diff --git a/static/js/audiobook-pipeline.js b/static/js/audiobook-pipeline.js
index 710bbb2..b7e5084 100644
--- a/static/js/audiobook-pipeline.js
+++ b/static/js/audiobook-pipeline.js
@@ -796,7 +796,6 @@ async function audiobookCast(overrideUrl, overrideModel, resume) {
           } else {
             // Both halves also failed
             view.note(`❌ Passage ${i + 1} — LLM error: ${result.error}`);
-            data = null;
           }
         }