The morning after the Des Moines incident, Corrie Anderson finds Kate McKay demoralized and considering canceling the rest of her tour. Corrie argues that canceling would only hand victory to Kate’s enemies and make her look weak, so the only viable response is to keep going. The conversation is framed by the latest bad publicity: a security guard mistook Cynthia Herron’s champagne bottle for a gun, broke Herron’s arm, and created a viral scene that opponents are already using against Kate.

Corrie then helps manage the fallout. Kate visits Cynthia Herron in the hospital, gives her a signed shirt, and turns a public-relations disaster into a calmer, more sympathetic story. On the drive to Iowa City, Kate decides the tour still needs protection, but no more male guards and no more police, because that image is politically damaging. She tells Corrie to find a woman who can protect them without adding to the backlash.

Elsewhere, Holly Gibney has lunch with Detective Izzy Jaynes and Barbara Robinson, and the talk shifts from Barbara’s music news to Reverend Michael Rafferty’s murder. Holly reasons that Rafferty was probably killed because the murderer believed he knew something, and she urges Izzy to search the house carefully. Later, Izzy and Tom visit the Tapperville house with a sheriff’s detective, find AA materials that make a random robbery seem unlikely, and discover an appointment book entry for someone named Briggs, giving them a possible new lead on the killer Bill Wilson.

In Iowa City, Christopher, Christine’s twin, receives more cash from Andrew Fallowes and reflects on the mission he shares with Chrissy. He sees their campaign against Kate McKay as holy work, believes Reno was a warning that Kate ignored, and accepts that the plan may end in their deaths. At the same time, Corrie contacts Holly to ask if she will serve as Kate’s bodyguard. Holly weighs the money, the risk, and her lack of formal experience, speaks briefly with Kate, and decides to take the job while also promising Izzy she will try to help indirectly with the Rafferty lead.

That night, Trig attends an AA meeting far from his usual area, then immediately acts on an impulse he barely admits to himself. He picks up a hitchhiker, shoots him four times, hides the body in a park Porta-John, and plants a slip naming Steven Furst so the murder will fit his juror pattern. During the cleanup, Trig realizes with alarm that killing may have become an addiction in its own right, but he still recommits himself to finishing the list before going after the man he considers truly guilty.