Upload—Season 1, Episode 4 (The Sex Suit)
The episode kicks off with David teaching Nathan how to play golf. David asks the AI Guy to get him an Arnold Palmer bot so he can gloat about his golfing skills.
Nathan tells Nora about his golf lesson with David and that he is looking for purpose in his life, but Nora tells him that Uploads can’t work. Nora tells Nathan she wants to show him something and takes him to see the “2Gigs”—Lakeview’s lowest class of upload. They only get 2GB of data a month and once they run out they can’t afford anything. As Nora gives Nathan a tour, we see these residents have the amount of GBs they have left displayed above their heads, and the windows in their rooms are blue with a pop-up asking them if they want to add a view.
Nora reveals that the 2Gigs don’t have access to a shower or view of the lake, and that Lean Cuisine sponsors the cafeteria to try new recipes. Residents are also given the first five pages of a book as a “free sample”, if they want to read the whole book they have to pay extra. When Nathan says hello to a little boy reading a Harry Potter book and tells him he loved the magic in the books, the boy reveals he doesn’t know there’s magic in it, turns black and white, and freezes. Nora reveals that as the little boy has run out of data, he is frozen until next month, unless someone adds money to his account. She also reveals that most of the residents don’t have money of their own and don’t get access to the basic sweat suit included in the plan. Nathan sees a man walk into the cafeteria, naked and without a penis. Nathan is outraged at the inequality of the system and tells Nora that maybe his purpose is to help them. Ingrid calls Nathan to tell him that a journalist from Vogue is waiting to interview them about making a relationship between a living person and an Upload work.
Throughout the interview, tension between Ingrid and Nathan is present, especially when the journalist asked how their relationship has changed since he was uploaded and how their sex life is. Later, Nathan asks Nora if relationships between living people and Uploads work. She reveals that sometimes they do but it’s hard, nevertheless she roots for the couples that try to make it work.
The next day Ingrid shows up to Nathan’s room unexpectedly to have sex with him, with her wearing a VR sex suit in the real world. However things don’t go to plan when Nathan can’t perform and Ingrid calls for “tech support”. Nora eventually gets Ingrid’s request for help but ignores it at first. She eventually shows up when she is told ignoring the request will affect her customer service star rating. Ingrid takes off her virtual reality mask when her cat, Clyde, starts knocking things over in her bathroom. Nora touches his shoulder and chest, and they almost kiss, only for Ingrid to return, so she leaves. Afterwards, Nora expresses her frustration of her lack of intimacy to Aleesha, who tells her to reinstall Nitely. She does and is matched with someone straight away. However to her dismay, her match is Byron. They are both disappointed with each other’s new alias but hook up anyway. During their hook up, Nora pictures her last encounter with Nathan. Byron gives her five stars and Nora gives him four stars for payback on his rating of her after their last hook up.
Back in the real world, Fran has gone to Bloomingdale’s to get their security footage from the night of the accident. At the end of the episode, it’s revealed that Ingrid tampered with Nathan’s car.
Overall this was another solid episode and an improvement of the previous one. There were nods to previous episodes with Nora and Byron’s hook-up, Nora sending Nathan a Paw Patrol lamp, and Fran going to Bloomingdale’s. I felt that the concept of capitalism in the afterlife, which has been touched on in previous episodes was unique and portrayed beautifully, especially as it was the first time we actually see it for ourselves. I also felt the exploration of sexuality and intimacy in the afterlife was both appropriately humorous and tasteful.
It’ll be interesting to see where the episodes go from here now that Ingrid is the main suspect in Nathan’s murder.
Stray Observations:
-Running gag: Ivan hanging around the Upload office after doing the night shift, especially hanging around Nora and Aleesha.
-The Harry Potter book the little 2Gigs boy is reading is Harry Potter and the Abbreviated Adventure.
-Apparently a person can get their shoulders sharpened in the future.
-Apparently farting is less embarrassing than admitting to a sharpening shoulder blade ripping a cushion.
-Ingrid’s father got Ang Lee to edit a sex tape of her and Nathan of their first night together.
-The stories in the Lakeview newspaper rotate in a similar to how pictures moved in Harry Potter.
-Nora walks past protestors on her way to work chanting that Upload is a human right.
-The robot at the cash register in Bloomingdale’s offers Fran the following options when she asks to speak to a human manager: “If this is a problem with a product, say ‘product.’ If the store is on fire, say ‘fire’. If you are stuck in the door and the store is on fire, say ‘screams’. If the bathroom is unstocked say ‘tissue paper’. If a patron is having a baby, say ‘miracle’.”
-The robot at the cash register in Bloomingdale’s can’t tell the difference between a dehydrated fruit salad and a queen bed.
-The motions that the robot makes when giving Fran options, especially when it says “if you are stuck in the door and the store is on fire, say ‘screams’”, and putting its claw down when Fran calls him a dummy for inaccurately guessing when she could speak to a human manager, was hilarious.
-After seeing Ingrid fall asleep in a clearly uncomfortable position in her bathtub, I’m wondering why she didn’t have her encounter with Nathan in the VR sex suit in her bedroom.
-Neither Nathan nor Nora figured out why music was swelling when Nathan made his passionate speech on helping the 2Gigs.
Loveday Writing 