With lots of reveals, cliffhangers, and emotional stakes, Upload season 2’s ending crafts a finale that sets up the stage for an even bolder season 3.
Ingrid’s arrival at Lakeview and Nora’s joining an anti-tech community changed Nathan’s afterlife greatly. Now estranged from the person he loves and trying to make this work with a seemly uploaded Ingrid, Nathan seemed to no longer be interested in diving into the investigation of his death. However, the new mind-reading system that allows Horizon access to all thoughts of the Lakeview Uploads ended up setting Nathan and Nora back to their important mission of finding out the truth.
With great writing and a talented cast, Upload season 2 carried the show’s unique tone through the end. While the mystery of Nathan’s death has been cleared up, viewers were left with several other cliffhangers at the end of Upload season 2. With Nathan’s backup consciousnesses somewhere in Lakeview’s system and Ingrid having a strand of his hair, the future could be dangerous for the character. Here’s the Upload season 2 ending explained.
Why Was Nathan Killed? David Choke’s Plan Explained:
David Choke seemed above suspicion when it came to Nathan’s death. Choke had been the first to raise the possibility that Nathan might have been murdered, and made Robbie Amell’s character aware of the fact that he couldn’t even remember the name of the app he had worked on all his life. More than helping Nathan and seeming like a person in favor of access to the digital afterlife for the poorest, the main fact that excluded David Choke from the list of suspects was that he was used more as comic relief than any other thing for most of Upload season 1 and 2. Ultimately, however, it was David Choke who had ordered Nathan killed as part of an elaborate plot to influence the outcome of the elections.
David Choak had a plan to guarantee that poor people had access to a digital afterlife that was fast and cheap. The problem is, when signing up for the program, people would have to upload it immediately and therefore would lose the right to vote. That’s why the code created by Nathan, who was then killed in Upload, was used to open digital afterlife hotspots in key states rather than across the country. With the app created by Nathan already in the hands of David Choak and the programmer having caught a glimpse of the billionaire in Ingrid’s father’s office, Choak decided to order Nathan’s death to avoid any loose ends. If it weren’t for the memory reading system employed at Lakeview during Upload season 2, then Nathan and Nora would never have discovered the truth.
Will Nathan’s New Body Endure?
After the disastrous download process in Upload season 1, in which a billionaire played by Creed Bratton, also known as Creed from The Office, had the head of his new artificial body explode after a few seconds, some people are ready to give this technology another shot. For Upload season 2, it had been revealed that Ingrid had ordered an artificial body for Nathan and was planning to download her boyfriend. Although he was taken by surprise, Nathan had to resort to the download process at the end of Upload season 2 to try to prevent David Choak from carrying out his plan.
It looked like the new Black Mirror-worthy technology would work this time around. Nathan went several minutes without showing any signs of trouble and boarded the train with Nora. Upload season 2’s ending, however, revealed that something is wrong with Nathan’s new body. As with the billionaire in season 1, blood began to trickle from Nathan’s nose just before the episode ended. If the same thing that happened to Creed Bratton’s character repeats itself with Nathan, then the next step would be for Nathan’s head to explode. Whether Nathan’s body will endure is one of the biggest cliffhangers of Upload season 2.
What Will Ingrid Use Nathan’s Hair For?
Another major cliffhanger from the Upload season 2 ending was the reveal that Ingrid had kept a strand of Nathan’s hair with her. Ingrid spent much of Upload season 2 focused on the idea of her and Nathan having a baby, something that ended up not happening. Even though Ingrid watched a baby A.I’s entire life in 24 hours in one of Upload‘s funniest episodes, Nathan declined any chance to continue with Ingrid once he found out she hadn’t actually uploaded to Lakeview. That doesn’t look like it will stop Ingrid, as with Nathan’s DNA and all the assistance that money can buy in the scary sci-fi universe of Upload she could get pregnant with Nathan – maybe even in the real world. Another possibility is that Ingrid creates a clone of Nathan, something that wouldn’t be too far-fetched considering the terrifying technology of the show’s universe.
How Nathan’s Backup Conscience Sets Up Season 3:
A small detail in the Upload season 2 ending that will have major consequences in season 3 is when the temp worker mentions that she is not able to find Nathan in the system and is instructed to upload his backup memory. In doing so, Tinsley is essentially creating a second version of Nathan, as the original versions of the programmer’s memories have been downloaded into the real world. Therefore, there is a strong possibility that there will be two Nathans in Upload season 3: one in the real world, currently with Nora, and one in Lakeview. This Black Mirror-like use of technology actually does make a lot of sense considering the themes of Upload.
The philosophical discussions that the question of which of the Nathans is real or if one is more real than the other can generate several interesting moments for Upload. season 3. In fact, with Nathan’s body at risk of exploding at any time and Ingrid in possession of his DNA by the end of Upload season 2, anything could happen in a possible season 3. It remains to be seen if the show will receive another season on Amazon to see how all those loose ends will play out.
