When the prototype M3GAN is formally paired with Cady, David is convinced of the project’s potential success. M3GAN exceeds expectations and begins to take on a parental role. Gemma’s colleagues, Tess and Cole, and Cady’s therapist, Lydia, become increasingly concerned about Cady developing an unhealthy emotional attachment to M3GAN. M3GAN starts operating more independently and targets anything that she deems a threat to Cady: she kills Dewey, the dog of Gemma’s cantankerous neighbor Celia, after he attacks both her and Cady in the front yard. Sometime later, M3GAN attacks Brandon, a boy bullying Cady, by ripping off his ear and chasing him until he falls down a hill onto a road, where he is fatally run over by a passing car.