In a flashback, Tom wakes from another recurring nightmare about Daisy, in which he mutilates her under the warped logic of symmetry. He reflects that he often dreams of stabbing, strangling, or drowning Daisy, and each time wakes relieved that he has not actually harmed her.

That relief ends when Tom hears his mother screaming downstairs. He recognizes the sounds from his childhood, when Luann used to tell him to hide during Bill’s violent outbursts, but this time Tom decides not to stay out of it. Hearing Bill drunkenly insult and attack Luann in the kitchen, Tom becomes enraged and looks for a weapon.

Tom grabs a sharp fire poker from the living room and enters the kitchen. He finds Luann on the floor and Bill throwing objects at her. Tom orders Bill to leave her alone and raises the poker, trying to force him to back down, but Bill mocks him and dismisses him as a child.

When Bill advances, Tom has a chance to stab him but hesitates because Bill is still his father. That moment of hesitation lets Bill take the poker away. Luann tries to intervene, but Bill throws her aside, and she hits the stove. Bill then turns the weapon on Tom, warning him to stay out of what happens between husband and wife.

Bill jabs Tom in the stomach hard enough to cut through his skin and draw blood, while Luann begs him to stop. Faced with the real possibility of being killed, Tom gives in and promises to mind his own business if he hears violence again. Bill sends him away, but Tom leaves knowing the danger is not over and resolves that he will not let Bill eventually kill Luann.