Jesse, Griffin, and Michelle were in the judge's office. Jesse had been given a choice of either going upstate to prison or being tutored in reading by Michelle. He said that he would rather go to prison. Griffin told the judge that Jesse was young and inexperienced and needed time to digest the judge's generous offer.
Jesse and Michelle talked privately. He said he got into trouble every time she entered his life. She said he was stubborn. She said that he wouldn't have to actually go through with the tutoring. She would sign the paper that said he had.
Jesse told the judge that he would take the reading lessons. The judge said that he would monitor Jesse's progress himself. Jesse was to take a reading test in six weeks. Jesse responded with stunned disbelief.
Two police officers were talking with Ross, Holly, and Fletcher. They took in a purse to be identified. They said they'd found it in the possession of a woman fitting Ross's wife's description. They'd also found her credit cards but no driver's license. Holly said that was right because Blake's license had been up for renewal.
Ross showed the officers a picture of Blake. Fletcher called Roger and told him that there was a problem with Blake. The police finally said that the body of the woman fitting Blake's description was in the morgue.
At the waterfront, Dinah and Hart finally caught up with Bill, who had run out of the house. He was angry because Matt hadn't told him that he'd suspected Vanessa was alive. Bill said that he was too old to be protected that way. He wanted to be alone. After he left, Dinah and Hart shared a very romantic time in the moonlight at the waterfront.
Matt drove through the fog, headed for their place at the lake, looking for Vanessa.
Vanessa had just found the picture of Celeste and the newspaper article about Michael being convicted of her murder. "Did you kill her?" Vanessa asked. "This is the one question I hoped you'd never ask me," Michael responded. He told her that the woman in the picture had looked very much like Vanessa. He said she had been much too young to die.
Vanessa asked why Michael had killed her. "She walked into my office and introduced herself," Michael said. He confessed that he had fallen for her immediately. She had been very ill with the same disease that Vanessa had. Her doctors had told her that there was no hope, but she had refused to give up. She had heard about the research he was doing, so he had taken her on as a patient. Her disease was terminal.
Michael reported that Celeste had lost the use of her legs, then her hands, and then her eyes. When she hadn't been able to breathe on her own anymore, she had given up hope. The drug that Vanessa took hadn't been invented yet. All he had wanted was to make the pain stop, and that was all she had wanted too. She had begged him to help her die. He had injected her with a lethal dose of painkiller.
Michael told Vanessa that Celeste's husband had accused him of murder. Michael had lost his license to practice medicine and had served time in prison. On the outside again, he kept moving around because Celeste's husband was still after him. Vanessa convinced him to lie down on the couch, and he immediately fell asleep.
Ross, Holly, Roger, and Amanda went to the morgue and were made to wait because paperwork had to be done. Finally, Ross and Roger went in to identify the body. When the body bag was unzipped, Ross covered his face and fell to his knees.
Matt arrived at the house at the lake. It was dark inside. He opened the door and called out, "Vanessa? Vanessa?"
Matt rushed to the lake house and found Michael asleep on the sofa. Michael tried to tell Matt that he didn't know Vanessa, but Matt knew better. They both found a note that Vanessa had left, which stated that she had become an unhealthy reminder to Michael, and after the kiss, she had known she had to leave. Matt was enraged that Michael had driven her away and started a search for her. Michael insisted on helping.
The coroner showed a body to Ross, and it was not Blake. Later, at home, Ross was talking about how much he loved her and couldn't imagine life without her. Then, Blake showed up at the door. She said that her purse and car keys had been stolen. Ross was elated to see her, and Blake was somewhat surprised at the warm welcome.
Josh and Reva talked with their kids, explaining that Josh and Annie were getting a divorce. Shayne was not as happy about the upcoming divorce as Marah. Then, Annie and Alan showed up, and Annie tried to apologize to the children for her past drunken behavior. The kids ran away when she tried to hug them. Annie ended up signing the divorce papers, and leaving. Outside on the doorstep, she and Alan kissed.
Michelle and Bill were at Jesse's house, where Jesse was helping Bill tend to the black eye Jesse had given him earlier at the bar. Jesse had given Bill a "fake-punch" in order to save him from really getting hurt by the rest of the bar thugs. Bill told Michelle that the reason he had been looking for her was to tell her that his mother was alive. After Bill left, Michelle argued with Jesse about letting her help him with his reading, saying that she just couldn't understand why Jesses didn't like the Bauers. Jesse finally told her that her father had killed his mother.
Harley and Phillip psyched themselves for the big sting operation. They went to Jeffrey and Jenna's hotel room and had to pretend that they were new lovers. When they actually kissed, they looked at each other somewhat meaningfully. Phillip also baited Jeffrey by telling him that he had about $25 million that he needed to "hide" in an investment.
Michael and Matt waited at home while Dinah went on the air at WSPR to plead for her mother's return. At the television station, Hart encouraged Dinah and assured her that her mother would get the broadcast message. When on the air, Dinah begged Vanessa to not fear returning home, since she and Matt were not romantically involved.
Meanwhile, Vanessa was at a roadside diner near the lake, eating lunch, reading her poetry book that she had taken from her home, and daydreaming about Matt. As Dinah went on the air, Vanessa had already left and didn't see any of it. The waitress recognized the picture of Vanessa that Dinah showed and ran out the door after her, only to find that she was already gone. Vanessa stopped at a pay phone and called to make an airline reservation, but when she was asked what her destination would be, she hung up and said aloud that she didn't want to go anywhere.
