diff --git a/analysis/characterization/joined_analysis.py b/analysis/characterization/joined_analysis.py
index 3f7d5a9..c2483c3 100644
--- a/analysis/characterization/joined_analysis.py
+++ b/analysis/characterization/joined_analysis.py
@@ -352,7 +352,10 @@ def hotspot_index(joined: list[JsonDict]) -> JsonDict:
     p90s_q = sorted(worker_p90_q.values())
     idx = None
     if len(p90s_q) >= 2:
-        median = p90s_q[len(p90s_q) // 2]
+        # True median: average of two middle values for even-length lists.
+        # Previously used sorted[n//2] which returns the ~60th percentile
+        # for n=8 and systematically under-states hotspot_index.
+        median = statistics.median(p90s_q)
         if median > 0:
             idx = max(p90s_q) / median
 
diff --git a/scripts/b3_analyze.sh b/scripts/b3_analyze.sh
index ed823f9..a136231 100755
--- a/scripts/b3_analyze.sh
+++ b/scripts/b3_analyze.sh
@@ -65,9 +65,17 @@ from pathlib import Path
 
 sweep = Path("$SWEEP_DIR")
 def pct(vals, p):
+    # Linear-interpolated percentile, matches metrics._percentile.
+    # Previously used floor-indexed sorted[int(p*(n-1))] which is
+    # inconsistent with how the same percentile is computed elsewhere.
     if not vals: return None
     vs = sorted(vals)
-    return vs[int(p * (len(vs)-1))]
+    if len(vs) == 1: return vs[0]
+    rank = p * (len(vs) - 1)
+    lo = int(rank)
+    hi = min(lo + 1, len(vs) - 1)
+    frac = rank - lo
+    return vs[lo] * (1 - frac) + vs[hi] * frac
 
 rows = []
 for sub in sorted(sweep.iterdir()):
diff --git a/scripts/b3_sweep.sh b/scripts/b3_sweep.sh
index 6e02702..f7c8532 100755
--- a/scripts/b3_sweep.sh
+++ b/scripts/b3_sweep.sh
@@ -161,7 +161,9 @@ for policy in $POLICIES; do
     run_policy "$policy" "$TRACE"
 done
 
-# 3) Capped variant on lmetric
+# 3) Capped variant: lmetric picker on a per-session turn-capped trace.
+# The directory label is "capped" but the proxy must launch with
+# --policy lmetric (the proxy's argparse has no "capped" choice).
 echo "[b3_sweep] building capped trace (max_turns=$MAX_TURNS_CAP) ..."
 CAPPED_TRACE="$OUTDIR/capped/trace.jsonl"
 mkdir -p "$OUTDIR/capped"
@@ -169,7 +171,34 @@ mkdir -p "$OUTDIR/capped"
     --input "$TRACE" \
     --output "$CAPPED_TRACE" \
     --max-turns "$MAX_TURNS_CAP" | tee "$OUTDIR/capped/build.log"
-run_policy "capped" "$CAPPED_TRACE"
+
+# Inline equivalent of run_policy "capped" but using --policy lmetric.
+echo "[b3_sweep] === policy=capped (picker=lmetric) trace=$(basename "$CAPPED_TRACE") ==="
+pkill -9 -f cache_aware_proxy 2>/dev/null || true
+sleep 2
+launch_proxy lmetric "$OUTDIR/capped/proxy.log"
+t_cap_start=$(date +%s.%N)
+PYTHONPATH="$ROOT" "$VENV/python" -m replayer \
+    --trace "$CAPPED_TRACE" \
+    --output "$OUTDIR/capped/metrics.jsonl" \
+    --endpoint "http://127.0.0.1:$PROXY_PORT" \
+    --model "$MODEL" \
+    2>&1 | tee "$OUTDIR/capped/replayer.log" | tail -3
+t_cap_end=$(date +%s.%N)
+python3 - "$OUTDIR/capped" capped "$CAPPED_TRACE" "$t_cap_start" "$t_cap_end" <<'PY'
+import json, sys
+rundir, policy, trace, t_start, t_end = sys.argv[1:]
+with open(f"{rundir}/run_window.json", "w") as f:
+    json.dump({
+        "policy": policy, "trace": trace,
+        "t_start_unix": float(t_start),
+        "t_end_unix": float(t_end),
+    }, f, indent=2)
+PY
+curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:$PROXY_PORT/breakdown" > "$OUTDIR/capped/breakdown.json"
+curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:$PROXY_PORT/worker_state" > "$OUTDIR/capped/worker_state.json"
+curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:$PROXY_PORT/stats" > "$OUTDIR/capped/stats.json"
+echo "[b3_sweep] capped done: $(wc -l < "$OUTDIR/capped/metrics.jsonl") metric rows"
 
 # 4) Snapshot final engine state file sizes for the analyzer
 ls -l "$OUTDIR/engine_state/" > "$OUTDIR/engine_state_files.txt"
diff --git a/tests/test_joined_analysis.py b/tests/test_joined_analysis.py
index a3263f1..3a715c0 100644
--- a/tests/test_joined_analysis.py
+++ b/tests/test_joined_analysis.py
@@ -131,6 +131,26 @@ def test_hotspot_index_max_over_median_p90():
     assert out["hotspot_index_ttft_p90"] > 5.0
 
 
+def test_hotspot_index_uses_true_median_for_even_n():
+    """8 workers, sorted TTFT p90 [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,80].
+    True median = (4+5)/2 = 4.5; hotspot = 80/4.5 ≈ 17.78.
+    Previous buggy implementation used sorted[4] = 5, giving 80/5 = 16.0.
+    """
+    rows = []
+    ttfts = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 80.0]
+    for i, t in enumerate(ttfts):
+        for _ in range(10):
+            rows.append({
+                "request_id": f"x{i}", "routed_to": f"http://h:800{i}",
+                "endpoint_url": f"http://h:800{i}",
+                "ttft_s": t, "latency_s": 1.0, "error": None,
+            })
+    out = hotspot_index(rows)
+    assert out["status"] == "supported"
+    idx = out["hotspot_index_ttft_p90"]
+    assert abs(idx - 80.0 / 4.5) < 1e-6, f"expected ~17.78, got {idx}"
+
+
 def test_label_slow_requests_flags_overlap_and_hot_worker():
     metrics = [
         _mk_metric("slow_overlap", ttft_s=10.0,