Cloud Hosting

Extrapolations (Season 1) Episode 6: The last two episodes of Extrapolations explored the cause and the effects of a geoengineering experiment. While many believed that it would be helpful for the planet, it was also considered an eco-terrorism activity.

Now the narrative shifts to seven years later, in 2066, where humans struggle with deteriorating memories due to climate change. They start storing their memories on online cloud storage and end up in another endless cycle of repayments. As a result, we encounter a human narrative that explores how ones identity constitutes ones past.

*spoilers ahead*

In the first two episodes of Extrapolations, we meet a young couple Omar (played by Tahar Rahim) and Rebecca (played by Sienna Miller), who are trying to save the world in their ways. Omar loses his life, and Rebecca gets left with taking care of their son, Ezra. Now, we meet about 30-year-old Ezra (also played by Tahar Rahim), who works as a hired, artificial companion for people that struggle with the loss of their loved ones.

Natasha (played by Gemma Chan), a single mother from London, hires Ezra to play the part of her daughters father. Ezra forms a strong connection with the daughter Harlyn (played by Scarlett Sher). He also agrees to partake in parent-teacher conferences and fills that hole in their lives. But it irks her that he is replicating her ex-husbands behavior. She does not want Ezra to replace him. She rather wants him to just be Harlyns father. At the time, Ezra also reveals how he gets access to his clients memory vaults to better serve them. So, it paints a picture of how data is going to be one of the biggest currencies in the future.

While providing his clients with this emotional aid, Ezra struggles with his deteriorating memories and, thus, seeks help from cloud storage called Cache Cloud. He still misses his late partner, Lola (Devika Bhise), and repeatedly plays their fond memories on the cloud. After one of his weekly visits to Natasha, he learns about the increasing monthly fees for cloud storage due to the increasing temperatures.

Ezra meets his Cache Cloud representative, Janice (played by Marilee Talkington), to inquire about it. Since he has a condition called Summer Heart, he needs the Minds Eye service that can help him with visual stimuli. Without it, he is as good as a newborn with no past. Janice shares the reasons for the price change and also blames the geoengineering experiment for the rise of the temperature. Still, she offers a discount to Ezra since he revisits the cloud on a daily basis. (It feels like how our apps keep feeding onto how often we use them and provide a feeling of a special treatment)

Unfortunately, Ezra cannot afford to keep his memories. So, he decides to delete some of the storage, including the stories his grandmother used to tell him. On his way back home, a new service called Crispr advertises how it can solve the stress and anxiety issues caused by heat waves. Later, his neighbor, X (played by David Hywel Baynes), offers an alternative service that can help him store his memories. Ezra refuses to buy into this offer and rather relies on Cloud Cache.

The next day, Ezra picks up a few assignments for the day and heads out. He goes on to play the son of an aging woman and an old partner of a man. He makes up disguises, mimics certain parts of their mannerisms, and then speaks in the language that his clients expect him to speak. However, on the personal front, he senses that he is slowly losing his memories, especially the ones with Lola. It turns out to be because of vascular dementia accelerated by his summer heart condition. His doctor suggests a solution which he does not accept just then.

Soon after, Ezra attends Harlyns parent-teacher meeting with Natasha. Then they go out to have a drink together. Natasha holds Ezras hand and regrets immediately that she forgot the boundaries she hired him not for her but for her daughter. She also acknowledges that she hires other people to play the part since they offer sensory experience, but Ezra does not. Ezra notes how he also puts in a part of himself while playing the role of Harlyns father. Natasha reveals she does not want Ezra to play David because he abandoned her and Harlyn.

Later, when Ezra goes on his appointment with the aging woman, he learns that she has passed away. It means that he does not get paid, which means that he cannot earn enough to preserve his memories on the cloud. Back at home, he speaks with Janice to initiate memory sync. She reminds him that he needs to upgrade the storage service since he is beyond the capacity in his current plan. She suggests deleting some of his memories, and he refuses to do so.

However, he starts noticing the early signs of dementia to the point he cannot even recall what Lola looked like. To somehow relive how he felt with her, he hires a woman to play Lolas part. This person meets him in a bar and then joins him back to his place to have sex with him. However, Ezra cannot shake off the fact that he is slowly forgetting Lolas face. He stops the sex midway and tells the woman to leave. Nevertheless, he still needs to pay her 3000 units, and he does not have enough in his account.

Once again, Janice advises him to delete his memory assets. So, in that dire situation, he deletes everything besides his memories about Lola. The next day, when he gets on the train to work, he notices a consistent glitch. His co-passengers tell him that it is not going to work because of an earthquake. A cumulative result was that the blockchain was wiped clean. So, Ezra goes to the Cache Cloud office to complain about it. Janice says that he is among a sea of people who are also seeking help.

Since he cannot access his assets, he asks X to get them secured. X asks for a lofty price, and Ezra decides to work on multiple assignments within the same day to get the job done. He also picks up Natashas request and goes on to play Harlyns father. Like before, Harlyn wants him to tell his whale story. Ezra keeps trying to recall the memory of seeing the humpback whale with Rebecca. But he struggles to form a cohesive story. He cannot even remember that the woman he was with (Rebecca) was his mother.

Natasha gets worried about these symptoms and wants to help him. Ezra reveals that his summer heart condition is causing memory loss. Lola also had the same condition and died three years ago. He benefitted from a new recovery solution while Lola couldnt. In that vulnerable moment, he holds Natashas hand. It escalates to the point he decides to spend the night with her. In the morning, X informs him that he has found Ezras lost memory assets. However, he points out the struggle he faced and, thus, wants to get paid more.

To retrieve his memory assets from X, Ezra decides to pick up some more assignments. He decides to help with Isabel Wicks request despite knowing that her husband is a rager. She offers to pay the exact amount that X asked him in addition. So, Ezra goes there and plays the part of the person that Isabel had an affair with. Unfortunately, the situation gets out of control, and her husband punches him in the face.

Ezra walks back with blood dripping down his face. He goes back to Natashas place who was angry at him for breaking the boundaries and having sex with her. He accepts that he made a mistake but says that he needed the money urgently for his memory assets about Lola. She says that he should live in the present instead of latching onto the past. If he cannot lose Lola, why did he sleep with her as himself? He gets emotional and says that all he can do is pretend, be it his professional life or personal. Seeing him in pain, Natasha suggests he let go of Lolas memories and consider what they have with one another.

Ezra goes back home and refuses to answer X, who keeps pounding on his door, asking for the units as per their deal. Then about three months later, we see Ezra with Harlyn and Natasha. Only this time, Harlyn calls him Ezra instead of considering him David. Ezra sees the ad about the revival of humpback whales by Menagerie1000. However, cannot recall his relation to these animals. Besides, he sees an ad for technology that provides a safe environment for a fetus to grow in. The ad uses a private moment between Ezra and Lola from his memory asset. But by then, he has no recollection of it.

The ending denotes how privacy will remain to be a myth in the near future. When we depend on big corporations to help with these intimate human needs, they will keep using our emotions as assets for their personal benefits without caring about anything but individual capital gain.

Besides that, the bond between Natasha and Ezra beautifully shows how they both manage to get over the past with their previous partners. While David abandoned Natasha & Harlyn, Lola lost her life, leaving Ezra to grapple with loneliness. Still, letting go of that past is how Ezra & Natasha manage to connect with each other. It also conveys how such stories will keep being in our lives, albeit with AI interference. In the end, Ezras pursuit of reviving memories also gives a deja vu to Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind.

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Extrapolations (Season 1) Episode 6: Recap & Ending Explained Does Ezra retrieve his memory assets? - High On Films