Alice reacts to Margaret’s unexpected choice to begin the family saga with Lawrence Ives. When Alice asks how Margaret knows so much, Margaret explains that Lawrence’s obsessive diaries were found by his son Gerald and later willed to Margaret’s sister, Laura, with instructions to burn them—orders Laura did not follow. Margaret will not say where the diaries are now.

Pressed about the first hotel Lawrence bought, Margaret names it as the Ebner and mentions a single childhood visit before the family sold it in the 1970s. Alice senses reluctance and notes to revisit the topic. When asked why she started with Lawrence, Margaret says Alice must understand him to understand her, calling Lawrence a cold, cruel man who took what was not his.

Alice turns off the recorders to ease Margaret. Margaret then shares that, at the end of his life, Lawrence ranted about three things: apologizing to his dead brother Dicky; raging at Thomas Dougherty; and an unnamed third topic she declines to reveal. After Thomas learned of the concealed silver strike, he returned to confront Lawrence, who refused to meet him and hid behind hired men. Thomas then took his story to a major California paper; when a reporter approached Lawrence, Lawrence simply bought the San Francisco Daily Dispatch, seeing news as another profitable investment, not a reputational shield.

Margaret adds that Lawrence shifted from mining to investing, bought a San Francisco home, and tried to bring his younger sister to live with him, but she had married a Dougherty and rejected him over his betrayal of Thomas. In his decline, Lawrence blamed Thomas for his fate and claimed dependence on others leads to ruin, while Margaret concludes that relying on an Ives leads to harm. She ends the session early, withholding the third topic and asking her assistant Jodi to see Alice out.

Later, at her rental, Alice researches Dillon Springs and Lawrence’s acquisitions. She confirms the 42 tons of silver and the Dispatch purchase, and contacts the paper’s archives. She uncovers a discrepancy: the Nevada hotel was called the Arledge, later the Nicollet during Ives ownership; it was renamed the Ebner only after the family sold it in the 1970s. Margaret’s use of “Ebner,” delivered with emotion, suggests she may have visited more recently than she admitted. Alice debates possibilities with photographer Theo over the phone but gets no clear answer.

That evening, Alice goes to the Rum Room bar-restaurant and unexpectedly finds Hayden working. After a brief, awkward exchange, Hayden invites Alice to sit, admitting he needs a distraction, and she agrees.