Katie successfully completes the SWET test with Hutch watching her underwater to ensure she doesn’t get stuck again. Though she is mortified about the earlier wardrobe mishap, Hutch finds it uncontrollably funny, and she has to return to the station and then to dinner at the Starlite while he recounts the incident to Rue and The Gals.

On the way to ask Hutch to approve the “Day in the Life” mini-doc to save her job, Katie is interrupted when Ginger hands her a buzzing phone. Against Beanie’s warning, Katie clicks a link to a gossip-site article that exposes her as the “Katie” from Lucas Banks’s song and ridicules her looks using an old social media photo. The comments are vicious, including a suggestion she should kill herself, and Katie hurls her phone into the grass and walks off, devastated.

Katie wanders barefoot through Key West until she reaches Mallory Square at sunset. Amid the festive crowd, she feels trapped in her body but remembers Beanie’s teachings about self-compassion. She imagines choosing to stand beside her past self—rejecting the internalized jeers—and decides to show up for herself rather than agree with the cruelty.

Hutch tracks her down with Rue’s bike and quietly joins her by the railing. After he notices she’s shoeless and offers his sneakers, Katie decides to confide in him. She explains the earlier internet pile-on about her floral dress, her period of disordered eating, Beanie burning her scale, and the new article calling her ugly and urging self-harm.

Hutch reacts with shocked disbelief and anger at the trolls, then reframes the attacks as envy and tells Katie he doesn’t need to see the photo because she is right there: to him she is beautiful. He clarifies that his earlier laughter was not mocking; he was overwhelmed by attraction, especially during the pool incident, and admits that being around her makes his brain stop working and that he wants “everything.”

As the intensity builds, Hutch cages her in with his arms on the railing and openly lists the qualities he sees in Katie—her brightness, her effect on people, even calling her a “human hot-fudge sundae.” He insists she cannot believe the insults. With the ocean and sunset around them, the moment crescendos; Katie touches the back of his head, gives a small encouraging tug, and Hutch kisses her.