Alice stops by her place for a shower, then brings coffee and pistachio croissants to Margaret’s patio to start their last session before the pitch. She frames the day as either the end of her time on the island or the beginning of deeper work and warns Margaret that the next phase will be more difficult and may unravel painful threads. Margaret, weary but game, tells Alice to let her worry about that.

Alice notices movement inside and learns Jodi is back in the house. Curious, Alice asks what Margaret’s relationship with Jodi is. Margaret says it is part of the story they may or may not get to, signaling withheld context about Jodi.

Alice pivots to ask whether Margaret knows anyone else on the island besides Jodi. After Margaret tries to deflect with a mention of her massage therapist, Alice narrows the question to exclude Hayden and Alice themselves. Margaret presses Alice on where the question is coming from.

Alice names Cecil Wainwright, also known as Cecil Willoughby. Margaret’s shock turns to irritation; she notes others have brought Cecil up recently and reminds Alice she signed an NDA, implying concern about information sharing. Alice explains she stumbled onto Hayden’s lead independently and insists Cecil is part of the story Margaret brought them to tell.

Internally, Alice wonders whether Cecil might have engineered her arrival via the original email that invited her, though she keeps this speculation to herself. She directly asks Margaret why her former family doctor is on the island and whether Margaret is ill. Margaret denies being sick beyond typical aging and lifestyle effects.

Conceding the point, Margaret tells Alice to get out the recorder and says she will tell the rest of the story, setting up a full explanation of Cecil’s presence and his connection to past events.