In Chap­ter 106 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch arrives in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., feel­ing out of place yet cap­ti­vat­ed by the city’s ambiance. He shares an extrav­a­gant din­ner with Sam­my at a high-end steak­house, where he strug­gles with the cost of the meal, unsure if the price tag reflects its age or exor­bi­tance. Attempt­ing to order some­thing sim­ple, he faces Sam­my’s bemuse­ment, lead­ing to a light-heart­ed teas­ing about his choic­es. Sam­my indulges in expen­sive wine, rem­i­nisc­ing about the day they made a sig­nif­i­cant deal while Patch reflects on his past.

Their con­ver­sa­tion shifts from casu­al to seri­ous as Sam­my reveals the inter­est sur­round­ing Patch’s art, which has been mak­ing waves thanks to his recent suc­cess­es. Patch, while strug­gling with his finances, resists Sam­my’s sug­ges­tions of sell­ing fam­i­ly heir­looms, as his moth­er had always dreamed of own­ing their fam­i­ly home. Amid their ban­ter, Patch’s curios­i­ty piques regard­ing a wait­ress named Melis­sa, though his inter­est wanes when her appeal becomes too famil­iar.

As they dis­cuss life con­nec­tions, Patch learns that his past love, Misty Mey­er, is now at Har­vard, though still bar­tend­ing, which he finds intrigu­ing. Sam­my prompts Patch to focus back on his new real­i­ty, lead­ing to deep­er explo­rations of the choic­es they both made in love and art. Their din­ner cul­mi­nates with a wait­ress slip­ping her num­ber into Patch’s pock­et; how­ev­er, he dis­cards it out­side.

Lat­er, Sam­my bun­dles Patch into a taxi, tak­ing him to his pent­house, where Patch is struck by the opu­lence of his sur­round­ings. Sam­my, now intox­i­cat­ed, rem­i­nisces about a Mark Rothko paint­ing he bought in his youth, shar­ing how his artis­tic endeav­ors led to suc­cess, yet dif­fer­ing nar­ra­tives colour their under­stand­ing of wealth and love. As Sam­my drifts off to sleep, Patch con­tem­plates the vast­ness of the world and how it has unfold­ed before him, mak­ing a silent vow to find his lost con­nec­tion, with resolve bloom­ing inside him as he gazes out at the moon­lit city.