Scott heads into the next room, which is the special meeting room, where Mason's parents are waiting. With a lawyer. "I didn't realize you were going to be bringing an attorney." The lawyer says maybe he can help the situation. Then he has Mason's father explain that he has assurances from Amherst that, if Harvey withdraws his letter, it will be considered expunged, and Mason will get in. Then the lawyer nods meaningfully. Yeah, he's way useful. Scott says that the school stands behind the letter after all. "I checked around, Mr. Richards. There are some faculty members that concur with Mr. Lipschultz, that your son does have some character issues. I also feel it would be highly unethical for a school to either give or rescind recommendations under duress, which the threat of litigation would clearly constitute." The lawyer explains that unfavorable recommendations are clearly actionable. Perhaps, but surely not under any circumstances at all, right? It must be possible to give someone an unfavorable one without getting sued. Scott says this, more or less: "This school would be willing to challenge any such law, which would have a chilling effect on a teacher's right to be candid."

Dick Teachie, meanwhile, is trying to give his midterm. The students want to talk about Randall Kennedy's book instead, since they all read it overnight. Moved by their intellectual curiosity, he lets them talk. Andre says, "Everybody's asking why can blacks say it, and whites can't. Tupac can say it, and J. Lo can't. And I admit, it's like a double standard. But this professor, he nails it. 'Nigger'…it's like a white supremacist word. They give it its power, and they give it its ugliness. But when blacks use it, it's like we're taking the word away, and making it our word. We're taking power away from the racists." More debating, which quickly devolves again into everyone talking at once, but in a good way. Teachie watches their enthusiasm nervously.

Delineation Alley. Ronnie gives a resistant Natalie the address of the place Guber recommended. Natalie takes it. Elsewhere, Steven flags down Dick Teachie. "Was I too subtle last night?" Teachie says that the students brought it up, and still want to talk about it, so what was he supposed to do? "So if I'm gonna get fired, just let me know. You got me, like, hangin' on a hook here." Steven walks away.