In the draped-off room of Eli Aaron's barn, Eli orders Saint to sit on a wooden crate and sets up continuous lights and a sheet behind her, turning the space into a makeshift studio. Saint places her satchel on the floor and listens as Eli mutters to himself while he works.

When the generator briefly pauses, Saint clearly hears Eli reciting, "The Lord is my Shepherd," the same funeral passage her grandmother once used. The recognition chills Saint, and before she can respond the light dies and Eli begins photographing her in bursts of flash. He tells Saint to remove her glasses and not to smile because smiling "hides" her, showing both control and a disturbing aesthetic fixation.

As Eli moves through the darkness between flashes, Saint questions him about the missing high school girls and the college girl. Eli asks Saint's name, seems pleased to learn it, and tests her on prayer and scripture. Saint answers steadily despite her fear, and when she mentions the reports about a blue van and directly asks whether he took the girls, Eli gives a simple, devastating confession: yes.