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At I Scream, Griselda snarks at Dee for her colorful outfit, being late, and kissing Nyles. Dee returns the sarcasm. Their argument is interrupted by the double doorbell ring signifying an impending kill. Reluctantly, Dee watches the screen. Dark-skinned Gucci Hangman, dressed in extravagant drag, pulls a heavy sack into a sumptuously decorated room. Wicker baskets rest on top of four columns, one in each corner of the room. Dee and the others are shocked to see that Gucci’s gagged, zip-tied victim is Blair. Gucci shows off logoed Gucci scarves, which he knots and nooses around Blair’s neck, and then attaches to the baskets.

Blair is composed, and Dee admires her defiance. Dee wants to help Blair, but Griselda is scornful, and Nyles does not know where Gucci’s kill room is. Gucci pulls a rope and kettlebells fall out of the baskets, pulling Blair’s neck in four directions and dramatically decapitating her. Gucci places Blair’s head in front of the camera for a close-up. Dee furiously thinks Gucci deserves death more than Blair. She is terrified when Gucci takes a pair of pink tweezers and carves a heart into Blair’s shoulder.

Comments praise Gucci’s creativity or lack thereof and speculate whether Blair’s bowels released.

Video replays Blair’s death in slow motion accompanied by “snarky commentary.” Spikes shoot up. Dee knows the heart carving is not coincidental and wonders if Gucci murdered Monica. Nyles, who was a premedical student at Stanford before his conviction, analyzes the decapitation and comforts Dee, saying that seeing the deaths get easier over time. Dee thinks it should not. Griselda prickles at Dee’s self-righteousness, but Dee thinks Griselda is uncaring. Griselda asserts that Blair’s death is Dee’s fault since no one noticed Blair until Dee arrived and Blair was nice to her.

Dee thinks Griselda is right. She flashes back to Kimmi threatening to kill Dee and everyone she loved if Dee told anyone that Kimmi’s dad was a serial killer who murdered people in the white room. Kimmi was sent to a psychiatric facility after Dee escaped.

Dee told Monica about Kimmi’s dad, and two weeks later Monica was killed. Although as a young girl, Dee had wanted a sister—and wrote a poem to that effect that was published in the newspaper—after her abduction, Dee was angry and untrusting and did not want Monica as a stepsister. Dee eventually relented, and they became friends.

Ethan arrives to comfort Griselda. Dee is about to tell Nyles about the abduction and connection to Blair’s death when Nyles kisses her. He asks Griselda to make milkshakes. The blender’s grinding noise covers Nyles’s conversation.

Dee is wary about trusting Nyles but knows that she needs his help. She says Monica’s and Blair’s murders are connected. Nyles suggests a jog around the island later to burn off calories from their milkshakes. The TV replays Blair’s murder at top volume. Dee attempts small talk with a reluctant Griselda and learns there were originally over 100 inmates on the island, but only 27 remain. Griselda was convicted of murdering her roommate and her boyfriend after catching them together. Griselda maintains her innocence, saying she didn’t even care for her boyfriend that much; he was just physically appealing and a fellow computer hacker. Griselda says a psychiatrist railroaded her trial.

Dee, Griselda, and Nyles meet Ethan at the gym. Dee borrows some ill-fitting workout clothes, while Griselda looks amazing in her outfit. Dee tells herself she is not trying to impress Nyles. They jog to the north end of the island, past more abandoned structures, until the road ends at a tall fence bearing a biohazard warning.

Despite fearing a trap and not trusting the others, Dee follows them through a hole in the fence to an old, overgrown naval yard that Blair and the others had found. There are no cameras.

Nyles trusts Dee; Griselda does not. Dee does not want to trust them but thinks they may have information to help her stay alive and find Monica’s killer. Griselda taunts Dee about killing Monica, making Dee angry. Nyles intervenes. Dee explains that the heart Gucci carved on Blair was the same as the one on Monica’s body—and she explains that the tweezers were the same, too. Griselda sees this as added proof that Blair’s death was Dee’s fault. Dee insists that only she and Monica’s killer knew about the tweezers. So how did the Postman know? If they can prove that Gucci knew about Monica’s killing, they can prove Dee’s innocence, and possibly the innocence of the others, as well. Privately, Dee is not sure they are all innocent, but she knows if they are personally invested, they will help her.

The Postman knows where Dee, Ethan, Griselda, and Nyles are meeting and could send a drone to observe them, but wants to give them a false sense of security, so they will make mistakes, as Blair did.

The Postman controls everything on Alcatraz 2.0 by computer. The Postman also controls the executions, something that the fans are unaware of. The Postman picks the victim, the time of their death, and their executioner, arranging for the executioner’s arrival to and departure from the island.

The Postman knows that ratings equal profit. The Postman strives to maximize profit and keep the president happy. At first, the concept of Alcatraz 2.0 was original and exciting, but gradually, viewers tired of the execution of ugly, older prisoners. The Postman saw how the ratings jumped and merchandise sales soared when a pretty martial artist killed one of the Painiacs. Now, the Postman is bribing people in the justice system to falsely convict young, good-looking defendants who will boost ratings on the Postman app.

Ethan admits that he did kill someone. One of his personal training clients attacked him with a knife when Ethan would not date him. Ethan’s trial did not allow a self-defense argument. Nyles reveals that his parents were poisoned. All the friends had quick trials. Ethan thinks it’s strange that they are all “on the young and hot side” (121). Griselda does not care about proving a conspiracy or their innocence: She thinks it will just get them killed faster. Nyles argues that Blair would have tried to resist. Dee, also, would rather die trying. Ethan likes Dee’s attitude. Dee thinks Griselda is being cowardly.

Dee suggests contacting her dad, telling him about the tweezers, and hoping he believes her. Griselda shoots this down: There is no off-island contact. Asking a guard for help is futile. Nyles, however, has a meeting with his lawyers in two days and agrees to send a message through them to Dee’s dad.

On the way back to the Barracks, the four stop at the bodega for food but discover that there is little food in the shop. Dee wonders if this is another of the Postman’s machinations to make things harder for them, à la The Hunger Games. The group checks their food for tampering. Nyles apologizes to Dee for all the kissing but awkwardly admits he is glad she is there.

Dee realizes that she cares about what Nyles might think, and why she is flirting with him. She tells herself that she just needs the others, and they are not her friends.

In her duplex, Dee finds one of her traps sprung and the sliding glass door unlocked. Hearing a noise from the utility closet, she shoves a chair under the doorknob, trapping someone inside. The cameras in her house are off.

A voice comes from the closet claiming to be Dee’s neighbor, Mara. Dee is skeptical until Mara slips her ID card under the door. Mara tearfully explains she was searching for food. She worked at the bodega until her boss died, after which her coworker Rodrigo sexually harassed her. Mara stopped working and ate through her stockpile of food. Dee releases Mara and gives her some of the meals she just purchased.

Mara returns the next morning, giving Dee a bag of hardware fasteners, which will make more noise for her booby traps. Dee thanks her, saying she was glad Mara was not the Painiac Molly Mauler hiding in her closet. Mara surprises Dee by giving inside information about Molly’s identity: her age, the city she lives in, and the fact that she is a stay-at-home mom. Mara leaves before Dee can question her.

Fans speculate about the closely guarded identities of the Painiacs and often make up fictional backstories about them. Monica had several far-fetched stories about Gucci Hangman, including that he was a former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Dee thinks, however, that if Mara knows the truth about the Painiacs, Dee needs that info to stay alive until Nyles gets a message to her dad.

Dee, Griselda, Nyles, and Ethan are about to leave the ice cream shop after work when the double doorbell rings. The live feed shows an industrial warehouse setting with a giant archery target spotlighted in the center. A woman in a shiny gold bodysuit is gagged and bound to the target. Dee, Griselda, and Ethan recognize the woman as Dr. Farooq, who testified against each of them in their trials.

The executioner, Robin’s Hood, accuses the doctor of malpractice at the same psychiatric facility where Kimmi was committed. Dee is overwhelmed by connections: Gucci and Monica, and now Farooq and Kimmi. Robin’s Hood shoots arrows at Farooq as the target spins. Dee empathizes with the woman’s terror and pities her. Robin impales Farooq through the stomach with a giant wooden stake. He breaks character and tells Farooq as she dies, “Relax into the past and tell me what you see” (140).

Dee flashes back to her hypnosis session with Dr. Farooq. The doctor says the same phrase to Dee that Robin’s Hood just uttered. Dee thinks hypnosis might prove her innocence, but Dr. Farooq guides her to false memories. Dee tries to resist but eventually gives in, agreeing that she has been angry since the abduction and hates Monica. Dr. Farooq describes Monica’s strangulation and then asks Dee to describe how she strangled Monica, recording her false confession. Dr. Farooq uses the false confession at Dee’s trial. Dee screams that Dr. Farooq is lying, that she made Dee falsely confess, and that she is innocent, but the jury believes Dr. Farooq. Dee’s dad watches tearfully.

Dee again says that she is innocent. She thinks that the Postman eliminated Dr. Farooq so that the woman could not testify against the Postman. She knows there is a conspiracy linking Kimmi and the Postman.

Contributors to the Postman Forum are surprised: No one knows who the victim was, and there was no televised trial. There are few spikes. The Griff recognizes Dr. Farooq as a witness against Cinderella Survivor and suggests a conspiracy, noticing that young and pretty victims boost ratings. One commenter worries about the legality of the execution. The attorney general was supposed to have oversight of Alcatraz 2.0 but ceded authority to the mysterious Postman. Some wonder if the Postman is the president.