That afternoon, Patch stands outside Marty Tooms's cell and finds the bars covered from the inside by a heavy sheet. In the near-hundred-degree heat, the covered cell has become an inferno, suggesting that Tooms would rather shut himself away than face what he has done. Patch notices that Blackjack has withdrawn into the cooler captain's office while Patch remains fixed on Tooms.

Patch begins speaking directly to Tooms, and the rest of the men on the row gather to listen as the radio goes silent. Patch describes the missing girl he still carries with him: brilliant, curious, and kind, full of strange facts and poems and stories that changed his life. By speaking in detail about what she meant to him, Patch turns the moment into a plea and a challenge, insisting that Tooms can still do one good thing by naming her and revealing where she is buried.

Ricky Nelson breaks the tension with a joke about koalas committing crimes, and the other men laugh, but Patch stays focused on Tooms. Patch's speech makes clear that his goal is no longer abstract revenge alone; he wants the truth, a name, and a grave. When Blackjack taps his stick against the metal, Patch is jolted out of the moment and leaves the cell front.

On his way back, Patch gives Howie Goucher a copy of The Color Purple. Howie keeps the book and promises to tell Patch about Celie over the next month, creating a brief note of routine and companionship within the prison. Soon afterward, the row falls silent when Howie is led away, abruptly cutting off that small connection.