Loveday Writing

Interestingly, the episode kicks off with Choak, not Nathan. Choak’s younger brother, Brian, is visiting Lakeview to inform him that the Board of his company is voting today. While what they’re voting on isn’t made clear, Brian offers to be Choak’s proxy but he refuses and says that he will be there in person.

When Nora finds out that Choak has downloaded into a robot, she tells Nathan and offers to take him via screen to New York to find out why he’s there, under the guise of a reality tour. He accepts and invites Luke along. Nora and Aleesha take Nathan and Luke respectively on the tour via screens hanging around their necks. While they’re on a bus, Aleesha accidentally turns the screen around to face her chest, which Luke enjoys, whilst Nora informs Nathan that she’s tracking Choak’s movements through KFC Twitter.

Nora and Aleesha go to Choak Tower and discover that the Freeyond office is there. Nora suggests to Nathan that Oliver and Choak sold his code to Freeyond,  but he tells her it doesn’t make any sense as Freeyond don’t have the money to buy anything. When Nora suggests that maybe Oliver and Choak gave Freeyond the code, Nathan questions why they’d murder him if they did. Meanwhile, the NYPD Detective, Jerry, who was previously looking around at Horizen, sees Nathan on surveillance footage and questions why he’s in New York.

Later, when they are having lunch from Falafel Halal, where Aleesha works as a night manager, Aleesha brings up how she can’t afford a spacious apartment, despite her multiple jobs. This leads to Aleesha telling Nora that she’s thinking of getting a promotion at Horizen so she can afford a better apartment, but Nora tells her that the higher up she goes, the sketchier shit they’ll ask her to do. This also leads to a discussion about how a digital afterlife should be. Nora believes Lakeview should be like Central Park, where people can come and go as they please, pointing out that Horizen’s tech was developed with public money and they get subsidised power. However, Aleesha points out that not everyone can make money being community organisers.

Aleesha and Nora make their way to Queens, where Nora discovers a new Freeyond store due to open in a few days. When Nora looks for more Freeyond stores in New York, she discovers that the new Queens store is the only one in New York. Nathan asks her to look up how many stores are in Los Angeles, she discovers there’s only one there as well. When she looks across the country, Nora discovers that there are 100 stores in Pennsylvania, 96 in Wisconsin, 75 in Michigan and 180 in Florida. Nathan suggests that maybe this isn’t about money but political power, as most of the Freeyond stores are almost entirely in swing states, and uploads can’t vote. They realise that if Choak can get enough poor people to upload in the right precinct, an election can be tipped.

Aleesha overhears the end of the conversation and is angry that Nora forced her to go along with the fake tour, and would have gone if she’d asked. Nora angers Aleesha further when she tells her she thought that she wouldn’t have come willingly if nothing was in it for her, basically calling her selfish. Aleesha storms off, with Luke reassuring her, pointing out that her desire to get a promotion is perfectly reasonable and no-one should judge her, he certainly wouldn’t. She thanks him for his reassurance and points out that he doesn’t really judge anyone.

Meanwhile, Tinsley, Ivan and the AI Guy come to see Ingrid to do an inspection of hers and Nathan’s room as part of her application for a digital baby. When she is being questioned by them, Ingrid’s mother, Dawn, and her younger brother, Jack, unexpectedly arrive at her apartment and she has to leave. Dawn tells her that she needs to move on with her life and Ingrid stands up to her, only for her speech to fall on deaf ears. When Ingrid returns to Lakeview, she finds that Ivan and Tinsley are gone but the AI Guy is waiting for her. The AI Guy asks her why she’s pretending to be uploaded and what she’s doing in Lakeview. Ingrid tells him she’s there because she loves Nathan and wants to be close to him. The AI Guy tells her that she’s spent a long time with no end in sight doing something uncomfortable out of love, and approves her for the digital baby.

The episode ends with Ingrid going to the biomedical lab where Nathan’s body is stored and talks to him, where it’s revealed that a clone head is on his body.

Overall, I felt that this was a good but not great episode. It was a good follow-up after the reveal that Choak murdered Nathan, as a possible motive was established. The motive being political rather than money-based was an interesting twist and a logical one as Choak is worth billions, Nathan’s wealth would be pocket change to him, and a political change is one he can benefit from, and makes sense in terms of the kind of person he is.

In terms of the digital baby subplot, I was glad to see some progression, however I felt Ingrid’s character development has been inconsistent. In the last few episodes Ingrid’s vulnerabilities have been put on display, which humanises her and shows more development, however it’s also clear that she is becoming unhinged, which in a way hinders her character development. It seems like the writers can’t decide whether they want Ingrid to be human and redeemable, or a villain.

On smaller notes, I’ve enjoyed seeing the AI Guy getting some character development in the last few episodes, with his ability to comfort Ingrid on multiple occasions, his amazement by how rich and colourful the real world is, and his ability to figure out that Ingrid is pretending to be uploaded. In regards to Luke and Aleesha clearly becoming interested in each other, while I’m enjoying seeing softer sides to both of them, I don’t like the idea of them having a somewhat similar relationship to Nora and Nathan, I prefer their slightly antagonistic/teasing dynamic.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next episode, the finale, and how the second season will come to a close.

Stray Observations:

-Luke believes the Bean is in New York City, not Chicago as Nathan points out to him.

-Choak downloads into a robot at a Baskin Robots store.

-Nora went to Maspeth High School and was basically a genius.

-Ingrid broke the AI digital baby simulation record by going from birth to death in under 24 hours.

-Luke joined the army to better himself.

-Dawn knows that Oliver was involved in Nathan’s murder.

-Choak was able to download himself into a robot. We’ve never seen this before. In a way it’s logical that uploads can be downloaded into a robot – uploads are essentially digital files blended with a human conscious and robots are machinery that can handle an upload, whereas the biology of a human body currently can’t handle an upload. I thought it was a plot hole at first, but I also find it interesting that more uploads aren’t doing this, perhaps it requires the wealth that Choak has to do so.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Not that I don’t trust you, but Father always said not to trust you.” (Choak to Brian)
• “I, too, am programmed for celibacy.” “I am not programmed for celibacy!” (AI Guy-Ivan after Ingrid calls Ivan an incel)
• “What’s it like to feel your body in silk and cashmere?” “What’s it like to feel your body?” “What’s it like to feel?” (Tinsley, then Ivan, then the AI Guy to Ingrid)
• “It’s not pleasant but it’s not corpsey. You must have smelled a number of corpses in your line of work.” (Dawn to Ingrid’s maid)
• “Hey Jerry, you left your shampoo and conditioner by the sink again. Everything okay at home?” “If everything was okay at home, I wouldn’t be conditioning my balls in the work sink.” “Jesus Christ, I just washed my face there, that’s really fucking disturbing.” (Maxwell-Jerry-Maxwell)
• “Why can’t you have a normal addiction, like cocaine or bath salts, instead of pretending to be dead?” (Dawn to Ingrid)
• “That place is, if I’m gonna guess a number, out of your price range.” (Luke to Aleesha, after she shows him an apartment rental listing)
• “I was athletic and crafty as hell!” (Aleesha to Nora on both playing sports and being in a sewing club when she was in high school)
• “You have spent a long time with no end in sight doing something uncomfortable out of love.” (The AI Guy to Ingrid)