Olivia accidentally sees a derisive email from John Calder in her father’s inbox and replies to cut off further communication, stating the ghostwriting project is under contract. She then changes the inbox password, symbolically closing the door on Calder. Determined to pursue answers about 1975, she drives to Ventura to meet Charles Monahan, the former second-chair prosecutor on the 1993 grand jury investigation into the murders of Danny and Poppy Taylor.

Over coffee, Charles explains that the grand jury was convened largely due to concerns about the coroner’s drug use at the time of the autopsies, but multiple witnesses testified the coroner was not using drugs in June 1975. He says the case against Vincent was entirely circumstantial and lacked a murder weapon; the time-of-death estimate combined with Vincent’s alibi—corroborated by Olivia’s mother and a teacher—created reasonable doubt. Charles believes the grand jury made the correct decision and that, absent new evidence, the case never could have gone to trial.

When Olivia asks about alternative suspects, Charles says he does not believe the hitchhiking stranger theory but admits that is all the investigation has. He notes that a civil case was unlikely because Vincent’s parents had died and there was no one to bring it, and that many original witnesses and investigators, including lead detective Clint McGinnis, are now deceased. Charles reiterates that the known evidence clears Vincent, hoping that gives Olivia some peace.

Reeling from the conversation and her own readiness to suspect Vincent, Olivia texts Jack and meets him at their old secluded spot in the Valley View Preserve. She outlines what Charles told her, frustrated that nothing can be verified for the book. Jack counsels her to stay open and reminds her that she showed up for Vincent when asked, even if he failed her in the past.

Olivia presses Jack about Margot’s and his father’s long-held belief in Vincent’s guilt. Jack explains how youth, trauma, and hero worship of Danny may have shaped memories, and admits he never believed Vincent capable of murder, citing the kind, attentive man he knew. He says he kept this from both Olivia and his father to avoid conflict.

They debate troubling evidence Olivia has uncovered—the threatening closet writing, the buried cat on film, and contradictions between Vincent’s accounts, Poppy’s diary, and the home movies. Jack cautions about context and asks what justice would even look like now if Vincent were guilty versus innocent. Olivia acknowledges that if innocent, Vincent spent decades as a villain in others’ stories, including hers. She concludes that Vincent’s story is built on half-truths and that she must confront why Vincent is shaping Danny as cruel and dangerous.