June summons Demon as Emmy has been gone two months with Fast Forward. Demon visits and finds June worn down but generous, sending him home with food. He reports that he and Dori are working—Demon at Sonic, Dori cutting hair in a basement shop—and struggling to stay functional on prescriptions. June vows she’d die for Emmy; Demon counters that Emmy no longer wants saving, and June even wishes Maggot had a boyfriend who could help him change.

Walking at sunset, June presses for details about Emmy and Fast Forward. Demon describes Fast Forward’s magnetic pull and says he’s more about money than drugs, but admits most people their age use pills. June declares, “They did this to us,” and explains how Purdue, through reps like Kent, targeted places like Lee County by data-mining for pain and disability, pushing scripts to vulnerable patients. Back at her house, June loads Demon with food; Demon recognizes her as the best person he knows.

At the Courier, Tommy is crushed by a steady drumbeat of national stories that brand Appalachia as a blight. Pinkie requires running pieces with “local” angles and the offensive strip Stumpy Fiddles, which caricatures hillbillies. Demon frames it as America needing a scapegoat; Tommy fears Sophie’s family will see him as a toothless stereotype.

Refusing to reprint Stumpy Fiddles, Demon critiques its lazy art and takes up Tommy’s challenge to do better. He creates Red Neck, a miner-hero drawn in a vintage, kinetic style: during a storm, the hero grabs lightning to restore power to an elderly couple, then watches them dance by their lit trailer. Demon signs the strip Anonymous, turning his art into a quiet stand against stigma.