Sylvia Tilly stages Our Town to reunite the cadets, while the Doctor takes the failing SAM to Kasq and spends years raising her.
To help the cadets reconnect after recent losses, Ake brings in Sylvia Tilly to direct a production of Our Town. Tarima returns and transfers to the Academy, but she struggles with the change and nearly leaves before deciding to stay.
SAM's glitches grow dangerous, and the Doctor and Ake take her to her homeworld, Kasq, where they learn the Makers gave her no childhood and therefore no resilience. The Doctor, who admits SAM reminds him of a daughter he once had, spends seventeen years on Kasq, about two weeks on Earth, raising her before they return. The episode was directed by Andi Armaganian and written by Gaia Violo and Jane Maggs.