Elizabeth Zott arrives home from her first day back at Hastings pretending it went well. Harriet greets her, and Elizabeth asks Madeline about school. Madeline bluntly reports a few children had accidents and hands over a note: her teacher, Mrs. Mudford, wants to see Elizabeth. Elizabeth reassures Madeline that starting new things can be difficult.

Weeks later, Elizabeth goes to Personnel seeking information on a potential investor. Miss Frask produces only a thin, unhelpful file and suggests the investor likely pulled out. Frask reveals she knows Elizabeth was demoted to a lab tech and then discloses she herself has been fired, ostensibly for gaining weight. Elizabeth urges her to fight, but Frask, resigned and pragmatic, says she has temp jobs lined up and invites Elizabeth to meet Friday for a “present.”

On Friday, Frask leads Elizabeth to the basement past escaped mice, unlocking a “No Admittance” storage area lined with numbered steel doors. Using key 41, Frask reveals eight sealed boxes: Calvin Evans’s work, boxed and stored. Determined to make amends for past hostility after Calvin’s death, Frask helps Elizabeth load the boxes onto a dolly, urging haste before she must return the keys. When Elizabeth asks if this is legal, Frask shrugs it off: “Do we care?”