Reeling from the disastrous Code Switch interview and the social media pile-on, Zelu cries in a rental car as Msizi drives her into the night. She's overwhelmed by guilt over the butchered film adaptation of Rusted Robots and her decision to opt out of involvement. Msizi calls his cousin Jackie, a Zulu physician, who calms her by singing the lullaby "Thula Thula" until her panic attack subsides.

Msizi takes her to Joshua Tree to stay with his friends Marlo and Wind, an off-grid couple in a solar-powered desert ranch house. Marlo is warm; his partner Wind, a black physicist, immediately challenges Zelu, calling her rude and accusing her of self-pity. Zelu finds her room eerily prepared for her, complete with a wheelchair and Nigerian food, courtesy of Msizi having briefed them.

The next morning, Wind goads a reluctant Zelu into a hike, pushing her to take her exos off-road for the first time. They bicker the entire way as Wind bluntly confronts Zelu about her negativity, reminding her that social media isn't the real world and that she still wrote a brilliant novel. At a cliffside vista, Zelu confronts her fear, steps to the edge, and screams her rage about the film and the journalist into the desert.

Wind, revealed to be fifty-six and a former NASA physicist, counsels Zelu about perspective, telling her that becoming herself took twenty-five years of hard, scary decisions. She tells Zelu to write, walk, and love how she wants, and suggests Msizi brought her to the desert so she wouldn't get lost in herself. Zelu takes the lesson to heart, recognizing she trusts her exos less than she should.

They stay a week. Zelu never warms to Wind but leaves with renewed perspective, ready to return her agents' calls and re-engage with her career. She accepts that the film is not her story, but her novel still belongs to her.