After the kidnapper cuts Toby off, the group reacts in tense silence and restless motion. Eve regrets speaking during the call, but Avery tells Eve that the kidnapper would have led them to the same place regardless. Jameson focuses Avery on the wording: the kidnapper called Avery “the heiress” and “the one Tobias Hawthorne chose,” linking the clue to inheritance.

Avery argues that the kidnapper wants them trapped in endless rumination and that the riddle is designed to be unsolvable until the kidnapper chooses otherwise. Eve insists they still have to try, and Grayson and Jameson agree that even an incomplete riddle can yield answers. For Toby’s sake, Avery accepts that they must keep working.

Xander returns with three chess pieces to represent the parable of the prodigal son: a king for the father, a knight for the prodigal son, and a bishop for the son who stayed faithful. The group maps the roles onto their situation. Toby fits the prodigal son because of his reckless youth, the fire, and the decades he let his family believe him dead; Tobias Hawthorne fits the forgiving father who wanted Toby home.

The remaining role is the resentful son who stayed and received nothing. Avery first considers Toby’s siblings, including Skye and Zara, but Jameson argues that Zara does not fit if the man on the phone was truly the kidnapper. The group realizes the “other son” might not mean Tobias’s biological son but a son-in-law who was cast out or forgotten.

Nash points them away from a hidden biological uncle and toward an existing gap in the family history: Zara’s first husband, the man no one discusses. Avery asks Oren where Zara is, and Oren says she is tending the roses. Grayson moves to question Zara, Eve asks to go with him, but Jameson unexpectedly tells Avery to go with Grayson instead, leaving Avery unsure whether Jameson distrusts Eve, worries about Grayson, or is trying to trust Avery.