Bad Blood

Back at the hotel, Michael and Dean fight about leaving Lia behind until Sloane breaks it up. She admits that Lia told her she planned to go to Serenity Ranch. Agent Briggs calls Sterling to report that the Masters’ killings have resumed. On April 2, someone murdered a college student, confirming a new Fibonacci sequence of murders. Briggs instructs the team to stay in Gaither and extract Lia, as any link between the cult and the Masters heightens the danger.

You sit at a council with four other Masters. Master Five demands a formal judgment on the threat posed by the FBI. You attempt to stall, but two other members back Five’s push for a ritual. A new member enters, taking the seat of the deceased Master Seven and creating a quorum. With enough votes, Five moves to begin the ritual against you.

At the diner the next morning, Ree warns the team about Darby, sharing that her own daughter joined Serenity Ranch and vanished. Kane Darby enters and remarks on Cassie’s resemblance to her mother. He then follows Cassie outside. He avoids questions about why Lorelai left Gaither, outlines his father’s manipulative tactics, and says that Lia is physically safe for now. Kane cautions Cassie that digging into the town’s past is dangerous and urges her to leave.

As Master Five tortures you, you manage the pain by suppressing the weaker persona of Lorelai and asserting your protector identity. You maintain control, refusing to let Lorelai experience the agony.

Walking through Gaither, Dean suggests that Cassie may have repressed her memories to preserve her relationship with her mother. They visit an old apothecary garden, and a kiss triggers Cassie’s childhood memories of playing in the “poison garden” with a girl named Melody, a scarred man (Malcolm Lowell) shouting at them, a scream in the night, a form at the bottom of the stairs, and her mother appearing with blood on her hands, insisting that it was a dream.

The team watches Agent Sterling’s lapel camera as she interviews Malcolm Lowell, Nightshade’s grandfather. Lowell resists until Sterling shows him a photo of Lorelai. He grows agitated and admits that before his family died, his grandson Mason would sneak to Serenity Ranch. Around that time, someone left tortured animals on Lowell’s property. Lowell believes that Mason watched as someone else from the cult killed the animals.

Hours later, you hang in chains, bleeding, but maintain control as Lorelai tries to surface. You no longer wait for rescue but prepare to act, sure that they underestimate you.

Just after midnight, Lia slips into the hotel room after escaping from Serenity Ranch. She reports that Holland Darby’s wife is lying and shows Cassie the cuts she made on her wrists to sell her vulnerable persona. When Sloane arrives, upset, Lia reassures her by sharing a piece of her own cult-trauma history. She then hands over hand-drawn maps of the compound. Sloane accepts them and hugs Lia.

Using Lia’s maps, Sloane builds a blueprint of Serenity Ranch and finds a discrepancy suggesting a hidden space in the chapel. Sterling and Judd reprimand Lia for going in alone, but she produces a vial of milky liquid that she says Darby uses to drug his followers. Sterling takes the vial to a lab, hoping that the results will secure a search warrant for the chapel.

On April 5, the lab identifies the liquid as a powerful opiate, and the FBI secures a warrant for Serenity Ranch. In the chapel, Sloane finds a hidden mechanism in the altar that opens a secret staircase. The team descends into a soundproofed basement cell containing two decomposing bodies and shackles. Sloane estimates that they died between 9 and 11 years ago. As they retreat, Lia quietly notes that the targets were put in a hole.

When Master Five returns, you reveal that you’ve slipped out of your restraints. You then take his knife and kill him. Claiming the authority to judge and execute, you transform from captive to arbiter.

Authorities take Holland Darby and his wife in for questioning, but both refuse to speak. Sterling interrogates Kane Darby, who denies any knowledge of the bodies. Watching with the team, Lia immediately reads his denial as a lie. Sterling concludes that they need the targets’ identities to get leverage, and Cassie proposes sending photographs of the skulls to Celine for facial reconstruction.

While waiting for results, the team plays Truth or Dare. Tensions surface and settle as the group reinforces their commitment as a chosen family. Dean admits that his anger was directed at himself, not Lia. Lia explains that she went after Darby to prevent others from suffering as her mother did in a cult. She then dares Sloane to hack Agent Sterling’s laptop, and Sloane accepts.

In Sterling’s restricted email, Sloane finds a message from Briggs containing files on the latest Masters targets. The team realizes that the killer is targeting people tied to the Naturals’ past cases. It’s April 5, a Fibonacci date, and panic rises when Michael can’t reach Celine, who fits the profile for the next target.

Briggs confirms that an agent checked Celine’s dorm and that she’s gone. As Michael unravels, Judd opens the door to find Celine in the hall, unharmed and holding a suitcase. She explains that she came to examine the chapel remains in person. Relief spreads through the team as they pivot back to identifying the bodies.

Overnight in a secure lab, Celine begins the facial reconstructions. She sketches the female first, and Cassie recognizes Ree’s missing daughter, Sarah Simon. The recognition sparks another memory: Kane Darby was present the night she saw a body at the base of the stairs. Celine turns to the male skull. As features emerge, Cassie stares in shock, recognizing that the man from nine years ago had Kane Darby’s face.

When the Masters find you with Master Five’s corpse, you declare him unworthy. You fully embrace your identity as the Pythia, their leader and executioner, and inform the others that they’ll now follow your rules.