Nick arrives and Eileen pulls him off upstairs. Sam says something to Julia, which Tom observes worriedly. Then Tom goes over to talk to her and she looks like she's going to puke. Although she's drinking, which relieves me because I was really afraid they were springing a Surprise! Adultery Baby on us in last season's finale. Thanks for not doing that, show. Seriously. Thank you.

Derek congratulates Karen and thanks her for lifting his mood. He asks how she did that and she says, "I'm your muse. It's what we do." Now I'm going to throw up. Derek is just leaning in to kiss Karen when Ivy comes in behind her. He stops, but Ivy leaves and he follows. She asks if that's why he called, to tell her he's with Karen and Derek insists, "I am not with Karen." Karen is about six feet behind him still. He's literally equidistant between them. WE GET IT, SHOW. Ivy asks why he did call her then, and realizes he's firing her. "Because of her?" Derek says Ivy's name, but doesn't follow when she leaves this time.

Julia comes back to Shrek and asks him who he was with earlier in the day. He denies he was with anyone and she says Tom saw him. He says it was the new superintendent and it was nothing. Julia asks why he didn't tell her and Shrek gets angry, and then stalks off. Oh my god, please leave forever. Julia follows him and Shrek starts making a scene. He says he didn't sleep with Mary the Superintendent, but maybe he should. He's shouting now, saying maybe he should sleep with someone in the cast, because Julia did and Tom did and "Derek did, with every actress who put on a Marilyn wig." Michael Riedel smugly pipes up, "Can I quote you on that?" Oh please do! Julia looks stricken and Shrek realizes maybe he's gone too far.

Ivy asks to talk to Karen and says having her fired was totally the right call, that she's right to hate Ivy. Ivy confesses that she hates herself even more than Karen does, and that she was a mess in Boston. She says she almost did something really stupid (other than Dev?) and asks why, somewhat rhetorically. She says she's sorry for getting in Karen's way and wishes her good luck. "You deserve it," she says. Goddamn, Megan Hilty is a pro. I'd rather cut out my tongue than give that speech to some twenty-two-year-old idiot from Iowa who stole my dream role after I spent ten years in the chorus.