Jay continues to communicate with Zelda, who implies that Fiffany didn’t willingly leave the Hub. In the pasture cube, Fiffany remembers back to giving birth and declaring to the nurse that there was no father. ..
She’s startled by the sudden return of reality. She tells Herringbone angrily that she doesn’t know who sold her out. It was Herringbone, but he promotes her idea that maybe it was Bennett.
In the cloud, “other” Hazel watches the memories of the real Hazel and Byron on TV. She says it doesn’t seem fair that they get to live in real bodies. She and “other” Byron are the better version of them because they actually love each other. ..
This other Byron is afraid of things happening to them if they went out there in the world. Hazel latches onto this “if.” Now she knows that they can go out there if they have bodies to enter.
Bennet has been having recurring visions of Diane that are not really there. ..
Hazel opens the door to find a man standing there, looking like he just stepped out of a painting by Grey Fox. He’s wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans, and his hair is pulled back in a ponytail. Hazel can’t help but be impressed. “Hi,” she says, trying to sound friendly. “I’m looking for ‘Grey Fox,’ just like Jay told me.” The man looks at her for a moment before asking, “Do you know who I am?”
Byron asks her to listen to his speech and give him honest feedback. He wants her to be honest and tell him what it was that she found boring. He needs her help to connect with his audience.
Jay investigates the Hub further, hoping to find the missing people. He comes across a speakeasy, where he finds Keefus and several other coworkers. One of them is Oz Winter.
Oz and Keefus tell him that they’ve never heard of such a thing happening in the Hub. They say that if someone gets fired or quits, it’s because they’re not up to par and that they’ve been told this by their superiors. Oz and Keefus say that this rumor is just a way to get rid of anyone who isn’t doing their job right.
Jay goes to the Hub late at night looking for someone to talk to. He tells Zelda he’s never felt connected to anyone in the city, except for her. She asks if he has a girlfriend, and he says no, because he had to learn how not to feel anything. ..
At the hearing, Byron says that Gogol is no longer pursuing the chip for couples’ communication. He now asks for permission to pursue his new project. But they want to hear about the rumor that Byron already chipped his wife. They turn to Hazel to ask if Bryon violated her and kidnapped her. ..
Hazel denies it. She supports Byron’s research by telling them about her mother’s death. Hazel says that if she could have anything in the world, it would be to have one more conversation with her mom. So, she can’t help but be personally invested in Gogol’s research. ..
“If I upload your consciousness into another body, will that suppress the other person’s consciousness?” Restrepo asks. “I’m not sure, but I want to test this out with death row inmates as subjects.”
Meanwhile, Cloud Hazel practices being the real-world Hazel. She thinks Herb can help her and the other Byron become real.
Hazel is given a tracking device that looks like lip balm. The man from the FBI tells her to give it to Jasper. If she gives it to him, he will give the FBI the exact location of Hub so they can storm it and take Byron down.
When she gets back to the party, Byron dances with her. He tells her she was amazing. He’s proud to be her husband in the world. ..
They return to their rooms, and Hazel claims to be a little drunk. She kisses him outside their room. But she stops, supposedly not wanting to rush anything.
She thinks about how she’s going to use it. ..
The Episode Review
After the intense and emotional episode, it really sinks in how much Hazel wants to bring down Byron. After everything she’s been through, she must want to see him suffer more than anything else in the world. ..
Hazel is lying in bed, staring at the tracking device. She knows she can’t give it to Jay yet, or the FBI will discover the Hub and bring Gogol operations down. There would go her father’s cancer treatments, and who knows what would happen to Zelda.
As a result of her support for Byron, Hazel finds herself stuck putting on a perfect face and supporting him. Cristin Milioti gives a stunning performance in this role, portraying Hazel as a compellingly strong-willed woman caught in her most well-intentioned webs of deceit.
The show does tie in a bit of a weird storyline with the “other” Byron and Hazel. It doesn’t feel like this other reality in the cloud quite yet meshes with the overarching plot. But for now, intriguing character developments save the story.
