"The wicked issue" is the title of this chapter's epigraph. It's a reference to the fact that every ninety years, twelve gods return to life as young people. In other words, every time a god returns as a young person, he or she is going to die. This is the first time we've heard the phrase "every ninety years" before, so we're not sure what it means. The gods are all dead, but they're still young people, and they've been dead for two years. The only person who's not dead yet is Laura. She's in jail for killing a judge, and baal, the god's representative, tells the audience that the gods express sympathy for the judge's family and friends. They've got to look at the search for the gods because they think they were at college, baal says. He's going to fail his college entrance exams, and he doesn't want to waste his time planning for his future when he can't have one. He says he's an "only child" and that he can act surprised when he sees the goddess. She turns to him and says, "you know, if this lesson is a lesson - it's worked - this has needed to be on stage" . He realizes that the lesson is working, but he still has a lot to live for. He has a student loan to pay off, so he needs to get to the other students first. He tells us that he was crying in front of the theater every night when Inanna was in town, because she