Bill's best efforts to navigate the next few daysâknowing them now to be his lastâfail to keep events from going rapidly out of his control. Drew is secretly conspiring with a man bidding for Parrish Communications. He capitalizes on Bill's strange behavior and unexplained reliance on Joe Black to convince the board to vote him out as Chairman, using information given to him inadvertently by Bill's son-in-law, Quince, to push through approval for the merger which Bill had decided to oppose. Quince is devastated.
Although confused by the sudden reappearance of Joe, believing him to be the young man from the coffee shop, Susan eventually falls deeply in love with him. Joe is now under the influence of human desires and becomes attracted to her as well. Bill angrily confronts him about his relationship with his daughter, but Death (personified in Joe) declares his intention to take Susan with him for his own.