Paloma

At this point I assume that every show or movie that is supposed to take place in the US has been shot in Vancouver--overgeneralizing, of course. But this year my husband and I spent a few weeks in Vancouver, and since then we keep seeing locations we recognize in various shows. A couple of weeks ago we watched a show supposedly taking place in a US suburb and small city that had scenes in a residential area that looked exactly like the one where our Airbnb was, in terms of street layout and house architecture. I know that production companies film in Canada for financial reasons and because it's easy to find locations that look like the US, but if you as the viewer recognize the Canadian locations, it can distract you from the plot and make it harder to get engaged in the action.

Thank you, I had some of the same confusion as @blackwing and your answer was very helpful. But I'm still confused about why Choak and the others in the meeting are trying to kill off people. I know they are trying to kill off potential voters, but I didn't realize that the purpose was to pass a bill to allow dead downloaded people to work. Why would these rich people (in Lakeview and in the real world) want to allow dead downloaded people to work? I thought the bill had something to do with suppressing the vote so the rich bad buys would have total control of the options for uploading after death. Not just Lakeview but Freeyond, though I'm still unsure about what Freeyond offered.

I rejoined Amazon Prime mainly so I could watch Upload Season 3, but I am very disappointed in this season. The first season was so great that I recommended it to all my friends. The second season was not as great but still mostly clever, funny, and moving. But this season the writers seem to be throwing things at the wall in terms of plot and characters in an effort to find enough material, and the result for me is confusion and boredom.

I've only seen two so far (Real Life and Autofac, which are episodes 1 and 2 on Prime Video). I thought Real Life was well done and intriguing (I'm still not sure which one was the real person and which one was the "vacation"), but Autofac was kind of boring, with cliche dialogue, slow pacing, and mediocre acting. The big reveal with Emily was interesting, but it would have been better to spend more time on that part of the story. I was distracted throughout Autoface trying to figure out if Emily was played by Juno Temple. I just checked the cast and see that it was Juno, but she looked softer and almost rounder than she does in other things I've seen (especially Ted Lasso). I know it's too much to expect all the episodes to be consistently good, but I hope most of them hold my interest.

Loved your whole post, but in this scene I couldn't help but think of the often-cited fact that leaving an abuser is the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence. Although this was not a fully developed domestic violence situation, Beau was showing all the characteristics of an abuser--being possessive and controlling, and he did grab her at one point. I'm sure it would have gotten worse physically if she stayed with him, and the sad truth is that many women do stay with their abusers or go back to them after leaving. Still, I'm glad the show gave Viv a positive ("happy") ending that could also be instructional for viewers who may be in a similar situation.

You’re right. I also caught that part in the first scene with her brother, that they were both born with a congenital condition and he had refused the surgery but she wanted to walk. I missed that--will have to rewatch. Not sure what that does to my theory of different versions of Iris and whether she would be able to walk in 2023.

Greed by the pharmaceutical companies, though I'm sure they would say they only care about improving the health of people.

I was confused about the tattoo also, but my husband thought it was like a burn that those who went through the portal got, because it was the same shape as the symbol that we saw in the red lights when The Throat was activated. Gabriel did not have the tattoo when he was alive and a professor in 2053 because he had not yet gone through the portal, but the body of Gabriel that Maplewood found in 2053 and that the other detectives found in 1890, 1941, and 2023 did have the tattoo because that Gabriel went through the portal (as Iris was shooting him). The teen boy (I think his name was Syed) was apparently a friend of Elias (the teen version) who was threatened/frightened into showing up near the body with a gun in 2023, thus making himself a suspect. I don't remember the details, but my husband thinks he was told that they would kill his family if he didn't do that and if he didn't kill himself when the police showed up to arrest him. That makes sense! To take it further, the only way the taxi driver in 2023 could be Iris (as opposed to her mother) is if her body split into different versions when she went through The Throat (which is what I originally theorized). The version that appeared in 1890 was crippled because she had not yet met and convinced Hillinghead to change things. But once the loop was broken and the bomb did not go off, any later versions of Iris would not be crippled (if the bomb was the cause of her injury). We didn't see if a version of her landed in 1941, but the 2023 version of her was probably fine. She no longer existed in 2053.

I'm not sure of everyone's ages, but it did seem that they were dying from youngest to oldest in the first generation of Roderick's bloodline. But Lenore was the second generation so would die after them regardless of age. Although I like that idea, I think she also left Lenore for last in order to maximally hurt Roderick (and I guess also Madeline, but especially Roderick). He seemed to love Lenore more than any of his children, and he definitely saw her as innocent in contrast to his children.

I just found an "ending explained" article that seems to support my original idea of a body splitting and ending up in more than one time period, though this explanation refers to Defoe: When Mannix shows up at The Throat in 2053, "Maplewood, who still thinks she’s on the side of justice, allows him to step inside The Throat to head to 1890. Defoe jumps in after him, and Maplewood shoots Defoe. Because she shoots him as he’s splitting into a different timeline, his body ends up in four different years." Here's a link to the whole article, which I found helpful: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/bodies-ending-explainer

I think that just before she went into The Throat she said "I'm going to die there, aren't I?" (referring to her 1890 destination). But she expected to get there alive so she could do something to change the loop (telling the detective the truth about Harker and what was going to happen). She probably assumed that after contacting the detective she would live the rest of her life in 1890 and that she couldn't come back to 2053 or go to another time. I like your idea about the tech on her back causing a glitch that prevented her from disappearing. And maybe the same glitch caused two versions of her to appear in two different time periods. If she appeared in 2023 naked and unable to walk, maybe someone called an ambulance and she was taken to a hospital, where she was helped with 2023 technology such as leg braces. But it still seems unlikely she could get a job driving a taxi with that kind of disability.

I thought of that, that’s why there were many copies of Defoe’s body getting dropped through time. But once teenage Mannix broke the loop and didn’t set off the bomb, he disappeared, future Hasan disappeared, no Defoe bodies dropped, thus there should be no Maplewood copies either. You're right, it doesn't make sense. The only other explanation that I can think of is that the taxi driver in 2023 is Iris's mother (or future mother). But that wouldn't explain why she seemed to look identical to Iris, down to the bangs, or why the final shot was her face rather than Hasan's face. Maybe the writer/director was just messing with our minds.

The time travel theory in this show seemed to be that you split into different bodies or versions of yourself at least momentarily when you go into The Throat, though presumably those different bodies/versions are recombined by the time they reach their destination. But maybe they don't always recombine and two or more bodies/versions can end up in different time periods.

Same here, and young Roderick before Annabel also seemed like a decent person, while Madeline was always more cold and manipulative. I get that their mother's illness and death messed them up, but there didn't seem to be an understandable transition from an apparently honest and caring Roderick to one who pulled off a long con, lied to prosecutors, and literally killed a man in cold blood with not even the slightest hint of remorse (other than worrying about whether they'd be caught).

They talk about pain and Verna wants to offer Madeline clarity with no strings attached. Verna recites a poem by Edgar Allan Poe (The City in the Sea) as she describes a realm or location that she has found. This could foreshadow to what we will see in the finale. Verna tells Madeline that she will soon understand this moment of clarity. Seriously, I still don't have any clarity from that poem. Does anyone her get it? Otherwise an excellent episode.

Was there really a dead body in the wall, or was it another delusion? Either way, did it look like Verna or someone else to him? It went by too fast for me.

What was in the gift box (with a decorative goldbug on top) that Tammy found in her kitchen? It looked like bugs crawling over a moving hand, but even when we tried to freeze the frame we couldn't quite tell.

Did Roderick and Madeline know they were the children of the former CEO (that their mother was secretary to) before Griswold talked about this scandal? If they could prove it was true, wouldn't they have a right to part of the former CEO's estate and maybe also part ownership of Fortunato?

It's hard to rank the children in terms of meanness and obnoxiousness because they are all pretty bad. I don't see Leo as one of the better ones, but maybe I'm biased because I hate anyone who hurts an animal (even if it's because he is delusional). On the other hand, I guess I can cut him some slack because... I hope you're right. I'm having a hard time seeing him as anyone except Starbuck's boyfriend in Battlestar Galactica.

That's what I thought. He actually seems like a decent guy (from what little we've seen of him), and Tammy doesn't seem to care much about him.

I can't remember if this was shown in this episode so I will use a spoiler tag: Prospero intended the sprinklers to start the orgy--he seemed to think that the water would make everything sexier.

Guess it's time to look for a Prime offer so we can watch Season 3!

I do have a question about this episode: After Verna appeared as a patient with a heart problem in Vic's girlfriend's clinic, Vic took a picture of her driver's license (with a name that was not Verna) and called her later to say she would be a perfect case for their treatment. Later in the RUE Morgue when Verna confronts Camille, she opens her shirt to show her surgical scar. So did Verna actually come in to have surgery as a human subject after the call and before the confrontation in the RUE Morgue?

Epic. I almost fell out of the chair laughing at "conflict-free lemons". That was great writing and perfect delivery of the lines! I hated that, as well as even the brief glimpses of chimps and monkeys in the lab. Even if they were CGI or actors in costume, Verna's speech about how many animals are used in medical and cosmetic testing was true and upsetting. I've been assuming that Verna is the devil, or an agent of the devil, and can appear in different forms. So maybe she was possessing the body of the chimp, controlling its actions and making it appear human and able to talk to Camille, but then for the attack allowed the chimp to take back control of its body. I think it did overlap. But if we assume that Verna is not really human (devil or agent of the devil, or some other supernatural being or spirit), then there's no reason she can't be in two places at once. Aside from still being confused by the character names and relationships, I am enjoying this as much as my previous favorite Flanagan series, The Haunting of Hill House.

I love her, too, but wish she didn't have so much "work" done--it's very distracting. But maybe that is makeup specifically for this series?