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(Missed the other summaries in this series? You can also read summaries like this for Season One or Season Two)
CHARACTERS:
Main Characters
Nicolai Costa: Caught up in the intrigue surrounding Stephen York’s “boson” key, shot but survives due to mysterious subdermal armor.
Kate Rigby: Involved in the plot to expose Mindbender secrets at the gala. Kate was previously Doc Stahl, but has undergone complete refurb for camouflage after faking his own death in Season One.
Kai Dreyfus: An elite escort-assassin, tasked with assassinating Rachel Ryan at the gala.
Sam Dial: Reporter trapped in a Beam-generated mental prison, trying to prevent the impending catastrophe at the gala.
Micah Ryan: Mastermind behind Rachel Ryan’s assassination, seeking to gain power within the elite Beau Monde.
Isaac Ryan: Presidential candidate and Micah’s brother, killed by the Organas at the gala after his secrets are exposed.
Natasha Ryan: Isaac’s wife, present at the gala and witness to his assassination.
Violet James/SerenityBlue: The strange previous-seasons entity SerenityBlue is revealed to have once been Violet James, a teenager who became the poster child for Respero. By the end of the season, she’s a traumatized digital avatar fused with her own ghost.
Leo Booker: Leader of the Organa Luddites, neurologically compelled to lead a violent attack on the Respero gala, ultimately killed in the process.
Leah: Guilt-ridden friend of the Organas, hiding with Sam and Violet/SerenityBlue after the gala attack.
Dominic Long: Police captain accidentally subjected to Respero by a malfunctioning security system.
Stephen York (FKA “Crumb”): Lost genius connected to the “boson” key, resurrected and guided by Alexa Mathis.
Key Supporting Characters
Noah West: Genius inventor behind Project Mindbender, seeking to achieve digital immortality. Presumed dead but actually digitally masquerading ax Integer7.
Integer7: Digital being exposed to actually be the on-Beam mind of Noah West.
Iggy: Noah’s associate, involved in the secret Mindbender project and the plan to use Respero to collect mind scans.
Rachel Ryan: Powerful elite figure, mother of Micah and Isaac, orchestrates her own public assassination at the gala.
Craig Braemon: Host of the Respero charity gala, member of the elite class.
Jameson Gray: Illusionist whose disastrous magic show at the gala exposes the truth about Respero and Mindbender.
Alexa Mathis: Reclusive elite figure who reveals to “Stephen York” that Mindbender has achieved digital immortality.
Scooter: One of the augmented Organas who participates in the attack on the gala, killing Violet’s mother.
BRIEF COMPLETE SEASON SUMMARY:
The season opens with flashbacks revealing the disturbing origins of Project Mindbender, a secret initiative to achieve digital immortality by uploading human minds, but only for the elite rather than for all citizens. Noah West and Iggy discuss using the Respero euthanasia program to surreptitiously collect mind scans to “train” the AI behind the project.
In the present, various factions converge on a Respero charity gala hosted by the elite Craig Braemon. Reporter Sam Dial, trapped in a Beam-generated mental prison, receives a warning from a digital version of SerenityBlue about an impending catastrophe at the event. Nicolai Costa and Kai plan to expose the elite’s Mindbender secrets using a “boson” key that was digitally implanted in the firewalled mind of genius Stephen York. Rachel Ryan, anticipating her own assassination by Micah Ryan via Kai, sets the stage for her public death.
At the gala, illusionist Jameson Gray’s disastrous magic show exposes presidential candidate Carter Vale and Isaac Ryan’s secrets, and ends with the revelation that Respero has been a front for Mindbender all along, trapping the minds of the euthanized dead in digital purgatory. Before the revelation can fully outrage the attendees and the nation as a whole, chaos erupts as augmented Organas, neurologically compelled by rogue “sleeper” commands stored mostly inside an unknowing Leo Booker by Panel members long ago, storm the event with the intent of assassinating Stephen York. In fact, they’re not actually following York’s digital presence; instead, they’re following the “York boson” that’s temporarily stored inside Nicolai. Meanwhile, Nicolai successfully uploads the boson, believing it will help expose secrets, to Braemon’s canvas, which has high-level privileges. The boson wreaks havoc on the Beam network and pillages classified data.
As the violence unfolds, Nicolai is shot but survives due to mysterious subdermal armor. Isaac is shot and killed defending Natasha, who grieves him horribly after their recently-revitalized marriage. Sam escapes his mental prison too late to prevent the massacre. Leah, Sam and the Violet/SerenityBlue avatar – a traumatized fusion of the real dead girl and her digital ghost – go into hiding. A guilt-ridden Leah grieves for her Organa friends, knowing they were manipulated into violence against their will.
Police captain Dominic Long is accidentally subjected to Respero by a malfunctioning security system. The reclusive Alexa Mathis reveals to a resurrected “Stephen York” that Mindbender has achieved true digital immortality, but only for a select few. Then, at Xenia Labs, a digital entity called Integer7 is uploaded into a clone of Noah West, the boson and other hidden elements not come together to solve the final hurdle in Mindbender’s mind-transfer technology. The season ends with the stunning revelation that Integer7, in the cloned body, is actually resurrected Noah West himself, returned from the dead and finally able to “embody” a complete mind upload.
DETAILED EPISODE-BY-EPISODE PLOT SUMMARY:
Episode 13
Chapter 1: In a flashback to 2029, Noah West meets with Clive Spooner at the Licorice Spire building. Spooner initially claims not to remember who Noah is, but Noah reminds him of his role at Quark and EverCrunch. Spooner gives Noah a tour of his exotic greenhouse filled with plants and advanced agricultural technology. Noah inquires about Spooner’s “fragmentation engine” which was used in the lunar base project to parse massive amounts of data.
Chapter 2: Micah Ryan is waiting impatiently to meet with the powerful and mysterious Clive Spooner in Spooner’s office at the top of the Licorice Spire building. When Spooner finally arrives, the two engage in a cryptic conversation where Micah tries to gain insight into how individuals gain entry into the elite “Beau Monde” social stratum. Spooner is evasive but suggests pursuing information about credit/wealth conversion algorithms. Micah also presses Spooner about the recent public revelations regarding the controversial “Project Mindbender.” Spooner implies this was an unexpected announcement from political opponent Carter Vale, meant to inspire people with a lofty but unrealistic promise. Throughout, there are hints that Spooner is involved in a secretive group or panel that holds real power, Spooner dropping vague suggestions that Micah may be positioned to gain entry into this elite circle in the future. The meeting ends without Micah getting many clear answers.
Chapter 3: Omar teases Dominic by getting a voice recording of him saying “I like Dick” in reference to his co-worker Dick Grabel. Kate tells Omar to stop. The three discuss their plan to infiltrate Craig Braemon’s pre-Shift fundraiser event. Dominic will assign Grabel to head security so Dominic can access Braemon’s canvas. Omar hints at another part of the plan involving Kate.
Chapter 4: Sam Dial sits in front of his laptop, full of self-doubt about his credibility after the Integer7 Shift disruption failure. He considers making a post about misuse of city funds by the Beau Monde for pre-Shift events, but hesitates, unsure if he has any followers left. His mind wanders to the past when he was hyper-connected to the Beam, and how he can now silence the noise. He resets timers reminding him to shower, his thoughts consumed by distractions and doubts.
Chapter 5: Nicolai Costa ponders whether the powerful Micah Ryan has been manipulating him all along, subtly directing Nicolai’s actions to serve Ryan’s interests. Dismissing these paranoid thoughts, Nicolai prepares to meet the mysterious reporter Sam Dial, whom he hopes can help publicize his dangerous knowledge about the elite ruling class. However, Sam is extremely paranoid himself, initially refusing to meet at Nicolai’s apartment and insisting on meeting at a Starbucks instead, citing concerns about being tracked. Sam arrives via the hazardous underground “chute train”, confounding Nicolai with his erratic behavior. Despite misgivings, Nicolai agrees to the Starbucks meeting location, seeing it as worth tolerating Sam’s eccentricities if he does indeed have the connections and bravery to expose the truth as promised.
Chapter 6: Sam meets with Nicolai Costa at a Starbucks. Sam rambles on about various conspiracy theories surrounding the Beau Monde, Shift, and a secret class controlling things. Nicolai observes Sam’s erratic, hyperactive behavior, realizing he is deeply Beam-sick from having grown up hardwired to the network. Sam insists Nicolai is connected to momentous events in play and tries to convince him to attend Craig Braemon’s pre-Shift fundraiser, hinting that Nicolai is more involved in unfolding political machinations than he realizes.
Chapter 7: In a flashback to 2049, Leo reflects on the struggles of the Organa community adapting to a tech-free life. An NPS agent named Hector arrives with a supply of the drug Lunis, which is easing the Organas’ transition. Hector urges Leo to be upfront with his followers about their Lunis dependence for their own safety. He gives Leo until mid-July before NPS officially cuts ties.
Chapter 8: In the present, Leo rides in an NPS hover car, under arrest. Agent Austin Smith confronts Leo about his past crimes with Gaia’s Hammer. Leo maintains that his reformation in the Organa village was genuine. Smith reveals that NPS has recordings of Leo planning to cause a Beam outage and betray his followers. Leo attacked Smith but was restrained. He thinks back on dosing the Organas with Lunis without their knowledge to ease their tech withdrawal.
Chapter 9: Leah sits in a meadow simulation, struggling to maintain the illusion. A young boy named Alias interrupts to let her know dinner is ready. Leah asks Alias about SerenityBlue’s appearance and nature. After Alias leaves, a dark and seemingly digital and holographic figure appears, identifying himself as Integer7. He warns Leah that Leo Booker has been arrested and needs her help. Integer7 vanishes, leaving Leah unsure what is real.
Chapter 10: SerenityBlue, who is able to perceive and exist across various planes of reality, senses a significant “change” occurring within the Beam, though she struggles to discern exactly what has changed. She contemplates the nature of change itself versus the revelation of previously unknown circumstances. Serenity realizes something has altered regarding Leah, possibly relating to Leo Booker or the mysterious Stephen York, whom she has an obscure connection to from York’s past existence as “Crumb” within the Beam virtual network. One of Serenity’s young students then informs her that Leah has disappeared, confirming Serenity’s feeling that a pivotal change has taken place involving Leah, though the precise nature and implications remain unclear to Serenity herself.
Chapter 11: Leah rides to the ruins of the Bontauk home on a horse. She reflects on giving directions to someone who had recently been there, struggling against Crumb’s memories. She finds the fiber line and plugs in an old laptop to connect to the Beam, wrestling with the danger of being discovered. Noah West’s avatar appears, triggering fragmented memories in Leah. The Noah avatar gives cryptic warnings and clues, glitching in and out. Before Leah can force quit, it tells her to “find Alexa” and vanishes.
Episode 14
Chapter 1: In a flashback, Noah visits Stephen York in the lab, finding him surrounded by takeout boxes from an all-night work session. Noah reprimands Stephen for trying to rewrite the software for new visual implants rather than simply removing the bandwidth limiter as Noah instructed. Noah angrily reminds Stephen of his place as an employee. Stephen seems hurt by Noah’s harsh words as Noah leaves.
Chapter 2: In 2063, Detectives Dominic Long and Lewis investigate a double homicide in a rundown District Zero apartment. They find a drug worm that had burrowed into one of the victims, but Lewis explains it’s actually a “creeper” meant to erase the victim’s identity. Two Quark agents then arrive and take over the crime scene, revealing the victims were actually wealthy elites Marshall Oates and Colin Hawes. The detectives are forced to hand over evidence and leave by shadowy agents hinting at elite statuses of the deceased.
Chapter 3: In 2024, Kai arrives at the luxurious Alpha Place retirement home to confront Rachel Ryan. Rachel welcomes Kai over the intercom, somehow knowing who she is and her connection to Micah. Kai enters the opulent lobby staffed by a hostess named Miss Trudy, who Kai recognizes as a stripper from her past. Unsettled, Kai takes the elevator up to Rachel’s room. Rachel greets Kai at the door, saying “So, you’ve come to kill me.”
Chapter 4: In a flashback to 2091, reporter Sam Dial infiltrates a dinner party hosted by Craig Braemon while undercover as young tech entrepreneur Archer Latham. Sam is nervous about maintaining his cover and affording the expensive meal. When Braemon suggests everyone play “credit card roulette” to see who pays the whole bill, Sam narrowly avoids disaster. As he’s leaving, Braemon implies he knows Sam’s true identity. Sam realizes he needs to publish his exposé on Braemon quickly and go into hiding.
Chapter 5: Dominic sits in his office at the DZPD station, pondering his involvement in Omar’s mysterious plan involving a digital copy of supposedly-deceased conman Thomas “Doc” Stahl, who Dominic doesn’t know is now Kate Rigby. Dominic gathers information on Stahl, noticing a vague connection between him and Isaac Ryan’s former speechwriter Nicolai Costa. An officer informs Dominic that the Organa cultists brought in with Leo Booker are causing a disturbance that requires backup.
Chapter 6: Leo sits restrained in an NPS interrogation room, fighting Lunis withdrawal. A voice in his head alternately urges him to wait patiently for help and violently attack his captors. Leo presses his fingernail into his wrist to maintain focus through the pain and mental fog. The voice claims that once Leo is free, he can move on to “what matters most.”
Chapter 7: Kate arrives at Dominic’s office in the DZPD station to collect the digital copy of Doc Stahl. Dominic explains he assembled the “shell” there (a digital re-creation of Doc) to avoid detection. Kate uploads the file to her secure storage. Dominic expresses doubts about Omar’s plan and points out Stahl’s connections to Isaac Ryan and Nicolai Costa, who is on the guest list for Braemon’s fundraiser. Dominic and Kate agree to be wary of Omar’s full intentions. As Kate leaves, Dominic gets word of a riot breaking out at Isaac and Natasha Ryan’s residence.
Chapter 8: Isaac and Natasha watch a riot unfold outside their apartment building. Their relationship has improved since Isaac heroically saved Natasha from the attack at The Sap. Natasha says she still plans to shift to Enterprise but will do so quietly out of respect for Isaac. She reveals Micah invited them both to Craig Braemon’s fundraiser, where illusionist Jameson Gray will teach Micah a trick in which he makes Isaac “disappear.”
Chapter 9: Natasha practices being Jameson Gray’s assistant for the upcoming illusion with Micah in a Viazo simulation. Jameson lectures her on the importance of stage presence and misdirection. Natasha confides that her marriage to Isaac has improved since he saved her life. Jameson expresses skepticism and warns her to be cautious with her feelings, but Natasha dismisses his concerns.
Chapter 10: Serenity Blue senses a disturbance in both the real world and the network, like a knot or node drawing various people and events together. She reflects on the special perceptiveness of the children at her school. Serenity can feel connections forming between Leah, Leo, Stephen York, and others, with herself and the “man in black” at the center. She believes a momentous event is coming that will make the children’s abilities accessible to everyone.
Episode 15
Chapter 1: In 2062, a mysterious man in black appears in Stephen York’s lab, catching him by surprise. The man cryptically tells Stephen to look for puzzles to solve and loose ends to “keep the entirety from being stored in one piece.” He implies that Stephen has been conditioned and that coincidences around him are significant. The man vanishes as a swarm of nanobots invades the lab, erasing Stephen’s memories. Two unknown individuals then lead a confused Stephen out of the facility.
Chapter 2: Leah urgently calls Dominic, who has been ignoring her attempts to reach him. She is waiting outside the NPS station where Leo and the other Organas are being held. Leah says she can free the Organas but is unsure what to do with them once released, as Dominic confirms they are dangerously withdrawing from Lunis. Dominic realizes Leo got his people arrested on purpose as part of a plan to cure their addiction — go cold turkey, or something Dominic doesn’t yet understand.
Chapter 3: In 2093, Leah takes a hallucinogenic drug that grants her visions of universal interconnectivity. She sees The Beam as a layer above the physical universe. In a deep Beam simulation, she encounters a mysterious entity called Integer7 who speaks cryptically about the superiority of the digital world over the physical one. Integer7 warns Leah she will inevitably need help from beings like him.
Chapter 4: Leah and Dominic wait in an old parking garage to intercept the Organas, whom Leah has tricked into leaving NPS custody. They plan to incapacitate the violently withdrawing Organas with slumberguns and load them onto buses. Leah compares the situation to a zombie movie scene. As the horde approaches, they open fire, struggling to contain the frenzy.
Chapter 5: Kai confronts Rachel Ryan at the luxurious Alpha Place retirement home. Rachel reveals she knows about Kai’s past and connection to Micah. She asks why Kai has come to potentially kill her, beyond Micah’s orders. They verbally spar, with Rachel questioning Kai’s loyalty and demanding to know how she would commit the murder. When Kai injects Rachel with a sophisticated poison, the simulation ends; Kai realizes the whole encounter has been a virtual test, which she passed. The real Rachel, watching, says Kai may kill her, but only at the right time and place.
Chapter 6: In 2066, Doc Stahl undergoes mandatory testing by the Department of Responsibility to prove his fitness to remain in the Enterprise party. The tester, Roger Green, uses an insight sensor on Doc, which malfunctions and reveals strange aptitudes in Doc’s profile. Green acts evasively about the results, which include an unexplained lack of future test dates for Doc and a mysterious “Sector aptitude.” Doc leaves feeling unsettled. This recalls Kate’s escape from the lunar base on “Sector 7 clearance,” which she didn’t understand. (Doc is Kate now, in the present day.)
Chapter 7: Kate, after uploading the digital copy of her former self Doc Stahl, lingers in Dominic’s office to secretly call Nicolai. She wants his help uncovering the hidden intentions behind Omar’s plan involving Craig Braemon’s fundraiser. Kate suspects Omar has dangerous ulterior motives and that Braemon has a reputation for Shift tampering. She enlists a reluctant Nicolai to dig into Braemon’s background and meet her covertly at the event to share intel, hoping to outmaneuver the untrustworthy Omar.
Chapter 8: Dominic and Leah face off against the violently addicted Organas who have been lured out of their prison cells, planning to subdue them with slumber weapons in order to transport Leo Booker and his crew away for rehabilitation. Despite initial strategizing, the confrontation quickly descends into chaos as the maddened Organas charge with animalistic intensity. Amid the fray, Dominic and Leah are forced to open fire indiscriminately, dropping numerous Organas including their former peaceful acquaintances. Even after being temporarily incapacitated themselves from friendly fire, Dominic ultimately has to shoot Leo, who briefly regains cognizance but threatens Dominic with the slumber weapon before Leah finishes subduing him. Though battered, Leah insists they proceed with transporting the unconscious Organa captives by bus as planned.
Chapter 9: Isaac receives an unexpected virtual visit from the powerful and intimidating Aiden Purcell, a member of the elite ruling class above even the wealthy Beau Monde, called Panel. Purcell chastises Isaac for not fully revealing his motivations in previously seeking Purcell’s assistance to undermine his wife Natasha’s concert. Purcell then reveals that the controversial Mindbender mind uploading project is real, and that an off-message announcement about it by political opponent Carter Vale requires a response. Purcell says the key hurdle to Mindbender’s success is a “fragmentation paradigm” preventing complete mind transference. Ominously implying he could theoretically upload Isaac’s mind piecemeal, Purcell tasks Isaac with convincing Vale to walk back his Mindbender claims at an upcoming event. When Isaac presses for more details on Mindbender’s progress, Purcell is evasive, alluding to potential philosophical objections beyond just technical difficulties.
Chapter 10: Searching the deep Beam for clues about Alexa Mathis, Stephen York is accompanied by an eager teenage girl named Kimmy who claims to be Alexa’s biggest fan. Kimmy demonstrates uncanny abilities, bringing Stephen into a strange immersive simulation where he can perceive the Beam’s inner workings, including intelligent “packets” and mischievous “micropackets.” Kimmy notices a glowing “boson” in Stephen’s chest, named after the God particle, which she says is akin to a digital birthmark.
Chapter 11: On the day of Crossbrace’s successful launch in 2042, Noah West reflects in private, believing that despite the public’s enthusiasm, the network is already obsolete compared to his vision for a purely digital realm inhabited by AI. He imagines a future where humans can upload their consciousnesses and live in this virtual world, discarding their physical bodies. Noah sees this as his true legacy but acknowledges he would need to die to achieve it.
Episode 16
Chapter 1: In a flashback, Panel member Iggy tells Noah that in order to replace the newly-launched Crossbrace with an even more advanced network called The Beam, Noah will need to spin a story portraying himself as a tragic, terminally ill genius racing against time to upload his mind and help humanity evolve. Iggy will handle the storytelling while Noah focuses on the technical development.
Chapter 2: Leo wakes up imprisoned after a violent episode caused by Lunis withdrawal. Talking to Dominic and Leah through a speaker, Leo realizes his augments and repair nanos are coming back online, filling the withdrawal void by reconnecting him to The Beam. They discuss reactivating the imprisoned Organas’ implants using old prison tech to get them reconnected as a Lunis substitute, sort of like going on methadone to get through heroin withdrawal.
Chapter 3: In 2078, Micah Ryan meets with Alexa Mathis at an O club. Alexa implies she is part of an elite group with Rachel that has rules about not openly moving against each other. She wants Micah’s help undermining Rachel and implies he could ascend to the group if successful. Micah is wary of hidden motives but agrees to have his agent Kai kill Rachel at an upcoming public event.
Chapter 4: Micah and Alexa discuss their plan to have Kai assassinate Rachel at the Violet James Respero fundraiser. Alexa thinks it’s worth the risk, believing Rachel doesn’t know she’s helping Micah. Micah is worried Rachel is setting a trap but reluctantly agrees to proceed, with Kai accompanying Costa to the event.
Chapter 5: Kai takes Nicolai to meet the legendary hacker Ryu in Harajuku. Using sensory deprivation, Ryu transports them into an ultra-realistic Beam simulation called the Viazo. There they encounter the detached digital mind of Stephen York, who gives Nicolai a “boson” – a key piece of the secret high-level version of Project Mindbender – to upload to The Beam at Braemon’s upcoming fundraiser.
Chapter 6: Sam Dial, struggling with paranoia, takes Nicolai’s Lunis to clear his head. On The Beam as Shadow, he corresponds with the mysterious Integer7 who claims Nicolai has been corrupted. Investigating, Sam realizes Nicolai entered a Panel-level Beam sector and may be walking into a trap. He resolves to go in himself to try to warn Nicolai.
Chapter 7: Leah tells Dominic about her correspondence with Shadow about odd Beam phenomena. She found an old transcript mentioning a Stephen York murder plot involving Rachel Ryan and other elites. Dominic realizes it connects to an old case of his and theorizes someone is setting up Nicolai Costa to transport a “decoy Stephen York mind” as part of a larger scheme.
Chapter 8: Nicolai decides he and Kai should pursue their own agenda at Braemon’s fundraiser, apart from Micah and Rachel’s plans. Kai will assassinate Rachel as requested while Nicolai, believing York’s claims, will use York’s spoofed identity (using the boson) to access and expose the elite’s secret version of Mindbender. Nicolai has also leaked Beau Monde info to reporters to air after the event.
Chapter 9: A Beam-connected boy named Wax shows SerenityBlue a troubling map of a “knot” forming in The Beam around the upcoming fundraiser, with Stephen York at its center. An unknown figure, separate from Serenity’s cloud-like Beam presence, seems to be manipulating events toward an implosion-like convergence.
Chapter 10: Leah tells Dominic she’s been corresponding with Shadow about strange Beam phenomena and a Stephen York murder plot involving elites like Rachel Ryan. Dominic connects it to an old case and realizes someone is setting Nicolai up to be a patsy, transporting a decoy York mind. They deduce Nicolai is in danger at Braemon’s upcoming fundraiser.
Chapter 11: Under vague orders from a superior to “convince” President Vale about something at Braemon’s fundraiser, a nervous Isaac Ryan agonizes over whether the plan to kill Vale is only a decoy. He hopes it’s a red herring to keep him distracted and impotent while the real machinations unfold. Meanwhile, Isaac’s wife Natasha insists they attend the event, wanting to reconnect with an old friend, Shelly, who has riot information Natasha “must hear.”
Episode 17
Chapter 1: In a 2081 flashback, Crumb is guarding the perimeter of the Organa village when a ghostly apparition of Noah West appears. Noah tells Crumb to focus and remember who he really is: Stephen York. Noah says there is a hole in the firewall inside Crumb’s mind that allows him (Noah) to appear briefly. He apologizes to Stephen, saying hiding and fireballing his mind in this way was the only option to keep him safe from pursuers. As Noah fades away, he urges Stephen to keep reciting the prime numbers to keep something important alive inside him until it’s time for “Buddha to unlock the box.”
Chapter 2: Stephen York finds himself in an old, video game-like sector of The Beam with a virtual being (or possibly an avatar of a real-world little girl) named Kimmy. They are searching for Alexa Mathis. The strange surroundings make Stephen question if this is real or a shared immersion. Traversing the glitchy landscape, they see avatars stuck in recursive loops simply called “holes,” which Kimmy attributes to the sector falling apart and being filled with garbage code that the network’s policing AI can’t keep up with cleaning.
Chapter 3: Dominic looks exhausted as Leah enters. She reports being unable to find evidence of the Stephen York shell Dominic believes is out there, hampered by poor connectivity. Dominic remains fixated on his hunch despite a lack of proof. Leah thinks he’s just tired and paranoid. She wants to focus on getting the Organas out of the underground prison safely, as the ventilation is failing. Dominic reluctantly agrees to worry about the Organas first.
Chapter 4: Dominic and Leah discuss the Organas’ transformation. Leah has configured their cobbled-together prison implants to pacify them with a constant stream of trivial Beam connectivity. Leo comes in, looking unchanged now that his old implants have reactivated on their own. Dominic is wary of the armed and enhanced Organas, but Leo assures him they are still themselves beneath the tech. Leo admits to Dominic that he supplied the Organas with moondust to ease their transition when the group first rejected technology, taking responsibility for their current instability. Leah ushers the group through a scanner that inventories and temporarily neuters their enhancements as a safety precaution before they head out. The scanner flags an unknown result in Dominic – some enhancement called “Sector7” that supposedly-unenhanced Dominic didn’t know he had.
Chapter 5: Kate, inhabiting Doc’s refurbished digital shell as camouflage able to get past security and fool all the relevant sensors, calls Nicolai to test if her identity is adequately spoofed. She appears to him as Doc while still looking outwardly like Kate. They discuss access issues and Nicolai acquiring some sort of “key” involving Mindbender that he thinks could be an ulterior motive for Omar. Nicolai does something that appears to result in Omar bursting in on Kate, forcing her to hastily end the call before being caught.
Chapter 6: Omar gleefully announces to Kate that they’ve been granted last-minute invitations to Braemon’s event. Kate privately wonders if it’s related to the mysterious “key” Nicolai used.
Chapter 7: Sam’s mind is caught in a looping Beam glitch (a “hole”), reliving the same few minutes without knowing he’s trapped in a glitch at all. Instead, he’s convinced he is in his apartment tracking Nicolai Costa, when in reality his physical body is immobilized in a Starbucks. A patronizing AI in the form of an animated paperclip is belittling his attempts to get help and break the recursive loop entrapping his mind, which does help to wake him up to the trapped reality of his situation. Sam becomes increasingly desperate to escape so that he can warn Nicolai of impending danger.
Chapter 8: Nicolai and Kai prepare to leave for Braemon’s fundraiser. Kai is dressed to kill, literally, as she has weaponry concealed in her alluring outfit. They discuss the convoluted web of intersecting schemes they are involved in and the difficulty of figuring out all the angles between Doc/Kate, Omar, and the others. Putting that aside for the moment, they psych themselves up to play their roles.
Chapter 9: Isaac Ryan is panicking on a call to Dominic Long. He claims someone is blackmailing him into assassinating President Vale at Braemon’s event and begs the police captain to arrest him as an excuse not to attend. Dominic dismisses Isaac’s pleas as absurd and unhinged. After rebuffing Isaac’s final entreaty for help, an exasperated Dominic hangs up on him.
Chapter 10: Isaac agonizes over his supposed orders to kill President Vale, his marital troubles, and an impending magic trick he’s been roped into performing with his brother Micah. His wife Natasha’s recently affectionate overtures annoy him as Isaac’s thoughts spiral between murder, a secret that threatens his marriage, and the magic trick he doesn’t understand and expects to embarrass him. He resigns himself to attending the party, and to hopefully finding a way not to assassinate Vale as he’s been commanded to do … somehow.
Chapter 11: A tense Isaac argues with his brother Micah about the assassination plot and the magic trick. Micah is focused on Isaac not ruining their performance and irritated that their mother Rachel seems to be scheming about something involving President Vale’s surprise attendance. Isaac frets about the trick, Natasha, and his mission, but gets no clarity from Micah. Micah says the trick will involve a convincing hologram of Isaac and selective permissions being granted to impersonate him, which disturbs Isaac. They break off their whispered conversation as Carter Vale enters.
Chapter 12: At Braemon’s event, Kate spots Nicolai and Kai talking to the famous Natasha Ryan. Dominic, surveilling remotely, notices Nicolai’s Beam ID is reading strangely. Kate doesn’t reveal to Dominic that she needs to talk to Nicolai, not Kai. She watches Nicolai notice her, but he gets pulled away by Natasha before they can speak. Omar shoves Kate toward their target, Craig Braemon, which infuriates her. She notices Dominic has suspiciously gone silent. Just then, Dominic reports that Braemon and Omar are headed her way.
Chapter 13: At her school, a concerned SerenityBlue converses with her student Wax about an ominous development in his Beam mapping of the upcoming event. She confirms something is badly wrong, like a slow-motion explosion that can’t be stopped, only observed. Wax asks if there’s anything he can do to help. Serenity says all they can do is prepare, as she must leave soon to join with the network.
Chapter 14: Kai and Nicolai arrive at Braemon’s estate and immediately notice Natasha Ryan. Kai giddily insists Nicolai introduce her. They join Natasha and Isaac Ryan. Kai fangirls over Natasha while Isaac tries to keep the group together. Natasha spots an old friend, Shelly Godfrey, she wants to catch up with, but Isaac acts strangely insistent that she stay put. Micah arrives and pulls Isaac away for a private talk. Nicolai’s attention drifts to Kate across the room. With the group dynamic shattered, Natasha heads off to find Shelly, irritated.
Chapter 15: Leah finishes herding the Organas out but lingers, worried for Crumb/Stephen York’s safety. She consults with Serenity over the Beam and is convinced an assassin from the intercepted transcript is likely still pursuing York’s Beam ID, because it seems to have resurfaced in the city. Leo talks her down, arguing that York should be savvy enough to handle himself. Leah realizes she is too late to intervene regardless. Leo invites her to join the Organas in hiding, but Leah declines, staying behind paralyzed with concern over the looming crisis.
Chapter 16: Still quarantined in the police corridor, Dominic watches surveillance feeds of the party, increasingly concerned by glitchy Beam behavior and strange interactions between Isaac Ryan and President Vale. Isaac looks guilty. Dominic leaves another cop in charge of the monitors and hurries to the party in person, no longer content to stand back with Omar’s scheme in motion and Vale apparently at risk.
Chapter 17: The Organas make their way through an old subway tunnel. Scooter, reading Beam headlines through his prison implants, reports that their planned exit to the surface has been blocked by a security checkpoint for the fundraiser event. They realize they are trapped between the tunnels and the locked-down prison and can’t escape unseen. Leo has a revelation and hijacks the group’s hive mind, overriding the safeties Leah put on their enhancements. Under a long-buried compulsion that he himself doesn’t understand but finds himself unable to disobey like something hard-wired, he sets in motion a plan for the Organas to violently disrupt the party and assassinate an old friend.
Chapter 18: Dominic argues with a Beam avatar that appears in a hallway as he tries to leave Quark PD. The avatar is part of the police security system, fully automated. It confronts him about the secret “Sector 7” access detected inside Dominic’s body when they scanned the Organas – apparently a bit of rogue software transferred into him from the hacking worm Dominic touched at the double-murder scene described earlier in a flashback from years ago. The avatar refuses to let the confused and increasingly panicked Dominic leave, placing the corridor under lockdown quarantine.
Chapter 19: Sam continues deteriorating in his recursive mental trap. Desperate, he injures himself attacking the walls of his virtually simulated apartment. By doing so, he briefly sees his true surroundings at Starbucks. A mysterious woman (actually SerenityBlue) appears, different from the other hallucinations. She claims to be an ally and gives cryptic warnings about Nicolai walking into a trap with something dangerous that is “like a bomb.” She says malevolent forces are preventing her from intervening directly. She tells the despairing Sam he must escape the loop himself and stop the killers pursuing Stephen York, hinting that Sam is close to where he needs to be. She vanishes and Sam’s prison reasserts itself.
Chapter 20: Kate arranges to meet with Nicolai under the pretext of them both needing to access Braemon’s systems during the magicians’ performance. She learns Kai’s assassination of Rachel Ryan is also set for that time. Kate and Nicolai hastily strategize how to get Braemon alone.
Chapter 21: Kai keeps Rachel company, reluctant to carry out the planned mercy killing on Micah’s orders. Rachel is at peace with her impending death, hinting at machinations beyond Micah’s knowledge and saying this is necessary for him to take the next step, which she actually wants him to take. She instructs Kai to wait until the end of the magic show to shoot her, so her death will be public. Kai realizes Rachel has foreseen everything and set the stage for her own assassination with meticulous care. Rachel says Kai will want to witness the magicians’ performance before making her move.
Chapter 22: Isaac and Micah take the stage with Natasha as assistants to the famous illusionist Jameson Gray. Jameson involves the audience in an increasingly strange vanishing cabinet trick. An invisible cabinet is “carried out” with audience participants miming and Isaac stepping into thin air. Jameson has Micah menace the unseen cabinet with a sword. The Beam feed glitches and briefly shows a previously-recorded (and revealing) private conversation between Isaac and President Vale, humiliating both men with its candid revelations. The recorded holo-Vale rants about Respero and Mindbender, causing Real Vale to fly into a rage, accusing Isaac of framing him.
Chapter 23: The magic show unravels into chaos as Vale hollers for Isaac’s arrest. The holo-Vale gets stuck in a loop. Suddenly, a virtual projection of Violet James, the comatose vegetative mascot of the entire Respero charity event, appears in holo-Vale’s place. Her mother – a guest of honor at the event – rushes forward in shock. An audience member identifies the girl, known in life as Violet James, as now being known “SerenityBlue.” As the crowd reels, a violent armed force crashes the party through the back of the room. The revelation exposes Respero for what it is: a way of sacrificing real people to “train” the software needed for Project Mindbender.
Chapter 24: In the aftermath of the armed force breaching the venue, the magic show completely breaks down. Natasha looks at Isaac with hatred. The invaders surge forward as the crowd panics. Micah drops his prop sword in shock. The attacking force is described as “warriors” just before the chapter ends on an ominous note, stating “then came the blood.”
Episode 18
Chapter 1: In a flashback, the ugly truth about Respero — just revealed publicly — is spelled out. Noah West and Iggy discuss using Respero (the state euthanasia program) to collect mind uploads for the secret Mindbender project. They plan to ritualize the Respero process with pre-evaporation dinners and ceremonies, during which neural mapping scans can be performed on subjects under the guise of relatives sharing memories. Noah keeps some key details secret from Iggy, including the need to split the upload cypher and coalescence engine between multiple minds for insurance. Only Noah will know this, so only Noah would be able to use Mindbender to “return to life” after being uploaded.
Chapter 2: Violet James, a teenager who was famously Respero’d, wakes up in the midst of a violent attack on a Respero fundraiser. Her mother is killed trying to reach her through the chaos. Violet realizes she is now a hologram that others cannot physically touch: SerenityBlue. The process of being made into a hologram has confused her mind. She screams in grief and confusion.
Chapter 3: Leo and other augmented Organas are revealed as the “violent force” that broke up the fundraiser. They storm the fundraiser as a group compulsion led by Leo, who was programmed as a sleeper assassin long ago by Panel, unbeknownst to himself. Leo’s buried-and-now-resurfaced directive commands him to kill a person at the fundraiser whose Beam signature identifies him as Stephen York, but it’s actually just York’s boson (temporarily housed inside Nicolai) that they’re seeing, not York himself. Leo sees Scooter, also in a mind-scrambling daze, shoot Violet’s mother. Seeing it, he’s drawn to Violet’s hologram, feeling he somehow knows her. A virtual tracking arrow in his heads-up display urges him toward her.
Chapter 4: Nicolai Costa, Kate Rigby, and Kai hide in Craig Braemon’s office. Nicolai tries to upload the York shell — the thing the Organas are tracking instead of the real York — from his mind to Braemon’s canvas. Reporter Sam Dial rushes in with SerenityBlue’s warning, urging them to stop the upload, saying it will unlock something terrible if York’s boson is sent to The Beam. Leo bursts in and shoots Nicolai in the chest, but he’s then killed by Braemon’s autonomous security drones.
Chapter 5: Leah is perplexed by the fragmented and chaotic data she’s seeing on her systems related to Braemon’s event. She can’t make sense of the information or locate her usual contacts like Leo, Dominic, or Shadow. Leah digs deeper into the code, realizing something is being reassembled and there’s an overloaded system repeatedly checking its own integrity. She checks the news headlines and a video stream, realizing there is chaos unfolding at Braemon’s fundraiser event, allowing her to grasp what is actually happening.
Chapter 6: Micah and Isaac Ryan flee with Natasha and others as the Organas continue to raise havoc at the fundraiser. In a struggle, Isaac is shot dead while protecting Natasha. Natasha kills his murderer in rage and vengeance, then passes out from shock.
Chapter 7: Violet – still confused and now half Violet and half SerenityBlue, half her old self and half corporeal hologram – moves through the fundraiser’s chaos, drawn to the dying Leo. She senses an unseen presence beside her, gently guiding her path.
Chapter 8: Micah, Isaac, Natasha and two workers are cornered by an armed assailant. Natasha recklessly confronts the attacker. To get her to leave, Micah knocks Natasha out. The workers say the security system could suffocate them if they stay.
Chapter 9: Nicolai miraculously survives being shot, an impenetrable armor having formed beneath his skin to protect him … yet another “gift” given to him by The Beam’s protection, same as all the other times he “miraculously” survived. Meanwhile, the boson he uploaded from himself to Braemon’s canvas has become a sort of “York virus,” pillaging confidential data from Quark PD by spoofing Braemon’s high-level credentials.
Chapter 10: Sam Dial realizes the pink-haired girl who arrived at Braemon’s is his hacker friend n33t. She’s there to capture the “unarchivable archive”: the Violet James hologram, which contains inaccessible compressed data.
Chapter 11: Leo dies from his injuries as Violet’s hologram comforts him. She assures Leo that in the end, he made a positive difference. Leo asks her to look after someone as he passes.
Chapter 12: Natasha regains consciousness, insisting they bring Isaac’s body with them. Micah refuses, leading to a vicious argument before Micah drags Natasha away from the scene.
Chapter 13: The still-malfunctioning Quark security system accidentally subjects Dominic Long to the Respero evaporation process against his will. His body disintegrates into mist.
Chapter 14: Stephen York comes out of his “Beamwalking” to find he’s online with a woman: the reclusive and seemingly-dying Alexa Mathis. She reveals that recent breakthroughs within elite, privileged circles mean Mindbender’s digital immortality is now possible. Alexa tells York to simply wait for the digital ghost of Noah West to contact him.
Chapter 15: Leah grieves for Leo and the other Organas, knowing their normally-peaceful natures were neurologically manipulated into doing violence. She contemplates her mysterious connection to both Serenity/Violet and a yet-unnamed malevolent digital presence.
Chapter 16: Clive Spooner berates Micah Ryan for his many failures and the precariousness of his new position on the ruling council called Panel, granted through his murdered mother. Micah learns his recently murdered mother Rachel arranged membership in the elite Beau Monde for Nicolai Costa, Kai Dreyfus, Kate Rigby and Omar Jones before her death.
As they await Shift election results, the NAU Senate becomes deadlocked 50-50.
Chapter 17: Kai, Nicolai and Kate escape the besieged fundraiser. Kai reveals that Rachel, in a posthumous message, bequeathed them access to the exclusive Beau Monde.
Chapter 18: Leah, Sam Dial, and the Violet/Serenity hologram hide out in a safehouse apartment. They discuss Violet’s dual nature as both the dead girl and the AI simulacrum.
Chapter 19: Killian, CEO of Xenia Labs, oversees the “awakening” of a digital intelligence called Integer7 inside a newly cloned physical body. Integer7 had solved the Mindbender consciousness dislocation flaw that previously prevented stable uploads, but it took many pieces that only Noah knew to do it: the boson hidden in York, his own disembodied mind, and the cypher unknown to most Resperos. The body is a genetic duplicate of genius inventor Noah West.
Chapter 20: Killian marvels at Integer7’s successful “embodiment” via Mindbender technology – the first stable transfer of a digital intelligence to a physical brain. Integer7, now occupying a body identical to Noah West’s, examines his new flesh-and-blood hands and face in a mirror. Turns out NOAH WEST HAS RETURNED FROM THE DEAD.
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