As Katie packs for the Coast Guard assignment, she recounts to Beanie how she cried when Cole said "bikini" and admits she cannot swim. Their history surfaces: growing up together after Katie's mother left, summers "splashing" but never learning to swim, and the arrival of stepmother Angela, who pressured Katie to diet at twelve and taught her to "suck in" her stomach, prompting Katie to abandon swimsuits.

Beanie frames the trip as a chance to confront body-image issues and suggests that Katie take swimming lessons during the free weekend in Key West. Katie resists the idea of any flirtation with the featured rescue swimmer—whom she dubs a "love hater"—insisting the trip is about job security, not adventure. Beanie teases about a fling but ultimately pushes practical steps: basic lessons and reframing the experience.

Katie reveals a fresh anxiety: helicopter preflight procedures require weighing every item, including her, and announcing the number to the pilot and crew. Beanie, who once convinced Katie to stop weighing herself and even burned Katie's scale during a post-breakup reset, tries to comfort her while acknowledging there may be no workaround.

The narrative flashes back to Beanie’s earlier caretaking spree after Katie’s breakup with Lucas—cleaning the apartment, grooming upgrades, and adding unwanted orange throw pillows—underscoring Beanie’s ongoing belief that Katie is due for a personal renaissance. Returning to the present, they debate Cole’s plan for lodging at his aunt’s renovated motor-court cottages with a request to temporarily conceal the true reason for Katie’s stay until the job starts.

Beanie mentions Lucas’s Tonight Show interview where he called leaving Katie a mistake; Katie refuses to reengage. This sparks Katie’s key insight: applying the Gottmans’ "culture of appreciation" to her relationship with herself. With Beanie’s encouragement, Katie commits to noticing what her body gets right to build a cushion of kindness before facing public weigh-ins and water work.

They begin a playful exercise to list body features Katie appreciates. Katie proudly offers her earlobes as item one, while Beanie challenges her to reach ten items before she’ll reveal her own list, setting a concrete, self-compassion task for Katie as she heads to Key West.