In Chap­ter 88 of “We Solve Mur­ders,” the scene opens with Max High­field pos­ing on a sheep­skin rug, adorned with dia­monds on his chest. A pho­tog­ra­ph­er is direct­ing him, prompt­ing expres­sions rang­ing from mean to sexy, while Rosie cheer­ful­ly engages in the cre­ative process, seat­ed on a yoga ball and smok­ing a joint. Max, who is about to take on the role of Blake Scott, seeks input on his char­ac­ter, ask­ing Rosie for name sug­ges­tions and how Blake should look. Rosie sug­gests that Blake resem­bles Max, spark­ing ideas for a mus­tache and fur­ther char­ac­ter devel­op­ment.

As Max pre­pares for his next shoot, he and Abby, his body­guard, dis­cuss cre­ative aspects and Max’s aspi­ra­tions as a writer. He reflects on the nature of his work, dis­miss­ing tra­di­tion­al lit­er­a­ture in favor of stream-of-con­scious­ness poet­ry. Despite this, he express­es inter­est in Blake Scott’s sto­ry, albeit with reser­va­tions about play­ing a vil­lain. Rosie intro­duces the plot—a syn­di­cate that pays influ­encers to smug­gle mon­ey, explain­ing Blake’s role as the mas­ter­mind. Max reacts incred­u­lous­ly, ques­tion­ing the legal­i­ty of these actions, which prompts light-heart­ed ban­ter between him, Rosie, and pro­duc­er Steve.

The dynam­ics change when Abby sur­pris­es Max by pro­vid­ing access to live footage of his dogs at a res­i­den­tial facil­i­ty, caus­ing an emo­tion­al reac­tion from him. The con­ver­sa­tion mean­ders back to the sto­ry, reveal­ing that the influ­encers involved in the plot start get­ting shot. Max relates this to a friend’s expe­ri­ence, adding a per­son­al touch to the unfold­ing nar­ra­tive.

Excit­ed about film­ing logis­tics, Max con­firms his par­tic­i­pa­tion but insists his char­ac­ter must retain the hero­ic aspect, sug­gest­ing anoth­er char­ac­ter take on the vil­lain role. He even pro­pos­es to involve his friend Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met and express­es inter­est in names asso­ci­at­ed with the project. As he heads to the stage, Rosie and Steve spec­u­late about his true lev­el of involve­ment in the plot. The chap­ter ends on a cliffhang­er about the ambigu­ous morals of the char­ac­ters involved as they lis­ten to Max deliv­er his speech.

In Chap­ter 88 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch spends more time at Misty’s fam­i­ly home on Parade Hill. Dur­ing a vis­it to Lake­land Mall with Misty and her moth­er, he faces pres­sure when Misty wants to buy gifts, but he refus­es, lead­ing to ten­sion as Misty leaves upset. As spring 1979 unfolds, Patch learns about Misty’s life and her grand­moth­er’s strug­gles with the DMV. Nor­ma, Misty’s grand­moth­er, is adamant about con­tin­u­ing to dri­ve despite chal­lenges.

Patch’s rela­tion­ship with Misty deep­ens. He observes how she reacts to his pres­ence; girls like Anna, Christy, and Heather seem to notice him more, espe­cial­ly with his eye patch and the fact that he once saved someone’s life. Misty is pro­tec­tive, notably con­fronting Heather and fierce­ly pro­claim­ing her strength, which Patch finds intim­i­dat­ing yet cap­ti­vat­ing. Togeth­er they ride Misty’s old bike, share sun­lit after­noons by the lake, and nav­i­gate con­ver­sa­tions about Grace, a fig­ure from Patch’s past that looms over their con­nec­tion.

Their first fight occurs one May after­noon when Misty feels over­looked as Patch attends to a phone call he believes is unim­por­tant. Her frus­tra­tion esca­lates, lead­ing her to chase a bus out of anger. Patch and Sam­my, a friend who offers humor­ous insights about life and rela­tion­ships, share drinks while dis­cussing Patch’s evolv­ing artis­tic jour­ney. Sam­my encour­ages him to show­case his paint­ings, empha­siz­ing the need for val­i­da­tion despite Patch’s uncer­tain­ty regard­ing art school.

The chap­ter unveils Patch’s inter­nal con­flict as he grap­ples with what con­sti­tutes a “nor­mal” life ver­sus the tumul­tuous pur­suit of find­ing Grace. As he rev­els in moments with Misty, he ques­tions the weight of his attach­ments and respon­si­bil­i­ties, real­iz­ing he’s press­ing pause on his true aspi­ra­tions, caught in a cycle of emo­tion­al tur­bu­lence and long­ing. The nar­ra­tive cap­tures a sense of yearn­ing and the com­plex­i­ties of young love amidst unre­solved pasts and ambi­tions.