Phyllis walks into Society, spots Nick, and accusing him of avoiding the Club because of her. He insists that he’s just having coffee. She tells him he looks good and they agree, “One day at a time.” Nick asks if she’s heard from Matt and tells her about the car abandoned after the crash.
Phyllis grills Nick, who only knows that the police suspect someone was with him. She sighs, “Patty Williams.” Nick’s suspicious that it was staged, and admits he never believed Clark had changed. He can’t understand why she’s trying so hard to convince everyone he’s a victim. It’s more probable that he never changed at all.
Phyllis fumes that Matt tried apologizing to everyone in this town. He left and purposely took Patty with him because she was a threat. Nick won’t live in her fantasyland. Adam sidles up, looking to speak to Nick alone. The Newmans walk out.
Outside, Adam tells Nick the cops found Joe the dealer, who complained that he beat him up pretty badly. He’s filed a police report and Burrow wants Nick to come in for questioning. Nick guesses he claimed he was never selling drugs and tells Adam he took his drugs and flushed them.
Adam believes Nick didn’t use the drugs. Nick marvels that their roles have reversed: he’s now the loose cannon. It means the world to him that he believes him. Adam will always be in his corner. Talk turns to Matt Clark and the crash. Nick decides he’ll go check on Sharon.
Adam goes back inside and joins Phyllis at the bar. She grins in amusement as he asks her about Arabesque and how she got the money to buy up real estate. “Who’d you rip off this time?”
Phyllis chuckles that Adam’s transparent and denies all of his guesses. They spar verbally about Arabesque’s worth, and she reveals that she has Lauren and Daniel on board. Adam’s glad they patched things up, but her son will be out of a job again soon.
Phyllis warns him she’ll take the Newman family down. It’s Adam’s turn to be amused. He asks what the nearly bankrupt Arabesque will do. She says everything Newman does only bigger and better.
The Battle of Good and Evil
At Sharon’s place, she asks Matt, “How did you get here?” How did he get past security? He admits he rode in the trunk of her car. Sharon hollers, “What do you want, Matt?!” He needs help. “Sharon, please help me.”
Sharon asks why he’d come to her of all people. He claims he had no one else to turn to. As he’s explaining that he got in her car because he couldn’t think of another way to get her alone, he suddenly grimaces, cries out, and clutches his head.
He grits, “Please make it stop! I can’t take it anymore!” Sharon questions this act he’s pulling. Matt denies it’s an act. She asks why she would ever believe him. “Just leave now.” He yells that he can’t leave until it stops! The pain, the violence, the thoughts. “Make it go away!” She asks what he’s trying to get rid of. He deadpans, “So… the darkness is back.” It’s trying to control him… it’s eating him alive!
Sharon cautiously brings Matt a drink and he warns that no one can know he’s there. Sharon questions why he can trust her. He knows she’s a good therapist and has compassion. Sniveling, he cries that he needs her to listen. He’s having a little emergency, and he thinks she’s the one person who can help. “I don’t know who I am.”
Matt goes over his plan with Patty, who drove them off the road. When he came to, things were different… there was a live wire in his brain sparking all of the old feelings. Hatred, evil, the need to destroy everyone and everything. It’s growing and wants to take over. “You have to help me stop this!” He’s scared and doesn’t know what will happen if he stays like this.
Matt urges Sharon to grab the fire poker, maybe she can beat the evil out of him. No jury would convict her. Sharon says there’s no evidence that a knock to the head can change someone’s personality. She points out he spent most of his life lying. Clark denies he’s lying. He shouts about the monster wanting to run the show. He can’t stop it! Sharon says he needs expert help.
Grimacing, Clark transforms before her eyes. She threatens to call security. He tells her to go ahead… maybe they’ll get there in time and maybe they won’t. He moves toward Sharon intimidatingly as she reminds him that he’s changed. Matt’s tired of trying to prove he’s a good guy. Battling internally, he cries, “I hate myself! I hate myself!” Sharon decides if he wanted to hurt her, he’d have already done it. Suddenly, Nick knocks and calls out.
Matt tells Sharon to let Nick in. She calls, “Come in, Nick!” He does and stops short at the sight of Clark. He asks if Patty’s with him. Matt shrugs that she bolted after the car crash. Yelling in his face, Nick demands to know what he’s doing there. “Tell me now!!”
Sharon interjects that Matt came there asking for help. She’s seen how hard he’s fighting to change. Nick, unsurprisingly, tells her she’s mistaken. Matt urges her to let Nick do his thing… it might be his only way out.
The Final Scenes
Still at Society, Adam needles Phyllis for being vague. She repeats that Arabesque will surpass Newman in AI, energy and hospitality by next year. He chides that she’s spreading herself too thin. She accuses him of having limited vision, and he thanks her for making his day.
Adam returns to the ranch and updates Victor that Nick seemed relived that the drug dealer was found alive. Adam shares the part about Nick stealing the guy’s drugs… he believes he flushed them. He then warns that Nick’s turning his attention back to Matt, which is never a good thing. Talk turns to Arabesque and Adam mocks that Phyllis plans to eclipse them. Victor points out she almost succeeded last time. Let her give it her best shot.
At Sharon’s place, Sharon and Nick bicker as Matt looks on with a woeful expression. Sharon’s seen the humanity in him. Nick is going to stop this. She wants him to trust her. Nick cannot do this! Sharon informs him it’s her living room and they’re going to do this her way.
Sharon and Nick keep arguing as she says she wants to help get Clark into a facility. Matt suddenly suffers some kind of head pain and yells out. Meanwhile, at Society, Phyllis leaves Matt a voicemail asking him about the car accident and to get in touch so she knows he’s OK.
Back at Sharon’s, Matt cries out, “Make it stop!” He wants to die so this will end. Sharon tells him he needs help to break free. She’ll make sure he gets it.
