The Best Is Yet to Come

In Baltimore, Eugene Meltsner waits anxiously outside an operating room with his friend John Avery Whittaker. Eugene has invented a way to help people with failing memories: a 3D-printed replacement for the hippocampus, the part of the brain that stores memory, which can be transplanted while keeping a patient's old memories intact. Dr. Hunt reports that the surgery on the very first patient, an older man named Vernon Hancock, has gone smoothly. Soon comes thrilling news: "Vernon's awake. And it's working." At the hospital, Vernon happily chats with his wife Loretta, correctly recalling details like her maiden name, though he remembers nothing from the years of his illness. He doesn't recognize Eugene or Whit, who have been working on his case for months, and he's puzzled to learn that a birthday steak dinner he thinks happened last night was almost two years ago. Still, everyone agrees his recovery is a miracle.

Meanwhile, back in Odyssey, Buck Meltsner and Jules Kendall are secretly dating, and only their friend Cooper knows. Jules is sure that her sister Connie and Buck's parents, Eugene and Katrina, would never approve, so the two decide to test the waters without giving themselves away. Over spaghetti-making at home, Jules casually mentions that a girl at school asked why she and Buck aren't a couple; Connie, distracted enough to ruin the marinara sauce, only says that relationships are complicated and that Jules is too young to worry about it. Buck tries during a Meltsner family game night, where Eugene insists on secretly keeping score in a get-to-know-you game that has no points, awarding himself fifteen and Katrina negative two. When Buck slips in a question about whether a sixteen-year-old should be allowed to date, Eugene declares an unequivocal no, arguing that the brain isn't even fully developed until twenty-five. Katrina says it would depend on the child's mental, emotional, and spiritual maturity, adding that she believes a person should be a Christian before anything else, especially before dating.

Discouraged, Buck and Jules compare themselves to Romeo and Juliet, though Buck points out that story didn't end well. Since they can rarely be together without raising suspicion, they hatch a plan: church is full of activities their families are always pushing them toward, so attending would let them spend time together in plain sight. Sunday morning, Connie is stunned to find Jules up, dressed, and cheerfully ready for church with no excuses. When Pastor Wilson Knox announces a youth group paintball night, Jules volunteers so eagerly that the news travels down the pew in a comic chain of whispers from Connie to Katrina to Eugene to Buck, and the delighted adults call it an answer to prayer.

Back in Baltimore, tragedy strikes. Eugene and Whit arrive at the hospital to find Vernon's room empty; a nurse tells them he died that morning from complications of the surgery. Eugene returns home crushed with guilt. He tells Katrina that Loretta trusted him, that he offered her statistics and dreams of medical history without ever dwelling on the danger, and that Vernon would still be alive if not for him. Katrina reminds him that the surgeons explained every risk, but Eugene is convinced the project is finished, the funding will vanish, and his breakthrough is of no use to anyone.

The paintball night turns out to be genuinely fun, but when the pastor's teaching time begins, Buck and Jules slip out the back and share smuggled pizza in the hallway. Their talk turns honest: Jules admits religion feels controlling to her, all about being told what she's doing wrong, while Buck explains that his years with a con man taught him to suspect everyone's motives, though he trusts Jules completely. Jules shows him lyrics she's writing about the night they set off fireworks from the water tower, when Buck took the blame at the police station and she first knew he was someone special. Just then Pastor Knox appears. Cornered, Jules claims she learned so much from the devotional, "You know, about Jesus being nice." Gently noting that Jesus wasn't always nice but was kind, and that he saw them leave early, the pastor then springs a surprise: hearing they love music, he asks the pair to sing the special music at Wednesday's prayer meeting. They stammer out a yes, then realize the silver lining, since performing will thrill their families and give them a perfect excuse to rehearse together, a lot.

On Monday, Dr. Hunt's video call brings news Eugene never expected. The medical examiner has ruled that Vernon died of a stroke that had nothing to do with Eugene's procedure; any surgery would have triggered it. Far from ending the project, word of the breakthrough has brought a flood of funding, and the Foundation wants Eugene as its new head of the Department of Neural Research. Katrina is overjoyed, calling it everything he has worked for his whole academic life, and wonders why he isn't celebrating. Eugene explains the very big drawback: the job is in Baltimore. "We'd have to move. To Maryland."