The Return

Bryan Dern announces Tom Riley's recall election and challenges anyone bold enough to run against him. Elsewhere, Edwin Blackgaard is disturbed when strangers around Odyssey greet him as though they have recently seen him. A printer even insists Edwin visited that morning, although Edwin was somewhere else. Edwin and his assistant, Shakespeare, realize there is only one person in town who could be mistaken for him: his twin brother, Regis.

Edwin immediately prepares to leave Odyssey, but Regis arrives at the Harlequin Dinner Theater before he can escape. Regis thanks him for restoring honor to the Blackgaard name; because the town trusts Edwin, people have welcomed Regis before discovering the difference. He then offers Edwin a choice between helping his plans and having his life made miserable. Edwin refuses to join any more schemes and pleads to leave the kind people of Odyssey in peace. Regis mocks him but allows him and Shakespeare to go.

Jason visits Jack at Whit's house and asks him to return to Whit's End. Glossman intends to persuade the city council to close the building because the city owns the land beneath it. Tom is too occupied with the recall to offer much help, and Jason wants Jack's counsel. Jack explains that he has not resigned from anger; he needs distance and a new perspective. He also believes Jason is neglecting the spiritual part of the conflict. Plans and strategies matter less than prayer, so Jack urges Jason to begin praying with him immediately.

Bryan Dern's call for a candidate is answered by Dr. Regis Blackgaard, who announces, “I've come home.” Jason is stunned because he believed Blackgaard had died. In public, Blackgaard describes his former crimes as misunderstandings and presents Blackgaard's Castle as a noble educational project destroyed by enemies of progress. He promises that, as mayor, he will restore Odyssey's former glory under his leadership.

The Bones of Wrath also begin reversing the Israelites' good deeds. After an Israelite paints Lorraine Steeb's shed, someone secretly covers the new paint with ugly graffiti. Lorraine sees only a figure in the Israelites' costume and tells the news that the supposed do-gooders have damaged her property. Jason and Connie realize the Bones are following the group and deliberately ruining its reputation. Their more urgent concern, however, is discovering what Blackgaard truly wants.

Jason lets slip that Blackgaard is supposed to be dead, then avoids Connie's questions and goes to the Harlequin to speak with Edwin. He finds Jellyfish there instead, and Jellyfish ushers him onto the stage to meet Regis. Jason asks how Blackgaard survived an injection of the deadly Ruku virus. Blackgaard explains that exposure to air had weakened the virus enough to make him gravely ill and imitate death without killing him.

Blackgaard claims that his security work belongs to the past and that he now seeks an ordinary life. He tries to turn Jason against Whit by arguing that Whit destroyed valuable computer programs instead of allowing governments to use them. Jason refuses to accept any insult against his father and warns that he will watch Blackgaard closely. Neither former agent trusts the other, though both hide the full truth behind civil words.

After Jason leaves, Jellyfish reveals that he has secretly recorded their conversation. Blackgaard checks Glossman's preparations for the council meeting and confirms that certain council members have been bribed. Glossman then asks the council to close Whit's End until the strange material beneath it can be investigated. Tom protests that no hazard has been proven, but Glossman uses the Edgebiter scandal and Tom's friendship with Whit's End to portray him as biased. Councilman Hank Bonsall casts the deciding vote in favor of closure.

Glossman posts the order on the building: “Whit's End is closed.”