One day, Joe and Bazil go shopping at Geraldine’s request. She has retreated into herself again since Linden’s release, though she tries hard to recover. At the grocery store, Joe and Bazil see Linden. Overcome with anger, Bazil attacks Linden. Linden manages to escape, however, and Bazil has a heart attack. Bazil is taken to a hospital in Fargo. While waiting for Bazil to recover, Joe and his mother find out that Linden has been attacked and beaten up by Geraldine’s friends and family. Geraldine realizes that Linden will be a problem she will have to deal with for the rest of the foreseeable future. Not wanting his mother to be burdened by her fear of Linden, Joe decides to take matters into his own hand.

He hatches a plan, deciding to pretend to be interested in church so that he can join the youth program and learn how to shoot. Appearing to see through his intentions, Father Travis refuses to let Joe shoot. Cappy teaches Joe how to shoot using Cappy’s father’s shotgun. When Cappy begins to worry that his father will notice the missing ammunition, Joe convinces his mother to take him shoe shopping, then sneaks away to buy more ammunition for the gun.