Upload season 3, episode 4 recap: “Download Doctor”

The previous episode of Upload ended with a cliffhanger of Nathan getting a nosebleed in front of his family. Since Nathan downloaded his consciousness back into a body in the real world, and since a nosebleed was a sign of a Download's head getting ready to explode, everyone around Nathan was understandably concerned.

Nora wants Nathan to go to a doctor, particularly the doctor who is the most knowledgeable about the research being done into Downloads. 

Upload season 3, episode 4 recap – A visit to the Download Doctor

Nathan is reluctant to go, but he agrees on the condition that they don't tell the doctor that he's a Download, as Nathan feels that the more people who know, the riskier it is. They make up a story about being attacked outside the doctor's home, so they have an excuse to ask to use his phone and have a reason for him to check out Nathan.

However, Nora breaks her promise and tells the doctor that Nathan is a Download. Nathan also admits that he's had several nosebleeds already. 

The doctor gives Nathan some medicine to treat the symptoms but tells Nathan that he will probably need to Upload again if his condition worsens. After they leave (and drop off some more hard drives to loved ones), Nathan suggests that they crash for the night at his old roommate's apartment.

Nathan says that the roommate, who is a bicoastal lawyer, is hardly ever there, and they will have the place to themselves. This turns out to be wrong, and the roommate, Holden, shows up catching Nathan and Nora in the apartment.

The roommate also happens to be an ex-girlfriend of Nathan, so that adds some fun tension to the situation. Nora and Nathan tell Holden about their situation and the dirty truth behind Freeyond.

Holden suggests that they file a class action lawsuit against Freeyond, saying that Nora can help with this if she's willing. While Nathan and Nora are visiting, elsewhere in the story Ingrid and Second Nathan get a chance to try out a hack in the elevator that brings them to a much earlier version of Lakeview.

But this version is buggy, incomplete, and mostly abandoned, giving the whole thing a horror vibe. They run into the one remaining resident of the early version, who tries to force them to stay (more horror vibes), but they manage to get away.

However, while they were gone, Nathan was, once again, registered as no longer in the system. His new Angel was in the process of Uploading him once again from a backup, but Nathan returned while the Upload was half done.

Thus, the process was aborted, leaving Nathan bits of the unfinished Upload to dissolve away. 

Upload season 3, episode 4 recap – Catching up on all the other subplots

Luke also has a problem when he learns that the funding for veterans being Uploaded is being cut, meaning that he will have to get a job to be able to maintain his lifestyle at Lakeview. He gets a tip to work at a shady call center, where he tries to convince people to sign up for being Uploaded. 

Back in the real world, Aleesha attends a conference with Lucy due to her new position at the company. At the conference, she is put on the spot about how she would improve Lakeview and mentions that the whole thing feels a little outdated to her.

She says that for the first time in her life, she has the money where she could upload to Lakeview, but she wouldn't want to. Her comments draw the attention of Karina, another attendee at the conference, who says that she's been pushing for updates to Lakeview for a long time but is happy that Aleesha's comments seem to be getting things moving.

The two of them talk and end up spending the night together, creating a possible new romance. Back in Lakeview, David Choak is being kept from a meeting with all the other old rich people.

It's implied that the others think he might be getting a form of digital dementia since he thinks that he saw Nathan out in the real world. Cohak tells his angel that he plans to crash the meeting in a robot suit, that allows uploaded people to interact with the real world. 

Ivan, his angel, makes a comment about how this won't make him seem less crazy, which causes Choak to turn on Ivan and make a threat about knowing all of Ivan's secrets. This threat seems to hit home, and the episode closes out on Ivan clutching a hard drive with Choak's name on it, looking terrified. 

Upload season 3, episode 4 recap – Better in virtual reality

Season 3 of Upload continues to be much more interested in what's happening in the real world instead of what's happening in Lakeview. This has definitely pivoted the focus of the story, but it's also pivoted the humor of the series as well.

The first season of the show was compared to The Good Place, in that both shows seemed to be about the afterlife. Upload had the afterlife as a digital place rather than literal heaven, but both shows based their humor around the idea of being able to live in a place where everything is supposed to be wonderful all the time, and that there are no limitations to what you can have or do. 

With the limited amount of time we've seen Lakeview so far this season, we haven't really gotten any of that. The humor seems to be much more focused on the dystopia of the real world, to an absurd degree.

It feels like the series is drawing inspiration from an entirely different style of comedy here and feels more like Idiocracy than The Good Place at this point. Neither of the two focuses are bad but having them exist in the same show feels odd.

We had a fair amount of time in the real world in the early seasons, but it mostly served to be a serious contrast to the fun, goofy lifestyle of Lakeview. Now the real world is being presented as bizarre and goofy as well.

It feels like the show still wants the absurdist type of humor that is had in the earlier seasons but applying it to the nightmare real world doesn't land the same as when it was based on a paradise setting.

What did you think of Upload season 3 episode 4? You can watch Upload season 3 on Amazon Prime Video.