Emmy disappears with Fast Forward after graduating and earning a scholarship to UT Knoxville, then announces she is not going. June reacts by “laying down the law,” and Emmy stops coming home. Maggot moves onto Demon and Dori’s couch and relays what he knows: Emmy had a three-day head start, supposedly staying with Martha Coldiron until June learns Martha was kicked out weeks earlier. June calls the police and repeatedly calls Demon’s house; she distrusts Maggot and demands Demon’s honesty. Demon gives June Fast Forward’s number, learns Fast Forward has left Cedar Hill, and privately fears Fast Forward is dangerous for Emmy.

While June searches, Demon, Dori, and Maggot talk through the night amid escalating drug use. Demon and Dori smoke an “80” off foil, and Demon fixates on the money burning away as Demon’s savings shrink and work prospects dry up. Dori pushes for cheaper, widely available heroin, while Demon argues for the relative safety of pills and avoids needles; “chasing the dragon” becomes their compromise. Demon takes on the exhausting work of finding supply, while Dori relies on Thelma, a home-care nurse with morphine patches, even as Thelma warns about overdose risks.

Needing their own prescriptions, Demon and Dori go back to Dr. Watts’s pain clinic, with Demon waiting in the car because of Dr. Watts. Dori returns shaken and furious: the clinic demands steep fees, and Dr. Watts stares at her and pressures her to pay. Dori reveals the real coercion—Dr. Watts offered to “overlook the fees” only if Dori submits to an “exam,” meaning sex. Demon, enraged and humiliated, drives recklessly away.

As money runs out and withdrawal dominates their days, Dori later suggests she might go back and comply because she cannot stand seeing Demon sick. Demon promises to get work and care for her, but both are trapped in the cycle: the drug numbs dread and pain, and without it they become desperate, sleepless, and hallucination-prone. Their home deteriorates into filth and chaos, and Demon alternates between searching for any job and escaping briefly to smoke with Turp or visit Maggot and Mrs. Peggot, who both seem hollowed out by grief and addiction. Maggot has no news of Emmy, only that his mother’s prison hearing is approaching.

Demon finds steadier relief with Tommy in Pennington Gap, who is proudly renting a garage from the McCobbs and keeping it orderly. Tommy is thriving at the Lee Courier, first cleaning up at night and then taking on ad layout after an employee quits, under boss Pinkie Mayhew. Demon starts spending time there to help, learning the messy cut-and-paste workflow of columns, wax rollers, and clip-art books.

When Tommy cannot find the right automotive clip art, Demon draws a Chevy Silverado himself, impressing Tommy and upgrading the paper’s ads. The moment becomes a turning point: Demon’s talent turns into a practical role at the Courier, and “clip-art Demon” is born.