Sydney goes to Gretchen and Randy’s apartment after Tom spends time with his mother without including Sydney. Sydney tells Gretchen that Tom’s phone situation makes no sense: Tom seems to be contacting Sydney from a phone he does not openly acknowledge, and Tom became visibly uncomfortable when Sydney questioned him. Gretchen suggests innocent explanations, including a work phone or even a secret marriage, but Sydney rejects the idea that Tom has a wife while admitting that his behavior still feels secretive.

As Sydney talks through the problem, Sydney realizes how emotionally invested she has become in Tom. Sydney lists Tom’s good qualities and admits to herself that she is falling for him, which makes the red flags harder to ignore. Sydney recalls Tom’s refusal to meet her friends and Tom’s lingering attachment to a girl he loved in high school who died, and Sydney briefly considers asking Detective Jake to run a background check. Sydney decides against it because she does not want to admit to Jake that her new relationship may be built on distrust.

The conversation shifts when Gretchen asks Sydney to visit Gretchen’s museum exhibit again before it closes. While talking about how much the exhibit consumed her, Gretchen says that on the night before it opened, Gretchen was at the museum until very late working on it. That detail catches Sydney’s attention and triggers a vague but important feeling that something about Gretchen’s statement matters, although Sydney cannot yet identify why.

Before Sydney can pursue the thought, Randy returns from shopping with a large ant farm that he proudly presents as a gift for the apartment. Gretchen reacts with immediate disgust and fear, insisting that she does not want ants in the apartment and demanding that Randy get rid of it. Randy refuses to kill the ants, the argument escalates, and Sydney leaves to avoid being caught in the middle. As Sydney departs, Sydney is still preoccupied with the unresolved sense that Gretchen’s earlier museum comment may connect to something significant.