Jack wakes in pain. Diana gives him medication and explains the bullet only grazed his thigh. Caine orders Jack to begin his assigned task. Drake’s soldiers bring in two hostages, Mickey Finch and Mike Farmer, both essentially powerless. Drake rigs wire traps in the doorway and hallway that will slice Brianna’s body if she rushes through at super-speed.

Jack begins working at the unfamiliar, outdated computer console, using an old manual to navigate the archaic system. When he realizes the wire trap will kill Brianna, he refuses to work. Caine, who frequently bites his thumb when frustrated, fears Jack’s retaliation and orders Drake to take it down.

The perspective shifts to Duck Zhang, who wanders the empty plaza at night feeling lonely and ostracized. He is terrified of being buried alive and has been mocked for his power. Hunter calls to him from his hiding spot in the church ruins, frightened, and explains that Zil attacked him. When Zil’s friend Harry intervened, Hunter accidentally killed him. Hunter tries to convince Duck they must unite as fellow mutants against the normals. Duck refuses to get involved but agrees to bring Hunter food.

Sam’s group stops near the power plant gate. Sam orders Brianna to scout only the gate area and not enter the plant. She vanishes at super-speed. After five tense minutes pass with no sign of her return, the group fears the worst.

The narrative shifts to Lana and Cookie arriving at the abandoned mining town. Lana feels the presence of the Darkness in the nearby mine shaft. Inside a warehouse, they find a half-full propane tank and a pulley system to lift it. Lana tells Cookie to wait while she retrieves the keys, leaving him a sealed letter for Sam in case she does not return.

Back at the power plant, Taylor decides to act, feeling she owes Sam for rescuing her from Coates Academy. She teleports near the gate, accidentally materializes next to two armed guards waiting in ambush, and teleports away before they can shoot. She reappears beside Sam and reports the ambush location, confirming she saw no sign of Brianna. Sam’s group advances. Dekka levitates the truck concealing the guards, and Sam gives them a choice: surrender or be incinerated. They drop their weapons. The guards warn that if Brianna entered the plant, she will not be coming back. Dekka, trembling with rage, vows that anyone who harmed Brianna will die.

Sam grieves the apparent loss of Brianna. Edilio reasons they should attack through the turbine room since Caine will not want to damage the plant. Sam devises a plan: Edilio uses a water gun and spray paint to mark Bug, who is nearly invisible at night. Bug, now visibly streaked with yellow paint, races inside; Sam deliberately allows this to alert Caine, then immediately launches his assault.

Orc, Edilio, and their soldiers make a loud frontal attack on the turbine room door as a diversion while Sam and Dekka approach along the exterior wall. Sam superheats the masonry while Dekka suspends gravity beneath it. Orc smashes through, but they have broken into a filing room instead of the control room. The element of surprise is lost.

Sam attacks the inner wall and discovers a lead radiation shield. The room becomes dangerously hot, and Orc carries the oxygen-deprived Sam outside. From a safer distance, Sam melts a hole through the lead, but Caine threatens to push a hostage into the burning opening unless Sam stops. Hostage Mike Farmer shouts that he and Mickey are captives and Brittney is badly hurt. Caine then announces that Jack has determined how to shut off power to Perdido Beach without affecting Coates Academy. Sam sends Taylor to verify; she returns confirming the town is completely dark.

Duck decides to help Hunter by bringing him food and offering his basement as shelter. Returning to the church, he cannot find Hunter. Suddenly Zil and his gang, armed with baseball bats, surround him. Duck’s anger causes him to sink into the sidewalk, trapping him. To escape, he lies that Hunter is hiding in the church ruins. As the gang searches, Duck pulls himself free and runs. They give chase. Duck falls, plunging facedown through concrete. As he continues sinking, the gang swings at him uselessly. When the town suddenly goes dark, they panic and flee, leaving Duck trapped underground and descending.

The power outage affects everyone simultaneously. Astrid worries about Sam and works on theories about mutations in the FAYZ, noting they seem to function primarily as weapons or defense mechanisms. When the power cuts out, she realizes Caine has succeeded and Sam has failed. She lights a candle and kneels to pray for Sam’s safety.

In the control room, Caine savors his victory and taunts Drake. He calls out to Sam, proposing a trade: food for electricity. Sam points out that Caine is the one trapped without provisions, and Caine’s confidence evaporates as he realizes his tactical error. Sam offers him 10 minutes to leave peacefully. Caine refuses.

Suddenly Caine experiences a horrifying epiphany: he was manipulated into all of this by the creature in the mine, who is hungry. He tells the others they must transport uranium from the reactor to feed it. As Diana and Jack question the plan, an ear-splitting roar only Caine can hear punishes him for his doubt. Drake smirks, recognizing the Darkness now controls Caine.

Lana walks toward the mine entrance, driving off Pack Leader, a mutant coyote and servant to the Darkness, with gunfire. She enters the shaft, locates Hermit Jim’s mummified remains, and finds the keys. When Pack Leader confronts her, she fires three shots, wounding the coyote, which retreats. Lana runs from the mine, screaming in triumph.

Brianna wakes in severe pain on the power plant roof. She attempted flight by leaping between buildings at extreme speed but crashed on her final jump, sustaining extensive scrapes and burns. The roof access door is locked, trapping her. Desperately hungry and thirsty, she breaks a water pipe to drink, catches a pigeon at super-speed, builds a fire, and cooks and eats the bird before falling asleep.

Duck, sinking facedown through the earth, begins to suffocate. His thrashing creates an air pocket. Terror nearly overwhelms him until he forces himself to think happy thoughts. His descent stops, and he begins to rise, eventually floating five feet above the ground. Hunter stares upward in amazement. Duck has learned his power works in reverse: happiness makes him float.

In the control room, Brittney lies grievously wounded but feels no pain. She realizes her heart has stopped—she is no longer alive. Convinced divine intervention has preserved her to exact vengeance on Caine, Drake, and Diana, she begins crawling toward a pistol lying on the floor.

Quinn and Albert drive back to Perdido Beach to find all the lights extinguished and town hall covered in graffiti reading “Death to freaks.”

Lana and Cookie load the propane tank into Hermit Jim’s truck. Lana gives Cookie final instructions to deliver her letter to Sam if she doesn’t make it back, then drives up the narrow path to the mine entrance, trailed by Pack Leader and his coyotes. Pack Leader jumps into the truck bed. Lana wedges the truck into the mine shaft until it becomes stuck, shatters the rear window, climbs into the bed, and opens the propane valve.

The Darkness speaks its name to her—the Gaiaphage. It declares it will use her healing power to construct a body and escape. Lana shoots Pack Leader through the windshield, then breaks out the remaining glass to escape onto the hood. She prepares to ignite the gasoline-soaked fuse. The Gaiaphage commands her to stop, and when she refuses, it attacks her mind with overwhelming psychic pain. She drops both the lighter and the rope and collapses, screaming.

Sam tells Edilio he feels they are losing the larger struggle for survival. Edilio warns him not to show despair in front of others. Sam insists on returning to town, where an enormous, agitated crowd fills the plaza. Astrid runs to Sam as the mob surrounds them, shouting accusations about the power failure, food shortage, and Hunter.

Zil steps forward and publicly denounces Sam as incompetent. Sam climbs onto the vehicle to confront him, but his own frustration erupts. He berates the crowd for their passivity, then admits he is just a kid without the education or ability to solve all their problems, confesses he made mistakes, and apologizes before walking away through the stunned, silent crowd.

After Sam’s public breakdown, Zil is approached by his core followers, Antoine, Hank, and new recruits Lance, Turk, and Lisa. Recognizing the opportunity, Zil declares he will restore control to “real humans” and officially names his group the Human Crew.