A Photo Finish

In the aftermath of her phone sex with Cole in the flashback timeline, Violet wonders about the possibility of loving someone one has never met. She messages him, seeking to celebrate a work promotion—which she privately notes is her promotion to jockey. She asks him to video chat again, this time showing his face, but he refuses brusquely, which hurts her feelings and makes her feel embarrassed.

In the narrative present, when Cole collapses during their hike, Violet rushes to his side. He urges her to go on without him, but she refuses, even when he insists that he isn’t hurt. At her prodding, he shows her that one of his legs is a prosthesis, something that he has hidden from everyone except his mother. Violet is surprised that she didn’t notice his amputation while they lived together and even more shocked when Cole confirms that even Vaughn doesn’t know. He instructs her to hike down to his house to get his spare prosthesis; she refuses, since this would mean leaving him alone overnight, and plans to stay the night with him and then hike down in the morning.

Violet builds a makeshift shelter to keep them warm overnight.