That evening, Juliet accepts an unprecedented invitation for drinks from her male colleagues, including Charlie Murdock. At a bar called the Golden Sun Saloon, the men feign interest in her career ambitions before revealing their true motive: to mock her and ask invasive questions about her past relationship with The Musician. They make demeaning jokes, calling her a “groupie” and telling her she will never be a real news reporter. Charlie concludes the harassment by stroking her neck and offering to “help” her career.

Maintaining her composure, Juliet leaves without reacting to their taunts. Before departing, she orders a round of the bar’s most expensive scotch for every table and has the large bill charged to her colleagues. She also takes a bottle of the priciest liquor for herself and takes a cab home, where she begins to write.

At the Hollywood Studio Club where she lives, Eileen is summoned downstairs after curfew. Shep is waiting outside and confronts her about the planned proposal, demanding to know what Guy meant by asking her to marry him. Eileen confirms the network’s plan for them to marry for real during the live finale.

An upset Shep questions her feelings for Guy and implies this is why nothing ever happened between them. Eileen angrily tells him it is none of his business. He tells her she’s an idiot to marry for any reason other than love but stops short of confessing his own feelings. When Eileen asks him about the girl from the studio, Shep tells her that Lorrie is a “complication.” Eileen realizes he is romantically entangled with Lorrie. Heartbroken, she concludes nothing stands in the way of her marrying Guy. As other residents spot Shep and create a commotion, Eileen tells him to leave and closes the door.

The next day, Juliet and Dinah meet in Del’s office. Juliet recounts her humiliating night at the saloon, while Dinah describes her outburst at the table read. Juliet then shows Dinah a new, brutally honest draft of their interview. After reading only two pages, a horrified Dinah tears up the article and throws the pages out the window, telling Juliet she doesn’t know her audience. Juliet defends the piece’s honesty, but Dinah dismisses it and suggests they work separately. An angry Juliet accuses Dinah of being out of touch and storms out.

At the hospital, Dinah speaks to a comatose Del. Dr. Carson confirms there is no change in his condition and warns of potential brain damage. Leaving the hospital, Dinah encounters Sydney, who reports that he failed to find a new sponsor in New York but that Procter & Gamble is considering it. The news offers little hope.

Later, Dinah visits the Santa Monica Pier, near Del’s crash site, trying to understand why he was there. She wonders if he was having an affair. The mystery of his actions, combined with her recent doctor’s appointment, makes her feel utterly isolated. She grieves the emotional distance that has grown between her and Del, and, overwhelmed, she screams into the wind at the end of the pier.

Juliet’s editor, Nick Mitchell, rejects the honest version of her interview with Dinah, calling it too personal and unprofessional. He questions her ability to be objective, a requirement for the news desk. Later, Renee alerts Juliet to a major earthquake in Alaska and provides her with notes and sources to cover the breaking story. Juliet feels a renewed sense of purpose and works late into the night.

When Juliet leaves, Charlie ambushes her in the parking lot. He is furious about the large bar tab she left for him and his colleagues. He verbally assaults her, then traps her against her car and threatens her before leaving.

A gossip column questions Del’s sudden disappearance from public view, noting that the family’s official story about his mother’s illness is false, as she died in 1951. The article speculates on Del’s true whereabouts while reporting on the rest of the family’s recent activities. It mentions Guy and Kelly attending a protest and visiting the Playboy Club without dates, Shep’s rumored involvement with “Mary Jane,” and Dinah’s appearances with her former boyfriend, Sydney Weiss. The piece concludes by suggesting there may be trouble in the Newmans’ marriage.

On Guy’s first day directing, Kelly tries to bolster his confidence. Kelly is privately dismayed by Guy’s impending sham marriage, which reminds him of the persecution that led a gay teacher from his youth to die by suicide. Meanwhile, Lorrie confronts Shep about her pregnancy and their need for a plan.

Shep arrives on set two hours late, drunk and high. Guy confronts him, and their argument escalates into a wrestling match and a food fight with Shep’s prop birthday cake. Dinah furiously breaks it up. In the makeup room, the brothers argue about the wedding and their father, but Shep ends the fight with a sincere piece of advice for Guy: be himself as a director, not a copy of their father. During the birthday scene, Shep looks pointedly at Eileen while making a wish.

Sydney calls Dinah to announce that Procter & Gamble will sponsor the finale, making a script urgently necessary. He also mentions an article about her in the LA Times. Dinah reads the interview and finds it to be a bland, generic piece. She feels both relieved and disappointed that the honest version was not published.

Dinah calls Juliet to ask why the article was so tame. Juliet explains her editor rejected the original draft. The conversation leads to a reconciliation; Dinah confesses her ongoing physical numbness and admits she relates to The Feminine Mystique (1963), and Juliet apologizes for her earlier aggression. Agreeing to be honest with each other, they commit to writing the finale script together. In a private act of defiance, Dinah finds Folgers coffee, which is a Procter & Gamble product, in her kitchen and throws it all in the garbage.

In a first-person article for Life magazine commemorating his 18th birthday, Shep Newman expresses deep disillusionment with his life as a teen idol. He states his desire to make authentic music rather than the commercial pop CBS produces for him. He reflects on his early loss of innocence, including drug use and a sexual encounter at 14. He feels his public persona is a fabrication created by his father and the network, leaving him unsure of his true identity. He concludes with a quote from Jack Kerouac, articulating his longing to escape his current life and find his own path.

On his actual 18th birthday, Shep wakes up in the sorority house of a fan and is chased out by a mob of screaming girls. Feeling desperate, he goes to his parents’ house, where he finds a cake from the housekeeper and a pile of messages from Lorrie. He burns the messages and holds his hand over the cake’s candles, recalling a traumatic concert fire he survived. Blaming himself for Del’s accident, he wishes for Eileen to forego her marriage to Guy and then jumps into the pool. There, he finds Kelly swimming laps in a furious, pained manner.

From Del’s office, Dinah and Juliet watch the two young men. Dinah finally tells Juliet the truth: Del is in a coma. She confesses her feelings of being lost in her marriage. Finding common ground, the two women finally begin to write the finale script. They start with a scene where Dinah’s character throws away her apron, rejecting her domestic role.