After Lauren sedated Mercy with an Ambien, Alex kept vigil in their darkened room, waking to comfort Mercy as she cried. Mercy questioned why Blake had targeted her and feared the video would resurface, while Alex insisted it was gone and urged Mercy not to let the incident drive her from school. Alex disclosed she had experienced something similar in California and refused to let this take away the safety she felt with Mercy and Lauren.

That evening, Alex and Lauren coaxed Mercy to dinner, dressing to cover the visible marks on Mercy’s neck. The dining hall buzzed with normal Sunday chatter until a particular, mocking laughter rippled through the room. Evan Wiley arrived at their table, reacting with gleeful disgust as phones across the hall began to buzz, prompting widespread shock.

Lauren checked her phone and found a video of Blake Keely in a bathroom, giggling. The clip showed Blake scooping feces from a clogged toilet and eating it, then grinning at the camera with smeared teeth. Alex felt vindicated, having previously set up and distributed the recording from Blake’s own device to his contacts.

Mike Awolowo texted Alex in outrage, accusing her of betrayal. Alex responded flippantly, confident Mike would not escalate to Sandow because doing so would expose Manuscript’s involvement with Merity and the Starpower he had given Alex. Around them, the dining hall erupted into chatter and revulsion as the video spread.

Lauren and Mercy confronted Alex quietly, recognizing she had engineered the retaliation after promising to “fix it.” Alex did not deny it. After a tense pause, Mercy rejected the adage that two wrongs do not make a right and took a defiant bite of Alex’s cheeseburger, signaling her acceptance of Alex’s methods and reclaiming some agency.