Chapter Seven

In calmer days after recent banishments, most residents lounge by the pool and focus on Personal Tasks, while Tom remains vigilant and asks Lily to nudge Sam to restart regular tasks. Lily completes a task by wearing Jacintha’s dress, earning a prized mug, and notes others’ odd behaviors from their own tasks.

Lily and Ryan become physically intimate, but Lily hesitates to have sex on-camera. She then approaches Sam about resuming tasks; he favors a brief reprieve. A Communal Task forces everyone to reveal their professions for a table: surprises include Sam as an architect and Ryan as a lifeguard, unsettling Lily’s assumptions and her romantic calculus.

That night, a violent crash draws the group; Andrew and Sam report an animal entered through their still-doorless entrance. In a messy kitchen, Tom claims it was a fox. Sam warns Lily privately about Tom’s past dog attack in the desert and his volatility, advising her to keep her head down as competition tightens.

Spurred by fear, they return to five daily tasks. A new task demands a temporary banishment until sunset to earn wood for doors. They draw lots; Susie is chosen, panics, but is sent out with water and bread. While waiting, Lily navigates relationship tensions: girl-group gossip reveals Tom’s dog encounter; Candice and Lily share a charged moment; Lily dresses to attract Ryan but feels foolish after witnessing Sam and Becca’s engaged, intellectual conversation. Lily subtly probes Tom about the animal, and his “red fox” claim deepens her suspicion the break-in was staged.

Ryan reassures Lily, declines sex out of respect for her comfort, and proposes being together after the show. At sunset Susie is late but returns sunburned, blistered, and shaken, describing snakes, lost bearings, and brutal heat; she accuses the group of cruelty. The reward proves massive—enough wood for many doors—validating the choice materially but leaving moral fallout.