Harper recounts how a deputy shot his father during a bank eviction, fueling his rebellion.
The episode opens with a mature audience disclaimer and a note that the creators' personal views are not necessarily reflected in the story. The Night Cleaner narrator works in a dank basement and speaks to a new colleague, explaining the building's history. A fellow cleaner from the upper floors is departing because he has seen a ghost—a military figure in uniform—and can no longer cope. Before leaving, he gives the narrator a pin he found, reasoning it should stay with whoever it belonged to. The narrator muses that communes, where the departing cleaner is headed, attract all types. This leads into the embedded story of Harper's Ferry, a fictionalized Oregon militia group. Harper Allen, born David Allen Dubinsky, grew up in rural northern Oregon outside Enterprise. His father was shot dead by a deputy when banks tried to foreclose on the family's multi-generational land. Harper uses this origin as the foundation of his ideology, framing police as the enforcement arm of corporate financial interests. In a public speech, he calls on followers to take an oath of blood loyalty and declares that coexistence with the state is impossible. He identifies cowardice as choosing personal safety over collective freedom. During a gathering, Harper exposes a member named Kevin Armstrong as undercover federal agent Orville Keller. He invites the crowd to react before delivering another speech about the group's justification. The group moves to attack a Portland building. A fictional television news broadcast announces that heavily armed members of Harper's Ferry have seized a building, with at least 15 hostages and some presumed dead. Harper then addresses law enforcement from inside the building through a bullhorn, arguing that the siege is politically untenable for officials. He urges the National Guard to stand down, framing officers as protecting murderers. The episode ends with sounds of a tactical retreat, the old Civil War song 'John Brown's Body', and a brief return to the Night Cleaner narrator who tucks the pin away. Production credits are read aloud.
