Loveday Writing

The episode kicks off with Real Nathan bidding farewell to Backup Nathan and Luke, only for Viv to call and show him that Ivan sent Choak’s hard drive to her. Nathan calls Nora for help, but she doesn’t answer. It’s then revealed that Horizen put Nora in a Lakeview showroom and have her drugged to believe that she is in the real Lakeview, to get information out of her.

Aleesha initially tries to get information out of Nora, but she ends up warning her about getting into trouble if she mentions Nathan. Karina then comes in and brings up the past, but Nora manages to lie her way out of it. Karina calls Mansour and he tells her to set Nora free and erase the download doctor, Nora then wakes up on a park bench as Real Nathan calls her. Nora tells him about the Gas-X pills and the conspiracy chasing her through the streets, Nathan then tells her about Choak’s hard drive.

Real Nathan goes to Mauricio’s office to search through the memories in Choak’s hard drive, whilst Nora calls him from the Lakeview memory parlour, alongside Backup Nathan. Meanwhile, Ingrid gets drunk at the bar and lashes out at the AI bartender. The AI Guy tells her that her drama is of her own creation and she needs to be honest with him. She thanks him, kisses him, and leaves to talk to Backup Nathan.

Meanwhile, in the memory parlour, Backup Nathan and Nora flirt with each other. When Nora leaves, Backup Nathan discusses this with Luke, only for Real Nathan to call Luke and expresses his concerns about his backup self and Nora spending time alone together. When Nora and Backup Nathan go back to the memory parlour, Real Nathan calls and shows him a memory he found of Choak and the other upload company bosses opening Freeyond branches to sway the election and the passing of a law allowing uploads to work. Nora notices Karina in the background of the memory and tells both Nathans she feels a bad vibe from her.

Back in the real world, a drunk Ingrid goes to see Real Nathan. Real Nathan confides in Ingrid about his concerns over Backup Nathan and Nora, whilst Ingrid says that Backup Nathan is alone with the woman he is constantly choosing over her. They end up getting drunk after drinking a bottle of vodka Ingrid brought with her. She then asks Real Nathan if he thinks anyone will ever marry her, he tells her she’s cool, and he admits he hasn’t felt like himself since he downloaded and forgot how hard it was to be alive. Ingrid tells him about the downsides of essentially her double life in the real world and Lakeview. Nathan tells her that if she met him now she wouldn’t be into him, but she tells him that he could be penniless and have diarrhoea every day and she would still be into him, and they almost kiss.

Nora ends up calling Real Nathan as she found a Choak memory with Oliver Kannerman, which reveals that Horizen owns the uploads and rents them to Choak, and that Oliver wished that Ingrid was killed in the car with Nathan. Nora and Backup Nathan try to stop Ingrid from hearing this, but she insists on hearing it. Real Nathan asks her if she’s okay, and she admits that she’s been working so hard to find her own way and it would be nice if someone was proud of her. He tells her that he’s proud of her.

The episode ends with Backup Nathan and Nora almost kissing, but Nora backing away admitting she loves Real Nathan and Backup Nathan admits that he loves Ingrid and chooses her.

Overall, this was another good but not great episode, however it was a slight improvement over the previous episode due to its four leads – Real Nathan, Backup Nathan, Nora and Ingrid finally having much needed heart-to-hearts about their relationship struggles, albeit with each other’s counterparts. Nora finally chose Real Nathan and Backup Nathan committed to Ingrid. Now that this has been sorted out, the rest of the season can hopefully focus on taking Choak and the upload companies down. On a smaller note, I did appreciate Luke’s role in this episode as both Nathans hype man.

Stray Observations:

-Luke describes Nora as a “pretentious Sundance movie.”

-When drunk Ingrid shows up at the travel agency, she keeps throwing sand at Real Nathan, he asks but it’s never explained why she has so much sand on her.

-Luke’s mother was a corrections officer and a poet.

-Backup Nathan describes Nora as a crazy, loyal, passionate weirdo.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Everybody’s jealous of you. You’re like Gaston times 50 million, but good and hotter.” (Luke to Backup Nathan)
• “Don’t you trust yourself enough not to make a move on your girlfriend?” (Luke to Real Nathan on his concerns that Backup Nathan would hit on Nora)
• “Too much beef? I know how much you love your beef.” “Stop limiting my beef.” “I have to limit your beef if you eat no fucking vegetables.” “It’s my afterlife, let me after-live it!” (Aleesha-Luke going back and forth on Luke’s stomach aches)