- Officials show up to take Cassia to her live sorting test… which happens to be at the nutrition disposal center, where Ky works. Uh-oh.
- She's asked to sort the workers in his shift by efficiency, and the more efficient group will be sent to an alternative vocation at an unknown location. Oh—and her sort is final.
- Ky ends up exactly in the middle on her efficiency list. She's left with a difficult choice: Put Ky in the lower group and he gets to stay in town, but continue at this horrific job she's now seen firsthand; put Ky in the higher group and he has a chance at a better life, but might get sent away. Cassia knows what Ky would want—he always tries to underplay his talents.
- What makes the decision easy is another big reveal. Why does everyone die right on schedule at eighty? Why do the nutrition laborers die younger? Why couldn't anyone eat from Grandfather's tray? Because they're slowly poisoning the elderly's food.
- Cassia places Ky in the higher group.