Mia is still getting the cold shoulder from her daughter after Elena told Pearl the truth about her family: Mia was supposed to be a surrogate for a couple who was unable to have a child, but she told the couple that Pearl died and decided to raise Pearl as her daughter. The mother-daughter duo have a screaming match, leaving Mia heartbroken. At Pearl's request, Mia calls her daughter's would-be parents, but hangs up when the wife recognises her voice. While balancing all these different emotions, Mia begins to work on the aforementioned diorama of Shaker Heights.
After Bebe loses custody of May Ling, she goes to Mia's apartment where the artist comforts her as she cries. Izzy also shows up to Mia's place and is sad to see Bebe so shattered. When Bebe leaves, Izzy expresses concern over whether the young mother will be able to move on without May Ling. Mia tells Izzy about the symbolic implications of a fire she once witnessed: everything was seared, but it made way for new, richer beginnings. "Sometimes you have to scorch everything to start over," she says. "And after the burning, the soil is rich and life can grow there — life that is maybe even better than what was there before. And people are like that, too. They are resilient. Even from total devastation, they start over, and they find a way. Bebe will find a way and so will Pearl and so will you." (Yes, this is indeed foreshadowing, but there's a twist later on.)
Once Izzy leaves, Mia is home alone until an irate Elena stops by to tell her that the apartment lease won't be renewed, giving her and Pearl less than a day to move out. In the foregoing snippet about this scene, we mention that Mia tells Elena the truth about Lexie's abortion, but now it's worth adding exactly how she told her. Mia bellows, "If she'd have the mother she deserved, she might have had the courage to put her own f*cking name down at the clinic and she might not have needed to spend the night here in my arms when her own f*cking mother was galavanting at my parents' house." Mia might have some of the best lines of the episode.
When Pearl comes home, she and Mia have a heart-to-heart conversation. Mia tells Pearl that her father's name is Joe Ryan. She also reveals everything about her past (how she confided in her late brother, Warren, about being a surrogate and how her parents disowned her after they found out about her pregnancy). She tearfully explains that she adamantly advocated for Bebe to prove to herself that keeping Pearl was the right thing to do. Pearl forgives her mother, and they have a quick photo shoot before packing their things and leaving.
After dropping their apartment key off at the Richardsons' mailbox, Mia asks Pearl where she wants to go. Pearl chooses her non-surrogate parents' house. When they arrive, at Pearl's behest, Mia reads her daughter's journal entry in which Pearl questions the construct of her life and her place in the world. After reading it, an emotional Mia gets out of the car and looks pensively at the Ryans' home.