We start off with Cole and Luisa this week, which feels appropriate since we’re building up to their inevitable wedding and they have a ways to go on the matter still. Cole bringing Luisa home to meet his mother goes much how you might expect it to in what makes for a very quiet, meditative beginning. The initial appearance of Cole’s mother in her new housekeeping job reeks of passive aggressiveness on her part, but seeing her and Luisa connect later on is genuinely heartwarming. It’s here where Luisa’s concerns of being a runner up to Alison begin to bubble to the surface. She wants their wedding to share as little a resemblance to Cole’s previous one as possible, and for someone like Cole that gets so lost in the past that’s honestly probably the healthiest thing for him, too.

Along with Cole and Luisa’s wedding being something that we need to check off before the season’s through, so too is Scotty’s untimely demise. His pop-ups shouldn’t be a surprise any more—nor should his perma-strung out appearance—and soon he begins to warp Luisa’s entirely pleasant visit. As the season’s lingering dots begin to connect, you can’t help but imagine these two will need to see more of each other. Luisa (suddenly) is very passionate about opening her own restaurant, and when Scotty is after the exact same thing with Noah caught in the middle, it’s beginning to grow into the sort of catastrophe for the finale that the flashforwards have been hinting at.

As much as all of this is a bad idea, people are capable of making rash decisions when their dream is dangling right in front of them. The fact that Cole has to involve Alison in this matter, in what’s conceivably the start of their new future, is a reminder of how interconnected everyone is. We see the episode’s theme getting representation once more in the sense that Cole wants to make his way without the help of the rest of his family, and Luisa simply wants to move into a life that’s actually hers rather than feeling like a runner-up prize. The idea that this gesture of good will towards his future-wife ends up turning into some hostile business relationship between Alison and Scotty acts as an example of just how quickly things can get out of hand, especially when money’s involved.

The powder keg of a scene that all of this turns into as Cole and Scotty come to blows is difficult to watch, but it seems to lead to some good in the end. Scotty has been the master of his own destruction for the bulk of this series, but you can’t help but feel for him slightly when he pleads to be let into this idea that was his in the first place. The compromise in the end that Scotty has to go to rehab is the perfect resolution here, even if it does feel that it’s reached under duress. The scariest thing is seeing how fast and loose Scotty is playing here, willing to give up Alison’s baby’s paternity info like he’s a child throwing a tantrum. The idea that Scotty at any point could throw this life-altering information out there is a terrifying thumb to be living underneath. It’s even the sort of situation that could push Alison towards silencing Scotty permanently…

As we check in with Noah on his side of the narrative, it’s a little shocking to see just how much the walls of his life have been closing in on him. His makeshift bathroom office is practically a metaphor for his life at this point, as everything gets crammed into a tiny space and sees compartmentalization. By the time Noah brings up the prospect of having a “date night” with Alison as the only way of making time to talk with her, the sheen of this shiny, “new” relationship is finally gone. This morning is absolutely no different than one he’d be experiencing with Helen.