Alice challenges Peter for hiding Grimes’s theft of his work, and Peter counters that Alice also concealed crucial truths. They recognize Grimes cultivated their rivalry, each believing the other was favored, and that they suffered under his exacting standards while justifying the abuse as the price of brilliance. Peter shares he is in remission from Crohn’s, but uncertainty remains.

As the Escher trap drains them, Alice drifts toward numb surrender. Peter insists there must be an escape, invoking Gödel, Dante, and Borges to argue that no system is fully closed. He jolts Alice awake and sketches out the Hangman’s Paradox: if the Kripkes must arrive by a deadline and their arrival must be a surprise, recursive elimination blocks every day, creating an exploitable contradiction.

Peter programs the paradox but only for one person, arguing it cannot work on him because he knows its weaknesses. Alice refuses to leave him, pleading that they live or die together and nearly voicing deeper feelings. Peter insists the optimal chance is saving Alice, the only one who might still raise Grimes or at least survive. Their argument over blame for Grimes’s death remains unresolved, but Peter chooses decisively.

Peter draws a blade, bloods the pentagram, and chants, overpowering Alice’s protests. He reminds her to take the rucksack, then snaps the circle closed. The sand heaves: Alice is expelled onto a barren plain under the dying sun as the Escher trap vanishes, leaving Peter imprisoned within.