The girl was really getting the hang of the whole childhood thing. Oh, sure, the move to San Francisco had rocked her world for a while (as chronicled in 2015’s Inside Out). But she’d settled in just fine (eventually). She was excelling in school. She was tearing up the ice. She had a couple of fantastic friends, Grace and Bree. What more could a girl want?

Yep, all of Riley’s emotions would agree that their now 13-year-old girl was turning out just great. And those emotions—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust—rarely agree on anything.

Then, wouldn’t you know it, puberty had to come in and wreck everything.

Wreck is the operational word here, at least as far as Riley’s emotions are concerned. One minute, the puberty alarm on Riley’s emotional control bank is blaring. The next, a team of blue construction workers storms headquarters, saws and crowbars in hand, and completely decimates the control room. The workers say that it’s all to make room for the others.

And then those others start showing up.

Anxiety arrives first, all teeth and eyes and frazzled hair. Envy shows up and fawns over the control board. Embarrassment, a big galloot of an emotion, tries to hide in his hoodie. And Ennui lounges on a couch—oh so over everything—and fiddles with her phone.

No problem, right? I mean, it’s not like this is Joy’s first rodeo with meddlesome emotions. They’re all part of the team! And as long as Joy’s in control, everything will be fine. Just fine.

But when Riley goes to an important three-day hockey camp and (at Joy’s urging) goofs off with her friends, the hockey coach makes it clear that unbridled joy in this setting is not fine. It’s not fine at all. If Riley wants to be a top hockey player—perhaps even one that makes the high school team as a freshman—she’ll need to work. She’ll need to focus. There’s a time and place for joy, but this camp ain’t it.

Anxiety gently nudges Joy aside and takes the controls. If Riley hopes to succeed in this unfamiliar world, the girl could use a little anxiety. She could use a little motivational stress. Riley’s a teenager now, after all. Time to put away those childish things and grow up. Grow into an entirely different person who can cope with all of life’s present stresses and future uncertainties.

“This is not Riley!” Joy protests.

“I know!” Anxiety tells her. “It’s a better Riley!”

But is it?

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And of course, it did.

Her dad got lost before their flight even lifted off in New York. Ruth ended up flying without him and having to wait around an extra day just for him to finally arrive. And then when he did get to Warsaw, he wouldn’t board the train—tickets she’d already purchased. Then he started harping on her about her divorce, her empty life, her eating habits. Argh!

What she really wanted was something simple: to go back to where her parents were both raised. She wanted to see their hometown; get a sense of what their world might have looked like. She wanted to understand what it must have been like to be a Jew during World War II and to be shipped off to Auschwitz like her father and his family had been.  

Most of all, she wanted to see how she fit into all that twisted history, that misery. How is she connected? Her father, ever large and jovial, never talks about it. Yes, he’ll give her a squeeze and call her Pumpkin, but he never seems to ever tell her how he actually feels about anything.

So here they are wasting the train tickets she already purchased, taking silly side trips to places she didn’t want to go, and arguing about her failed marriage.

Oh, and the cherry on top of it all: She can’t speak Polish. So her father has to talk for them wherever they go!

What a trip.

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When Death comes to take her, Tuesday attempts to cover her fear with a joke about penguins. To her surprise, Death enjoys the joke.

So much of Death’s life is filled with … well, death. He hears the thoughts of every person who wants to die. He feels their pain.

He knows exactly how excruciating Tuesday’s life has been, unable to walk or even breathe properly on her own. So it’s a refreshing change of pace for Death when Tuesday offers up humor instead of the usual pleading and complaining. And for a brief moment, Death is able to shut out all the other voices summoning him. The steady flow of agony turns off.

Death is so impressed by Tuesday—by her positive attitude in the literal face of death—that when she asks him one last quick favor, he grants it to her.

He lets her call her mom to say goodbye. And when Tuesday’s mom doesn’t answer, he agrees to wait until the woman gets home so the mother and daughter can bid farewell.

Unfortunately, it’s not all that simple.

Although Tuesday has embraced the fact that it’s her time to pass on, her mom, Zora, hasn’t. And Zora will do just about anything—even killing Death—to keep Tuesday around.

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We might look to Dr. Onda, the leader of the Kaiju Defense Force, who lost his wife and daughter to those giant monsters. Now, he’ll do whatever it takes to find the hidden Kaiju island and slaughter the beasts once and for all in order to prevent that tragedy from happening to another family.

We could also think about the actions of the kaiju Gigantron. The dragon-like monster did everything in her power to protect and reclaim the egg containing her child—an egg which had been stolen by the KDF as a step in locating Kaiju island.

And we could certainly talk about Professor Sato. He’s got the power to transform into Ultraman, a giant humanoid robotic figure who defends Tokyo from the occasional kaiju attacks. Unlike the KDF, he’d rather repel the endangered and misguided beasts than turn them into sashimi. And because of his superhero status, he chose to protect his wife and son from his dangerous profession by sending them away to Los Angeles.

But if there’s anyone who needs to learn a lesson about family, it’s Kenji “Ken” Sato, Professor Sato’s son. In the two decades since he was sent away, Ken grew up to have both a professional career in baseball as well as a hefty grudge against his father for abandoning them. And just as Ken was about to take the Dodgers to the championship game, his father, weary from years of battle, asked him to come back to Japan and take up the Ultraman mantle.

Well, Ken does begrudgingly go back. By day, he plays baseball for the Yomiuri Giants. By … well, whenever there’s a kaiju attack, he repels kaiju as Ultraman.

But remember that egg Gigantron hoped to get back, prompting her attack on the KDF? Well, just after Ken watches the KDF blow Gigantron out of the sky, the egg hatches, and the tiny kaiju imprints on Ken. And, just like his father, Ken can’t bear to see the KDF kill the creature—so he vanishes with it before the KDF can secure their asset.

And so Ken begins to discover just how difficult being a father can truly be.

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Aza Holmes has to reject that thought on a daily basis.

She’s terrified of bacteria. More specifically, she’s mortified that she’ll wake up with C. diff. colitis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the colon caused by bacteria. That’s why she makes sure to remove her Band-Aids, wash and clean her wounds and apply more Band-Aids day-by-day.

The truth is that Aza struggles with anxiety and obsessive compulsion disorder (OCD). More specifically, it causes her to suffer from intrusive thoughts about how everything she touches might be the thing hosting the bacterium that’ll infect her with C. diff. She knows the prospect is unlikely. She even argues with the intrusive thoughts as she walks to change her Band-Aid. But her “thought spirals” often overwhelm her and force her to act anyway.

And, as it often goes, more things in Aza’s life are primed to spiral out of control, too. She and her best friend, Daisy, see a news story about Russell Pickett. He’s a billionaire who has gone missing—likely because someone tipped him off about his upcoming arrest for fraud and bribery. And the FBI’s offering a $100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.

Well, neither Aza nor Daisy have a clue where the man could’ve gone. But Aza was once pseudo-friends with his son, Davis, and she and Daisy figure they might be able to use the connection to figure out some information to nab that reward.

But when Aza and Davis reunite, well, the two hit it off quickly. They start dating. And Davis convinces Aza to forget the reward so that the two can focus on their relationship.

But then Aza begins to spiral again. Because relationships mean kissing and touching. And kissing and touching means bacteria. And bacteria means C. diff.

And that means Aza can never have a normal relationship.

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Joseph and Julianna Burdon know all about that. Kids need food. Clothes. Furniture, for cryin’ out loud. And when teen son, Daniel, starts thinking about college? Well, might as well lop off an arm and leg and try to sell them on the secondary limbs market.

Joseph loves his family, and he does his best to provide for them. Why, he’s working on an account that just might move the family financial ledger in the right direction. More than that, he believes passionately in what he’s developing: a campaign to support the National Association of Firefighters. Joseph’s father had been a firefighter for decades. So for Joseph, this campaign is important on a host of levels. In a way, it’s about family.

And if that means ignoring his own family members for a few days—or weeks, or maybe months—well, that’s the price a dad must pay right?

No, wife Julianna says. She’s had it up to her eyeballs with Joseph’s job. It’s not like she doesn’t appreciate his work ethic. She knows that on some level, he’s doing it for her and the kids. But fatherhood’s about more than putting meat on the table: It’s about meeting your wife and kids at that table. It’s about going to soccer games and school plays. It’s about going fishing and taking long walks filled with conversation.

And it’s especially about engaging in a small family reunion with Joseph’s mom and dad on the family ranch. It’s especially about spending Easter weekend with each other—particularly when it might be the last Easter they ever have together.

Joseph’s dad, known as Poppa to the grandkids, sick. While no one talks about it much, Joseph and Julianna know he might not have much time left. To spend one last glorious Easter weekend together—boating, fishing, maybe playing a game or two of charades—that’s what’s important, Julianna believes. This is time the family won’t ever get back. The job can wait.

Yeah, yeah, Joseph says. But he’s on the home stretch with this all-important project. He’ll just work a few more hours Easter weekend. Just a few more phone calls. A few more finishing touches on his presentation, scheduled for … Saturday.

The same Saturday that Poppa was going to take the boat on the lake with everyone—maybe for the last time.

Joseph could use a little help with his priorities. Everyone else in the family sees that clearly. But how can they help him see it for himself?

Maybe a little book that Poppa wrote can help—one about a man who always had His priorities straight. Poppa called it Forty-Seven Days With Jesus, and Joseph loved hearing it when he was young. Maybe it’s time that Joseph passed the story onto his own kids. Maybe it’s time he internalized the story’s deeper messages himself.

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First, there’s Cricket, the thrill-seeking and wildly unpredictable son. Then, we’ve got the unique and whimsical daughter, Tilly. Up next is family patriarch Bill Green, a loving father but overwhelmed farmer. And finally, there’s Gramma. If you threaten her son or grandkids, she’ll come after you with a sword, mace or even her prosthetic leg in a pinch. But she also loves distributing kisses and hugs.

Bill and his kids moved to Big City to live with Gramma after they lost their farm. And the family has adjusted. They’ve made friends and even converted Gramma’s yard into a profitable vegetable garden.

But after working so hard to get their lives back together, they’re ready for a vacation. Cricket knows just the thing: a luxurious stay at Big Tech’s Space Hotel in, you guessed it, space.

There’s just a little matter of funding this spacecation. Though the Greens work hard, they don’t make enough to cover the $10 million a night stay.

Luckily, Cricket has the solution for that, too. In addition to creating the Space Hotel, Big Tech has also created a farm located on an asteroid. And the farmbots created to harvest the plants are malfunctioning.

So, Big Tech CEO Gwendolyn Zapp makes the Greens an offer: Go to the asteroid and harvest the produce for her and she’ll let them stay at the Space Hotel for free.

It’s not exactly the family road trip Bill had in mind for this vacation. But after a little convincing from Cricket, he finds himself saying a sentence he never thought he’d utter: “Let’s get to that asteroid and harvest those space crops so we can enjoy our space vacation at that Space Hotel!”

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First, Ryan and Maya garner strange looks after they pronounce that they’re celebrating their fifth dating anniversary. “Why haven’t you put a ring on it?” a waitress asks Ryan.

Then Ryan accuses the mechanic of tampering with their car while they were eating to scam them out of money. And, of course, he refuses to share a drink with some locals who invite him to join them. Not to mention he orders a “meat-free” burger for vegetarian Maya—something the ultra-small town of Venus just doesn’t cater to.

Unfortunately, with the car out of commission, the couple is stuck there overnight in an Airbnb.

And even more unfortunately, they’ve drawn enough attention to themselves to attract the interest of some masked and malevolent strangers…

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“It’s a total pop-culture fantasy. But because hitmen have been a staple of books, movies and TV for the last 50 years, good luck getting anyone to believe their existence is all a myth.”

In truth, Gary’s part-time work for the New Orleans Police Department as an undercover hitman in murder-for-hire cases couldn’t be further from the truth of who he is. You see, the real Gary is a college psych and philosophy professor. He likes birding and electronics. He lives alone with two cats.

But when he enters the field, he plays an entirely different role. For one meeting, Gary adopts a Russian accent and wig. For another, he takes on the role of a skeet-shooting redneck. Each character he plays is a disguise donned to cater to the fantasy of what those looking for hitmen believe such a man looks like. And when the target confesses to wanting someone murdered and hands over the cash for payment, that’s when the police swoop in with enough evidence to put the person in jail.

At least, that’s how it usually works.

But that was before Gary (or, this time, the suave Rob) sat down with Madison. She’d contacted him in the hope that he might eliminate her abusive and controlling husband. And “Rob” senses that she’s not a killer at heart. So instead, he tells her to take her money and use it to start a new life—and if she needs someone to talk to, she can text him.

Well, Madison does walk away. And she does text him. Madison and “Rob” hit it off. And soon, Gary finds himself pretending to be Rob the hitman more often than he’s Gary.

And soon, all that faking just may come back to bite him.

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Mina could use a change.

Oh sure, Mina actually changes plenty. Every night the woman goes out to the bar, the 28-year-old shows up as someone else. She might be a brunette ballerina. Or a red-headed singer. The blond just dons a wig, slaps on a new personality and voila! No more Mina.

Just as well, she figures. Who’d like Mina anyway? Mina doesn’t even like Mina that much.

But still, a change of scenery would be nice. So when her pet-store-owning boss asks her if she’d be willing to transport a pricey golden conure (think large parakeet) across Ireland, she’s happy to do so. A little road trip might do her good.

But when that road takes her deep into the dwindling Irish forests, something goes mysteriously awry. First, her car conks out. Then, when she gets out of the car to search for help, it vanishes altogether.

And let’s not forget the strange flocks of birds overhead. Or the rumbling ground. Or the creepy sign that says, “Point of No Return 12.”

Mina—still toting her own bird around in its nifty little cage—is getting seriously creeped out when she spies a concrete bunker, with an elderly woman standing in the doorway.

“If you care to live, you’re going to have to run,” the woman tells her.

Run where? Well, to the bunker, presumably. So run Mina does, golden conure swinging by her side. She rumbles into the bunker, takes a breath and eyes her new surroundings.

It’s a simple place: a table. A couch or two. A tube TV and an old-timey phonograph. Oh, and three people. The old woman introduces herself as Madelyn. Danny’s a young man—not much more than a boy, really. And then there’s Ciara, a young woman around Mina’s age. She’s still hopeful that her husband might come back after leaving the bunker—a place they call the “Coop”—six days ago. 

Then there’s that wall of glass. Mina’s barely had time to take a second breath before Madelyn asks everyone to line up and face that glass, so that they can get a good look at the Coop’s newest resident.

They? The Watchers, of course. Those outside the Coop, those who rule the forest, those who hide in in the day and run wild and ravenous in the dark.

Those who kill anyone they catch.

The forest stretches too far in every direction to leave before nightfall. Ciara’s been in the Coop for five months. Madelyn? She might’ve been there for years.

Yeah, Mina needed a change.

But this? Not the change she had in mind.

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