- The tube spits Joy, Sadness, and the Core Memories out into a giant bin of memories. They're surrounded by absolutely massive shelves of memories, and Joy wonders where the heck they are.
- Then she figures out that they're in Long-Term Memory. All of Riley's Personality Islands nearby are still dark. This is not good.
- Sadness also adds that, with Joy absent from Headquarters, Riley can't be happy. Thanks, Sadness.
- Undaunted, Joy says they can fix things. All they need to do is get themselves—and the Core Memories—back to HQ.
- A wide shot reveals that HQ is really far away. Consider Joy daunted.
- At the dinner table, Riley's acting weird—or at least, she is according to Disgust, Anger, and Fear.
- They agree that it's because Joy is gone and decide that one of them should just pretend to be Joy and do what Joy would do.
- Disgust goes first, and Riley is sarcastic to her mom. Then it's Fear's turn. When Mom asks how school was, Riley's indecisive and irritated.
- We also see inside Mom and Dad's heads. They have five-emotion teams behind their control panels, too, just like Riley does. Dad's all have mustaches, like Dad. Mom's all wear glasses, like Mom.
- Mom tries to bring Dad into the conversation, since, frankly, Riley's being a real pain in the butt to talk to. The crew in Dad's HQ isn't paying attention to what's going on around him, though; they're watching sports.
- Mom finally gets Dad's attention and he asks how school was.
- Up in HQ, it's Anger's turn to do what he thinks Joy would do. At the dinner table, Riley has an angry outburst and then a tense back-and-forth with her dad that culminates in Riley telling her parent to shut up, and Dad sending her to her room. Ouch.
- Riley goes up to her room and slams the door.
- Meanwhile, Joy decides that the best way to get back to HQ is to walk across a super-long beam that links Goofball Island and HQ. Beneath it is a deep, dark pit.
- Sadness isn't sold. If they fall off the beam, they'll end up in the Memory Dump and be forgotten forever.
- Dad comes up to Riley's room to smooth things over. He tries making silly monkey faces; those usually do the trick. With Goofball Island out of commission, though, they're useless.
- Riley shoots him a blank stare, and then turns her head away from him again. Goofball Island crashes into the Memory Dump, taking Riley's memories of things like jumping on a trampoline and acting silly with her parents with it.
- As Goofball Island crashes, so does the beam that heads toward HQ. Joy and Sadness run back across the beam, and Goofball Island, making a narrow escape back to the safety of Long-Term Memory. Sadness says they're a lost cause.
- Just then, Riley falls asleep. Joy thinks that's perfect; nothing bad can happen while she's asleep, and they'll be back at HQ before she wakes up. They're just going to have to take the long way to get there, through the winding labyrinth of Long-Term Memory.
- Sadness tells Joy she's going to get lost in there, and she should know: She read all about Long-Term Memory's endless corridors in the manual.
- It dawns on Joy that, if she's read the manual, Sadness should know the right route to take to get back to HQ. Sadness confirms that, yeah, she guesses she knows the way—but she's too sad to walk. Joy drags her by the ankle, and they're on their way.