As the prop casket closes in Ireland, the real casket descends into the ground in Atlantic City -- which does not escape the attention of Esther Randolph's crony Lathrop.

Meanwhile, the doctor has arrived to check out Emily. He assures her she's doing a job while discreetly telling Margaret to evacuate the room. Margaret wastes no time panicking and barely gets out of earshot from Emily before hysterically asking the doctor whether it's polio. He does not deny she has all the symptoms and says they'll need to quarantine Emily immediately.

Elsewhere, Dunn Purnsley is still bruised (not to mention a few gold teeth richer) from his time in jail, but he's got a dishwashing job at a hotel and still as fiery as ever -- which is of little consequence to his boss. Dunn's coworkers take their 10-minute lunch break and sit down to savor the slop their bosses allow them to take -- food that Dunn considers worse than the leftovers from the hotel guests' room service trays. All the others are more concerned with keeping their jobs than quality of life, and when the boss returns to address Dunn with haughty parlance that drips of condescension ("Lord Purnsley, your great celestial majesty") but makes it clear that not even a scrap of insubordination will be tolerated. Satisfied he's made his point, he leaves the kitchen. And, because Dunn will never learn anything -- even if he is nearly killed for the learning -- he says faux humbly, "You heard the man. Eat up!" It's obvious there are wheels turning in that head that cannot be stopped. (And Eric LaRay Harvey is spectacular in this unctuous, rabble rousing role).

Hospital. Margaret watches as the doctors prepare to give Emily an agonizing spinal tap. Margaret wants to go in, but the doctor reminds her that polio is highly contagious. She protests, "I don't care what happens to me!" He says, "Care about what happens to the people you come in contact with." (As good a thesis statement for this series as any I've heard so far.) So Margaret must stand just beyond the glass, powerless and horrified as her daughter screams and writhes through horrible pain. The doctor tells her, "It's better if you don't look," but she can't not look.