During a layover, Malcolm relays Holden’s message: Adam lost his charger but he and Holden are flying directly to San Francisco. Olive, exhausted yet anxious, lands and checks emails. Several cancer researchers, prompted by Dr. Aslan’s outreach and impressed by Olive’s SBD talk, invite collaborations and potential lab positions, thrilling her.

Holden and Adam meet Olive and Malcolm at SFO. After banter about schedules and birthdays, Adam reluctantly agrees to dinner, saying “we” in a way that makes Olive feel their connection is real. He vetoes burgers as “tasting like foot,” and the foursome heads to a Chinese restaurant.

At the table, Holden confronts the tension between Malcolm and Adam, pushing Adam to address an old committee slight. Adam admits it sounds like something he’d say but clarifies it wasn’t personal and that he can be antagonistic, easing the friction. Olive and Adam fall back into easy intimacy and inside jokes.

Sharing a menu, they joke about pumpkin spice bubble tea while Malcolm launches a mock-serious anti–pumpkin spice tirade. The couples’ dynamics solidify: Holden and Malcolm tease each other; Adam and Olive quietly align, touching and trading amused looks.

Then Holden suggests Adam has known Olive far longer, since her Stanford interview, and has been pining. Adam’s uneasy expression prompts Olive’s memory of the bathroom pep talk years before. She realizes Adam was the encouraging stranger and that he remembered her all along. She acknowledges it, sealing a pivotal revelation about their origin and deepening their relationship.