Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Tom Purcell is found dead in 1990 beside a note that allows the authorities to present his death as suicide and close the case again. Roland blames their questioning for helping drive him toward disaster. Wayne doubts the convenient resolution and follows records connecting Harris James to Lucy's final days in Las Vegas. Amelia's interviews produce further links to the man with the unusual eye, including a photograph from the children's last Halloween.
Wayne persuades Roland to question James outside normal procedure. They take him to a barn, where the beating does not deliver the confession Wayne expects. James attacks Wayne and is shot dead. The detectives bury him and conceal what happened, leaving Roland furious with his partner. Wayne burns his clothes at home and refuses to explain himself to Amelia. The next day, Edward Hoyt calls, demonstrates knowledge of the previous night and asks Wayne to join him in the car outside.
In 2015, Elisa proposes that the Purcell case belongs to a larger pattern of protected offenders and suppressed inquiries, but Wayne does not endorse her theory. He and Roland continue their own search and learn about Isabel Hoyt and the man who cared for her. When the car watching Wayne's house appears again, the partners obtain its number plate before another lapse interrupts him. Their investigation has moved toward a person they may be able to find, while the past reveals why Wayne once stopped pursuing the case.