Near midnight, Sam hides in Matt’s backyard, watching him through his lit bedroom window. She wants proof of infidelity to justify ending their strained relationship. She recalls seeing Matt with TV producer Karen Burgundy at a restaurant recently. Karen had her hand on his leg and leaned in suggestively. Though unsure if Matt actually cheated, Sam’s instincts tell her that he has.

Sam finds the spare key in a planter and lets herself in. She creeps upstairs and hears sounds suggesting sex: a squeaking bed, Matt grunting, and a woman moaning. She pushes open the bedroom door.

Instead of catching Matt with someone, she finds him alone, masturbating to pornography. Shocked and embarrassed, Matt scrambles to pull up his shorts and turn off the screen. As he glares at her in humiliation and demands to know how she got in, Sam feels a rush of relief. All she can manage is an embarrassed apology.

Edward visits his new physician, Dr. Brian Ross, a personable doctor in his late twenties. Ross compliments the 80-year-old on his excellent health and low blood pressure. Ross mentions that he attended one of Edward’s guest lectures on serial killers at Puget Sound State, reminding Edward that he had nicknamed the Pacific Northwest “Butcherville.” Edward adds that Sam is using this as the title of her book on the Butcher.

Reversing his lifelong refusal of pain medication, Edward requests a generous prescription for his hip arthritis. He also asks for Viagra, saying he plans to become sexually active. Ross agrees to both.

While waiting for his prescription to be filled, Edward reflects on his recent murder of the teenage girl from Marysville. He cut off Jamie’s hand, the Butcher’s signature, but left Bonnie Tidwell’s hand intact. Edward admits that, originally, he created the Butcher persona as a career strategy, but grew to enjoy and then crave killing. He has a fetish for hair that reminds him of brushing his daughter Lucy’s hair when she was young.

Driving home, Edward thinks about how the Viagra is not for him but for someone else who does not yet know it.

Matt is overwhelmed by stress: a near-affair with producer Karen Burgundy, the humiliating incident with Sam, and having killed and dismembered PJ Wu. He and Sam are barely speaking, and he privately concedes that her accusations about his emotional unavailability are accurate.

Detective Sanchez arrives at the restaurant with news. He tells Matt that PJ’s dismembered body has been found at the city dump—his head, one foot, and part of his torso. Head trauma suggests a fall, but the dismemberment points to murder. Sanchez says PJ owed money to a bookie connected to a Chinese gang known for dismembering victims as warnings. Matt realizes that Edward staged the disposal to mirror the gang’s methods.

As Sanchez prepares to leave, he mentions that Sam has been asking about the Marysville murder and believes it may connect to the Butcher. Matt is stunned to learn that she thinks the Butcher might still be active, and that she has long believed the Butcher killed her mother. After Sanchez departs, Matt makes a horrifying connection: his grandfather is the Butcher, which means his grandfather murdered his girlfriend’s mother.

Sam goes to Jason’s penthouse, feeling that her relationship with Matt is unsustainable. At Jason’s, she meets Lilac, his new girlfriend, who embraces her enthusiastically. After Lilac leaves for the evening, Sam criticizes her. Jason defends Lilac, noting that she holds a master’s degree in finance and owns a successful chain of yoga studios.

Jason informs Sam that PJ Wu is dead—his body was found at the dump, and the funeral will be in San Francisco. Sam is shocked Matt didn’t tell her; Jason says he learned through Facebook.

They discuss Sam’s Butcher theory, and then Sam recounts breaking into Matt’s house and catching him masturbating. Jason laughs, then turns serious when she asks if he would tell her if Matt cheated. He assures her that she comes first. Sam confesses that she does not think her relationship with Matt will survive. Jason advises her to end it and hugs her. When she asks him to kiss her, he refuses, saying he will when she asks for the right reasons.

Edward sits in the Sweetbay recreation room, acknowledging that his age prevents him from overpowering victims as he once did. He rejects the label of “psychopath” and views killing as a hobby that also advanced his career. A television report links PJ Wu’s death to a turf war between Chinese crime families, just as Edward planned.

Edward flirts with resident Gloria Marsh, who invites him to her room that evening, then excuses himself from a chess game with Donald Martini. Back in his room, he grinds four Viagra pills into powder. Returning to the recreation room, he pours the powder into Don’s tea while he is distracted. Don drinks it, complaining of bitterness, and Edward fetches honey to mask the flavor. Twenty minutes later, Don is flushed and has a severe headache. He clutches his chest and collapses from a heart attack. Edward waits before calling for help. By the time paramedics arrive, Don is dead.

Edward feels exhilarated. He avoids a hug from the distraught Helena because he has an erection. Checking his watch, he heads to Gloria’s room, where she gasps at his arousal. Edward kisses her forcefully and threatens to gag her if she talks.

Sam reads an online report about three recent deaths at Sweetbay Village, one of which—Gloria Marsh—is under investigation. She drives to Sweetbay to see Edward and ask his advice about Matt.

Miguel tells Sam that he discovered Gloria’s naked body with visible strangulation bruises. He suggests the death might have been accidental sexual asphyxiation, as Gloria was known to be sexually active, and that her partner—who used a condom and was likely a resident, since no visitors were logged—may have been Donald Martini, who died the same day from a Viagra overdose that interacted fatally with his heart medications.

Edward appears dramatically healthier than during Sam’s last visit and credits the new pain medication. He acknowledges that Gloria was a friend but shows little grief. Sam confides that she and Matt are having serious problems. Edward advises her to either accept Matt’s ambitious, arrogant nature or leave, because she will never change him. Sam explains that Matt has become increasingly tense, angry, and unpredictable.

Edward dismisses her concerns, suggesting that she may not be the right woman for Matt. When the conversation turns to her theory about Rufus Wedge, his demeanor turns hostile. He calls her theory insulting and orders her to leave, slamming the door behind her.

Matt has a recurring nightmare in which PJ Wu’s ghost appears at his bedside, accusing him of murder and demanding he make things right. PJ is furious that Matt dismembered his body, preventing an open casket and devastating his mother. Matt wakes up nightly, crying and sweating. He wonders how Edward manages to sleep, and an internal voice suggests it is because his grandfather is a psychopath.

The next morning, Matt looks severely sleep-deprived. It is the first day of filming for his reality show. Bernard escorts him to the bathroom to apply makeup and hemorrhoid cream to reduce puffiness. He then offers Matt a choice between a 5-hour Energy drink and cocaine. Disgusted but desperate, Matt chooses the energy drink.

When Matt emerges, cameras are already rolling. Karen instructs him not to look at the camera and to act natural. She outlines the day’s schedule: brief filming at the restaurant, then several hours at his Kirkland food truck.

Sam talks with Sanchez in an interrogation room at the East Precinct. She recounts her final interaction with Bonnie and their agreement to stay in touch through an online forum. Sanchez requests her login credentials to access the full message history. He reveals that Bonnie had stage-four pancreatic cancer, which may have motivated her visit.

Sanchez turns off the recording camera for a private conversation, making Sam promise not to tell Matt or Edward what he is about to share. He discloses that the Butcher had a second, secret signature: He removed small swatches of hair from the napes of his victims’ necks. When he was investigating officer, Edward had ordered the medical examiner to omit this detail from all official reports. Sanchez discovered this after the Marysville police requested the old Butcher files and found all the medical examiner reports missing. He tracked down the retired examiner, who confirmed Edward’s instructions.

Both Jamie and Bonnie were missing hair in the same manner, as was Sam’s mother, making it highly likely she was a Butcher victim. Two additional unsolved murders from the late eighties and early nineties showed the same hair signature but had intact hands, preventing an earlier connection. Sam realizes that if Edward hadn’t suppressed this information, her mother and two other women might still be alive.

Sanchez explains that the current police chief wants the investigation kept quiet. They will not publicly acknowledge Rufus Wedge’s innocence until they are certain. Sam feels vindicated but hollow—her mother is still dead.