This is the episode where the group spins out of control. All of the emotions and tensions that have been building all season, both positive and negative, come to a head. Individuals act on their feelings, for better or worse, and, while some actions are beneficial, others are mistakes that can’t be taken back. The group will be changed forever because of the events of this day.

Keep Your Friends Close is Patrick’s episode, and the cold opening gives us a taste of Patrick’s life before the plague rain. He was a slacker who messed up everything in his life: He couldn’t keep a job, or a girlfriend, and everyone had given up on him. His boss at the fast food joint says that he’s started five fires, among other complaints, so he’s fired. His girlfriend wants someone who nicer, more ambitious, and generally not him. She breaks up with him. His social worker says he’s her first hopeless case. Patrick doesn’t listen to any of them. He sits and fidgets with a lit lighter instead.

In the present, Patrick and Martin sit next to some water and throw stones into it. Patrick worries that the outside world won’t be any nicer than the quarantine zone. Martin thinks that it has to be. Patrick says that they never would have met if it weren’t for the zone, so he can’t hate it. Martin replies that traveling together doesn’t make them friends.

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