In the storm’s aftermath, Alice and Hayden eat peanut butter–banana sandwiches by candlelight and joke about Cosmo Sinclair. Hayden confides that the job feels strange, as if Margaret is testing him, and reiterates he could walk away; Alice insists they should let Margaret choose how it ends. They hold each other and agree to continue.

Alice wakes on the couch as power returns and sees Hayden quietly tidying before leaving for his rescheduled interview. They exchange a soft goodbye and plans to see each other that night. After maintenance removes the window plywood, Alice recalls their night of closeness that stopped short of sex, and a long working dinner at Rum Room where they flirted and worked with comfortable intimacy.

When Alice charges her phone, she finds numerous missed messages: group chat chatter, notes from Theo angling to reconnect, and multiple urgent messages from her mother. Panicked for Audrey, Alice calls back, only to learn there is no emergency; her mother was concerned about the storm and vaguely asks about Alice’s location and Hayden. The conversation, clipped and indirect, leaves Alice unsettled by the distance and ambiguity, especially at her mother’s use of “we.”

At the next interview session, Alice meets Margaret on the boat prepared with long clothes and a homemade repellant. They ride to a teen hangout spot on the creek where Margaret has them skim trash with nets while they talk. Margaret explains the area is patrolled and littered, and they collect bottles and a lone neon-green rubber clog, bagging unusable trash.

As they work, Margaret asks how Alice feels about the process and then admits she has been dreading this phase because they are nearing “all my greatest mistakes.” Alice notes internally that this refers to Margaret’s highly public love story. Margaret, sounding weary but willing, suggests they proceed while continuing to clean the creek, signaling a transition into the most fraught chapter of her past.