Upload – Season 2, Episode 3 (Robin Hood)

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This episode re-explored classism in Lakeview.

The episode kicked off with Nora and Ivan on their way back to New York so Nora can return to work at Horizen to help the Ludd movement from the inside. Even though she’s going for a cybersecurity job, she thinks she would be good at design, but Ivan laughs this off.

Back at Lakeview, Nathan is on the phone to his mother, Viv, who tells him that she didn’t have enough money to pay the rent. Nathan suggests asking Ingrid for a loan, who is shown to be “zoned out” in the corner of their room, when in reality she is out of the VR suit and going to the bathroom. When Ingrid returns, she suggests that Viv do gig economy work at Job Gerbil.

Afterwards, Nathan tells Luke about his situation in the dining room and it’s revealed that new windows have been installed in the 2Gigs cafeteria so they can be seen drooling over the luxury dining room in order to get their relatives to upgrade them. Appalled, Luke tries to give her an éclair through the window, only for it to disappear, and Nathan decides to be the Robin Hood of Lakeview, by stealing data from the rich uploads to give to the 2Gigs. He starts by stealing 2GB from David Choak and gives them to Yang, who’s data was running low.

Meanwhile, Ingrid hires a woman from Job Gerbil to pretend to be her so she can have a break from pretending to be dead. While Nathan and Luke talk about their plan to steal more data for the 2Gigs people, they notice “Ingrid” is listening, however the Job Gerbil woman pretending to be her agrees to keep their secret and help.

“Ingrid” shows off her fit physique in revealing athleisure wear to the rich men to distract them so Nathan can use the penknife to steal their data, then Nathan takes his shirt off and flexes his muscles so “Ingrid” can steal data from the rich women, unaware that Aleesha is secretly watching them. Once they get the data, we see Yang distribute it to the other 2Gig uploads, unaware that the NYPD Cybercrimes detective is there, taking a look around as part of his investigation. When Aleesha asks Lucy about him, she tells her that he can look around because he has a warrant, and she has Aleesha hide a box of files, including her ring drive with videos of a naked Luke on it.

Nora arrives at Horizen and briefly catches up with Aleesha and meets Tinsley, where she discovers Tinsley has a high customer service rating and is still using her avatar. Meanwhile, the IT guy, Craig, tells Lucy that the rich uploads are complaining about slow data speed, which leads to the detective asking if uploads can access code in the real world, but Lucy tells him no. After the detective leaves, Craig tells Lucy that one of the penknives is missing but he has the IT team tracking it.

Meanwhile, Nathan, Luke and “Ingrid” go to the atrium to play poker in order to win more money so they can buy more data. He gives “Ingrid” gloves which are synced with the penknife so he can change the cards she’s holding, and he taps Luke with the penknife, to use his eyes to see what the other players are holding.

As Nora is making her way to her job interview with Craig, she leaves multiple ring drives around Horizen. During the interview, Craig has to leave as Lucy tells him his team tracked the missing penknife to the atrium. While she waits in his office, she hears the poker game through Craig’s computer screen. When Luke sees Lucy and Craig walking through the atrium, he tries to distract them and when Nathan notices them, he plants the penknife on another upload. However “Ingrid” has gone all in on her current hand. When Nora sees her hand, she changes the dealer’s last card to ensure she wins. Once they do, she, Nathan and Luke leave, while the AI Guy, Lucy and Craig escort the upload with the penknife out of the atrium.

Craig comes back and after a short interview, he offers Nora a job in design. She happily takes the job. When Craig notices one of the ring drives she left on his desk, he asks if it’s her and she says no. Later, she meets up with Aleesha for coffee and admits that she wasn’t away on a trip with Byron, a fact that Aleesha wasn’t surprised by. They go to the store room, where Aleesha shows her the videos of Luke. Aleesha tells her that she was thinking of blackmailing Lucy about them, but Nora suggests that she help her with something else, holding up one of the ring drives.

Aleesha takes the box back to Lucy’s office. Lucy finds Nora’s ring drive and inserts it into her computer. The screen pixelates but otherwise does nothing. She takes it out and puts her ring drive back, and continues to watch the videos of Luke.

Ingrid pays the Job Gerbil woman and she leaves. Ingrid gets back in the VR suit and returns to Lakeview to find Nathan waiting for her. He immediately kisses her and they start having sex when Nathan tells her that she was amazing today. This upsets Ingrid as it means he really liked the Job Gerbil woman and not her.

Meanwhile, Nora takes the bus home and Matteo calls her. She tells him about the job offer and feels it’s a good thing as she can move up and change things from the inside. Matteo laughs a little, telling he thinks that’s ironic but doesn’t explain what he means by that.

The episode ends with the detective discovering Nora running away from the assassin on surveillance footage.

Overall I felt that this was the best episode of the season so far. I mentioned in the beginning of my review that this episode re-explored classism as Nathan discovered the 2Gigs floor and the class differences between uploads in the previous season. He was outraged and wanted to do something to help, but wasn’t sure how, and in this episode he figured it out. I enjoyed the humorous callbacks to the 2Gigs floor, like the naked man with no genitals, who sadly missed out on getting more data. I also appreciated that the detective’s investigation involved going undercover as a 2Gigs upload. I also enjoyed the scenes between Nathan, Luke and “Ingrid”, especially in the final moments of the poker game.

We didn’t find out what Matteo’s plan is, but it is clearly not good, it will be interesting to see what his plan is and how plays it out.

Stray Observations:

-Golden Retriever is the name of a gig economy service.

-Ingrid’s toilet is able to tell her that she may be coming down with a UTI, although the toilet later reveals that she has a yeast infection.

-Luke’s fees are paid for by a Purple Heart grant.

-When Yang is talking to Nathan and Luke, it’s revealed that she has 0.179GB of data left until Nathan steals data from David Choak to top her up.

-The AI Guy reveals that David Choak has eaten every type of peacock, so he starts eating penguins.

-The Job Gerbil woman that Ingrid hires to pretend to be her is a kindergarten teacher.

-The data that Nathan steals for Yang looks like bars of silver.

-According to Luke, he had a bowl cut and was a little husky when he was in second grade.

-Apparently Ivan was able to get sexbot upgrades for his Roomba.

-Ingrid’s net worth is $250,000.

-Aleesha ended up getting the clicker for dog training so she can train Tinsley.

-Apparently Spring Break 2028 was huge.

-David Choak’s net worth is $50.3 billion.

-According to Craig, Oscar Mayer Intel is a more cutting-edge place to work as a coder.

-Apparently Lucy has a daughter.

Best one liners and interactions:

  • “If you tell on me or fuck him, I will know and zero stars will be the least of your problems. ‘Kay? I will ruin your life. Do you understand?” “I mean, others have gotten there before you, but yeah.” (Ingrid-Job Gerbil employee)
  • “I’ve never had a female roommate.” “Or visitor.” (Ivan-Nora when they arrive at Ivan’s apartment)
  • “He’s an asshole but this is not cool though, Lucy.” (Aleesha to herself on Lucy’s hidden videos of a naked Luke)
  • “My uncle taught me that the only thing you have in life is your rep, and you ruin it by snitching.” “Is this the uncle I met?” “Uh-huh, yeah, same one.” “That is a very intense life philosophy for a dentist.” (Job Gerbil woman/Ingrid to Nathan on his plan)
  • “Everybody loves New Nora.” (Batia to Nora on Tinsley’s customer service rating and using her avatar)

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