At the screening room, caretakers Jake (the Snake) and Phil (the Pill) collect contraband cigarettes and matches as the Back Half children file in. Hal, Donna, and Len sit vacant in the back, while Kalisha, Nick, George, Helen, Iris, and Avery take seats up front. Phil slaps Nick for joking, then the lights dim and Dr. Hendricks appears on screen with his signature, unlit sparkler, cueing the nightly conditioning.

Kalisha senses she is missing a crucial insight about how the group’s power works, especially on nights when the sparkler is lit. A Road Runner cartoon and Katie Givens’s singing derail her moment of clarity. The feature shifts to a series of clips about a charismatic preacher—revealed as Paul Westin—intercut with the colored Stasi Lights and a rising, pulsing hum that physically affects the children and the room, even flapping empty seats and forcing Jake and Phil to brace the doors.

The montage shows Paul Westin preaching in stadiums, traveling, doing charity acts, and appearing on TV, while the Stasi Lights draw the children deeper into suggestibility. Kalisha hears fleeting telepathic impressions from Avery and Nick, including Avery’s cryptic "they see it." Each cycle of dots and hum intensifies, priming the children with "levers" to pull when ordered.

Dr. Hendricks interrupts the audio to identify the target explicitly: "This is Paul Westin, kids. His home is in Deerfield, Indiana." The children, compelled by the conditioning and their desire for the hum to stop, chant his name and location in unison. Hendricks closes by promising to see them tomorrow as the Stasi Lights surge one last time and then cease abruptly.

Afterward, while some nearly gorked kids (Donna, Len, Hal, Jimmy) remain slumped in their seats, the others retire to the lounge. They note that headaches momentarily improve after movie nights but return worse each time, and that the next night—when the sparkler is lit—will be the "big show" to push Paul Westin toward a life-changing or fatal act.

Avery projects clearly into Kalisha’s mind, triggering her breakthrough: the "gorks" see what the functional children see during the films. Avery explains the dynamic—those near-catatonic kids, stripped of everything else, are the battery; the more lucid kids are the switch or ignition. This, Kalisha realizes, is why the Institute keeps the gorks: to amplify the group’s power during operations.

Seizing the moment, the group decides they must act soon, while Mrs. Sigsby, Dr. Stackhouse, and the Institute are distracted by Luke’s escape. Nick urges immediate action. Avery says the plan requires Hal, Donna, and Len despite their decline, and Nick volunteers to fetch them. As their resolve hardens, Kalisha notices their telepathic strength improving; Avery affirms it is stronger both in sending and receiving because they are now acting for themselves.