Lila fills late evenings with a Spanish telenovela, La Familia Esperanza, projecting herself onto Estella, an aggrieved wife plotting revenge. The fantasy offers catharsis for Lila’s anger over Dan’s betrayal, though she hides this from friends.

For three days, Celie refuses to speak to Lila, slipping home quietly and avoiding meals or eating in stony silence. Lila, worried, searches Celie’s room for drugs and feels guilty. Bill reassures Lila that teenage silence is normal and introduces his plan to create a memorial garden for Francesca, which Violet undercuts with scatological jokes about the neighbor’s cat.

Lila inwardly panics about costs as Bill details ideas—benches, borders, raised beds—and mentions landscaper Jensen’s imminent visit. She notices Bill’s belongings multiplying in the house and the spare room, appreciating his help but feeling judged by his orderliness and what it implies about her perceived failures since Dan left.

When Dan calls, he avoids discussing Celie’s refusal to visit and instead warns he will likely reduce child support due to a possible move, job uncertainty, supporting Marja’s son Hugo, and the new baby. Lila is stunned by the proposed cut of five hundred a month and hangs up, overwhelmed by the injustice and looming expenses.

Jensen arrives to survey the garden. As he and Bill enthuse about water features, salvage, and planting, Lila barely listens, spiraling about Dan possibly moving farther away. Midwalkthrough, Lila spots Celie dressed to go out and confronts her.

Celie announces she is going “out,” and Lila presses for details, asking directly about weed. The tension escalates in front of Bill and Jensen until Lila bursts about the ongoing crises. Celie taunts Lila with a graphic plan to get drunk, high, and felt up, calling out Lila’s hypocrisy about weed.

At that peak, a man, Gene, lets himself in through the back gate with a suitcase, startling everyone. As Lila recognizes him—“Gene?”—the dog Truant bolts out and bites Gene’s leg, abruptly ending the confrontation.