As violence erupts in the streets, Veer turns away—repulsed not only by the bloodthirsty teens but by Coleman’s chilling fascination with the carnage. Seeking refuge in his lab, he resolves to uncover what went wrong… but the answers waiting below may be darker than anything outside.

While Nancy struggles to comfort the children and establish a sense of routine, three mischief-makers—the self-proclaimed Musketeers—are already plotting. Eyeing vending machines, secret labs, and the freedom to roam, Randy and his friends hatch a daring plan to outsmart the adults. But in this fragile new world, trouble has consequences no one can predict.

After a night haunted by violent dreams, Dr. Veer Gupta pushes his exhausted body to keep working. A tense encounter with Coleman in the employee cafeteria only sharpens his focus—until a sudden insight changes everything. What if the problem isn’t his program at all, but a second signal interfering with it? With clarity breaking through the chaos, Veer realizes the true danger may be something he hasn’t found yet.

As Nancy escorts the boys back from the food court, her instincts warn her that trouble is brewing. The two younger boys still carry traces of innocence, but their nervous glances and restless movements betray a deeper unease, while Randy, the oldest, leads them with quiet confidence that masks trouble behind charm and practiced lies. Reflecting on years of failed interventions—frustrated educators, uncooperative parents, and a growing absence of accountability—Nancy watches the boys closely and wonders whether structure, labor, and responsibility, perhaps under Carl’s supervision, might succeed where words have failed, even as she questions whether involving her friend could create more problems than it solves.

As daily routines begin to take shape, Carl focuses on keeping the systems running—power, food, animals, and labor—while others tend to the children’s emotional needs. When a spoiled boy refuses to follow basic rules during pet cleanup, Carl draws a firm line that forces both the children and the adults to confront a new reality: survival requires responsibility. In the aftermath, Nancy is left to comfort a child unprepared for accountability, while Carl quietly wonders what becomes of those who were never taught to adapt.

Dr. Veer Gupta analyzes the altered signal and realizes his interference has permanently merged with another hidden transmission embedded in the news feed. Even shutting his own signal down won’t undo the change. To stop it, he must trace the source of the original signal — a task that requires relocating nearly his entire lab to the sixth floor. With the elevators down, Veer faces the exhausting reality of hauling sensitive equipment up nine flights of stairs, knowing time is no longer on his side.