Upload Season Finale Review: A Crushing Cliffhanger is the Ultimate Gamechanger!
Upload delivered the best episodes of the season!
Without a shadow of a doubt, Upload had a strong finish, with Upload Season 3 Episode 7 giving us the excitement and circling to the Freeyond scheme and Upload Season 3 Episode 8 delivering one of the most shocking and potentially gutwrenching cliffhangers of the series to date.
It would be a travesty if they don't deliver on a fourth season and leave us hanging regarding those final moments.
The back-to-back installments were fun and played into the talent of all the series' heavy hitters.
Bringing the human and upload rights back to the forefront improved the season, and leaving beloved characters in precarious positions played perfectly into our attachment to them and garnered more than enough investment.
For most of the season, it felt like much of the political and corporate arcs jumped about in the background without finding any footing or having real consistency.
As a result, it was difficult to pay attention or even care what was transpiring with most of it because it hardly seemed like the characters themselves were invested in most of it in the first place.
Nora and Nathan's trek around the area to deliver downloaded copies of the Freeyond victims to their families barely garnered much attention beyond their bizarre farm experience during Upload Season 3 Episode 2.
The new information they learned about Horizen, Freeyond, Choak, and the evil billionaires played out in the background, giving Nora something to do once she linked up with Holden.
But the primary focus of the season was on Lakeview shenanigans and the love square.
Even the timeline is a rough one to keep up with, as somehow we reached a point where a trial took place, and Nora Antony's assistance and intellect landed her a life-changing offer of working full-time as a paralegal at Holden's law firm and the opportunity to go to law school on the firm's dime.
Nora: Even though you downloaded, Horizen owns what's in your head.
Nathan: Ingrid owns this body, Horizen owns my thoughts. But my heart, that belongs to you.
All the work toward taking down the evil Upload corporate baddies got pushed to B and C storylines in the background, so it was nice to revisit that in the finale and have some twists, wins, and losses arising from it.
I love that the efforts to blow the lid off everything became a group effort that incorporated some of the most beloved secondary characters rather than sidelining or excluding them.
Tinsley was so painfully underused this season that it was refreshing to see her in the fold, and the AI Guy may rival Ingrid with being the best character of the season, exuding the most growth.
Aleesha and Luke are always a top-notch team, and the evolution of their bond has been worthwhile, even when we could've used so much of it.
I think she's too icky to date, and I've dated DJs and a magician.
Aleesha (about Karina)
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It felt like Aleesha was too much out of the loop for so long, and the chasm between her and Nora was rough. But plans come together better when all the characters are on the same side and part of the same fight.
Aleesha and Luke are ride-or-die friends and loyal to the hilt. Plots only improve by utilizing them as characters to the best of their abilities.
Aleesha's shift from Karina to Luke Crossley was nice. She's had sketchy feelings about Karina for a bit, but it took Karina and Luke meeting for Aleesha to process some of her mixed feelings about this woman she developed feelings for.
I cringed when Luke showed off all of his hacks. Karina was eating it up, and the more she pressed him for more information, especially getting him to tell her what his favorite hack was, the more apparent it was that she'd do everything in her power to shut all that down.
Karina Silva is not a good person. She's an opportunist, manipulative, and much more, and it's a relief that Aleesha came to grips with that when she did.
It was chilling to see Karina laughing at Lucy's testimony and joking, or rather not joking, about uploading Lucy's daughter for the fun of it.
Luke and Aleesha's collaborative efforts to copy Karina's files and use them to blow all these conspiracies and misdeeds wide open had more than a few entertaining moments.
Aleesha's mirror trick to get Karina's password was ingenious, and she and Karina using VR and sneaking around in the same room while pretending to be in the loft was hilarious.
One wrong move and Aleesha would've bumped into Karina and blown the whole thing to bits. And Luke is always good at providing a distraction no matter how bizarre his attempts.
It was a mark of growth for Aleesha. When she started Upload Season 3, she hesitated to do certain things and wanted to maintain the job and promotion needed. Ultimately, she jeopardized all that for the greater good and her friends.
It's terrifying to know she's bound for Karina's office and could experience her wrath or worse for leaking those files and framing Karina as a whistleblower.
Karina must know that Aleesha had something to do with it, or at the very least, she knows Luke did something. And that doesn't bode well for either of them.
Aleesha: Nora said they're not going public with any of the stuff we sent her. It's all going to be sealed.
Luke: What? Why?
Lucy: Leeshy! Karina wants you in her office.
Aleesha: I'm going to be fired.
Luke: If you get fired, I'll never see you again.
Lucy: Karina said now!
Aleesha: Fuck! I will see you later.
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Ahead of everything else right now, Aleesha and Luke have become best friends with the promise of more. Neither of them could take it if they didn't get to see each other again.
They both seemed worried about that prospect, knowing that it taps into Luke's abandonment issues, and they haven't had the chance to unpack the shift in their relationship after Aleesha kissed him.
We cannot be losing Aleesha Morrison and Luke just as we were finally making some headway with this pairing!
The worst part about this is how evil corporations always prevail; the house always wins.
A few million dollars for the Freeyond families is a drop in the bucket for this legion of billionaire baddies. Despite all the efforts, Nathan, Nora, and the others haven't even put a dent in getting real justice and making important changes.
Nora's reality check about what being a lawyer really means was such a gut punch and so relatable. It's discouraging to learn the condiments of something you thought you were passionate about, and now she has to find a new avenue to make the changes she needs for all the people she loves.
Despite all the information about Choak and the others, every shred of evidence they have is now sealed, and they can't do anything about it.
Kapoor, shockingly, a star witness, is dead. Uploads still don't have any rights, and if anything else, there's a bigger crackdown on them and treating them as subhuman.
These are the moments when the plot plays as allegories for many social justice issues, and when Upload nods at that, it's compelling stuff.
Despite all the arguments made and people like Ingrid giving impassioned speeches about how uploads are human and not property, they're still stripped of rights after signing all of theirs away, and every aspect of them belongs to someone else.
The splitting hairs about what constitutes intellectual property and how businesses and corporations get rights as if they were human versus humans not getting those same liberties were enough to have you impassioned and gritting your teeth at the screen.
But it's so real and raw, and despite Upload's comedic bits, it has never shied away from being a bleak and dark comedy rooted in realism that hits close to home.
Horizen gets to step over the bodies of all those they've harmed, change their name to Betta, and still prevail. If anything, it's like they've come back stronger than ever.
They get to rehabilitate their image with empty things like Workload and happy-go-lucky commercials teasing the notion of access to all, but they're still horrific, greedy, and evil.
Intercutting the commercial and all their empty promises and fake niceties with the horrors happening at Lakeview was pure perfection.
During a season where it felt as if there weren't many high stakes, the final hour delivered many of them, and the tone shifted in an exciting albeit disconcerting way.
Everything was going so well, and then it wasn't.
The romance was top-notch throughout the hour.
Nora's efforts to make upload day special for Nathan were endearing, and how their romance has blossomed this season is heartwarming.
You can feel their love and willingness to do anything for the other. And that's why it was surprising to hear how insecure Nora was about where Nathan stood during Flesh and Blood.
I don't know what I'm expecting or even looking for. My Nathan and I definitely have something good, but I'm ready for more, and Montreal just seems a little disappointing. You know, maybe he doesn't feel the same way about me. I would like to get proposed to, too.
Nora
Nathan's intentions couldn't be more explicit when he mentioned Montreal, as it is the premiere honeymoon spot.
He loves Nora so deeply that given a second chance at life and love, he only wants to spend the rest of his life with her. His every glance says as much, even when his words don't convey it bluntly; they say as much, too.
It was interesting and one of the season's best moments when she and Ingrid got vulnerable and talked about their relationships and feelings within them.
It was a genuine surprise that she couldn't see just how much Nathan loved her and wanted to move forward. What did she think Montreal meant to him and for them?
The Nathans are certainly alike, as they both picked the same time to want to pop the question to their girlfriends. As much as Nathan probably felt like he was getting overshadowed by Backup Nathan with that, he should've stuck to his plan and done it anyway.
It was about Nora, after all, and it would've put her at ease. The man looks at Nora as if she holds the secrets of the universe, and unlike Backup Nathan and Ingrid, those two could've had a quick, beautiful, intimate ceremony and been at their happiest.
Damn this series for teasing the possibility of a Nathan/Nora wedding and then possibly ripping it away from us!
But then, the same can be said about Ingrid and Backup Nathan, right?
If I ever hear you talking like that again, I will fuck your dad or your mom, whichever one is more into it. I'll seduce them. I'll make sure they fall in love with me. I will get them to leave their partner, and then I will dump them, leaving you to pick up the pieces. And before you think, 'Oh, she couldn't do that,' take a good look at me, I could, I would, and I will. So this better be the end of that misogynistic bullshit, or Mama's gonna put on her 'fuck me' heels and go hunting. Do you understand me, shrimp dicks?
Ingrid as Nora
Ingrid is still working through her insecurities and issues. Still, the beauty of Upload Day is that she fell victim to them when worried about Backup Nathan and Nora's connection, but then, literally taking a walk in Nora's shoes, opened her up in new ways.
Ingrid's dress down of Nora's coworkers while posing as her for their sexism was singlehandedly one of the series's greatest scenes and dialogue exchanges.
Gosh damn, Ingrid Kannerman is that girl. Sign me up for an Ingrid Kannerman stan account at this point.
Understanding that Backup Nathan genuinely loves her and quelling her poor feelings about Nora opens the door for the two women to have that genuine connection in Flesh and Blood.
When Nora was able to verbalize what Ingrid was feeling, that thanks to her terrible persons, she never felt deserving of love and thus ran from it when Backup Nathan proposed, it was such a powerful and poignant moment.
I'd love for the series to continue exploring the burgeoning friendship between these two women. I previously lamented that absence, with Aleesha and Nora mostly separated and feeling estranged.
If we could get more of the women in the forefront and capitalize off the chemistry between all of them, the series would be all the stronger for it.
Allegra Edwards delivered more than a few heartfelt and emotional performances. Her freakout when Backup Nathan proposed was illuminating because you knew there was so much more to her reaction than something as shallow as it not playing out how she envisioned.
Ingrid: I've just been chasing him so long that when he finally turned around, I panicked.
Nora: You think if he likes you, maybe there's something wrong with him?
Ingrid: Yeah.
Nora: Oh, honey. Oh, your fucking parents.
But Backup Nathan is so surprisingly in tune with her. He understood what she was grappling with and had no problem putting the ball in her court and not taking that rejection personally.
In such a short period, the season made you root for Ingrid and Backup Nathan, even though the very premise of it feels off and a shift from continuity and should have been counteractive to Ingrid's growth and development.
Ingrid and Backup Nathan, as a couple, wear you down. Ultimately, you want Ingrid to be happy, even when it doesn't feel sensible or plausible with what's going on.
It was easy to fall in love with their love story and how quickly it progressed and evolved into something surprisingly healthy and balanced.
Ingrid's work on the stand was touching, even when you knew her words would hem up the Nathans.
Nathan: Yeah, I'm going to be okay because those bastards brought us down to one person. I saw other Nathan. They destroyed him.
Ingrid: OH MY GOD!!!
Nora: Wait, wait! Which one are you?
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The worst part about getting on the stand and having calculated people pick apart everything you say is that you may reveal things you shouldn't.
Thanks to that testimony, there was on the record confirmation that there were two Nathans out there, which prompted the Copy Crackdown at Lakeview that had armed men vaporizing every Copy in sight.
And now that brings us to this vast, jaw-dropping cliffhanger that packs an emotional punch. One couldn't have been prepared for losing a Nathan.
At the beginning of Upload Season 3, the prospect of two Nathan Browns seemed cheesy. But over time, Robbie Amell came into his own playing both versions of his character, and Ingrid and Backup Nathan slowly became a complementary couple to Nathan and Nora rather than the anti-version of them.
In some ways, it still feels like a cheat to have both versions of the ship coexisting, but then the cliffhanger aims to rectify that in the most devastating way possible.
Now, in some ways, the reality of the situation and the rules of physics come to fruition. We cannot have two versions of the same person coexisting in the same realm.
In the end, there can only be one.
One version of Nathan delivers the upsetting news that the other Nathan has been destroyed.
Ingrid's shriek was sobering, and she's a character so accustomed to losing that it was easy for her to immediately assume that meant her version of Nathan was gone forever.
But is he?
The season ended with Nora asking the vital question: which Nathan was the one speaking to her? Who was destroyed?
If a version of Nathan Brown indeed was destroyed and hasn't found a way to avoid and escape all of this, pulling a neat trick out of a hat in those fun ways that Upload often does, then it means we're back to one Nathan.
And one of the Upload ladies will be devastated at the loss of the man she loves.
It almost feels too easy to assume that Backup Nathan was destroyed and Ingrid will face the colossal blow of losing the man she loves yet again just when she is on the cusp of walking down the aisle with everything she ever dreamed of and wanted.
But then, would Upload be bold enough to kill off the original Nathan? And what is the risk of killing the primary ship just as they finally got together?
When you think of the repercussions of this move, the possibilities are endless, and it's incredibly bold and risky.
The phrasing of Nathan delivering that message was interesting because is there a possibility that the two Nathans have been merged rather than one utterly destroyed?
If that's the case, would it mean that the two Nathans coexist within the same body as one, and there will be another predicament to explore, some digital dissociative identity angle that still plays around with a love square that grows only more complicated?
I can honestly say I don't know where Upload will take this latest move, but I'm excited to see it when we get that season renewal!
Over to you, Upload Fanatics. How do you feel about that cliffhanger and twist? Which Nathan will come out on top? What do you think it'll mean for Nora or Ingrid?
With the crackdown on Lakeview, will everything we know about that place change forever? Let's hear all your thoughts!
You can stream all three seasons of Upload on Prime Video.