S02E23 - Last Day

"Last Day" is the twenty-third episode of Season 2 of We Can Fix Pawbert. It follows the clemency hearing of "The Ask", with Pawbert due back at Zootopia Correctional Facility the next morning to serve the year left on his commuted sentence. ZSI's decision to decommission Site Two gives the pack a single day to strip the safehouse of everything that made it theirs.

Synopsis

On his last morning at Site Two, Pawbert Lynxley wakes before dawn and makes coffee in the dark. Luther joins him. ZSI handler Agent Ross calls: the agency is decommissioning the safehouse, compromised during the siege, and the pack has until transport the next morning to clear out anything personal. They spend the day packing. Nick Wilde and Pawbert empty the kitchen, keeping the recipe cards Pawbert wrote out himself and leaving a flour pawprint dried inside a cabinet door for the next occupants. Judy Hopps unpins the corkboard: the recipe card in his mother Lillian's writing, Charles Boyle's napkin, Maddie Han's card, the squad Pawlaroid. Luther packs those, the album of Lillian's photographs and the heist trophy for storage at the Zootopia Correctional Facility; the STAY notebook and the laminated photo of her go with Pawbert. Nick and Judy commit to weekly visits and to the single year left on his sentence, then the three embrace in the stripped living room. Over a last dinner of leftovers the pack trades old kitchen stories, then Nick and Judy retire early to leave the couple alone. Pawbert admits he is afraid of forgetting how this feels; Luther promises to remind him every week. Pawbert wakes first before dawn, and Luther asks him to stay in bed with the transport still hours away.

Plot

Pawbert lies awake before dawn on his last morning at Site Two, Luther's arm across his chest, watching the water stain on the bedroom ceiling. He slides out from under the arm and makes coffee in the dark kitchen, moving by memory to find everything without turning on a light. Luther comes to the doorway a few minutes later. They drink standing at the window while the city is still dark, and agree that this is their last morning in the safehouse.

Later that morning Luther takes a call in the hallway and brings the news back to the living room. Their ZSI handler, Agent Ross, has confirmed the agency is decommissioning Site Two: the assault during the siege compromised the location, it no longer meets security protocols, and it is going back into standard property rotation. The pack has until transport the next morning to clear out personal items, and ZSI handles the rest. Judy says the safehouse was supposed to be temporary. Nick tells her it always was, and she answers that this does not make it easier.

In the kitchen, Nick helps Pawbert separate what is his from what belongs to the safehouse. The cast iron pans stay, but the index cards of recipes Pawbert wrote out and refined himself get wrapped in a dish towel and packed. Opening a cabinet for a last check, Nick finds a small pawprint in dried flour on the inside of the door. It is Pawbert's own, left on one of the sleepless nights when he baked to get through the anxiety. Neither of them cleans it off. They agree to leave it for whoever moves in next.

In the living room, Judy works through the corkboard and its collection of kindness: Charles Boyle's napkin with the pancake recipe, Lillian's recipe card with its note about extra carrots in the margin, Maddie Han's card, and the squad Pawlaroid. Nick joins her and they remember moving in after the first safehouse was hit, and the night Pawbert sat and cried because Luther had woken up. Judy unpins each item, wraps it in tissue paper and packs it into a box. The board itself stays on the wall, empty apart from the pin holes.

In the bedroom, Luther sorts what goes into storage from what goes with Pawbert. The album of Lillian's photographs, the heist trophy and the boxed corkboard items are routed to storage at the Zootopia Correctional Facility, where they will wait out the year. The STAY notebook goes into Pawbert's bag alongside the laminated photo of his mother, the only two possessions that go into the cell with him. Luther tells him that home is wherever they end up.

By afternoon the safehouse looks like the government property it always was: boxes stacked by the door, bare walls, institutional furniture, nothing personal left in the rooms. Judy finds Pawbert standing in the middle of it, and he thanks her for staying. She tells him they never stayed because they had to. Nick comes through from the kitchen to report it clear and the pawprint left in place, and the two of them commit to weekly visits and hold Pawbert to the single year remaining. When he asks what happens if prison changes him, Judy points out that he came out of it different the last time, and better. Judy then opens her arms, Pawbert kneels to reach her, and Nick's arm comes around them both.

Dinner is assembled from whatever is left in the refrigerator, roasted root vegetables, a quick tomato sauce, bread warmed out of the freezer, and eaten standing at the kitchen counter because the table has already been returned to its original position. Nick retells the first meal Pawbert cooked at Site Two, a soup seasoned with nothing but salt that Luther ate three bowls of anyway. Pawbert throws bread at him. No one talks about the transport. Afterward, in the hallway, Judy suggests an early night, which everyone understands as an offer of privacy. She and Nick say their goodbyes to Pawbert and close their bedroom door.

Luther and Pawbert stand at their own window with the room stripped down to the bed and their bags, the weather walls shimmering across the city. Pawbert tells Luther he is not frightened of prison, having done it before, but of losing this, of forgetting what it is to wake up next to him and to cook for mammals who want the food. Luther holds his face and promises to remind him every week. They spend their last night in that bed together, and afterward Pawbert thanks him for staying and for waiting. Luther tells him that after one year, they never have to say goodbye again.

Pawbert wakes first in the pale gray before dawn, Luther's arm draped across him and the blanket down at their waists. He holds still and memorizes the weight of it, storing it away with the soup recipe, the sound of Nick saying they stayed, and the flour pawprint in the cabinet door, against the cell and the year ahead of him. Luther stirs long enough to ask the time. With transport still hours off, he asks Pawbert to stay where he is a little longer, and Pawbert agrees. They lie together while the city outside starts its day.

Key Moments

• Pawbert wakes before dawn on his last morning and makes coffee in the dark; Luther joins him
• Luther relays Ross's call: ZSI is decommissioning Site Two after the siege compromised the location, and the pack has until transport the next morning to clear personal items
• Nick and Pawbert clear the kitchen; the safehouse pans stay and Pawbert's own handwritten recipe cards are packed
• Nick finds a flour pawprint dried inside a cabinet door, and they agree to leave it for the next occupants
• Judy unpins and boxes the corkboard collection, leaving the bare board on the wall
• Luther routes the Lillian album, the heist trophy and the corkboard items to ZCF storage; the STAY notebook and the laminated photo go with Pawbert
• Pawbert thanks Judy for staying, and the three of them embrace in the stripped living room
• Nick and Judy commit to weekly visits and to the single year left on the sentence
• The pack eats a final dinner of leftovers and revisits Pawbert's first, badly seasoned soup
• Nick and Judy say goodnight early to leave Luther and Pawbert the last night alone
• Pawbert tells Luther he is afraid of forgetting what this feels like, and Luther promises to remind him every week
• Luther tells Pawbert that after one year they never have to say goodbye again
• Pawbert wakes first before dawn and memorizes the weight of Luther's arm across his chest

Key Lines

Locations

• Site Two - The ZSI safehouse, cleared and decommissioned over the course of the day

Items

• STAY notebook - Green cloth cover with Luther's penmanship on the first page; packed in Pawbert's bag to go with him
• Laminated photo - The photograph of Lillian; packed beside the notebook, the other thing Pawbert keeps close
• Corkboard - Stripped of everything pinned to it and left on the wall, bare but for the pin holes
• Charles's napkin, Lillian's recipe card, Maddie's card, squad Pawlaroid - The collection of kindness; unpinned, wrapped in tissue paper and boxed for ZCF storage
• Lillian album - Pawbert's surviving photographs of his mother; wrapped and boxed for ZCF storage
• Heist trophy - Boxed for ZCF storage
• Pawbert's recipe cards - His own handwritten collection, wrapped in a dish towel and packed as personal property; the safehouse pans stay
• Flour pawprint - Dried inside a kitchen cabinet door and deliberately left for the next occupants