Hilde realizes that much of Erie Harbor, from books and computers at school to infrastructure in town, is funded and sponsored by StrataTech. Grant Williams, the President of StrataTech, shows up at the Lisko’s home. He claims he only has Erie Harbor’s best interest in mind and swears that StrataTech cleaned up the cadmium decades ago. He later warns Matt and Bridget to get control of their daughter.

Junior Johnson decides to sell his farm to StrataTech when cadmium is found in his water supply. He worries he can’t protect his animals or afford to clean up the contamination. StrataTech announces plans to build a new storage facility for the chemicals on the land. Trip is heartbroken. Trip asks her father to delay moving off the land, so she has time to find a way to fight this.

Trip decides to launch an investigation into StrataTech. However, she needs someone she can trust, so she hires Frank back to the Sheriff’s department. Sylvester and Matt find old photos from Richie Fife’s birthday at the airfield the year he disappeared. Hank was there too.

Not only are Donny and Spoon sentenced to community service, but Donny’s father was demoted at StrataTech. Donny and Spoon blame Hilde. Hilde apologizes and says there’s nothing more important than their friendship. The threesome share a group hug.

Ethan says he wants to get to know Emma better since she’s important to Izzy. The threesome blow off the high school pep rally and run into Hilde, Donny, and Spoon. It turns out that Ethan’s mom is Grant William’s assistant at StrataTech.

Ethan invites Izzy over to meet his mom, but they use dinner as a distraction so that Hilde, Spoon, and Donny can use her laptop to check StrataTech files. They find files and information on the entire Lisko family. Unfortunately, it sets off a security alert, and Grant catches them.

Later that night, Ethan sneaks onto his mother’s computer, downloads the files, and sends them via anonymous email address to Sheriff Trip Johnson. Trip forwards it to Matt and Bridget. It’s a video interview with Arthur Conway, the air traffic controller, and Hank Gillis, who worked as a test pilot for StrataTech from 1987. They recall having overheard StrataTech executives talk about how the sealant was making people sick at Richie Fife’s birthday at the airfield.

StrataTech claimed to have stopped using cadmium in the 1970s. It appears they lied.