- We cut to a university building, and a location caption informs us it's Baltimore, 1996. Thanks, location caption, you are always there when we need you.
- In a lecture hall, Dr. Railly is giving a presentation on madness and apocalyptic visions. At one point, she mentions a soldier from World War I who gibbered nonsense about some disease that would wipe out humanity in 1996.
- The picture shows a man who looks striking similar to Jose.
- (She also mentions something called the "Cassandra Complex," but let's put a pin on that until we get to the "Symbols and Tropes" section.)
- At the book signing, a man named Dr. Peters asks Railly to sign his book. He thinks she has given alarmists a bad name, since the world cannot survive the "excesses of the human race."
- After the event, Railly walks to her car, but a man leaps out of the shadows and forces himself into the car with her. Claiming to have a gun, he coerces her into driving him to Philadelphia.
- She says he can have the car, but he says he doesn't know how to drive—this guy was raised underground since he was eight years old.
- Railly realizes her abductor is James Cole. Surprise.