Juliette attends Deputy Marnes's funeral on the upper dirt farm instead of going straight to her office. As the priest conducts the burial and mourners eat and then throw fruit into the grave, Juliette reflects on how death is reduced to folders and case files, and on how the silo turns death into nourishment and new life. Watching childless couples at the ceremony also reminds Juliette how quickly deaths become tied to the lottery and the silo's harsh social rhythms.

After the funeral, Juliette climbs back to the sheriff's office and finds gifts and cards left for Marnes outside the door, including children's handmade notes that upset her more than the formal service. Inside, she finds Bernard waiting with a newly sworn deputy, Peter Billings. Bernard tries to reclaim Holston's folder, reminds Juliette that he expects obedience, and announces a "forgiveness moratorium" that will wipe out petty offenses to project stability after recent deaths. He also carelessly dumps active case files into the recycle bin and reveals that he intends to run for mayor while continuing to lead IT, making clear that he is consolidating power.

Juliette spends the afternoon training Peter Billings, mainly so he can take over routine complaints and radio work. Once Peter leaves, Juliette finally returns to Holston's computer records and studies the results of the spellcheck search she began earlier. She finds large blocks of recurring coded or gibberish text hidden deep in directories on Holston's home computer, dating back more than three years. Because the files seem deliberately buried but repeatedly copied, Juliette concludes they are important and sends a full sample down to Mechanical for help decoding it.

Continuing her review of Holston's records, Juliette reasons through his decline as if diagnosing a machine failure, tracing it back to Allison's death. She realizes Holston's work computer holds little of value and that his real secret life happened on his home machine. By following deleted emails and the surge of activity after Allison discovered a way to recover deleted data, Juliette becomes convinced Allison uncovered something significant on the old servers and passed that knowledge to Holston. The same strange gibberish appears at the center of both of their investigations, leading Juliette to suspect that whatever they found drove both Allison and Holston to ask to go outside.

Juliette then turns back to Jahns's folder and Marnes's suicide note, "It should have been me." Thinking through the poisoning and the silo's warped legal logic, she understands more clearly how guilt over carrying the poisoned canteen and the impossibility of real justice helped break Marnes. She blames herself for missing his collapse. Her thoughts are interrupted by an urgent message from Scottie in IT telling her, "Come now," and after briefly considering taking Marnes's old gun, she leaves it behind, pockets the data drive, and hurries out to meet him.