences.

Marlowe learns that Sylvia Lennox was brutally murdered before Terry fled. Police officers arrest and interrogate him, demanding evidence that will establish Terry's guilt and Marlowe's assistance. Marlowe refuses to supply a statement against his friend and remains jailed despite rough treatment and pressure from investigators. Attorney Sewell Endicott eventually appears amid signs that the Potter family's wealth and influence are shaping the case. News then arrives from Mexico that Terry has apparently killed himself, leaving a written confession to Sylvia's murder. With the suspect dead and the scandal containable, the authorities release Marlowe. The confession closes the case officially, but the speed and convenience of the resolution leave him unconvinced that he understands what happened.

Marlowe receives a farewell letter and money from Terry but keeps only a banknote as a private reminder of their friendship. Gangster Mendy Menendez, who says Terry once saved his life, warns him to stop questioning the official story. Marlowe remains troubled by a confession that seems designed to protect everyone except the dead man. A separate job then arrives through Howard Spencer, a publishing representative. Spencer wants help with bestselling novelist Roger Wade, whose severe drinking has interrupted his work and caused him to vanish. Roger's wife Eileen asks Marlowe to locate him while keeping the matter quiet. At the Wades' Idle Valley home, Marlowe also meets Candy, their hostile Chilean servant. The assignment appears unrelated to Terry, but it brings Marlowe into another household organized around wealth, secrecy, and alcohol.

Marlowe traces Roger Wade to a remote facility run by Dr. Verringer, who confines wealthy alcoholics with the help of a violent attendant. He removes Roger and brings him home. Roger alternates between lucidity, literary frustration, self-disgust, and destructive drinking, while Eileen tries to maintain an appearance of calm and Candy watches Marlowe with suspicion. The Wade household proves less stable than Spencer suggested. Eileen also reacts strongly to the subject of Terry Lennox, and details of Terry's obscured wartime identity begin to overlap with her memories of a man she knew in England. Marlowe cannot yet determine whether these connections explain Sylvia's death or merely deepen the mystery around Terry's past.

Marlowe continues spending time with the Wades as Roger's drinking worsens. Roger talks around guilt and failure without giving a stable account, and his relationship with Eileen shifts between dependence and hostility. Marlowe learns enough about Terry's wartime history to believe that Eileen knew him under another identity and that the Lennox and Wade circles are not separate after all. During one crisis Marlowe finds Roger injured and helps him, only to be blamed and resented when the immediate danger passes. Eileen draws closer to Marlowe while Candy becomes more antagonistic. The detective increasingly suspects that the official account of Sylvia's murder omitted an affair or other connection involving Roger, but no living person is willing to state the full truth.

Roger Wade is found dead beside his swimming pool from a gunshot. Marlowe had been nearby during a confused, alcohol-soaked evening, and the death appears to be suicide. Candy attacks Marlowe and accuses him, while the police again prefer a manageable explanation. Roger's death removes a man who may have known why Sylvia Lennox was killed, but it also strengthens Marlowe's conviction that the two cases share a concealed history. He studies the timing, the household's behavior, and Eileen's relationship to both Roger and Terry. The pattern points away from Terry's supposed confession and toward a person protected by the Wade home and the Potter family's interest in avoiding scandal.

Marlowe confronts the false resolution of Sylvia's murder and connects it to the Wade household. Sylvia had been involved with Roger Wade, while Eileen Wade's earlier life was connected to Terry. Eileen killed Sylvia; Roger's later suicide grew from alcoholism, guilt, and the destructive secret surrounding the affair. Eileen dies from an overdose after leaving a confession, allowing the authorities to contain another damaging scandal. Marlowe's insistence on the truth also brings retaliation from Mendy Menendez, whose loyalty to Terry has become violent, but Menendez cannot permanently silence him. Terry is cleared in Marlowe's mind of Sylvia's murder, although the supposed suicide in Mexico and the machinery that produced his confession remain unexplained.

A wealthy Mexican visitor calling himself Cisco Maioranos comes to Marlowe's office. Marlowe recognizes him as Terry Lennox, whose changed appearance and new identity were created after his escape. Terry's suicide and confession in Mexico were staged with the help of powerful allies, enabling him to disappear while the case against him was closed. Marlowe is relieved that Terry is alive and did not kill Sylvia, but their reunion does not restore the friendship. Terry allowed Marlowe to be jailed and endangered while accepting a solution based on money, influence, and deception. He offers explanations and gestures toward their old companionship, but Marlowe sees a man willing to let others arrange the moral cost of his survival. He sends Terry away, and the two part for good.

Marlowe rejects the convenient official versions surrounding the Lennox and Wade cases and forces Eileen Wade's part in the buried history into the open. Sylvia Lennox had been involved with Roger Wade, and Eileen, whose own past connected her to Terry, killed Sylvia. Roger's poolside death was suicide, burdened by alcoholism and his involvement in the concealed affair and its aftermath. Eileen dies by an overdose after leaving a confession. The influence surrounding the Potter family helps keep the scandal contained, while Marlowe also survives a violent confrontation with Mendy Menendez. Finally, a wealthy Mexican visitor calling himself Cisco Maioranos comes to Marlowe's office and reveals that he is Terry Lennox, alive after surgery and protected by an elaborate escape. Terry's reported suicide and confession were part of the arrangement. Marlowe is relieved that his friend did not murder Sylvia, but disgusted that Terry accepted a solution built on influence, deception, and Marlowe's suffering. He refuses to restore their old friendship, and Terry leaves after their true long goodbye.