diff --git a/src/held-messages.ts b/src/held-messages.ts
index dc43272..c47bbf3 100644
--- a/src/held-messages.ts
+++ b/src/held-messages.ts
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ type HoldEntry = {
 
 /**
  * One message offered to the application. A drain waits on it until the first of: `answered()`,
- * every listener that took it rejecting, no listener taking it, its deadline, or the link going.
+ * every listener that took it rejecting, no listener taking it or one throwing, a later message on
+ * its sequence number, its deadline, or the link going.
  */
 export class MessageHold {
 	private readonly entry: HoldEntry;
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ export class MessageHold {
 		if (this.working <= 0) this.answered();
 	}
 
-	/** At once, for a message nobody took: that is not work a shutdown can wait for. */
+	/** At once, for a message nobody took or a listener threw on: that is not work a shutdown can wait for. */
 	release(): void {
 		this.entry.release();
 	}
diff --git a/todo.md b/todo.md
index 123c150..02f96c4 100644
--- a/todo.md
+++ b/todo.md
@@ -204,6 +204,10 @@ and 5. Every seat ranked the session's lifecycle hardest and least wanted to mod
 
 - [ ] **Lift Locality to 7, and confirm it with a scoring run.** A run reading 7.0 or above also
       retires the #30 decision. The sub-items are what the 2026-09-28 run named, most seats first.
+- [ ] **Count an `sms` listener that throws as one giving up, as a rejection already is.** A
+      synchronous throw makes `Session.emit` return false, and `HeldMessages.offer()` then releases
+      the hold at once, so a drain stops waiting on an async listener still answering beside it.
+      Goal 2. From the stability review of #45.
 - [ ] **Shrink the `IncomingDeps` closure bag.** 16 lambdas, six of them repeated in
       `SmsHandlers`, which makes every inbound call path indirect. Two seats.