Emmy asks Millie about significant events in North Falls in 2002. Millie recounts the murder of the wealthy socialite Evelyn Gilchrist and the subsequent trial of Neil Delano. She explains that Emmy’s father believed there was insufficient evidence to arrest Delano, but the Clayville police chief proceeded anyway. Millie produces old newspapers detailing the trial, which was temporarily paused after Taybee’s father, Ruel Clifton, who was a juror, drowned. Jude is unconvinced by Millie’s claim that she can’t remember the other jurors’ names. When Emmy leaves the room, Millie admits to Jude that Louis Singh was also on the jury. She held the information back since Louis now has dementia and might reveal to Emmy that he had an affair with Myrna.

On the way to Louis’s hardware store, Emmy confirms that she already knew about the affair. Myrna let slip that Louis was her lover during her illness. She also shares new information with Jude: Mandy’s X-rays show signs of repeated assault over the last two months, and Delano died in prison from severe burns after serving two years of his life sentence. 

At the store, Emmy and Jude interview Louis. Despite his dementia, he recalls being the jury foreman and states that the jury leaned toward acquittal until a rookie police officer, Reggie Wilder, introduced last-minute evidence: Delano’s fingerprint at the crime scene. He names several other jurors, including Bernadette Grayson, and notes that many of them became unexpectedly successful after the trial. For example, Bernadette, then a waitress, went on to law school and became the mayor of Clayville. Louis recalls that Bernadette was close to another juror who was “pushy,” demanding to know which way the other jurors would vote. Mitch Bellingham was the last holdout on the jury, insisting that Delano was innocent. However, Mitch changed his mind when his wife vanished. Louis notes that Mrs. Bellingham reappeared the day after the trial ended.

Feeling like a break in the case is near, Emmy sends Cole and Jude to the courthouse to retrieve the 2002 juror list. At the station, she deflects a confrontation with her deputy Brett Temple. A call to Dervla McClatchy confirms that Reggie was with her at the time of Allison’s murder, eliminating him as a suspect in the shooting. 

A search of Bernadette Grayson’s campaign donors reveals that Ezekial Gilchrist, the husband of the 2002 murder victim, is a major contributor and that Bernadette is legal counsel for his late wife’s memorial trust. Emmy calls Bernadette, whose attempts to control the conversation turn hostile when Emmy questions her about the trial.

Jude returns with the complete juror list, and background checks confirm the jurors’ good fortunes after the 2002 trial. Mitch Bellingham, who recently died in the same nursing home as Myrna, was the exception. Emmy concludes that Gilchrist bribed the jurors into finding Delano guilty. He coerced Mitch by abducting his wife and killed Ruel Clifton. 

Jude stuns Emmy by announcing that she’s returning to San Francisco, California, the next day. Moments later, Emmy discovers that one of the 2002 jurors, Shane Marcus Russell, has a long history of domestic violence and was recently released from prison. Jude profiles him as the likely “pushy juror.” Emmy arrested Russell in 2010 based on a tip from Allison. Jude recognizes Russell as “Carl,” a man who works in Louis Singh’s hardware store. 

Just as Emmy puts out an all-points bulletin on Russell, Mandy’s best friend, Talia Wilkinson, arrives. She reveals that Mandy hoped to run away with her older boyfriend because she knew Allison would reconcile with Bill. Although he was violent toward her, Mandy interpreted her boyfriend’s assaults as a sign of love. After the interview, Cole calls Emmy from the nursing home where Myrna died, urging her to get there right away.

Jude walks to a local church, intending to get a ride home. There, she runs into her loquacious cousin Taybee, who reveals that Myrna gave her an index card before she died. It reads, “Raconteur—a skilled storyteller” (315). Taybee confirms Jude’s belief that her father, Ruel, was murdered in 2002. She explains that the official account of his drowning was full of inconsistencies and that Jude’s father, Gerald, told her that if Ruel was murdered, Ezekial Gilchrist was behind it. As they talk, Jude receives a panicked call from Emmy.

Jude rushes to the Azalea Place nursing home and finds Emmy having a severe panic attack, triggered by returning to the facility where Myrna died. Jude calms her down, giving her the Cartier Ronde watch she stole from Myrna’s jewelry box years earlier as an anchoring object. She tells Emmy that the watch belonged to her grandmother. Emmy confides that she has been hearing a “ticking sound” since Myrna’s funeral.

Cole reports that Allison visited Mitch Bellingham at the nursing home in the two months before his death. A nurse confirms their close relationship and reveals that Mitch left Allison a blue plastic bin with a red top—the same kind that held the $300,000. Emmy then learns that during the same period, Allison visited Shane Russell in prison. They deduce that Russell is Mandy’s biological father and that Allison framed him on the 2010 drug charge to keep him away from their newborn daughter. Knowing that Russell had been released from prison, Allison was desperate to escape with Mandy. Cole then shows them security footage from the nursing home in which Mitch gives Allison a CD-ROM in a jewel case.

Emmy calls Talia, who confirms that Mandy believed Russell was her father. She advises Talia’s mother, Valerie, to take Talia to a hotel until Russell is caught. Cole protests when Emmy insists that he must work from the police station until the danger is over. 

At the library, Jude uses her technical skills to open the file on the CD-ROM that Mitch gave Allison. It contains a secret video that Mitch recorded in 2002 at Ezekial Gilchrist’s home. The footage shows a meeting between Mitch, Gilchrist, Russell, Reggie, and Bernadette Grayson. In the video, Reggie claims to have found a misplaced slide with Delano’s fingerprint on it, lifted at the crime scene. Mitch expresses disbelief and tells Gilchrist he doesn’t want his money. After Reggie and Bernadette leave, Russell tells Mitch that he murdered juror Ruel Clifton. Gilchrist then implies that the survival of Mitch’s wife, Holly, depends on him finding Delano guilty. 

With clear evidence of the conspiracy, Emmy and Jude discuss the case but agree that they still lack direct proof tying Russell to Allison’s murder. Emmy insists that they return to Allison’s house to re-examine the crime scene. On the way, Jude confirms that she has a flight booked for the next day, devastating Emmy. When they arrive at Allison’s house, they see a flashlight moving in an upstairs window.

Emmy and Jude enter Allison’s house and find that the intruder is Bill, who’s stealing jewelry. Enraged when Bill tries to assault her, Emmy forcefully arrests him. To get a statement on camera, she places him in a deputy’s cruiser and interrogates him. 

Bill admits to everything except the shooting. He reveals that he traded Allison’s files on Reggie’s corruption to the Rawley crime family to defer his gambling debts. He also confirms that Russell was blackmailing Allison into helping him extort money from Gilchrist, threatening to kill Mandy if she failed to comply. Allison’s discovery that Russell was abusing Mandy was the final catalyst for her to leave. The night before she died, she visited Bill’s motel room to retrieve the incriminating files she had made on the corrupt police officers, intending to give them to Emmy before she left town. When Bill claimed to have lost them, she screamed, “You took the last good thing from me” (357). A few hours later, Bill went to Allison’s house; they reconciled, and he accepted Allison’s renewed offer to flee with them. The next morning, Allison’s insistence that Bill come with them led to a massive fight with Mandy. 

Emmy realizes that Bill is telling the truth. Knowing that his only motivation is money, she reveals that Mitch never spent the $300,000 bribe from Gilchrist and gave it to Allison. Bill is furious to learn that Allison concealed the cash from him in the attic. Emmy charges him with attempted assault on a police officer and obstruction of justice.

After returning to the house, Emmy finds a fifth bullet casing in the attic insulation. The placement of the casing and the trajectory of the bullet that grazed Jude’s temple lead Emmy to a horrifying conclusion. After Bill left, Mandy shot Allison during their fight, staged the scene to suggest that a third person entered the house, and then went to the attic and attempted suicide. After hitting Mandy, the shot passed through the ceiling, grazing Jude’s head. Emmy speculates that in Allison’s dying moments, she may have told her daughter how to stage the crime scene. She becomes emotional, feeling compassion for Mandy, whose mother ultimately failed to save her by choosing Bill. She unleashes decades of grief and resentment on Jude, accusing her of similar abandonment and selfishness.

Celia comforts a devastated Jude, assuring her that Myrna’s ultimatum forced her to abandon Emmy as a baby. In her father’s office, Jude finds the flask of bourbon. Despite decades of sobriety after an alcohol addiction, she’s tempted to drink it until she focuses on a photograph of her grandson, Cole. After finding one of Myrna’s index cards, she deciphers the hidden acrostic message “Forgive me” from its words. As Emmy arrives, Jude resolves to tell her the truth. They enter the kitchen and find Shane Russell waiting with a gun.

Russell demands the video from the CD. To protect Emmy, Jude goads him, and he pistol-whips her. As Russell holds Emmy hostage, Cole bursts in. Emmy throws herself in front of her son, and as Russell turns to shoot, Jude grabs Emmy’s Glock from Russell’s waistband and kills him. In the chaos, Russell’s pistol fires, hitting Emmy in the abdomen. As Cole carries a bleeding Emmy to the cruiser, Jude applies pressure to the wound. With a police escort racing toward the hospital, Jude cradles her daughter, singing to her.