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(Missed the other summaries in this series? You can also read summaries like this for Season Two or Season Three)
CHARACTERS:
Main Characters
Nicolai Costa: Nicolai is a wealthy, disillusioned speechwriter for the prominent Directorate politician Isaac Ryan. Unbeknownst to his NAU acquaintances, Nicolai was born into an elite Italian family and is the sole survivor of their mysterious assassination. He struggles with his complicity in the Directorate’s hypocrisy and his own wasted potential. After his torturous mind-wipe, Nicolai resolves to break free of Isaac’s control and pursue his own path, but finds himself drawn into his shady friend Doc’s troubles and a conspiracy linked to his own tragic past.
Doc (Thomas Stahl): Doc is a black-market tech dealer specializing in illegal high-end upgrades and a sometime info-broker to the powerful. When he’s accidentally given high-level access to the Quark’s Xenia labs, Doc is targeted by shadowy forces who brutally torture him for selling secrets to the criminal Omar Jones. With help from his escort friend Kai and client Nicolai, Doc narrowly escapes death (by tricking his captors with a vicious sim) but remains a loose end that the deadly Micah Ryan is determined to tie up.
Kai Dreyfus: Kai is a high-class escort and secret agent with a troubled past, nano-enhanced body, and a genius for deception. Kai infiltrated Doc’s Xenia dealings on behalf of her boss and father figure Micah Ryan. But after being tortured as a suspected spy alongside Doc, she turns on Micah and risks everything to save Doc from execution. Now caught between ruthless players like Micah and Omar, Kai must play a dangerous game, unsure how to extract herself and Doc alive.
Leah: Raised in the neo-Luddite Organa commune, pink-haired Leah is a tech prodigy with unparalleled Beam-hacking skills. Tasked with investigating the mysterious past of the commune’s crazed “mascot” Crumb, Leah uncovers his former identity as a co-creator of The Beam, his hidden journal, and experiences cryptic visions hinting at a secret connection between Crumb, herself, and the uncanny AI SerenityBlue. As she delves deeper into Crumb’s memories and The Beam’s origins, Leah begins to suspect that her own past and even her very self are not what they appear.
Micah Ryan: Charming, utterly ruthless, and always three steps ahead, Micah is the Machiavellian head of Enterprise party and a shadow power broker. Whether masterfully manipulating his “allies'” elections and marriages or ordering horrific tortures and mind-wipes to protect Enterprise’s darkest secrets, Micah will do whatever it takes to advance his interests. But his endgame remains unclear even to his inner circle. Micah’s machinations ensnare his pawns Nicolai, Doc, and Kai in an ever-tightening web that they may not escape.
Isaac Ryan: Micah’s browbeaten older brother and a pompous, deeply insecure Directorate politician who longs to emerge from Micah’s shadow. He takes out his impotence on his wife Natasha and right-hand man Nicolai. After Nicolai and Natasha defect to Enterprise, the devastated Isaac turns to Micah to destroy them, not realizing he’s sealing his own doom.
Natasha Ryan (nee Thomas): Born Enterprise but shifted to Directorate to be Isaac’s arm-candy, the once fiery pop icon Natasha has grown bitter and disillusioned by her gilded cage. After a vicious argument where Isaac slaps her, Natasha sails back to Enterprise vowing vengeance. With Micah’s backing, she plots a high-profile comeback to supplant Isaac as the NAU’s sweetheart and to crush him utterly.
Leo Booker: The aging hippie founder of the Organas, Leo is Leah’s cryptic mentor with a closely guarded past. Agent Smith exposes Leo as the former leader of the eco-terrorist Gaia’s Hammer, a group so savage they made a pact with the NAU to wipe their own history. Smith suspects Leo still plots insurrection and pushes the tormented Dominic to betray him to stop a devastating Beam-attack.
SerenityBlue: The young-seeming headmistress of a school for gifted children, SerenityBlue is an ethereal AI who exists simultaneously in the real and digital worlds. She guides Leah to find Crumb, hinting at a mysterious connection between Crumb’s past, the dark secrets of The Beam’s creation, and Leah’s own hidden identity. When Serenity and Leah meet, the shocked Serenity implies an almost familial bond between them.
Dominic Long: Nicolai’s friend in the police, Dominic is a third-generation DZPD Captain secretly funneling the illegal drug money to the Organas to secure their moondust supply. Dominic sympathizes with Organa’s anti-Beam teachings and despises the NAU class divide, but draws the line at terrorism. When Agent Smith reveals Organa founder Leo Booker’s bloody history and ongoing bomb plot, Dominic must choose between loyalty and duty.
Key Supporting Characters
Omar Jones: A slick, ruthlessly pragmatic businessman who straddles the worlds of legitimate commerce and organized crime. He serves as a key middleman between the criminal underworld and the NAU elite, exploiting his business acumen, charm, and web of connections to broker deals, procure illegal tech, and manage the finances of kingpins and corporate titans alike.
Agent Austin Smith: A cynical NAU Protective Service agent tasked with bringing down possible Organa terrorism, Smith alternates between gruff paternal mentoring and ruthless manipulation in pressuring police Captain Dominic Long to inform on his Organa allies. Smith shockingly exposes Organa founder Leo as a vicious former eco-terrorist, theorizing that Leo plots a catastrophic Beam-crash to force a return to “natural” life.
Jason Whitlock: A cocky young Micah Ryan enforcer with a shape-shifting nanotech “Stark suit,” Whitlock specializes in assassination, torture and memory alteration. After he bungles the Xenia lab break-in, the sloppy cover-up earns Micah’s rage. Ordered to force Kai to kill Doc to prove her loyalty, Whitlock fails to realize Kai has mentally snared him and tricked him with a false murder memory.
BRIEF COMPLETE SEASON SUMMARY:
In a future world dominated by two political parties, Directorate and Enterprise, and a pervasive network called The Beam, famous singer Natasha Ryan’s concert is disrupted by a riot. Her husband, Directorate leader Isaac Ryan, and his speechwriter Nicolai Costa struggle to address the unrest. Meanwhile, upgrade dealer Doc Stahl accidentally discovers secret advanced technologies at Xenia Labs, leading to his memory being wiped. High-end escort Kai Dreyfus helps Doc escape pursuers, but they are both captured along with Nicolai and subjected to torture by a mysterious group.
Police Captain Dominic Long, secretly allied with the anti-Beam Organa community, investigates a young hacker named Leah and helps secure moondust for the addicted Organas. It’s revealed that Enterprise leader Micah Ryan, Isaac’s brother, orchestrated the concert riot to undermine Directorate. Natasha, feeling neglected by Isaac, retreats into a virtual reality called Viazo.
Leah, guided by Organa leader Leo, tries to uncover secrets from the mind of a mentally ill man named Crumb using The Beam. She discovers a journal by Stephen York, hinting at Crumb’s involvement in The Beam’s origins. Kai, Doc, and Nicolai are held captive in a virtual reality by their torturers. Kai, pushed to her limits, manages to escape and send an emergency beacon to Micah, who dispatches armored agents to rescue her.
Nicolai, disgusted by the wealthy elite’s excesses and access to secret technology, quits working for Isaac and plans to join Enterprise. Leah uncovers more about Crumb’s true identity as Stephen York, who worked with The Beam’s creator Noah West. Dominic’s involvement with Organa is exposed by NAU agents.
Kai is ordered to kill Doc to prove her loyalty, but she devises a plan to stage his death in a virtual simulation, traumatizing them both. Natasha, angry with Isaac, decides to shift back to Enterprise, throwing Isaac into panic. Nicolai attempts to negotiate with Micah but is shocked to learn that Micah knows about his father’s secret nanobot AI technology, implying that Nicolai unknowingly brought it to America after his family’s demise in Italy.
As the characters navigate a web of political intrigue, advanced technology, and personal struggles, the true nature of The Beam and the secrets surrounding its creation begin to unravel, setting the stage for a battle over the future of their society.
DETAILED EPISODE-BY-EPISODE PLOT SUMMARY:
Episode 1
Chapter 1: Famous singer Natasha Ryan gives a heartfelt performance at the Aphora Theater, but it is disrupted by audience members booing and throwing objects. A riot breaks out and Natasha is forced to flee in her hovercar, deeply shaken by the experience.
Chapter 2: Nicolai Costa, speechwriter for Directorate party leader Isaac Ryan (Natasha’s husband), works on a speech to address the party’s unrest after the concert riot. Nicolai reflects on the flaws and hypocrisies of both the Directorate and Enterprise parties. He decides to visit an upgrade dealer named Doc to pick up a new creativity-enhancing implant.
Chapter 3: Doc Stahl visits Xenia Labs to get new stock and see their latest upgrades. He accidentally ends up in a secret lab and discovers revolutionary nanobot and biological enhancement technologies far beyond what is publicly known. Killian from the lab realizes the mistake and has Doc’s memory wiped, but Doc has an implant that prevents the wipe from working.
Chapter 4: High-end escort Kai Dreyfus helps Doc vanish after he shows up at her place, on the run and claiming someone broke into his apartment. They go to see a man named Stanford who can make Doc “invisible” to tracking. On the way, Kai takes out three Beamer attackers in an elevator. Outside the building, she is shot with a slumbergun.
Chapter 5: Police Captain Dominic Long questions a young hacker named Leah who was caught trying to access restricted Quark company servers. It’s hinted that Dominic and Leah are secret allies. Dominic helps expunge Leah’s record. Later, pressured by Organa community leader Leo, Dominic promises to secure more moondust (a hallucinogenic drug) for the Organas, who are addicted to it.
Chapter 6: Micah Ryan, leader of the Enterprise party and Isaac’s brother, debriefs undercover agents who staged the riot at Natasha’s concert to stir up anti-Directorate sentiment. One agent, Whitlock, seems to have been suspiciously memory wiped after attending the concert with an unknown escort.
Chapter 7: Still upset about the concert fiasco, Natasha argues with Isaac, accusing him of neglecting and not supporting her. She retreats into a virtual reality called the Viazo to meet her digital lover Andre. Meanwhile, an increasingly worried Isaac fails to reach Nicolai, who seems to have disappeared.
Chapter 8: In a flashback to Italy in 2027, teenage Nicolai Costa and his friend Enzo escape their school as it is violently attacked by “Rake Squads” – gangs robbing and killing the wealthy. Enzo is killed by bandits. Nicolai returns home to find his family murdered. High-tech security systems massacre the looters in the house, but Nicolai burns it all down.
Chapter 9: Natasha and Isaac have a huge argument about her excessive spending on luxuries and body enhancements, which Isaac thinks is fueling public outrage against the wealthy Directorate elite. Neither backs down and they angrily part ways.
Chapter 10: A badly hungover Dominic discovers there was an hours-long system outage and security breach at the police station the previous night. Worried that incriminating personal files may have been accessed – files relating to a vagrant named Crumb who Dominic helped evade euthanasia years ago – Dominic realizes someone now likely has blackmail material on him.
Chapter 11: Kai wakes up restrained in a small, cell-like room with Doc and a dark-haired man in glasses who Doc seems to recognize – Nicolai Costa. None of them know why they are being held captive together.
Chapter 12: Leah takes the eccentric, seemingly mentally ill Crumb to an abandoned house in the mountains called the Pilloud ranch. Her goal is to secretly hook Crumb up to The Beam and use her hacking skills to uncover secrets locked in his mind that the Organa community thinks are important.
Chapter 13: With Crumb connected, Leah delves into his mind but finds it incredibly, inexplicably well-protected – far beyond what she would expect for a “crazy” person like him. When she tries to force her way in, the barriers start collapsing and Crumb falls into a coma, leaving Leah with only a tiny clue – an image of a journal labeled “Stephen York”.
Episode 2
Chapter 1: The story flashes back to Nicolai Costa’s school in Italy in 2027. Nicolai and his friend Enzo are messing around in class, attaching a nanobot-embedded disc to a paper airplane to make it fly into their teacher Ms. Marco’s rear end. Suddenly, armed “Rake Squad” rioters attack the school, executing Ms. Marco. Nicolai and Enzo barely escape through a window. Enzo is stabbed and killed by bandits outside. Nicolai returns home to find his family murdered and the house ransacked. High-tech security bots slaughter the looters inside, but Nicolai burns it all down before fleeing.
Chapter 2: In the present, Natasha and Isaac argue bitterly, with Natasha accusing Isaac of being self-absorbed with work and neglecting her, while Isaac thinks Natasha is the self-absorbed one. Both refuse to see the other’s perspective.
Chapter 3: Doc, Kai, and Nicolai (who was the dark-haired man in glasses) are being held captive by Beamers in a virtual reality simulation of different environments like a campsite, beach, etc. Tensions rise between Doc and Nicolai. The Beamers force Doc to punch an unconscious Nicolai for their amusement. If he refuses, they threaten to kill Kai. Doc complies. After the Beamers leave, an furious Kai kicks Doc in the chest.
Chapter 4: Leah rides with Crumb to the abandoned Pilloud ranch in the mountains to secretly connect him to The Beam and uncover his hidden memories. Crumb rambles nonsensically the whole way, but Leah humor him, hoping the Organa elders are right that there are important secrets locked in Crumb’s damaged mind.
Chapter 5: Micah Ryan, reflecting on agent Whitlock’s suspicious memory wipe after the concert riot, is determined to find out who the mystery woman was that Whitlock was with that night and what she knows. Micah is concerned the woman could have seen or heard something sensitive about the Enterprise party’s clandestine activities.
Chapter 6: Dominic argues with Organa leader Leo, who is desperate for more moondust to prevent his community from descending into chaos and violence as their addicts start to run out. Dominic, under immense stress, chews out Leo but ultimately promises to secure the dust. After the call, Dominic takes some moondust himself and hallucinates.
Chapter 7: Isaac visits a Viazo virtual reality representative to book a week-long virtual vacation for him and Natasha, in the hopes it will repair their deteriorating relationship. He discovers to his shock and outrage that Natasha has nearly drained their 15 million credit monthly spending allowance in just 2 weeks on frivolous luxury purchases.
Chapter 8: Kai, Nicolai and Doc are being held captive by Beamer guards in a virtual reality simulation. The environment keeps changing – beach, campsite, etc. The Beamers occasionally come in and beat them with pain prods. The three captives are tense, confused, and have no idea why they are being toyed with like this or what their captors want.
Chapter 9: Isaac returns to confront Natasha about her overspending their credit allowance on luxuries and body enhancements. An explosive argument ensues, with Natasha accusing Isaac of being a hypocrite and not caring about her. Isaac accuses Natasha of being a selfish addict fueling public outrage against the wealthy Directorate elite with her conspicuous consumption. They angrily storm away from each other.
Chapter 10: Dominic discovers the police station’s systems were hacked during the night’s outage, and the data breach likely exposed incriminating files on Dominic secretly helping a “crazy” vagrant named Crumb evade mandatory euthanasia years ago. Dominic had Crumb smuggled to the Organa community instead. He realizes that whoever hacked the system now probably has blackmail material on him.
Episode 3
Chapter 1: In a flashback, Nicolai is out to dinner at an opulent restaurant with Isaac, Micah, Natasha (Isaac’s wife), and Paige (Micah’s date). The restaurant serves absurdly expensive and indulgent food. The wealthy diners take EndLax pills to eat more than they can stomach. Nicolai refuses the EndLax and the general wastefulness on display disgusts him. Over dinner, the Ryan brothers discuss how the NAU (formed from the US, Canada and Mexico) is now isolated but thriving thanks to natural resources discovered under the melting Arctic ice. Micah hints at plans for a protective “wall” around the NAU. After dinner, a drunk Natasha flirts with Nicolai, hinting at an affair.
Chapter 2: Leah returns to a rural mountain hospital where she left the vagrant Crumb after connecting him to a Beam rig, only to find him missing and all records of his admittance erased. Leah’s mentor Leo arrives. They discuss who could have taken Crumb and erased the records. Leah believes she can track down leads by hacking The Beam from inside DZ.
Chapter 3: Micah berates his subordinate at Xenia Labs, James Killian, for allowing a salesman named Doc Stahl to access their top secret advanced technology lab. Killian sent in a ruthless man named Kane to interrogate Stahl and his accomplices, going behind Micah’s back. Furious, Micah orders one of his fixers, Jason Whitlock, to surveil Killian.
Chapter 4: Doc Stahl, his friend Kai, and Isaac’s speechwriter Nicolai are being interrogated and tortured by Kane using a device called an Orion that can simulate extreme pain. Kane believes Doc broke into Xenia deliberately on the orders of an arms/drug dealer named Omar Jones to steal secrets. Doc insists it was an accidental mix-up. Under threat of more torture, Kai admits she told Doc to go to Xenia. Kane continues torturing Doc to try to confirm a conspiracy.
Chapter 5: In a flashback, it’s revealed that as a teenager Kai was brutally assaulted but got revenge on her attackers with a grenade. Now in the present, the torture on the Orion has broken Kai physically and mentally. Two low-level employees discuss disposing of her barely-alive body in an incinerator. At the last moment, Kai musters the strength to viciously attack them and escape. Badly injured, she flees to the woods, hides in an abandoned shack, and with her last strength sends an emergency beacon to her mysterious ally Micah before passing out.
Chapter 6: Micah receives Kai’s emergency beacon message saying she is badly injured and on the verge of death. Using city surveillance, he pinpoints her location in the woods outside the Xenia facility. He dispatches two agents in high-tech armored “stark” suits, Whitlock and Jameson, to rescue her ASAP. Micah seems to have a close personal connection to Kai.
Chapter 7: Still being tortured on the Orion, Doc hallucinates that Kai has been killed. Kane and another man discuss disposing of Doc as well now that Kai and Nicolai are “handled.” Doc passes out. He reawakens to see Kai alive, Kane kowtowing to her, and the two armored Whitlock and Jameson working with her. Disoriented, Doc suspects it may be a ruse to trick him. Kai says they need to go with Whitlock and Jameson to a “station” to treat Doc’s injuries, return a favor, and that Nicolai is safe. Doc doesn’t trust them and tries to escape on the flight there, crashing Jameson’s bike. Kai yells at Doc to trust her as the agents recapture him.
Chapter 8: In a Beam/moondust haze, Leah experiences a vivid vision of a young Noah West having a meal with a man named Stephen York in a Chinese restaurant that she knows has a red roof, even though she’s never been there. She suspects it’s a clue about Crumb. Research shows Quark once owned the restaurant. Leah travels there to find it long abandoned. A voice welcomes her by name and the door opens. Inside is an old high-tech lab. She finds a journal by Stephen York that mentions Noah West, with an old photo of West and a young man she realizes is Crumb. The lab seems to herd her out and lock itself. Leah wonders what role Crumb played in the origins of The Beam.
Episode 4
Chapter 1: Nicolai wakes up confused, sore and badly bruised with only hazy memories of Isaac’s big speech the night before. Nursing a terrible headache, he rushes to Isaac’s apartment at his angry summons, realizing it’s Monday, not Saturday – he’s missing two days of memory. Isaac ignores Nicolai’s distress, furious that Nicolai disappeared, making him look bad compared to his brother Micah. Nicolai quits in disgust at Isaac’s selfishness, the unfairness of the Directorate system, and his realization that the Ryans have access to secret advanced tech that he doesn’t. He plans to switch allegiances to Enterprise at the next Shift.
Chapter 2: Leo waits for word on Crumb. He reflects on how everything happens for a reason, including three people being placed in his Organa community as part of a bigger plan – Dominic’s sister Chrissy bonding Dominic to Organa; Crumb arriving as an important “time bomb”; and Leah being left there as a baby to be raised into the perfect adept to communicate with The Beam. He hopes Leah never learns the full truth.
Chapter 3: Dominic, DZ’s secret Organa-allied police chief, meets his criminal moondust supplier Omar in an abandoned warehouse. On edge, Dominic just wants his drugs to deliver to the addicted Organas so they can keep fighting the power. Omar notes Dominic seems guilty and should act confident in their business. It’s revealed Dominic stepped in to be Organa’s supplier to protect them from Omar’s manipulation. Omar hints the latest batch of dust is “upgraded.” Suddenly, Omar flees as a nano-cloud renders Dominic paralyzed. NAU agents appear and thank Omar for helping them catch the dirty cop at last.
Chapter 4: Crumb wakes up in an odd, otherworldly place run by a woman named SerenityBlue. She does not quite seem human. She says her place is a school, but for Beam adepts. She seems to be protecting Crumb for his own good, although Leah and Leo don’t know where he is.
Chapter 5: Doc, Kai, Nicolai and their captors/rescuers regroup. Still unsure what’s real, Doc sees Kai is alive and now somehow in charge, with even Kane deferring to her. She says Nicolai is safe and they need to go to a “station” to treat Doc’s torture injuries. Mistrustful, Doc tries to escape during the flight there, crashing a bike, but is quickly recaptured. Kai pleads with him to trust her.
Chapter 6: Kai’s ex-client and boss Micah receives her emergency beacon saying she’s badly hurt and hidden in the woods near the Xenia facility. Using city surveillance, he locates her and dispatches Whitlock and Jameson in high-tech “stark” power armor to rescue her before it’s too late. It’s unclear why Micah and Kai have a falling out but he still rushes to save her.
Chapter 7: Doc, hallucinating from torture, thinks Kai died but then she reappears alive, with armored agents Whitlock and Jameson now working with her and Kane deferring to her. She says Nicolai is safe and free, and they need to bring Doc to heal at a “station.” Doc suspects a trick and escapes their custody during transit but is quickly recaptured. Kai begs him to trust her.
Chapter 8: Leah has a vivid vision of young Noah West dining with a man named Stephen York in a Chinese restaurant she knows has a red roof, though she’s never been there. Suspecting a clue to Crumb’s past, she traces the abandoned restaurant and finds a hidden hi-tech lab that lets her enter. Inside is York’s journal mentioning West, and an old photo of West with a young Crumb. The lab herds Leah out and locks itself. She wonders what role Crumb played with West in the early days of The Beam.
Episode 5
Chapter 1: This chapter consists of selected diary entries by Stephen York spanning from 2032 to 2062. As a teenager in 2032, Stephen receives a journal from his father. He works at a gaming company called Zenka and is recruited by Quark to work directly with Noah West on a secret project. Over the years, Stephen grows concerned about the societal impacts of the technology they are developing, called Crossbrace, which will become an omnipresent global network. Rollout is delayed and over-budget. In 2040, Crossbrace’s evolution called “The Beam” is announced, which Stephen feels may drive humanity further apart. By 2050, Stephen is exhausted and disillusioned, seeing Crossbrace as a temporary fix that mainly benefits the elite. Noah envisions The Beam as an even more pervasive successor. In 2061, a terminally ill Noah wants to finish The Beam and upload his mind into it to achieve digital immortality. Stephen is deeply conflicted. In June 2062, they successfully upload Noah’s mind. Stephen wonders if he has created a god. Noah dies shortly after, leaving Stephen to continue the work.
Chapter 2: Micah Ryan receives an urgent message from his agent Kai, codenamed Kitty. She has been badly injured and needs immediate evacuation. Using city surveillance, Micah locates her in the wilderness near Xenia Labs and dispatches his armored agents Whitlock and Jameson to rescue her before she dies. Micah seems to have a close personal connection to Kai.
Chapter 3: Leo anxiously awaits Leah’s return and an update on her search for Crumb in the city. Leah calls and excitedly reports that she knows who Crumb really is – a man named Stephen York who worked closely with Noah West on the origins of The Beam. She found York’s journal and an old photo of a young Crumb with West. Leo is amazed but skeptical. Leah says she will explain more in person, as the revelation seems too sensitive to discuss on an unsecured line. Leo insists on traveling into the city to meet her, realizing the immense importance of locating Crumb/York.
Chapter 4: Dominic Long is being interrogated by NAU agent Austin Smith about his involvement with Organa and smuggling moondust from Omar Jones to them. Smith reveals he knows Dominic saved his sister from Respero. He presses Dominic on why he is supplying Organa, and Dominic admits he believes in their anti-Beam cause as a check on growing inequality and Beam dependence. Smith then asks Dominic what he knows about Organa’s leader Leo Booker, showing his photo, which unnerves Dominic.
Chapter 5: Doc confronts his arms/drug dealing contact Omar, suspecting Omar set him up to infiltrate Xenia and get tortured. Omar denies it, saying he merely wants Doc’s help to gain access to Xenia’s advanced tech, which is controlled by Capital Protection chief Micah Ryan and linked to a secret “Project Mindbender.” Omar ominously claims major changes are coming that will split society into “mortals and gods.” He convinces a reluctant Doc they need to meet with Micah Ryan directly to prove Doc’s value and get protection. However, as Doc leaves the meeting, he is shocked to find Kai waiting for him. She berates him for running from the armored agents who were trying to save them. Doc is confident and accusatory, implying Kai is not trustworthy. Unbeknownst to Doc, Kai has been ordered by Micah to kill Doc to tie up loose ends, or else she will be killed too. The armored agents are watching them to make sure she follows through.
Chapter 6: A desperate Kai lures Doc deeper into an alley, still unsure if she can go through with killing her friend to save herself. When the armored agents catch up to them, she is shocked to realize one is a man she had previously slept with and tried to secretly hack for information. She uses this knowledge and residual nanobots in the man’s brain to manipulate him into sending his rookie partner away. Then, with Doc still injured on the ground, Kai makes the agent pass out using those same nanobots. Doc asks if they are going to run, but Kai cryptically says they need to “make some memories” first, implying she has a plan.
Chapter 7: Kai walks with Doc, a man codenamed “Ralph” passed out behind them. He’s one of the armored agents; Kai made him pass out by activating nanobots she put in his head last time they met, not knowing he worked for Micah Ryan. Earlier she realized Ralph had helped stage the recent Directorate riots to make them look bad before Shift. “Ralph” told Kai to kill Doc or they’d both die. She knocked Ralph out to buy time. Doc, badly injured by Kai kicking him, is still wary of her, but she insists she’s on his side despite being furious at him. They need to stage Doc’s death to satisfy Micah. Kai has a plan, but it requires Doc trusting her – difficult since he thinks she set him up, while she’s enraged at him for escaping protective custody. But with no other options, Kai needs to fool the agents and their surveillance into thinking she killed Doc, or Micah will have them both eliminated.
Episode 6
Chapter 1: A series of flashbacks from 2023 and 2024 chronicles Noah West’s recruitment and early days working at EverCrunch with Ben Stone. Initially skeptical of the company’s lack of innovation, Noah impresses Stone by proposing revolutionary ideas to evolve data compression technology into a ubiquitous network that could transform society. Stone hires him on the spot with promises of immense wealth. Noah is driven to change the world.
Chapter 2: Leo and Leah follow up on the clues from York’s diary, returning to the core of District Zero. Along the way, they talk about the overlaps between being on The Beam and hallucinogenic drugs, as well as a branch of philosophy/religion called “anthroposophy” that theorizes that the reality of the Beam is more real than reality, and that they might one day find a digital savior there.
Chapter 3: While Nicolai contemplates a change in career and his life’s direction now that he’s left Isaac Ryan, Kai gets in touch and tells him that they will have to somehow “kill Doc” or they will all be killed. They head off together to the Ryans’ apartment.
Chapter 4: Police captain Dominic Long is interrogated by NAU agent Austin Smith about supplying the Organa group with moondust through dealer Omar Jones. Smith empathizes with Dominic’s technically illegal but morally motivated actions. However, he then asks what Dominic knows about Organa’s leader Leo Booker, showing his photo, which unnerves Dominic for unknown reasons.
Chapter 5: In a virtual simulation, Kai is forced by agent Whitlock to brutally bludgeon Doc to death with a pipe to prove her loyalty to Micah Ryan and save her own life. The experience is horrifically vivid and traumatic. However, it’s revealed that Doc is alive in the real world – his “death” was only simulated to fool Whitlock and Micah. Kai and Doc used Isaac and Natasha Ryan’s advanced immersion rigs to stage the execution. Nicolai helped hack the system. Despite her revulsion, Kai did what she had to in order to survive and keep Doc alive. Whitlock believes Doc is dead.
Chapter 6: Kai and Doc emerge from the virtual simulation at Isaac and Natasha Ryan’s penthouse, both shaken by the intense experience of Kai “murdering” Doc. They used the Ryans’ advanced immersion rigs to fool Micah’s agent Whitlock into thinking Kai really did execute Doc as commanded. Nicolai helped hack the system. Despite her trauma and anger at Doc for putting her in this position, Kai did what she had to do to save them both. Whitlock will report back to Micah that the deed is done, even though Doc still lives. The experience has taken a heavy psychological toll on Kai.
Chapter 7: Leo and Leah follow their intuition and eventually end up at SerenityBlue’s school, where they find Crumb. Serenity and her “children” seem to understand The Beam on a ghostly, ethereal level that hackers normally don’t see or understand, but that spiritualists do. Leah, who walks the line between tech and spirituality where The Beam is concerned, seems to understand the dichotomy. They learn, because Serenity somehow knows, that there’s more to Crumb than anyone thought.
Chapter 8: Natasha and Isaac have an explosive argument about her resentment over shifting to Directorate, giving up her music career, and Isaac’s weaknesses. She decides to shift back to Enterprise out of spite, throwing Isaac into a panic since it will be a huge blow to him and Directorate right before the Shift. Nicolai has also just quit as Isaac’s speechwriter. Isaac begs Natasha not to leave as she heads to Micah’s, intending to publicly humiliate Isaac. At Micah’s door, they unexpectedly run into Nicolai. Dramatic confrontations are coming to a head between all the key players.
Chapter 9: Nicolai calls Micah, intending to make a deal – he’ll publicly shift to Enterprise but delay the announcement until after the Shift to avoid humiliating Isaac, in exchange for Micah’s discretion. However, Micah already knows everything from Isaac and Natasha and agrees readily, saying Nicolai’s shift itself is enough of a coup. Micah then stuns Nicolai by mentioning his late father Salvatore and his secret hover technology inventions in Italy. Nicolai is shocked, having told no one of his past. Micah reveals that Nicolai’s father pioneered groundbreaking nanobot AI based on neurons working together, tech that became critical after the Fall. Micah’s family and company tried to get Salvatore’s tech before Allegro Andante’s collapse. When Nicolai asks how the tech made it to America if Allegro Andante was so secretive and his father refused to budge, Micah delivers the final blow – “You brought it to us.” The implication is that Nicolai himself, knowingly or not, delivered his father’s world-changing technology to Micah’s interests when he fled Italy’s collapse for the NAU. Micah has been maneuvering Nicolai all along.
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