A school shooting leaves teacher Jeff Spearman dead at Jefferson Davis High School, shocking the small community.

Latrell Macdonald exits the school still holding a gun and is fatally shot by two white deputies.

Titus uses Spearman's fingerprint at the funeral home to unlock his phone and discovers photos of murdered Black children.

A search of Spearman's house uncovers hidden drives containing murder evidence and a painting of a willow tree.

Officers dig on hunting land and unearth seven decomposing bodies of murdered Black children beneath a willow tree.

Dr. Kim finds fake Bible verses carved into the victims, and the same phrase appears on six local church signs.

Darnell Posey delivers a box to the police station that turns out to contain Cole Marshall's severed face.

Griselda Barry tells Titus that Elias Hillington abused a biracial adopted son named Gabriel who likely killed Elias's brother Henry.

The killer calls Titus threatening his flock and later nails a dead lamb to the door of Titus's home.

Elias Hillington's mutilated body is found on a local farm, confirming Titus's suspicion that Gabriel is the third killer.

DNA analysis of evidence from the victims reveals that the killer is a biological relative of Scott Cunningham.

Polly Anne Cunningham admits she was pressured into surrendering her biracial son to the Hillington family.

Denver Carlyle drives a truck into the crowd at Fall Fest, killing Reverend Wilkes and injuring others.

The wolf-masked killer attacks Kellie at her inn and kills her sound technician Hector before Titus drives him away.

Titus kills Royce Lazare inside the angel-decorated underground bunker after Lavon stabs Royce to break his grip.

When a school shooting leaves teacher Jeff Spearman dead and Latrell Macdonald killed by deputies, Titus Crown's investigation quickly reveals a far darker conspiracy. Unlocking Spearman's phone exposes a pattern of racially motivated child murders involving a wolf-masked accomplice, and a hidden painting leads officers to seven bodies buried beneath a willow tree. Fake Bible verses carved into the victims connect to local churches, while new bodies pile up and the killer begins taunting Titus directly. A critical DNA breakthrough ties the murderer to the powerful Cunningham family, and a confession from the family matriarch finally gives the killer a name and a history. The case reaches its violent climax when Titus tracks down Royce Lazare and kills him inside a grotesque underground bunker, ending the killing spree for good.

The murders, discoveries, and confrontations that drive Titus's investigation from first shot to final kill.

Titus monitors preparations for Ricky Sours's neo-Confederate parade while feeling he has failed to reform the criminal justice system.

Titus personally visits Calvin and Dorothy to inform them that their son Latrell has been shot and killed.

Jamal Addison and church congregants gather outside the police station to protest Latrell's killing by Titus's deputies.

Dr. Kim begins identifying the seven buried children as missing-persons cases from multiple different states.

Titus drives to Baltimore to inform Tavaris Michaels's mother that her son's body has been found.

Marquis gets into a bar fight defending Titus's honor against neo-Confederate associates and ends up in a holding cell.

An anonymous caller tells Titus about helping build a strange underground structure covered in disturbing angel decorations.

Titus interviews Reverend Wilkes at Second Corinthian and learns the fake Bible phrase was suggested by a now-deceased congregant.

Scott Cunningham visits Titus's office and demands he hand the serial killer investigation over to the state police.

Titus fires Deputy Tom after Trey confirms Tom has been taking bribes from local drug dealer Jasper.

Trey's internal investigation concludes that the deputies' shooting of Latrell Macdonald was legally justified.

Titus and Albert attend Gene Dixon's funeral, where Titus accuses Reverend Jackson of embezzling church collection funds.

Darlene tells Titus she no longer feels safe in Charon County and ends their relationship before moving to Atlanta.

Lavon Macdonald, Latrell's younger brother, disappears during the chaos of Fall Fest, presumably captured by the killer.

Titus wakes in a hospital two days after his confrontation with Royce, with his father and brother at his side.

Before the shooting even occurs, Titus is already struggling with his failure to reform a system that forces him to protect a neo-Confederate parade. In the aftermath of Latrell's death, Titus must navigate community grief and outrage while quietly building a case against a killer no one else has identified. Secondary investigations expose corruption within his own department and the limits of small-town resources, while Titus carries the additional burden of notifying victims' families from as far away as Baltimore. The community's sense of safety continues to unravel as the killer escalates and Titus's personal relationships collapse under the strain. The chaos of Fall Fest brings the case to a deadly boil, and when it is finally over, Titus wakes in a hospital bed having paid a heavy personal price to protect his town.

The community fallout, procedural steps, and secondary revelations surrounding the investigation.

Titus notices Latrell's cryptic words about fallen angels before dying and suspects the killing of Spearman was deliberate.

Titus discovers that Spearman's final text to Latrell was a direct threat targeting Latrell's younger brother Lavon.

Titus concludes from Spearman's photos that Latrell was exploited as bait to lure Black teenagers to the adult killers.

Titus visits Elias Hillington's snake-handling church and finds the preacher's religious phrases closely match those carved into the victims.

Titus learns that Spearman tried to molest Darnell Posey in high school, but Darnell stayed silent out of fear.

During questioning, Dayane Carter accidentally repeats the killer's exact phrase about Titus's flock, revealing she has contact with the suspect.

After the dead lamb incident, Marquis visits Titus at home and Titus confesses to killing white supremacist Red DeCrain.

Dr. Kim sends Titus a photograph of a T-shaped object extracted from inside one of the victims' bodies.

Truck delivery logs from the Cunningham flag factory reveal Royce Lazare drove Denver Carlyle's usual truck on a critical date.

Titus realizes that Lazare is an anagram for Azrael, the angel of death, cementing Royce's identity as the killer Gabriel.

Royce Lazare appears inside his own home and shoots the fired deputy Tom dead before escaping and leaving Titus gravely wounded.

Titus hears his deceased mother's voice urging him on and discovers a fake azalea bush concealing a hidden bunker entrance.

Inside the bunker, Titus finds Royce holding a knife to Lavon's throat amid walls covered in grotesque angel imagery.

Lavon uses a knife he had secretly been carrying out of fear to stab Royce in the arm and break free.

Titus resigns as sheriff, names Carla as interim, and pulls down the Confederate statue with a tow strap as he leaves town.

From the moment Latrell dies, Titus senses that the shooting was deliberate rather than random, and the evidence on Spearman's phone confirms that Latrell was used as bait in a calculated scheme targeting Black teenagers. A series of small but crucial revelations accumulates — a pattern in the carved phrases, a survivor's suppressed secret, a suspect's incriminating slip of the tongue — each tightening the net around the third killer. Titus is finally forced to face his own past when he confesses to his brother that he executed a white supremacist rather than arresting him, a secret that has shadowed his return to Charon. The killer's identity clicks into place through a physical object found inside a victim and a single detail hidden in a name, sending Titus to a house where the confrontation turns deadly. After surviving the final battle and closing the case, Titus makes two symbolic choices — leaving the badge behind and tearing down a Confederate statue — that mark his departure from the person he was forced to be.

The key clues, confessions, and realizations that unmask the killer and define Titus's final choices.