At some point in the past, Cooper and Jordan shared intimate confessions during a night in Rome. Standing before the Trevi Fountain, he makes a paradoxical wish: that she will never fall in love with him. Like every inverted prophecy, the gesture reveals exactly the opposite.

Back in the present, Cooper interrogates Ashley Sanders, a witness to one of the deaths in New York. Something in his behavior immediately raises suspicion: Ashley may be infected. Before the agent can push further, two men enter the room and shoot him. Ashley is taken away, leaving behind the unsettling sense that larger forces are operating behind the scenes.

In an isolated laboratory, Cooper follows the case of Manny, another infected man linked to the outbreak triggered by Harper, the woman who exploded in New York and spread the contagion. Manny is collapsing, burning from within, consumed by an uncontrollable heat. Cooper tries to extract information before it is too late. His approach is direct but marked by empathy — a rare combination in a scenario where science already seems to have lost control.

There is no time. Manny begins to transform. The process is violent, physical, almost ritualistic. He attacks everyone around him and flees, while Cooper chases him through a clinic where other people are also undergoing mysterious procedures. The feeling is that something far greater is underway. “Do not let beauty be wasted on the dead,” a doctor shouts, revealing the ideological delirium sustaining the operation.

When Cooper finally finds Manny, the transformation is complete: he is now a man of almost artificial beauty. Manny attacks the agent, the two fight, and he tries to escape. Surrounded by other men, Manny would be eliminated — but Cooper intervenes. He needs him alive. Still, nothing seems capable of containing or reversing what Manny has become.

In Rome, Jeremy is living the life he always wanted, in disturbing contrast to the chaos spreading elsewhere. Like the assassin, he is summoned to deal with a new “problem.” The Corporation reaches a decisive moment: it is the day of the retouch. Ignoring warnings, Jeremy decides that September 9 will be Beauty Day. No more tests. The product will be released to the market. End of discussion.

Meanwhile, Jordan has been distancing herself from Cooper since the events in Venice. The emotional rupture is compounded by another loss: during his absence, Cooper’s cat dies. It is a devastating week. He dreams of Jordan disfigured, an image that blends desire and horror. When he wakes up, someone is knocking at the door. A beautiful woman introduces herself. Her name is Jordan.