Kendra Rae hides her identity from a train conductor while fleeing New York City, her scalp burning from an unknown substance.

Nella smells familiar hair grease at Wagner and learns a Black woman is finally interviewing for an editorial assistant position.

Wagner Books hires Hazel-May McCall as a new editorial assistant, ending Nella's two-year status as the only Black woman in the office.

Over lunch, Hazel persuades Nella that their boss Vera might be sympathetic and that Nella should voice her concerns about the character Shartricia.

Nella calls out Shartricia's racist portrayal in a meeting with author Colin Franklin, who storms out and leaves Vera furious at Nella.

Nella discovers a threatening note in an envelope at her desk reading "LEAVE WAGNER. NOW."

Hazel publicly praises Pins and Needles in the companywide marketing meeting, blindsiding Nella and destroying her credibility with colleagues.

Kendra Rae listens to a desperate voicemail from Nella, identifies her as a Wagner employee, and decides to join the Resistance.

Hazel announces a joint initiative with Wagner Books to create more equitable hiring practices at a public Curl Central event.

Nella confronts Hazel after the Curl Central event and receives an unlabeled jar of Smooth'd Out hair grease as a peace offering.

Nella explodes during a book cover meeting after her colleagues unanimously praise a racist illustrated caricature of Shartricia.

Nella sneaks into Hazel's bedroom at the natural hair party and discovers a folder containing files on Black women targeted for conversion.

Nella attends a meeting with Jesse Watson and realizes he has already been converted into a compliant, depoliticized version of himself.

Hazel confronts Nella in the bathroom, explains how Smooth'd Out numbs the brain, and persuades her to consent to conversion.

The newly converted Nella arrives at a Portland magazine as "Delilah Henson" to intercept Shani's exposé about the OBG network.

Nella Rogers works as the only Black editorial assistant at Wagner Books, hoping her diversity advocacy will eventually lead to change. When Hazel-May McCall is hired and Nella follows her advice to speak out against a racist character in a manuscript, her career is immediately destabilized instead of supported. Mysterious threatening notes begin appearing at Nella's desk, feeding a growing paranoia about Hazel's true motives and connections to Wagner's owner. While investigating Hazel at a natural hair party, Nella uncovers a decades-long conspiracy using mind-altering hair grease to convert Black women into compliant workers. Facing the full truth about the scheme, Nella makes the devastating choice to consent to conversion rather than keep fighting the tide. By the story's end, she has become a Lead Conditioner herself, deployed to silence the very people who tried to warn her.

Vera denies Nella a promotion, citing her participation in diversity meetings as an unproductive extracurricular distraction from her actual work.

Nella and Hazel bond in the office kitchen over their matching Zora Neale Hurston mugs and their shared love of literature.

Kendra Rae and Diana celebrate the unexpected success of Burning Heart at its launch party, laughing over their colleagues' low expectations.

Hazel presents Black receptionist India with a birthday head scarf from an African fabric store, forming a bond that leaves Nella feeling replaced.

Shani travels to Harlem and correctly answers a code question to gain entry into the Resistance at Joe's Barbershop.

Nella arrives at work before dawn to scan Hazel's desk for purple pens, suspecting her of writing the threatening notes.

Shani spots Hazel working at a Midtown café and secretly photographs her to confirm her new identity for the Resistance.

Nella overhears Richard Wagner whispering a name on the phone and mistakenly concludes he is conducting a secret romantic affair.

Nella reaches into her bag on the subway and finds a second threatening note urging her to call a specific phone number for proof.

Vera demands that Nella send a formal apology email to Colin Franklin for her conduct during the author meeting.

Hazel invites Nella to the Curl Central event and asks her to bring Owen by name, revealing she knows more than Nella ever disclosed.

After Nella's cover meeting outburst, Richard announces a co-editing project that will pair Nella and Hazel with activist Jesse Watson.

Nella watches Shani throw her phone into a trash can and be pulled into a black sedan before the two women can speak.

Nella and Owen argue after he compares his occasional experiences as a racial minority to her daily life as a Black woman.

Shani's completed exposé article bounces back when she hits send, and a coworker reveals her editor Gwen has unexpectedly and suddenly vanished.

From Nella's blocked promotion to the founding of the Resistance, these events reveal the forces working against Black women at Wagner Books long before the main conflict fully erupts. In the past, Kendra Rae and Diana's friendship is celebrated at the Burning Heart launch, masking the betrayal Diana is already preparing to set in motion. In the present, Hazel systematically builds relationships with every Black employee at Wagner, leaving Nella feeling displaced and increasingly paranoid about her standing. Meanwhile, Shani joins an underground organization in Harlem dedicated to tracking Hazel's dangerous pattern of destroying Black women's careers across cities. The mystery of the threatening notes deepens as Nella investigates, misreads crucial clues, and watches her influence at the office crumble piece by piece. These secondary threads weave together to show how every character is quietly maneuvering in the shadows before the final confrontation arrives.

Behind-the-scenes moments shaping the conspiracy.

Hazel charms Vera and Maisy with tailored stories about Boston, then privately asks Nella how Wagner truly treats Black employees.

Nella vents to Malaika about the racist Shartricia character and her fear that speaking up at Wagner could permanently end her career.

After their kitchen conversation, Nella notices Hazel hovering near her cubicle and staring at her with a vacant, unsettling expression.

Diana reads a devastating newspaper headline about Kendra Rae's interview and receives a frantic phone call demanding that something be done immediately.

Malaika suggests Hazel may have written the threatening notes, causing Nella to begin treating her closest colleague as a prime suspect.

Nella discovers a printed spreadsheet of eight Black women's names at the office printer and cannot determine why the list exists.

Nella watches Hazel glare at her briefly and then stride into Vera's office to discuss a novel that should have been Nella's assignment.

Shani recalls how Hazel, then using the alias Eva, leaked a private conversation to get Shani publicly fired from Cooper's magazine.

Nella calls the phone number on the threatening note and leaves a desperate voicemail that unknowingly reaches Kendra Rae in hiding.

Kendra Rae finds an old magazine photo of herself, Richard, and Diana and calls Resistance leader Lynn to announce she is rejoining the fight.

Shani reports her Curl Central observations to the Resistance, and Kendra Rae identifies Smooth'd Out as the substance that once burned her scalp.

Diana confesses to Imani how she first introduced Richard to Imani's chemical formula in 1983 to convert Black women deemed difficult by white bosses.

Hazel massages unlabeled Smooth'd Out into Nella's scalp at the natural hair party while Malaika tries and fails to read the label.

Nella overhears two women at the party casually ask whether she is an Involuntary, confirming she has been deliberately targeted for conversion.

The converted Nella introduces herself to Shani as Delilah Henson and says, "You can be real with me, sis."

This pool traces the pivotal moments of revelation that transform a workplace drama into a horror story, moving from the first unsettling signs of Hazel's dual nature to the conspiracy's full exposure. Diana's frantic phone call after Kendra Rae's interview marks the founding moment of the OBG scheme, while Shani's account of being sabotaged at Cooper's reveals the pattern stretching across cities and years. Kendra Rae's decision to come out of hiding and Shani's identification of Smooth'd Out as the conversion agent offer a fragile hope that the conspiracy can be stopped. The natural hair party becomes the site of the novel's most disturbing revelation, as Nella discovers she has been filed, assessed, and scheduled for conversion by people she trusted. Nella's choice not to share the evidence she holds seals Kendra Rae's fate in hiding and locks her own transformation in place. The final scene confirms the cycle is unbroken, as a converted Nella delivers the conspiracy's signature line to the one woman still trying to expose it.