The next shot is of the exterior of a white clapboard house in morning sunlight. There is a softness to the quality of the light that is reminiscent of the Cape Cod paintings of Edward Hopper. A tall fence runs from the right of the frame up to the rear porch steps. In fact, it is hardly a fence at all as there are gaps in it big enough to drive a station wagon through. The door opens and first Michael Brody and then his parents emerge. The boy is wearing swimming trunks and carries flippers and a face mask. He scampers down the steps and runs along the side of the house towards the ocean, which can be seen glittering in the background, a single sailboat on the horizon. Brody - now dressed in full uniform - is carrying a coffee mug, and his wife - still in her pale blue nightdress - follows him, tugging at the towel which still hangs around his neck. They execute a kind of dance as they cross the back yard, Brody obligingly turning in a circle to allow his wife to unravel the towel. This moment of choreography suggests the harmony of their relationship, but logically it makes no sense. In the previous scene Brody, still only half dressed, was wearing the towel around his neck, and it's still there when he emerges from the back door. Didn't he think to remove it when he was putting his shirt on?
The exchange between husband and wife is once again playful ('Listen, chief, be careful, will you' 'In this town?') with Ellen following in the tradition of the typical Hawksian heroine by calling Brody by the name of his office. As he climbs into his jeep (framed through another open doorway) Ellen climbs onto the swing where her younger son Sean is still playing. The swing - branded a death trap only seconds ago - has now become a convenient prop for providing a mother and child moment. They wave goodbye and, as Brody reverses out into the road, there is a cut to a wider shot of the house (another Hopperesque image) which places it in the coastal landscape.
