Previously…
– Landon managed to ditch Helen and let himself into Tori and Zane’s apartment. 
– Sarah called to warn Landon that Zane was on the way home. Landon scrambled to get the needed information off Zane’s computer and onto a flash drive. 
– Just as Landon was leaving the apartment, Zane arrived and confronted him. Landon insisted he had just been seeing if anyone was home. Angered, Zane punched Landon and then began to choke him — but Helen returned in the nick of time to save Landon!

It all happens in bursts of color and noise and touch. One minute, Landon Esco can see Zane Tanaka‘s angry face looming over him, can feel Zane’s grip around his neck. He gasps for whatever air he can pull in, kicking his feet — which seem strangely disconnected from his body — out at random in hopes of throwing Zane off. Then there is a woman’s voice shouting:

“Get your hands off him!”

It is followed immediately by a loud thunk, and Zane falls away. The pressure on Landon’s neck fades. He sucks in a giant gulp of air in time to see someone appear behind Zane: Helen Chase, holding the pot of chili that she brought to surprise Tori earlier.

“Mrs. Chase,” Landon gasps. “What– how–“

“I decided it was a waste to have come all the way here and not leave this chili for Victoria,” Helen says, sounding a bit dazed herself. “I was going to leave it at the door with a note — but what in the world was happening here?”

“Zane– he thought–” Landon leans against the wall, still desperately catching his breath. He can feel his cheek and eye socket throbbing where Zane punched him moments ago. “It’s a long story.”

He glances at the floor, where Zane lies on his side. He stirs slightly as he emits the occasional groan; at least he is still alive.

“I was worried I’d killed him,” Helen says. “I was only trying to save you, but I do have quite the rap sheet–“

“I know,” Landon says. “You were arrested for the Footprint Killer murders–“

“Twice!”

Helen continues to hold the chili pot with both hands as she surveys the scene. 

“Are you all right?” she asks Landon. “Do we need to get you medical care?”

Landon touches a hand to his neck. His throat feels tight and raw, but he can feel the air coming in normally, and the spacey feeling inside his head is quickly abating. 

“I don’t think so,” he says. “What about him?”

Helen regards Zane’s prone, twisted body on the floor of the apartment building’s hallway. Landon looks, too, half-expecting Zane to leap up and attack him again. But it is fairly clear that he won’t be making any sudden movements any time soon; he continues to writhe and moan, gripping his head where Helen struck him.

“Dammit,” Landon says, sighing loudly as he pulls out his phone to call 911.

—–

“This was really nice,” Sarah Fisher Gray says as she pulls her grown daughter into an embrace. They stand in the small entryway of the house in which Sarah grew up, the house that she, her husband, and her son now share with her mother. 

“Yeah, it was. Thanks for dinner,” Tori says. She smiles at Sarah and then past her to Matt and Paula. “Sorry for letting Billy have what was left of my dessert. He’s gonna be…”

“Bouncing off the walls,” Matt says, managing to laugh and roll his eyes at the same time.

“It really was lovely,” Paula adds as she moves forward to hug her granddaughter. “We have to do this more often.”

Tori breathes in deeply against her grandmother’s shoulder. “We will. I’m glad…” She takes a step back and surveys the three adults. “I’m glad things are getting back to normal with all of us. And maybe next time…”

The unspoken remainder of her statement hangs in the air. Sarah and Matt exchange an uneasy look, which lasts only a fraction of a second, at the implication.

“…maybe Zane will even join us,” Tori finishes, unable to avoid noticing the awkwardness in the room.

“Let’s make it happen,” Matt says with a nod. “This was great, Tor.”

With another smile, she turns for the front door and grasps the knob. “It was. I’ll–“

She stops mid-thought as her cell phone begins to blare from within her purse. Instinctively, she scrambles to check it.

“Sorry. That might be something from work,” she says.

“At this hour?!” Sarah asks with annoyance.

Paula throws her youngest daughter a sideways glance. “You know Molly‘s industry is very intense.”

Before Sarah can offer a snarky retort, she sees Tori’s face screw up at the sight of whatever is on her caller ID.

“That’s weird,” she says, silencing the phone so it continues to vibrate as the call comes in.

“What?” Matt asks.

“It’s Mrs. Chase.” Tori holds up the phone so they can see Helen’s name on the screen.

“Helen is a dear friend, but she has no sense of appropriate times to call,” Paula says. “She probably just wants to chit-chat.”

“I don’t know…” Tori contemplates the call for another second and then answers. “Mrs. Chase? Hi.”

Sarah, Matt, and Paula watch with interest as Tori listens to whatever Helen says in response. Then they see Tori’s mouth go slack and her cheeks go pale.

“What?” Tori asks, her voice spiking with panic. “I’ll be right there.”

Her parents and grandmother wait nervously as Tori wraps up the call. When she hangs up, she looks at them gravely.

“I have to get to the hospital,” she tells them. “Zane was just admitted.”

The ever-present soundtrack of static-heavy voices over the hospital’s intercom system drifts through the waiting area, where Landon and Helen are both pacing anxiously.

“This is much heavier than I thought,” Helen says as she places the chili pot on an empty chair. “I didn’t realize — it could’ve done some real damage.”

“Why do you still have that?” Landon asks.

“I didn’t want to leave it in the car! If it got too warm in there…” She shudders at the thought.

“Okay, fair,” he agrees, shrugging with acceptance. “But aren’t you worried about having brought the weapon in here?”

“Weapon? This was self-defense, Landon! Well, not self-defense, but if I hadn’t come back when I did…”

“Yeah. Thank you for that.”

She levels a curious stare at him. “What exactly were you doing back at Victoria’s apartment? We walked outside together.”

“I was, um, I decided to wait for her to get home,” he says. “I really had to talk to her.”

Helen’s eyes widen. “So you are sweet on her!”

Although his instinct is to deny it, especially with the invasion of warmth flooding his cheeks, he realizes that it might be beneficial to let her believe that was his reasoning for returning.

“I just had to talk to her,” he says, his gaze suddenly stuck on his shoes.

“And Zane realized what you were doing?” Helen asks. “Is that why he was so angry?”

Landon shakes his head. “It’s… he’s a loose cannon. I dunno.”

“It looked like he was trying to strangle the life out of you!”

He casts a tense glance toward the elevator bank. 

“He was pissed,” Landon finally says.

“I could tell! He looked like a madman. Still, it was only right for us to call 911.”

“I guess.” He touches a hand to his stinging face; he hasn’t had a chance to take much of a look at it since they arrived at the hospital, but he is sure there must be an ugly bruise forming. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. He was coming to by the time the ambulance showed up. You probably just gave him a concussion.”

A ding pulls their attention toward the elevators, and they see Tori, Sarah, and Matt emerging from one car. The trio hurries toward them.

“Landon?!” Tori asks. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a very long story,” Helen declares, folding her arms.

Tori’s mouth flaps open and closed a few times before she is able to form actual words. “What’s going on? How’s Zane?”

Standing behind Tori, Sarah eyes Landon with dread. He can see her and Matt taking in his no-doubt bruised face. 

“Zane should be fine,” Helen says. 

“Is that a pot of soup or something?!” Matt adds.

“My famous white-bean chili,” Helen explains. “This is the very thing that saved Landon’s life! Without it, Zane might’ve killed him.”

“Killed?” Tori asks. “What the hell? Where were you?”

Landon hesitates, again looking toward his sneakers. But he can feel Tori’s gaze burning into him.

“Someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on,” she says. “Now.”

—–

In the emergency room’s intake area, Zane sits on a cot. Isaac Banks stands in front of him, holding a flashlight pen and moving it slowly from one side to the other.

“Looks like you’re able to follow this all right,” the doctor says as he lowers the light and clicks it off. “You’re sure your vision is okay? It isn’t blurry? You’re not seeing double?”

“No. I’m good,” Zane says with a lethargic wag of the head. “Can I go?”

“From the looks of things, you have a mild concussion. You got lucky — sounds like whatever you got hit with could’ve done some real damage.”

“Really? What was it?” he asks groggily.

“Says on your intake form that it was a heavy pot.”

“What the hell?” Zane reaches a hand up and touches the crown of his head, which is still throbbing.

“You need to get plenty of sleep, minimize your screen time for 24 hours or so, and do not drive,” Isaac tells him. “Do you have someone to drive you home?”

“I don’t know…” Zane looks around in confusion, but the small, curtained-off area offers no clues. “I came here in an ambulance, but…” Memories of his fight with Landon flood back into his mind, but they simply stop at a certain point — everything goes dark suddenly, and he cannot recall anything else between then and being in the ambulance alone.

“I can call my girlfriend,” he says, reaching for the iPhone in his pocket.

—–

Out in the waiting area, Tori, Sarah, and Matt all face Landon and Helen. 

“All I could think was that he was going to kill poor Landon,” Helen finishes explaining. “So I bopped him over the head with that chili and knocked him out cold. I didn’t mean to hurt him!”

“Look at my face,” Landon says to Tori. “Zane did this.”

Tori’s front teeth work at her lower lip like fingers trying to massage out a knot.

“Why would Zane do that to you?” she asks at last.

“He insisted I was trying to break into your apartment,” Landon responds. “I was trying the knob because I thought I heard someone inside but no one was coming to the door — it was just bad timing.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Tori says, looking around at the rest of them for some answer that doesn’t exist.

Landon says, “There’s something else–” But before he can offer anything more, Tori’s cell phone, which she has clutched in her palm, buzzes to life. 

She answers immediately. “Zane? Are you okay?” She listens for a few seconds before saying, “I’m coming to see you.”

As she hangs up, she tells the others, “He says he’s okay. I’m gonna go see him.” Without waiting for any response, she disappears through a set of double doors and into the depths of the hospital.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him. I swear,” Helen says, her tone growing despondent. 

“We know,” Matt says. “And it sounds like he’s fine. Don’t worry about it, Helen.”

“And thanks for saving me,” Landon adds. “Um, Mr. and Mrs. Gray — could I have a second alone with you guys?”

They all wait for Helen to make some kind of move.

“Well, I suppose I should call Don to fill him in,” she says. “Would you please keep an eye on the chili for me?”

“You’ve got it,” Matt says a little too quickly, eager to dismiss her.

Once Helen flits off to call her husband, Sarah squares her body toward Landon and asks, in an urgent half-whisper, “What were you about to tell Tori? What else happened?”

“I was just gonna tell her about how Zane tried to threaten me over the holidays,” he replies, “but I need to give you this.”

He pulls the flash drive from his pocket.

“You got it?” Matt asks with amazement.

“Whatever you guys need should be on here,” Landon says. 

Sarah takes the flash drive from him, her eyes growing wide with wonder. 

“Oh my god,” she says, disbelief shining through. “This is it. This is what we need to convince Tori to dump Zane. For good.”

END OF EPISODE 1082

Is Zane’s number finally up?
Will Tori be able to see clearly at last?
Does Landon have a shot with Tori now?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

Next Episode