Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Rust brings Marty to the storage unit containing years of work on disappearances and the Tuttle schools. He admits breaking into Tuttle's properties and taking photographs and a videotape. The recording establishes that Marie Fontenot was murdered by masked people. Marty cannot dismiss what he sees and agrees to help, while Rust denies killing Tuttle. Their renewed partnership begins with evidence of a wider crime and an admission that their original resolution was wrong.
Working from Marty's private-investigation office, they obtain old records and interview people who remember the scarred man. A former Tuttle employee, Delores, connects the family to a grandson bearing the Childress name. Her reaction to the twig designs and Carcosa ends the conversation before every question can be answered. Marty also visits Maggie, whose new life makes their long separation clear. His guarded farewell leaves her worried enough to approach Rust about the danger.
Marie’s file leads Marty to Steve Geraci, now a sheriff, who says his superior ordered the missing-child inquiry dropped. Marty doubts that account is complete and takes Geraci fishing, where Rust produces a gun. Elsewhere, Gilbough and Papania ask a groundskeeper for directions to the burned church. They leave without recognising the significance of his scarred face. The partners have reached a possible cover-up through paperwork, while the official investigators have passed the man they are trying to identify.