Warning: Major spoilers ahead

In a flashback to his childhood, we see a young Alamo living with his mother. As she gets dressed for a night out, she tells him about a new man in her life, and how she hopes he will provide for them both. In a voiceover, Rue calls her “the coldest woman he ever knew”.

Later that evening, his mother brings the man, Preston, back to the house. While he’s initially scared by the significant scars on his face, Preston is kind to Alamo, sneaking him chocolate and spending time getting to know him.

Soon he is a significant and positive figure in Alamo’s life, with him supporting his and his mother financially. He learns Preston got the scars from an explosion at a chemical plant he once worked in and is waiting on a compensation claim. This eventually comes through, and they celebrate their newfound wealth. Preston showers the family with gifts, moves them into a bigger house, and gets Alamo into a good school. As Preston talks this through with Alamo, their conversation is heard by a man loitering nearby.

Alamo is hopeful their future will be bright, especially when they head to the beach for Memorial Day Weekend, and Preston shares his plans to propose to his mother. However, when they get home, they discover they’ve been robbed. From jewelry to furniture, the house has been stripped bare. With everything they owned gone, Alamo’s mother doesn’t hesitate to pack a bag and leave Preston, even as he sobs on the floor promising to fix the situation.

Alamo’s mother drives them to an apartment building, where the man from the street is already waiting for her – along with everything stolen from Preston’s apartment. It was all a long con and his mother expresses her relief at not having to kiss someone so ugly again. A heartbroken Alamo is sent to his room, where he finds a toy pistol on the bed, and he starts fantasising about being a cowboy – vowing he would “never let a b***h do that to him again”.

Back in the present day, Rue is screaming for her life as she’s buried up to her neck in the ground outside Alamo’s home. He charges at her on horseback, swinging a polo mallet towards her head, but swings just wide and spares her life when she promises to call Faye and get his money back from Laurie.

Calling her while still buried, Rue instructs Faye to take a picture of Laurie’s safe key so Alamo can duplicate it with a 3D printer. However, Faye has fallen madly in love with Wayne – one of Laurie’s drug dealing lackeys. She even let him tattoo a swastika on her back, though claims she’s “not really” a Nazi. But it means she’s not willing to help Rue by taking the picture.

However, Faye buckles when Rue appeals to her by using their shared friendship with Fez to pull on her heartstrings. She takes the picture just before Wayne arrives, and she claims she was talking to Fez. As he unpacks his guns on a stack of books – including one on the Manson Murders – he yells at her for doing cocaine when he’s trying to get her pregnant. When she tries to tell him it’s not cocaine, he doesn’t believe her and dismisses what she’s saying, forcing her to apologise. (In fact, she is correct. The drugs they stole from Alamo’s safe were swapped out for sugar and laxatives by the DEA when Rue was arrested – and having imbibed form that stash, Faye is now suffering from explosive diarrhea.)

He promises soon there’ll be no drugs around (having previously described a plan of investing his money in avocados) and sweet talks her with promises of a new life together before they have sex.

Alamo arranges a parlay with Laurie and her gang at his home. As he fills his golden gun with bullets, the rest of the gang prepare their weapons, Wayne says goodbye to Faye with a passionate kiss on their doorstep. Rue then gets a text message from her with the picture of the safe key as promised.

When Laurie arrives, she claims she “hates that things had turned hostile” between them, and Alamo tells her if she apologised then it wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Wayne makes himself at home, declaring they are in a “good position”. But his confidence fades when Alamo’s men arrive from all corners of the room, making clear that they are each armed.

Alamo asks if she expects him to beg for forgiveness, but she brings up Gold Rush Medical Services – a business that Alamo owns. When pushed on what it's for, he claims he uses it to take girls over the border to Mexico for plastic surgery. Laurie suggests she use their ambulances - and the medical licenses that allow them to pass through immigration largely unchecked - to smuggle drugs for her.

When they threaten to show everything they stole from him to the FBI, he reluctantly agrees but asks why now? Laurie says she’s planning a one-time operation to bring 80kgs of fentanyl over the border, as the government is in the process of locking down the entire border. Alamo makes a backhanded jab at her for bringing a deadly drug to the US, but Laurie’s conscience is clear – it's simply supply and demand. They shake on it, but he warns her if they double cross him he will make them all pay.

Rue, who has been sitting in silence on the couch, has listened to the whole exchange – and her wired cellphone has recorded the entire conversation. The DEA finally have what they need to pin both Laurie and Alamo down.

Later that evening, she meets with the detectives, who tell her she did good and they are now off her back for the time being. She just needs to stay sharp, carry on as normal, and when the time comes, the court will look upon her case favourably.

What Rue wasn’t counting on was Maddy going into business with Alamo.

Despite Rue’s pleas for her not to deal with Alamo, Maddy declares herself a “big girl” and pushes forward with her plan add Kitty and Magick to her OnlyFans stable. Bringing Cassie to the Silver Slipper, all three girls get to work, taking sexy pictures for their profiles.

She later has a meeting with Alamo, praising him for the club, and showing the results. She tries to introduce herself to Bishop, but he’s typically unsociable. Maddy suggests to Alamo that he give the girls some time off so she can take them networking and build their profiles, but Alamo is against it as time away from the club is money lost. Surprisingly, Bishop comes to her defence, saying while there are plenty of people trying to screw him, Maddy doesn’t seem to be one of them.

At Jules’s penthouse, Rue feels lighter and brighter as she thinks about the future, thinking that she’s ended up where she needs to be. Watching Jules paint, she looks on adoringly, before sharing that she thinks her biggest problem is she has no responsibility to anyone apart from herself – but if she had kids, it could be different. She’s ready to start a life and settle down.

Jules says she doesn’t think she’s ready for kids and asks how long she’s been sober. Rue says she doesn’t know as she hasn’t been keeping track but wants “real American problems” – which Jules brushes off as a fantasy. In retaliation, she tells Jules that living in a house paid for by a sugar daddy who will never leave his family is a fantasy, and Rue just wants to wake up to someone she loves and can be the best version of herself for.

Jules asks if she thinks they could be that but is dismissive as Rue declares she wants to be with her properly. She tells Rue that their one time together almost cost her relationship with Ellis, and it was a “big mistake” as it would ruin “everything she’s working for”. Rue reminds her that she’s cooped up in an apartment waiting for Ellis, who just uses her for sex. Jules slaps Rue so hard she is knocked into the painting Jules was working on, before Jules kicks her out.

In the elevator, Rue chokes back tears.

It’s time for Cassie’s TV debut for LA Nights with heartthrob Dylan Reid. On set, he wishes her luck as she gets in position. The scene starts off as expected, but she goes completely off script when a line about a honeymoon triggers memories of her own catastrophic wedding night.

The director, Lexi and production team look on, confused about where she’s getting her dialogue from, but Dylan decides to roll with it. When he hears she got a bloody nose, he accuses a character called Jagger of doing it and is supportive when she says that she “maybe deserved it” for stealing him from her best friend.

By the time they call cut, Cassie has everyone’s attention – and they’re impressed with what they’ve seen. The director sits with her for lunch to get to know her, questioning how long she’s been acting. Lexi, who is still a production assistant, is unable to say anything, but is quietly raging that her sister has stolen the spotlight. She tries to throw Cassie under the bus by revealing her OnlyFans page. Cassie claims her content is “never fully nude” and “tasteful”, but Lexi pushes on, mentioning her JOI and custom videos. Asked if she’s a sex worker by the producer, Cassie argues it’s “a form of feminism” and she’s “telling a story with her body”.

Lexi’s boss praises Lexi for "trying to help out her sister” and believes she could create an interesting character arc for Cassie on the show, giving her more screen time, but they’ll only allow it if she deletes her OnlyFans account. Outside, Cassie excitedly celebrates.

However, when she’s home, she has second thoughts as she prepares to delete her OnlyFans account, and buckles. She tries to call Nate for advice, but he’s not answering. Mustering all her mental fortitude and stepping over piles of lingerie and sex toys scattered across her apartment to reach her computer, she finally takes the plunge – and with a few clicks, her account is gone.

In the writer’s room, Lexi is given the opportunity to write the storyline for Cassie. It’s a huge opportunity, but she still seethes at having her sister involved.

After handing over the photo of the safe to Alamo’s tech friend for 3D printing, she heads to church to pray. As she reads the 10 commandments, she gets a call from "mom”. Initially thinking it’s the FBI, she’s surprised to discover it is actually her mother, getting in touch for the first time in months. She shares that she’s in church, and if God exists, there’s redemption and salvation for her. Rue doesn’t want to be stuck with the mistakes she’s made and wants to be able to start over.

While we don’t hear her mother’s side of the conversation, Rue’s reaction suggests her mother wants to make amends. She tells her she loves her and she’s sorry. Her mum tells her she loves her too.

After hanging up, Rue breaks down in tears but smiles as she looks at the altar.

At Lexi’s apartment block, Lexi drinks wine with her neighbour Gillie, and asks her opinion on how to handle the storyline. Gillie suggests killing her off – saying it’s what viewers watch the show for. A delivery man arrives, knocking on Cassie’s door with a package. She signs for it and is horrified to find a severed finger with a note demanding “Answer the Phone”.

Nate, who is still bloody, beaten and now missing a finger and toe, angrily heads to his abandoned building site, kicking down the fence guarding the white fritillary flowers and stamping on them and screaming at them in rage. Naz’s henchman watches this for a while, before heading over to give him yet another beating.

Rue’s peace is disrupted when Alamo calls her in and tells her he wants her to do Laurie’s Mexico drug run for him, pointedly providing her with a dead rat – for feeding to his pet python.

While feeding the snake, Bishop mentions the snake used to belong to one of his girls. He relates to her that she would not just perform with it but would also take it to bed with her where the snake would coil itself around her. One day, the snake started refusing its food and was taken to the vet. The vet revealed the snake was perfectly healthy, but had another reason for not eating... It was coiling around the girl in the night as it was sizing her up... it was not eating the rats because it was preparing for a much larger meal. She gifted the snake to Alamo immediately. The moral of this story? “You never know a mother f***ers true intentions”.

He then opaquely mentions her mother, telling Rue he had been in contact and putting in a good word for her. He warns Rue to not make him out to be a liar.

As Rue leaves for the night, she drives home in her car listening to Bible verses on her CD player, which begins malfunctioning. Trying to fix it, she doesn’t notice she’s driving directly towards an 18-wheeler, serving off the road at the last second. She survives – but a tree in front of her catches fire.

Reading it as a religious experience, she kneels in front of the burning bush in awe.