At sunrise, Phoebe feels compelled to go to the ocean. On her way out, she sees Gary and Lila being formally photographed in the conservatory and finds the display slightly embarrassing, then heads alone to the Cliff Walk. She ends up racing an unattended yellow dog, decides she wants a dog of her own, and follows the dog down a dangerous side path to the rocks, where a fisherman thanks her for bringing the dog back. Sitting with him by the water, Phoebe thinks about her father, about how some people confuse suffering with goodness, and about how close the ocean feels to eternity.

When Phoebe finally touches the water, Matt texts to ask whether she is safe and whether he should call the police. His message makes Phoebe reflect on how both Matt and her father expressed care through worry and restraint, and it revives her anger over the pregnancy she lost after she and Matt refused to let themselves feel hopeful. The fisherman then loses a catch and asks Phoebe to hold the rod; Phoebe sets the hook on a fish herself, reels in a sea robin, admires its desperate struggle to live, and throws it back. After slipping and scraping her knee on the way up, she thinks about Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte, and the sheer danger of being alive, and the thought leaves her grateful rather than defeated.

Phoebe continues walking to Land's End to look at Edith Wharton's former house. Reflecting on Wharton as an unhappy, still-unknown married woman who had not yet become herself, Phoebe becomes curious about her own unrealized future. On the walk back, Matt sends more messages from their house, including news that he has found Harry's body, and Phoebe angrily curses at her phone. Gary, out jogging, finds her there; after some joking about throwing the phone into the ocean, he explains that Lila sent him to retrieve her for the bridal brunch. Their walk back turns intimate as they discuss what to call an ex-husband or a dead wife, Wendy's name, Juice's nickname, and Phoebe's history of IVF, depression, and Matt's increasing reluctance to share that burden.

At the bridal brunch, Phoebe joins Lila, Juice, Marla, Nat, and Suz in the conservatory. Gary leaves for a spa treatment, and Lila, who is unbothered by the awkwardness she creates, argues with a server over paying extra for coffee from the menu instead of the free coffee already available. Lila then gives Phoebe the maid of honor binder, which contains a schedule and practical tasks for the bachelorette party and wedding. The table jokes about the mysterious Sex Woman booked for that evening, about Juice's nickname and its accidental link to O. J. Simpson, and about trendy squash toast; amid the banter, Lila assigns Phoebe to take Juice shopping for open-toed shoes and tells Phoebe to buy dresses for the rest of the wedding events.

More wedding guests arrive, including Lila's grandmother Bootsie, who immediately criticizes the venue, reminding Phoebe how large and theatrical Lila's family world is. Back in the hotel's Roaring Twenties room, Phoebe finds herself slipping into a capable, purposeful mode as she starts completing maid of honor duties. She calls to confirm the Sex Woman's five o'clock appearance and learns that she will need a projector, then asks Pauline where to find compostable dick-themed flatware and arranges the projector for the billiards room. When Phoebe turns around, Juice is already waiting by the doors, subdued again, and the two are about to leave together in the vintage car for their errands.