Fourth Challenge (Abridged)

This chapter summarizes the key beats of the Fourth Challenge, for readers who cannot or would rather not dive into the traumas of the cast, particularly around activities such as suicide, ****, familial and emotional ****, and so on). The chapter leads directly to The Bridge, the emotional capstone of the challenge.

For brevity's sake, only the Throughline chapters are summarized.

First Cracks

• Norah visits Sam's memory of having just opened The Blue Bean, and learns how Sam's brother was cut off from his family for supporting his sister. Norah encourages Sam.
• Dawn visits a memory of Emily in the Hollow Garden, tending a woman named Sarah W. who turns out to be the Sarah who wrote the note found by Dawn, Marissa and Claire in the Library during the first round. It's implied her baby girl was "taken" or killed by the Master of her season.
• Riley visits a memory of young Norah **** to go to school with broken shoes due to having inherited them as hand-me-downs.
• Emi visits a memory of Andy's childhood home where Laura is baking cookies for Chloe. Oddly enough, this seems to be a Laura memory, not belonging to Andy or anyone else. Laura addresses Emi as if they'd met before, although she clearly doesn't recognize her as her childhood friend. She seems aware that Emi has six arms.
• Sam watches the first time Andy and Erin interacted, in college.
• Erin witnesses Riley being teased by other girls in school because she may be adopted, and gives her advice.

Splintered Edges

• Liesa visits a memory of one of Myra's endless shifts at work, pushing herself harder than anyone. She encourages Myra to slow down.
• Riley visits the memory of a gallery in lower Manhattan where Emily's portfolio was rejected.
• Emi visits Laura's childhood home, where she meets eight-year-old Laura while her father is verbally abusing her mother, Princess, in another room. Emi comforts Laura, who sees that Emi has six arms. Laura is scared, and Emi tells her she's loved, and that Andy will always wait for her. Emi promises she'll come back to see her again (which she technically did in the previous Laura memory in First Cracks). This seems to also be a Laura memory.
• Myra visits a memory of Andy's apartment the afternoon of Aural's sale, just hours before Sam calls him for a beer in the Prologue. He is depressed and aimless, feeling lost. He feels that, with Aural's sale, he has no more reason to live. Myra encourages him and lets him know that if he goes to The HH, he'll meet women who will love him, and he'll have a whole future, admitting she'll be there too. When she leaves, Andy is pondering the invitation.
• Emily witnesses Dawn's recent house life as her father pays attention only to her brothers, and she is taken for granted. Emily encourages Dawn to see herself as more than just service.
• Norah witnesses the argument between Myra and Laura that leads to Myra lying to Laura about Chloe's kiss.

Shifting Mirrors

• Claire enters the memory of when Emily first came to the Hollow Garden and learned she'd never see Jake, Hannah, Rachel or any of the other people in her original season ever again. Emily's pain reaches her, and she falters.
• Sam witnesses the full conversation between Laura and Riley about what Myra said. Riley encourages Laura to seek Andy out at the footbridge, and when Laura leaves, Sam talks with young Riley and tells her to change things, or she'll regret her words this night for the rest of her life.
• Liesa witnesses the argument that destroyed Emi's and Laura's friendship, with Laura telling Emi to stay away from Andy, and Emi telling Laura she's pathetic for not telling Andy how she feels. When Liesa comforts Emi, Emi admits Laura wasn't always like this, but a particularly brutal beating by her father led to her considering Andy her only safe harbor, and she never learned to share.
• Marissa visits a memory of Sam watching old photos and feeling guilty that, because of her, her brother cut himself off of their family too. Marissa reminds her it was his choice, and that he clearly loves his sister.
• Emi visits her own memory (even though Arabella had said this wouldn't happen) of spending time with Laura in the library, showing her her sketchbook, until young Andy arrives and Laura has only eyes for him. To adult Emi's surprise, an adult version of Laura appears and they talk, with Laura expressing regret for the way she was as a child and the way she treated Emi, and both of them apologizing to each other for how their friendship ended. Laura admits if she had another chance, she'd do it right and be a better person. When the vision dissolves, Emi thanks the Garden for giving her this chance.
• Andy, outside the Garden, is deeply shaken by what he has witnessed, and Arabella points out to him there is one more thing: The Bridge.

Bleeding Reflections

• Liesa visits a memory of Emi when her parents refused to understand her loneliness.
• Dawn visits a memory of Laura's funeral, seeing young Andy, Riley, and later, Emi leaving her paper crane on the grave.
• Riley visits Myra's memory of when she was told she was going to be blind for the rest of her life. Despite her lingering resentment towards Myra, seeing her pain moves Riley, who realizes Andy is right: Myra paid more than her share for what she did to Laura.

Rising Fractures

• Chloe visits a memory of Andy's, shortly after losing Erin, in which he is depressed but has come up with Aural.
• Emi visits a memory of Laura's childhood bedroom, five days before her ****, where Laura is writing a letter to her mother, saying how much she loves her and how much it hurts Laura to see her mother so dominated by her father. She promises that when she's older, she'll save her mother and take her away. Emi's heart breaks at the realization Laura never got to do that. She comforts Laura and, when Laura leaves the room, Emi takes the letter Laura wrote. Somehow, when she leaves the memory, she finds the letter is still in her pocket.
• Norah visits a memory of Claire at 19, at a party, where she is overwhelmed by the various sensory stimuli and screams before running to the bathroom, where the other girls mock her. Norah encourages her to see herself as beautiful, not broken, and promises her that someday, she'll meet others who see her that way.

Final Devastations

• Claire visits the memory of Riley near the incubator where her son fights for his life, just as he passes away. She witnesses Riley's agony.
• Myra finds herself in the memory of when Riley was told by the Army that her husband had been killed in action.
• Riley finds herself in the memory of when Chloe was given her infertility diagnosis.
• Emily witnesses the aftermath of the divorce of Erin's parents.