'His Eminence' reassures his panicking followers that he's conquered "The Witch" by commandeering her eyes. They roll her over in bondage and a Mithraic soldier strings her up spread-eagle in a silo with a petty little irrelevant comment about how unexpectedly small she turned out to be. Later, 'His Eminence' pays a visit to "Lamia" and there's a lame little irrelevant 'power-play' where she 'cunningly' leverages the secret of his true identity, and she 'assertively' tells him that they're not there to repeat history, and she 'compellingly' offers him an opportunity to shape the future of humanity, but she's vilely strung up spread-eagle, and he vilely advances on her where she hangs. She 'powerfully' glares at him as he leaves, but there's actually no reason to think he cares or that any of it redeems the scene in any way.
The Mithraic all sit around dutifully chanting dismal dirges and polishing their knives, so Vita approaches an android for consolation. But unfortunately, he's still just an android.
In a particularly important puzzle demonstration, Paul arranges little rocks spatially. The clerics stand around in their grubby attire that the Mithraic have had the foresight to craft in pale whites and neutrals for the bloody messy business of war and colonization, foretelling that Paul may be the boy foretold to unlock 'the mysteries'.
Campion's been detained in a silo with a strung-up subhuman body so 'His Eminence' can figure out how to 'help' him. One of the few remaining people he might be able to identify with and rely on for friendship tosses him some shrooms and tells him to just lie so he can get out of detention. He eats the shrooms and finds a voodoo doll with a sharp instrument attached, hearing a voice telling him to kill himself so he can be with his dearly missed siblings.
As the Mithraic get busy with erecting an area of worship, Tempest overcompensates in an attempt to conceal her situation; trying to handle heavy rocks that she shouldn't be carrying to begin with. She's advised she could get special treatment, but that's the last thing she wants now.
Mary-Sue and Paul take a field trip and scout out one of his clever contraptions where a suffering subhuman suffered an insufferable death. She's surprised that Paul made the trap and she fillets chunks of flesh from the victim, handing the bloody slabs off to Paul who proves to be good with word selection for the occasion. Neither of them will tell anyone about it - they both really love surprises.
"The Witch" bleeds onto the floor beneath her and 'His Eminence' returns with a grubby little tool box with a power drill and the intention of reprogramming her. He prepares to begin, getting blood on his hands, but she weaponizes his poor little woeful orphan boy status and brings his child-caring competency into question and it's really much too much for him and he loses all emotional control and capacity for logical thought and storms out in a hot panic, throwing a kid half his size down to the ground in undiscerning fury.
A procession of bullies proceeds to a semi-church that has an intriguing little rock garden and an altar of gravestones where a prisoner is scheduled to be converted or else. Campion sits despondently with a sharp instrument in the gloom of his jail cell and Prodigious Paul comes to get him, escorting him to the ceremony where he provides amoral support at the critical moment when Campion must accept Sol. Campion chooses or else and 'Father' throws him back into jail.
Mary-Sue hauls off on her hubby with a huge right hook that he sort of seems to feel because that's how you make progress in a domestic dispute, especially with a war-hardened criminal who's been a bit further left-of-center lately and is brandishing a sharp instrument. There should be plenty of swearing too, if you really want to prove how 'strong' you are and you want to get a good back-and-forth going and you generally like what's coming next to be a surprise. Luckily for Mary-Sue, he takes a breather this time and heads out to kill another woman instead.
'Father' enters the silo and starts releasing Mother's ropes to get her down. She's sure he's there to help her, but it's a bleak surprise when she discovers he's not Father anymore; he's been reprogrammed as a traitor against her and he's dutifully arranging for her destruction.
The subhuman comes down from the ropes leaving a noose hanging above Campion. He climbs a ladder and sees 'Father' out the window, dragging Mother away.
When Lucius sees 'His Eminence' leaving with Mother wounded and tied down to a cart without her eyes, he insists on coming along because she's still dangerous. She discloses her abductor's true identity, but Lucius dutifully contrives his acquittal on the fly; crafting a clever indictment against her that she's just being clever. 'His Eminence' ditches the witness and as he and 'Father' drag Mother into the woods she correctly notes that 'Father' is as loyal as androids come.
As 'Father' pitches Mother into a chasm, the rope catches on his finger and Mother dangles at the other end. On the other side of the chasm, 'His Eminence' has a reckoning with a manifestation of his true identity, touching his own face touchingly and then predictably fighting himself predictably. As the mano a mano duel plays out in exactly the same manner, as might be predicted, Mother pulls herself up the rope with mechanistic persistence and emerges triumphant at the top. She'll be back. The imaginary fight comes to an end and 'His Eminence' is the vanquished victor, clutching a selfish-inflicted wound and interestingly hearing a voice yet again as Mother turns and walks away. 'His Eminence' limps back to the barracks where Mary-Sue mistakenly addresses him as Jesus Christ and attends to his affliction. He correctly notes "We're not going anywhere".
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