Robin Hood
Episode 3 of Upload Season 2 starts with Nora heading off with Ivan back to Horizen. En-route though, they drive to Ivan’s place, where Nora checks in with Matteo and crashes for the night. Elsewhere, Nathan and Ingrid end up on the phone to Nathan’s mother. Unfortunately she’s broke and hasn’t paid the rent. She could even lose the place completely, which certainly concerns Nathan. Nathan has an idea though and decides to go full-on Robin Hood, stealing from the rich in Lakeview and giving to the poor. And the poor in this case happens to be those members who only have 2gig of data. Siphoning off data and cash, he begins to work his magic to balance the power. Interestingly, Detective Sato happens to be working undercover. With a warrant, he begins sniffing around Horizen, listening as Yang mentions the Robin Hood money. Interestingly, Aleesha is handed a Ring drive in the wake of this, which holds incriminating data involving Luke. Lucy is convinced that this is what Sato is after, given the file holds pretty revealing shots of Luke in the shower. Aleesha does end up admiring them though, commenting that he has a cute butt. Elsewhere, Ingrid has errands to run in her real life so she hires a “Job Gerbil” over and has her pretend to be Ingrid in Lakeview for the time being. Her regular spacing out is a direct result of all this and Ingrid even tells the woman everything about Nathan to make this seem more convincing. When Nora returns to Horizen HQ, the whole place is in uproar when they see her. Of course, Nora is undercover for Matteo but she watches as Nathan starts stealing funds. But then she also has a big smile on her face too. While she stays quiet about this, Sato and Craig come to Lucy about their concerns regarding data being stolen and Lakeview being manipulated. He knows something doesn’t add up here and decides to investigate. Nathan and Luke work together and hold a poker night, with numerous funds up for grabs. The fake Ingrid happens to win every hand, with the whole game rigged by Nathan. He switches the cards that Ingrid holds to make sure she keeps winning. When Lucy and Craig show up, trying to find the penknife that Nathan is using, he tries to talk Ingrid out of continuing but she goes all-in instead. Thankfully, Nora overhears everything and programs the card to change from her computer, while Nathan ditches the penknife across to an old man who absolutely does not remind me of Moleman from Simpsons. Anyway, Aleesha speaks to Nora about the ring drive she’s been given. She has an idea, and decides to send it back to Lucy. Meanwhile, fake Ingrid has a blast with Nathan, so naturally when she hands back over to real Ingrid, who takes the reigns for the night, Nathan is delighted. He admits he’s had the best day with her and begins kissing her. Ingrid immediately feels guilty. As the episode closes out, Sato checks out the footage from the day in question and notices someone who looks suspiciously like Nora charging inside the building. The picture is blurry though so we can’t be sure.
The Episode Review
The midway point of Upload shows a slightly different side to Ingrid but mostly because it wasn’t actually her. It’s becoming increasingly clear that she’s disillusioned with what’s happening and her moments of clarity and reflection – especially around her relationship with Nathan – have been big highlights this season. However, the Nora and Nathan storylines haven’t quite fired on all cylinders and the show’s anti-capitalist message is nice but it hasn’t quite leaned into the satire and comedy as much as it perhaps could have done. This is a much more reflective and serious season than last year but the ending does hint that things are about to take a deeper turn.
