We return to the open ocean. Benjamin has been rescued from the sinking Chelsea, along with Rick Brody, by a fleet of battleships. 1328 men died, including the remainder of the crew of the Chelsea. John Grim correctly predicted his death. Benjamin says he sent Pleasant Curtis’s wife his money. Benjamin mourns the fallen. “I said goodbye to all the other men who wanted to be insurance salesmen or doctors or lawyers or Indian chiefs.”

Benjamin throws the last piece of the Chelsea, its lifebuoy, into the water. A hummingbird flies over to it, then flits around Benjamin’s face, and flies up toward the sun.

Now, it’s May 1945. Benjamin is 26. He is looking ever younger. He returns home to the nursing home in New Orleans. Queenie is overjoyed to see him. Queenie’s daughter asks who it is, and Queenie says it’s her brother Benjamin. Queenie’s daughter says she didn’t know he was her brother, which seems odd to me. Queenie says Benjamin looks great and thinks it’s because of that preacher who laid hands on him. Benjamin confides that while he was gone he saw both pain and joy. Queenie shares that Tizzy died in his sleep last April.

Benjamin plays piano for an old lady. Queenie tells him not to bother because the lady is deaf. She says he can stay in Mrs. DeSeroux’s old room because he’s too big to share a room with anybody else. Mr. Daws, who is still alive, once again asks Benjamin if he ever told him he was struck by lightning 7 times: once while sitting in his truck. I believe this brings us to 4 strikes. 

A few weeks later, Cate Blanchett Daisy comes to visit the nursing home. Not recognizing Benjamin, she asks if Queenie’s around. Then she realizes it’s him and gets quite excited. They embrace. Benjamin tells her she is so lovely. Back in the hospital, Caroline reads from the diary: “She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.” Old Daisy moans “Beautiful.” and Caroline corrects “the MOST beautiful.”

Back in the story, Cate Daisy tells Benjamin that Grandma Fuller died. She can’t believe they’re both there together, it must be kismet. She mentions a real-world psychic, Edgar Cayce. “He says that everything is predetermined, but I like to think of it as fate.” She tells Benjamin that she lives across the river from Manhattan and that everyone used to say he was different but she thinks he really is.

She asks if his romance with Elizabeth worked out– he says it ran its course. Then he says “Hey, remember this?” and they look at the kangaroo page in the Rudyard Kipling book. He asks Daisy out to dinner.

We cut to a truly disorienting montage of them eating dinner together as Daisy infodumps about her experience in dance, listing names of dancers and choreographers and saying things like “They have a new word for dance now– abstract!” Benjamin narrates “I didn’t really hear very much of what she was saying.” She apologizes for rambling and he says it’s okay. She lights a cigarette and Benjamin seems taken aback. She says “I’m old enough. I’m old enough for a lot of things.”

After dinner, they walk to a gazebo/plaza type of thing. Daisy says that in New York City they stay up all night. She has to go back to New York tomorrow. She takes her shoes off. She says “Dancers don’t need costumes or scenery anymore. I can imagine dancing completely naked.” She begins to dance. She asks Benjamin if he’s read the works of D.H. Lawrence. His books were banned because the words were like making love. She continues to dance, contorting and doing crazy things. She says a lot of dancers in her company are lesbians and one even wanted to sleep with her. She asks Benjamin if that upsets him.

It doesn’t seem to. He says she’s a desirable woman and he assumes everybody wants to have sex with her. Daisy proposes that they go back to the house or get a room somewhere so that Benjamin can “lay down his jacket”. Benjamin says IDK… I’ll probably just disappoint you :///. Daisy replies “Oh Benjamin, I’ve been with older men”.

Benjamin says “You’re going back to New York City in the morning. You should be with your friends. You’re only young once.” Daisy once again says “I’m old enough.” Benjamin begins to raise his voice and says just not tonight is all. Let’s go listen to music. Daisy in a huff grabs her shoes and leaves, Benjamin following. He narrates, “We are defined by our opportunities, even the ones we miss.”

Back in the hospital, Old Daisy says “You look so handsome and distinguished.” A nurse ducks her head into the room and, really really fast, says “They’re saying the hurricane is gonna miss us, blow right on by.”

Back in the story, Benjamin is getting younger as he gets older. He is not a silver fox anymore. I personally find him quite ugly. Thomas Button comes by. He now only has half of one of his feet because it got infected. They go out and Thomas gets his classic Sazerac. Benjamin asks if he still goes to the brothel. Thomas says no, not in a long time.

Thomas tells Benjamin that button business is booming. They went from making 40,000 buttons a day to nearly 500,000, and have taken on 10 times the employees. They are “operating around the clock”. We cut to show a man in the restaurant WITH NO LEGS! COULD THIS BE HAMBERT?

The war has been kind to the button industry, Thomas says. He confesses that he is sick and doesn’t have much longer. He asks, “Benjamin do you know ANYTHING about buttons?” in a very condescending sounding way.

Benjamin comes to Button’s Buttons with Thomas. Thomas shares the history of Button’s Buttons. Benjamin says “That is very, very interesting.” It’s not. Thomas reveals that Benjamin is his son. It’s pretty hard to read how Benjamin feels about this. Thomas says he’s sorry and never should have abandoned Benjamin, but he thought he was a monster. 

They walk through the old Button house and look at pictures of Benjamin’s mother. Her name was Caroline Murphy. Thomas fell in love with her at first sight. She was from Dublin and her whole family moved to New Orleans, where she got a job in Thomas’s dad’s kitchen. He would make up excuses to go down to the kitchen just to look at her. End curio.