Luke Ellis is jolted awake by Avery Dixon, who is terrified and shivering. Avery reports that Kalisha Benson and Iris Stanhope woke him telepathically. This is new: Avery can now hear Iris as well as Kalisha, which he ties to a recent sequence of Back Half treatments involving movies, dots, Hendricks’s sparkler trigger, and a group huddle.

Avery describes Iris’s unbearable headache following the session, saying Iris screamed nonstop and lashed out at both Kalisha and Nicky Wilholm when they tried to comfort her. Dr. Hendricks arrived in pajamas, summoned red-suited orderlies, and prepared to have Iris taken away, presumably to a deeper area of Back Half, but her pain suddenly abated without any obvious medication. Avery speculates Kalisha may have helped.

Avery then tries to explain a new, worse presence in Back Half: a continuous hum like a hive of bees, a droning he believes comes from the “back half of Back Half.” He links worsening and lengthening headaches to the escalating regimen of dots, shots, movies, and the sparkler trigger.

Luke connects the sparkler to a trigger mechanism and, holding Avery, reflects that the Institute is weaponizing the children—using their abilities until they are emptied—and then consigning them to the droning area. He considers this fate worse than the recent deaths and injuries he has witnessed, and fears that Iris narrowly avoided it while Nicky, George, and Kalisha may be next.

Luke eventually sleeps. In the morning he wakes late, rushes to check on Avery, and finds Avery’s room intact with his belongings in place, confirming Avery has not been taken. On his way back, Winona Briggs scolds him for running around in his underwear, and Luke retreats to dress.

As Luke dresses, he spots a Dandux laundry basket down the hall and senses the presence of Maureen Alvorson. He realizes Maureen has returned, offering a potential ally’s presence amid rising danger.