After meeting Paul Stewart, Olivia walks through the preserve toward the high school, trying to picture Poppy’s post–ERA rally drop-off and reconsidering whether a predatory hitchhiker could have been responsible for the murders despite friends’ doubts about Vincent’s honesty. She returns to her car to a barrage of texts and a link from Nicole pointing to John Calder’s social post implying Olivia is working again and that he plans to enjoy her advance money.

Back at Vincent’s house, Olivia accesses Vincent’s email and sees Calder has been pitching himself to Vincent and baiting Olivia. Vincent surprises her at the desk, and after she explains, they discuss how Calder learned about the project; Olivia fingers editor Tyler Blakewood as the likely leak. Olivia reads Calder’s gloating post aloud, and Vincent, adopting a scheming tone, dictates a reply praising Calder’s book on filmmaker Mac Murray while hinting at a falsehood: Vincent asserts that Calder invented Murray’s Guatemalan orphanage philanthropy and that Murray was actually a racist who never made such trips.

Calder replies that he can “rehab” Vincent’s image, which Vincent mocks as fabrication. Vincent then has Olivia email Monarch to demand that Tyler Blakewood be removed after leaking the project to Calder. During this exchange, Olivia receives a text from Tom; when Vincent presses, Olivia admits her relationship ended because her secrecy about the project and her identity damaged trust. Vincent challenges Olivia’s own unwillingness to be vulnerable, contrasting it with her demand that he be open for the memoir.

Olivia asks why her mother left. Vincent reveals that Olivia’s mother suffered from severe depression, found early medications intolerable, and ultimately left with mutual regret because she struggled to function. Olivia protests that growing up motherless scarred her; Vincent expresses remorse, calling it a decision he wishes he could redo.

In the guesthouse, Olivia calls Nicole to address the Calder situation and unintentionally reveals that Vincent is her father. She then fully discloses her family history and estrangement. Nicole insists Monarch must be told but views the revelation as marketing gold: a famous ghostwriter, secretly Vincent Taylor’s daughter, returning to tell his story. Olivia asks to delay any public reveal until she finishes the manuscript, and Nicole agrees to hold off until the end of May.

They strategize about quietly alerting the press to Calder’s alleged fabrications in the Mac Murray book via Vincent’s contacts. Nicole notes Olivia will still owe Calder money from the lawsuit but suggests the new project’s success will cover it. Nicole praises Olivia’s submitted chapters and their atmospheric quality. Olivia explains that Poppy’s home movies are key but limited: there are only ten reels beginning in early March 1975 and ending around June 5, about a week before the murders, with the camera subsequently lost for unknown reasons.