Previously…
– At Paula’s hearing for violating her house arrest, Rosie testified that the man who showed up at the Fisher house with a gun was likely connected to her drug dealer ex, whose connections led to Rosie’s father’s murder years ago.
– Tori was thrown when Zane showed up outside one of her classes and pleaded for a second chance — even offering to return the blackmail money to Sarah.
– Sonja told Tim that she had to make a quick trip out of town but concealed that she was going to meet with Loretta Ragan, whom she believes is the person paying her to keep Spencer’s memory from returning.

After checking in at the front desk, Sonja Kahele makes her way into the visitors’ area of Carroll County Prison. The space is much as she imagined: nondescript, uninspiring, generally clean but with an unmistakable air of something that can’t be washed off. She finds the station at the visiting window that matches the number she was given and takes her seat to await her meeting. For some reason, when she called ahead, she was relieved to be told that she would be meeting with Loretta Ragan through a sheet of protective glass. She knows it would be ridiculous to expect physical harm from someone of Loretta’s age or background — the woman sounds much more like the type of have others carry out her dirty work — but the setup nevertheless makes her feel much safer than simply sitting across a table from the woman.

Within a few minutes, Loretta is ushered in by a guard. Her appearance takes Sonja by surprise. She has done ample online research on the powerful criminal, and she was almost always pictured in flawless makeup and with elegantly styled, flaming red hair. She often struck Sonja as having one of those faces that, while obviously belonging to an older person, was somehow ageless. Now, however, Loretta hardly wears a stitch of makeup, and her red hair has dulled to a more natural shade. Her eyes lock upon Sonja and do not flinch as she pulls out her chair, sits down, and picks up the telephone receiver.

“Hi,” Sonja says into her own receiver. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

“It isn’t often that I receive visitor requests from new people these days,” Loretta says. Something about her voice — its languid, creeping delivery — makes Sonja think of a cartoon curl of smoke, stretching ominously through the room as if always reaching out to strangle its next target.

“This seems overdue.”

Loretta cocks an eyebrow. “Is it?”

“I’d say so.” Sonja waits, noting the curious way that Loretta is examining her. “You do know who I am, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I be familiar with the woman who’s been caring for my son?”

Sonja finds herself nodding.

“Well, out with it,” Loretta says. “How is Spencer? I presume that’s why you’ve come all this way.”

“Spencer’s doing well. Really well. He’s walking for short periods with any kind of assistance. And his memory — that doesn’t seem to be coming back.”

Loretta narrows her eyes.

“But I’m not here about Spencer,” Sonja continues. “Not directly, at least. What I want to talk about is our arrangement.” She takes a deep breath before going on, delivering the words she prepared ahead of time: “It’s time that we renegotiated.”

—–

Tori Gray stretches out on the couch in her cousin’s living room, her laptop resting on her Lululemon-clad legs. The morning sun is coming through the blinds now, and Tori can’t believe how many episodes of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt she has managed to watch by this early point in the day.

“Couldn’t sleep?” a voice asks, and she turns over her shoulder to see Travis’s roommate, Landon Esco, standing there in a blue King’s Bay U hoodie and gray sweatpants.

Tori pulls out her earbuds.

“Not a lot of luck with that,” she answers as she pauses the program on her computer. “Why are you up so early?”

“Thought I’d do an early Uber shift today so I’m home to watch the basketball game later.”

“Cool.”

Landon drops into the beanbag chair across from Tori. “Were you thinking about Zane?”

Tori opens her mouth to protest but then stops herself. After the way that she filled in Travis and Landon last night about Zane tracking her down on campus, it’s only natural that he would assume that. It’s also entirely correct.

“I feel like my head is just going in circles about the whole thing,” she admits.

“Makes sense. You saw him yesterday for the first time in weeks. That’s like ripping a wound back open.”

“Yeah.” She exhales loudly, her head still swirling with thoughts. “It was easier when I could ignore his texts and his calls. It was almost like he didn’t exist anymore. I mean, I knew he did, but he wasn’t… right there.”

“He should be respecting your wishes and leaving you the hell alone,” Landon says. “But we both know he’s not the kind of guy to respect anyone or anything.”

She frowns as she takes this in.

“It was so weird,” she says. “The whole thing, when my mom showed up at his place to tell me what he’d done, it was like this crazy dream. I think I was in shock, but it almost doesn’t seem like it was real now.”

“Because it was insane. What he did was insane.”

“And I hadn’t seen him since then, and once I did, it was like — oh yeah, this is Zane, the guy you felt so close to for so long.”

“Wait,” Landon says, bolting upright. “You aren’t actually thinking of taking him back, are you? Tori, please tell me you aren’t considering that.”

The King’s Bay Police Department is at rest, or at least as close to it as it gets, when Rosie Jimenez arrives. The normal wall-to-wall sounds of ringing phones and declarative voices have been scaled back to a more intermittent pace, and there does not appear to be anything of particularly great urgency going on. Still, Rosie herself is on high alert as she makes her way to the commander’s office.

She finds Brent Taylor behind his desk.

“Morning,” she says as she hangs outside his open door. “Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah. Come on in.” He waves her along and waits while she closes the door. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m okay. I wanted to talk to you in person about the hearing. I know that I put the department — and you — in a bad position by keeping so much about my past to myself.”

He dips his head in a terse nod.

“I’m sorry for that,” Rosie says. “All I’ve wanted to do for so long was move forward — leave the past behind me, do good for my community in whatever way I could. I never thought it would come out like this. So I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” Brent fiddles with a pen on his desk for a moment. “I appreciated you giving me a heads-up before you testified, but I’m sure you know there wasn’t much I could do at that point.”

“Yeah. I know. I take full responsibility. The only upside of this whole thing is that Mrs. Fisher is okay, and she’s free. That’s what’s really important here.”

Brent sucks in a sharp breath. “About that…”

“Oh god. What happened?”

“I have some bad news,” he says. “It turns out there’s a reason Audrey Tam went so easy on Paula.”

Rosie’s stomach drops. “Oh no.”

“She has every intention of coming after you — either as a key witness or an accomplice in Diego Barrera’s activities.”

“I should’ve seen that coming,” she says, “but is there any way you can talk to them? Not about me, but — if Diego knows that I talked–”

“The court agreed to seal the records from yesterday’s hearing. There’s no way anyone who wasn’t in that courtroom could know that you told your story.”

She lets out the most hesitant sigh of relief. “Okay. Good.”

“But a case like this could be huge for the D.A.’s office,” Brent tells her. “Tam wanted to convict Molly because she hoped it would be one of those career-defining cases. Bringing down Barrera’s operation could be the same kind of thing.”

“I guess I can’t blame them for thinking that.”

“No. But you’re squarely in the middle of this now.”

Her insides twist with anguish as she considers her present situation; she never thought it would come to this, not like this and not this quickly, but here it is.

“Then I guess I know what I need to do,” she says, “for the sake of the department. I’m going to resign.”

—–

Loretta backs away from the window, leaning into her chair. “Renegotiate? Arrangement? Are you trying to blackmail me?”

“No!” Sonja exclaims, louder than she intended. She looks right and then left to make sure no one is paying attention, but everyone else in the space appears equally preoccupied with their own conversations, and the guards don’t seem to bat an eyelash.

“Then what do you want from me?” Loretta hisses. “I assume you’re being paid a decent wage for my son’s care.”

Sonja doesn’t know how to respond or what to make of this. Loretta seems so outraged–

And that is what makes it click for Sonja.

She is putting on a show. That must be it. Because there are people around. The woman is a mastermind, from everything Sonja has heard and read. Of course.

“It isn’t the pay,” Sonja continues. “But I’ve gotten close with Spencer’s father.”

“That man is not his father.”

The sheer venom in Loretta’s voice causes Sonja to recoil. Slowly she brings the receiver back to her face.

“I’ve gotten close with Tim,” she states. “Closer than I ever expected. In light of that, I don’t feel comfortable continuing to be employed by you. As Spencer’s special-care nurse.”

Again Loretta’s eyelids draw toward one another, leaving only slivers of her calculating green eyes exposed.

“I see,” she says slowly. “You want to discontinue our arrangement because of your relationship with Tim Fisher.”

“That’s right. Yes. Do you think that’s something we can agree upon?”

“I think so, pending a few outstanding issues. Would you mind awaiting word in a few days?”

“Sure. Of course. I thought it would be best to address it with you in person.”

“I’m glad you did,” Loretta says. “Very glad.”

—–

Tori freezes up. The way that Landon is staring her down, his posture suddenly rigid in the beanbag chair, is almost like a challenge. Does she dare lie? Does she dare admit what has been in her head?

He doesn’t wait for her answer, bypassing what they both know she is going to say and going straight for the rebuttal.

“You can’t,” he says. “You would be almost as crazy as him if you even thought about it.”

“Part of me knows that. Believe me. But part of me…”

“…is feeling all sentimental about a guy who never really existed.”

“But that’s the thing,” Tori says. “He did. All the time we spent together — meals, movies, lazy mornings, late nights — he wasn’t faking it. I know he wasn’t.”

“It’s possible for someone to like you and still be a psychopath.”

That manages to take the wind out of her sails for a moment.

“So what if he gives the money back to your mom?” Landon asks. “It doesn’t change the fact that he blackmailed her for it in the first place. Or that he used you to do it.”

“Maybe it could be a fresh start.”

“Yeah — for another scheme or plot or whatever he does! Tori, please don’t do this.”

“I’m not doing anything,” she snaps, but then she softens almost in the same instant. “I just miss him.”

Landon props his elbows up on his knees and leans in toward her. “I know you do. Or you miss being with him. With someone. But Zane is not the end-all, be-all. I promise. There is another guy out there for you.”

“I don’t know about that…”

“Come on. Tori, you’re awesome.” He beams at her while he speaks. “You’re completely hilarious. You’re super-smart — like you notice things around you that I would never pick up on. You’re crazy good at fashion stuff. And you’re…” He takes a barely perceptible pause. “You’re beautiful.”

Tori isn’t sure how to respond. She sees the way that Landon is looking at her, sees that he really means it, and yet she can’t entirely believe it–

“You guys are both up already?” Travis says in disbelief as he emerges from the hallway, his blondish-brown hair sticking in several directions all at once.

“Oh. Yeah. I got up early to go out and pick up some rides,” Landon says, improbably springing up from the beanbag. “Tori said she couldn’t sleep.”

“It was terrible,” she jumps in. “I’ve watched, like, four episodes of Kimmy Schmidt already.” She indicates the laptop for emphasis.

“And neither of you bothered to make coffee yet?” Travis asks.

“I’ll do it,” Landon says before scurrying off to the kitchen. “I’m gonna need it.”

“Me, too,” Tori says as Travis joins her on the couch, but the inside of her head is no calmer than it was a few minutes ago.

—–

“I mean it,” Rosie says, off Brent’s silence. “I’ll resign.”

“Is that what you want?” Brent asks, his face stony and his tone unflinching. “To quit the force?”

“No, of course not! I love being a police officer. But I’ve always known that my life– my past… could cause problems…”

“Jimenez, you’re a good cop. A very good cop.”

“Thanks.”

“Do I think this situation from your past is ideal? No. Does it make me think you’re any less capable of doing your job at the level you’ve been doing it since you joined the force? No way.”

“Okay.” She shifts her way from one foot to the other. “But if Tam wants to come after me… I did give a false statement to the police after my dad was killed.”

“What Audrey Tam wants is your cooperation,” he explains. “Whatever she’d be able to get you on — obstruction of justice, maybe — would be small potatoes compared to what you could give her.”

“But I don’t know where Diego is now. If she’s expecting–”

“You know how this stuff goes, Jimenez. Put aside the part of you who had to come clean about your most traumatic experience on the witness stand and put your police hat back on.”

As if swapping lens on a projector in her mind, Rosie does just that — and she understands immediately.

“They want Jesse,” she says.

“That’s the busboy? Yeah. If there’s any truth to the idea that he tipped off Diego that you might be on his trail, then yep — that’s exactly who Tam wants.”

She is shaking her head before she even realizes that she is doing it. “If I point them to Jesse, then Diego is gonna know, and then–”

“Police hat,” he interrupts as he taps his temple. “We get Jesse on something simple, we make a deal with him–”

“And if he takes the deal, then it all works out fine. And if he doesn’t, he gives Diego a heads-up, and my… my mom and my brother and me, we’re all dead.”

“We’re not gonna let that happen.”

“Commander Taylor, with all due respect, you don’t know that.”

“This is what we’re working with, Jimenez. Tam isn’t going to let go of this thing now that she has a shot at bringing down Barrera — and especially since she let Paula go so easily.”

Sensing her hesitance, he sets his palms on the desk and rises to meet her eyeline straight-on.

“This is why you became a cop, isn’t it?” he asks. “To get justice for your father?”

Rosie’s breath catches in her throat, but she forces out a “Yes.”

“Then let’s get it.”

“Let’s get it,” she says, a new fire burning in her gut.

—–

When Loretta leaves the visitation room, she does not make the usual right-hand turn she would make to return to her bunk. Instead, she swings left and heads straight for the phone bank.

Thankfully, there is an open phone along the wall. She doesn’t know if she could wait another second to set this in motion.

She enters her prepaid account number and waits for the phone to ring twice before she receives an answer.

“Hello, it’s Mrs. Ragan,” she says. “I need you to uncover some information for me as soon as possible. It has something to do with my son — and a woman named Sonja Kahele.”

END OF EPISODE 922

Has Sonja unwittingly made things worse by alerting Loretta?
Should Rosie cooperate with the D.A.’s office?
Is Tori destined to make another mistake with Zane?
Discuss it all in the comments below!

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