Upload's final season is an unbelievable disappointment

The futuristic afterlife in Prime Video’s Upload has proven to be a true hellscape throughout the last three seasons. Anyone can choose to end their life by searing off their head and having their consciousness uploaded to a digital paradise of their choosing. However, their choice is specifically driven by affordability, as increased capitalism has created a terrifyingly corrupt society where those outside of the 1% are struggling to survive with exceptionally meager wages and printed food. So, even heaven comes with a price tag. While Horizen’s Lakeview is beautiful and idyllic, Nathan (Robbie Amell) and Nora (Andy Allo) have learned and seen firsthand the horrific downside of this picture-perfect scenario, fighting to stop multiple billionaires from enacting their plan to kill countless individuals to gerrymander a vote on their proposed policy for uploads to work, which would basically create their own personal army of digital slaves. Ultimately, this led down a path regarding Uploads’ rights in the third season, heightening the complexities of Nathan’s situation as the only person ever to be successfully downloaded into a new body, but with his consciousness still technically owned by Horizen. Of course, all of this essentially means nothing given how the final season plays out.

It was difficult to imagine how Upload could wrap up the enormous stories it has been building since the start, particularly since the series was renewed for a four-episode final season. (Seriously, what the fuck? Four episodes?) In actuality, there was no need to wonder because it doesn’t bother to. Only the third season’s cliffhanger—promising the demise of either real Nathan or his copy in Lakeview, leaving one Nathan surviving—is important as to how the story advances. In a way, the disregard for everything else is somewhat fitting, as Upload could never quite figure out what it wanted to be, what it wanted to say, and struggled to balance the seriousness of the world it created with its promise of comedy. So much of the story was already a wasted opportunity, stuck between two worlds and unable to deliver on either front. Unfortunately, the final season continues this trend. It is a complete disaster and unbelievable disappointment, leaving the audience with a series finale that will likely be remembered as one of the worst and definitively least satisfying conclusions of all time. Major spoilers ahead.

Jumping back into this horrible future with one handsome Nathan’s life up in the air, Upload begins with a minor time jump and the reveal that the Nathan who communicated with the others at the end of the previous season was the copy in Lakeview. Meaning, the real Nathan has been destroyed, which has in turn destroyed Nora, who now spends all day, every day in her room, playing out a wedding ceremony to her Nathan on repeat in VR. Of course, the demise of real Nathan is quickly discovered to be a fake-out. Instead, he is being held and experimented on by Horizen in a top-secret location. Thus, while Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) and her Nathan copy walk down the aisle and embark on their digital honeymoon, a miserable Nora spends the first three episodes learning the truth and searching for her missing love. Then they live happily ever after? Wrong.

With practically no time to celebrate his return, get justice, or further their relationship, Upload embraces a special kind of evil, detailing how Horizen’s experiments have destroyed Nathan’s body and mind, leaving him on death’s door and unable to upload. While everyone else focuses on a potentially world-ending disaster in Lakeview (more on that in a moment), Nora and Nathan spend their final moments together getting married in virtual Montreal before she promises him she will live her life, move on, and be happy. Yes, after backing out of the cliffhanger twist and building up Nathan and Nora’s romance for so long with too little follow-through, the series takes a cheap shot and kills him anyway. What was the point of this, and how does it satisfy the story? There’s nothing positive to be found in more misery, nor does this do either of the characters justice as individuals or in their relationship. If this was supposed to be an underhanded message to the audience that there are no second chances, despite this entire show being about second chances (whether dead or alive), then why does the Nathan copy get to download and live the life OG Nathan missed out on (married to Ingrid with a baby on the way)? We can assume, perhaps, that Nora—after discovering the scan of Nathan on the ring drive he gave her just before the finale fades to black—makes another copy of him, but again, what’s the point? His death is meaningless.

Meanwhile, the goings-on in Lakeview and Horizen (or Betta, as it has rebranded) are almost just as baffling. Last we saw, Aleesha (Zainab Johnson) conspired with Nora and the others to steal sensitive information from her girlfriend/boss Karina (Jeanine Mason), and Aleesha was then called into Karina’s office seemingly to face her punishment. Instead, Aleesha has filled Karina’s role in the company, but with a catch. As it turns out, Karina was a spy for a rival, so Aleesha has been forced to replace her or she’ll be murdered… as it’s implied Karina was. Now a spy herself, Aleesha is passing along information, but has also learned to fight with some technological assistance, leading to some surprising and fun moments. It’s bizarre, but it works, primarily because Johnson (as always) is simply incredible and utterly hilarious in this role.

Nonetheless, Aleesha is more aware than ever of the company’s wrongdoing, attempting to be the voice of reason and an advocate for better and humane treatment of the Uploads, who her colleagues still view as sub-human. Her new boss is even more distasteful—and much less funny—than Lucy (Andrea Rosen), completely disregarding Aleesha’s opinions and suggestions about how to move forward. Unexpectedly, Ingrid has started working as one of the angels, which is one of the few highlights of this final season and something that should have taken effect much earlier because it makes so much sense (and could have offered such great comedic opportunities similar to her brief tenure as a “Life Coach Chinchilla”). Another highlight is that Ingrid, Nora, and Ivan (Josh Banday) have all moved into Aleesha’s enormous apartment—just until she maxes out her 401(k)—allowing for an interesting and exciting friendship to blossom between Ingrid and Aleesha. Again, why didn’t any of this happen sooner?

In Lakeview, Luke (Kevin Bigley) is struggling with losing both of his Nathans, one to death and the other to marriage. He and Aleesha haven’t addressed their kiss and the feelings between them, and it’s starting to drive Luke a bit crazy. However, that must wait because Aleesha is too busy assisting her boss with the A.I. Guys (Owen Daniels). Horizen doesn’t like that they’re prioritizing the residents over making the company more money, further proving nobody at the company has actually learned anything. And, when Horizen replaces the beloved red-haired A.I. Guys with a black-haired version from their corporate floor, all hell breaks loose. He absorbs the other A.I. Guys and paying residents, starts throwing the “2 Gigs” into the torrent (effectively killing them), and becomes too powerful to be stopped. He then fights back against Horizen, trying to escape through the torrent and unleash himself upon the world, but Horizen manages to shut down the torrent. Their plan to stop him? Wipe Lakeview entirely, erasing all data, including that of the residents.

To save their friends, Aleesha and the others search for the A.I. Guy who escaped into the real world last season after giving his camera hat to an unhoused man. Having spent so much time around humans, they believe he’s even more powerful because of his human experience and capacity for empathy, which proves to be true. They upload him, requiring the torrent to be turned back on, but the process takes too long. To stop the evil one from escaping through the torrent, Luke attempts to fight him but is thrown into the torrent himself, gone forever. The Nathan copy nearly dies too, but is saved by the good one, who frees the clones and residents. Following this near-miss worldly disaster, the red-haired A.I. Guys (led by the near-human one) take charge of Lakeview themselves to provide the residents with the best afterlife experience possible.

Thus, not only does the real Nathan die, but fan-favorite Luke joins him. Worse, Luke dies before he and Aleesha address their feelings for each other, providing fans of the couple absolutely nothing. The Nathan copy downloads and lives life with Ingrid; although, there’s no real explanation or exploration of how the legality of that has shifted, nor is their closure related to the injustices perpetrated by the upload companies. However, the most offensive and astonishing aspect of this egregious final season is the sudden shift in messaging toward A.I. and technology. As A.I. is quite literally destroying the real world, to ignore all of the dangers Upload has been warning about and commenting on from the start about society’s reliance on technology and imply that the answer to dealing with corruption and greed is smarter artificial intelligence that can understand and feel empathy toward humans is mind-numbingly out of touch. Maybe read the room?

Overall, unless the only character you’ve grown to care for throughout this journey is Ingrid, there is no fulfillment, joy, or satisfaction to be found in how Upload concludes. (This is coming from someone whose favorite character is Ingrid, but it’s impossible to enjoy her happily ever after, given the cost and straight-up bitter endings for everyone else.) In a time when hope for a better tomorrow is desperately longed for, Upload plunges the knife in deeper and takes a wrecking ball to the notion that there will ever be anything other than despair. Though I’ve seen my fair share of bad finales over the years, there has never been one until Upload that is so utterly terrible and counterintuitive to everything the show has stood for that it has permanently dissuaded me from ever watching the show again. Quite frankly, it nearly brings me to regret having watched in the first place.