Tasha and Mr. Davenport blame Bree for "letting" Owen set the couch on fire, and don't seem to notice anything wrong with her or Chase.

"You have to listen to me," Leo says, following his mom and stepdad around the kitchen. "He's got this little thing called a squip in his head and it's making him evil, well not evil, just really mean, but he's gonna give them to everyone at school and turn everyone in super trendy zombies!"

"Honey, you've got a wild imagination," Tasha says dismissively, putting a gallon of milk back in the fridge.

"I'm not making this up!" Leo exclaims. "And I think Chase gave one of the squips to Bree, too. Look at her!"

He points. Bree's been on her phone for the past hour, texting and tweeting and generally ignoring the world around her.

"Yeah, she's a zombie alright," Tasha says, laughing a little as she shakes her head. "Leo, stop making up stories. We need to get ready for the boys' play tonight."

"Big D, I'm serious," Leo pleads, turning to Mr. Davenport. "Chase has a squip."

"Leo, I think you mean 'chip,'" Donald says. "Chase has a 'chip' in his head that makes him do weird things."

"No," Leo complains, but Tasha and Mr. Davenport just tune him out. He's starting to think that Chase was right; he would be able to get Mr. Davenport to send him away. Big D already ignores him. "It's… he's… oh, never mind. Where's Douglas?"


Douglas is in the lab working on creating his own zebrafish, apparently. Leo guesses that means he gave up on the squip. "Hey," he says, leaning over the tank of fish (currently non-glowing.)

He surprises Douglas, who jumps. "Oh, hi, Leo," he says, bracelets rattling as he settles back in his stool. "What's going on?"

"Teen angst and excessive peril," Leo sighs, nudging the fish tank away from Douglas to get his uncle to focus on him. "I need your help. It's Chase."

"Hm? Oh," Douglas says, looking uncomfortable. "Look, Leo… I know you guys have been fighting. Donnie and I didn't talk for ten years, and honestly… it's a miracle that we get along now. I don't really know what to tell you about you and Chase."

"Tell me how to fix him," Leo says. "This isn't him, it's the squip."

"The squip?" Douglas says. "Leo, that's a minor behavioral modification enhancement. It doesn't actually 'control' anyone."

"Then I guess you aren't worried about Chase passing out squips to the entire student body."

Douglas goes pale. "What? He made more? How is he… that, uh, that sounds like a bad idea."

"I know!" Leo says. "And I think you're wrong about how powerful the squip is. I think it got more powerful after Chase swallowed it. Like… like it upgraded itself."

Douglas shakes his head. "I created it," he says. "It wouldn't go wrong like that." As if on cue, one of the zebrafish spontaneously combusts, leaving little burnt fish scales to float to the top of the tank. "On the other hand, you might be right."

"Chase hasn't been a best friend to me for a while, but he's still my brother," Leo says. "And you? You're always talking about wanting the kids to count you as their dad. You have to make yourself count. Okay? Make this count."

"I'll try," Douglas says.

"We have to go," Leo says. "I need your help. You made Chase take this thing in the first place. We can't let it get out to everyone else. He's gonna squip everyone. We can't let all the kids at Mission Creek get squipped."

"It's not a verb," Douglas groans. "It's an acronym. You can't 'NASA' to the moon. You can't 'LEMP' a…" His eyes light up. "The LEMP! That might be able to disable the squip."

"You're right! Chase once called that thing a giant glitch machine," Leo says. "I'm taking the LEMP to the school and I'm gonna see if I can stop Chase."

"I'm right behind you," Douglas says. "Good luck."

Leo runs.


Backstage at the Mission Creek High School production of Hamilton: An American Musical, Chase is freaking the freak out.

"Where's Janelle?" he asks the squip, buzzing around the gym looking for her. "She took all the squips and left. What happened? Please tell me she tossed them in the trash."

She put them somewhere where they'll be useful, the squip tells him. At that moment, Ms. Andrews glides forward to greet the cast.

"We start in ten," she calls out, looking a little too ecstatic for a mediocre mostly-white performance of Hamilton. "Remember, when Hamilton comes out for his big opening number, everyone needs to perform as one. In sync."

"We are," the entire cast choruses. It's maybe the creepiest thing Chase has ever seen.

"Ms. Andrews, we need to stop this play," he says, stepping forward despite his squip warning him. "It's not safe."

"Oh, relax, Mr. Davenport," Ms. Andrews says, looking a lot happier than she normally does. "Be more chill."

See? Everyone else knows what's good for them, the squip says.

"Janelle made everyone take the squips," Chase laments as Ms. Andrews walks away to greet audience members. What is he supposed to do? How does he turn off the squip?