Delicate Condition

Anna responds to the stalker, asking if this unspecified “they” killed her baby, and the stalker responds by asking if Anna is sure it’s dead. The stalker stops responding to questions after this, and Anna hypothesizes about how it would be possible for her baby to still be alive when Dr. Crawford couldn’t find a heartbeat. Anna decides to go to CVS for a fetal heart rate monitor. On her way out of the house, she smells the corpse of a raccoon that died in the empty swimming pool; she’s disturbed to find that the scent makes her crave eating the raccoon. Unnerved, Anna hurries to the CVS, where there are no fetal heart rate monitors. When the store clerk puts her hand on Anna’s belly without Anna’s permission, though, she claims to feel something kicking inside.

Anna returns to her car and receives a call from Emily: Anna has been nominated for an Oscar. As Emily begins to insist that Anna do more publicity events and possibly move to LA, Anna starts to consider Emily’s motivations and the possibility that Emily might somehow be the one interfering with her life. When Anna gets back to Talia’s house, a strange woman approaches; Anna quickly evades her. Dex is home, and when she asks Dex if this woman might be a neighbor, Dex reveals that Talia also owns the house next door but keeps it empty. Anna tells Dex that she believes she’s still pregnant. Dex, though initially hesitant, feels her stomach and also feels kicking. The kicking grows more violent until Anna, in deep pain, believes that the baby has broken one of her ribs.

Dex takes Anna to the hospital, though she’s apprehensive about returning to the site of her earlier trauma so quickly. Dr. Hill, in from the city, gives Anna an ultrasound that reveals Anna is, in fact, still pregnant.

In 2007, Lucy, a pregnant woman who previously had a very difficult birth because doctors didn’t believe that she was in pain despite her insistence, takes the advice of a stranger named Josie and hides dolls in various parts of the city. Josie tells her that the dolls will help ease the pain of her pregnancy. Lucy, disillusioned with doctors and hospitals, figures that the dolls can’t hurt.

Dr. Hill informs Anna that her rib is bruised, not broken, and that this issue is not unheard of in pregnant people. The doctor theorizes that Anna was previously pregnant with twins and miscarried only one. This explanation doesn’t quite sit right with Anna, but she’s willing to accept it because of her elation. As she’s driving home with Dex and Kamal, she sees that her stalker has left her a new message via her calendar warning her that she can’t trust anyone.

Anna tells Dex and Kamal about the message, and Dex reveals that he spoke to Emily while Anna was in the hospital, so Emily knew about the visit with Dr. Hill. Kamal urges Anna to fire Emily as her publicist, which Anna agrees to do.

A few days later, Anna believes she hears noises in the attic while she’s in bed. Dex checks, but there’s nothing. To settle Anna’s nerves, Dex brings some cookies from the kitchen. Anna discovers that, though she’s been eating these cookies for weeks, neither she nor Dex actually knows where they came from. Disturbed, Anna heads to the bathroom, where she finds a photo hidden in a drawer of Dex, Adeline, Talia, and Meg. Talia appears to be waving to Meg. Anna is deeply unsettled by this revelation and begins tugging at her hair; her hair comes out in large, bloody clumps.

Dex bursts into the bathroom, and Anna reveals the photograph. Dex, more disturbed by the hair loss than the photo, gets Anna an appointment with Dr. Hill, who assures Anna that hair loss during pregnancy is normal. Dex asks Talia about the photo during the appointment, and Talia confirms that she was once acquainted with the woman but no longer knows her. That night, Anna hears movement in the attic again. She goes up herself this time and finds a doll with its hair pulled out.

Anna tells Kamal about the doll and begins to question how well she really knows Talia. She then receives a phone call from a detective in New York who was assigned to her case. He tells her that the warehouse holding the dolls of her former television character was broken into by a woman who appears to be Meg. Anna goes to bed distressed and has a long, vivid dream about going out to the pool for the raccoon. When she wakes, she finds that she did go out to the pool; to her relief, the raccoon is nowhere to be seen.

Anna goes back inside and, while in the bathroom, sees a woman outside. Kamal, having already realized that someone has tripped the outside motion detector, finds Anna and tells her to stay in the bathroom. Neither Kamal nor the police who eventually arrive are able to find anything.

In 1978, Viviana Torres gets pregnant at 16 and wants to get an abortion. She knows her Catholic parents won’t allow it, so she goes to her friend, Sofia, whose great aunt, a bruja, taught Sofia an abortion ritual. Months later, Viviana still feels the baby inside her and now has unusual cravings. She goes back to Sofia, who contacts her great aunt; the great aunt lets them know that they’ve done the ritual incorrectly and must follow her instructions before it’s too late.