Anna Morse, a Black funeral-home owner in Linfield, gives Nate Timblin a ride toward Hemlock Row after he asks to visit a “friend.” Anna suspects Nate’s real purpose is tied to the news about his deaf nephew at Pennhurst, but she does not press him. Before leaving for Reading, Anna asks Nate to fix a leak that has stained her viewing-room ceiling, and Nate agrees.

Nate spends the afternoon repairing gutters and patching the damage, using the work to steady himself while he waits for a late-night meeting with Miggy. Before leaving, Nate enters the back storage area where bodies await services, selects supplies from a closet, and then heads on foot toward Hemlock Row. As he walks, Nate worries Miggy might betray him and that enemies on the Row might be watching.

On the Row, Miggy waits until late, then goes to Bullis—the “Egg Man” who delivers coffee and eggs into Pennhurst’s wards through a tunnel. Miggy tells Bullis Nate has not arrived, insists Bullis made a deal, and warns that she has already clashed with Son of Man. Bullis is resentful and fearful, refusing to wait any longer and leaving for his farm pickup, while Miggy senses something is wrong.

Bullis prepares his horse, Titus, loads eggs, and heads to Pennhurst, then deliberately diverts into an overgrown path and opens the hidden tunnel used to reach the wards’ basements. Titus seems unusually exhausted, heightening Bullis’s anxiety. Bullis delivers to the first wards quickly, then hesitates at Ward C-1, where Son of Man works and where Bullis fears trouble.

At C-1, Son of Man confronts Bullis about the illicit tunnel route and Miggy’s late-night preparations to move “a boy.” Son of Man blocks Bullis and then attacks him, beating Bullis with a packed sock to avoid leaving marks. In the chaos, Nate emerges from a concealed compartment on Bullis’s cart, recognizes Son of Man’s violence and brokenness, and—haunted by his own violent past and terrified of losing the life Addie helped redeem—kills Son of Man by stabbing him in the heart. Nate then orders Bullis to take him upstairs to retrieve the boy, insisting Bullis must carry coffee as cover and present Nate as his helper.