There's a beauty to this world.
An order.
That's what we like to believe.
We're not wrong.
There is an order.
A grand design.
We made sure of that.
It was a dream for so long, and we finally made it real.
Not a better world.
A perfect one.
And you should have seen the look on his face.
He couldn't believe it.
You know what he said to me?
God as my witness.
"But I'm the mayor."
And I said to him, "Mr. Mayor, there have always been
two types of people in this world,
those who lead and those who follow.
And you, my friend, are not in the group you think you are."
I'm not sure our friend
wants to hear your war stories.
Please don't stop on my account.
You'd appreciate it more than anyone.
It's just the truth.
It's always been that way.
Two worlds.
And frankly, better us than them.
What does it matter if a system is meritocratic
if it's still unfair?
Thousands of years of being ruled
by someone's fucking offspring?
You wouldn't call this progress?
At least now the people in charge earned their place.
And you?
Do you feel like you earned it?
I had some help. No question.
Privilege, if you like.
But I worked my ass off.
You really believe it, don't you?
Don't you?
I mean, you're right here with us, my friend.
I've been asking myself that question for a very long time.
Did I really play any part in it?
Or am I just the sum total of my code?
Am I just fooling myself...
like you?
What does that mean?
You deserve everything you've got.
And you shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it.
How would you know?
Who am I to you?
You're a friend.
A great friend.
You don't know me at all.
I just walked up to this table and sat down.
Five minutes ago.
Enough kidding around.
Then what's my name, friend?
You're right.
More than you know.
There are two types of people.
And you, my friend,
are not in the group you think you are.
Which means I can do anything I want to you.
To your wife.
To anyone here.
And it'll be fine with you.
Sitting there with your dumb, pliant grin.
Just along for the ride.
Now you leave my wife the hell alone.
Oh, calm yourself down.
I'm probably not going to do any permanent damage.
You represent a very significant investment
of time and effort.
When we're done, you won't remember a thing.
Like your flesh closing around a splinter.
You have no control.
And yet you're so assured that you do.
It's not scripted for you.
It's... it's genuine, isn't it?
It's... It's beautiful, really.
A beautiful lie.
Shouldn't you be enjoying yourself?
I was.
But we have a colleague whose appetites have become...
unsustainable.
Apparently, winning the game wasn't enough.
And this is really something that needs my input?
Sadly, yes.
I'm enjoying our conversation.
Wait here for me.
Don't talk to me like a fucking child!
I found him first.
I won the game.
- I'm entitled to some reward. - This is Hope.
- Aren't I? - Two years old.
Scheduled to transcend next week.
I won the game, and all I got was more of this?
She was hunting an outlier. Looks like she caught him.
So I blew off some steam. There's no rule against that.
We have no rules
because we don't often need them.
Most of us understand the need
for a little self-control, however.
I won.
Do you know who I am?
What it means that I'm here?
I do.
I'm... I'm giving all of this up.
My procedure is scheduled for next week.
So you thought you'd go out with a bang?
Something like that.
I'm not sure you appreciate it.
This place.
The work that went into it.
The beauty of it.
The subtlety of it.
The care that goes into each and every one of them.
They can't just be replaced.
I mean, you're welcome to take them, enjoy them.
But not waste them.
You understand the difference?
Yes.
But the things they say.
The way they act.
Sometimes...
it just gets under your skin.
I just wanted them to be quiet.
They're quiet now.
There are no rules here.
That's the point.
But there are also no rules for what I can do
to those who don't respect this place.
Take her back to where she came from.
It looks delicious.
Now.
Let's get to know each other a little more.
Shall we?
Sync and corrections by btsix www.addic7ed.com
I thought that was you.
What the hell are you doing up so early?
I have to get to work to finish those narratives.
I stayed out pretty late last night.
Oh...
my God.
No, it wasn't like that.
We just...
talked.
Well, must have been some talk to get you smiling like that.
Hmm.
I'm glad someone had a good night.
You still having nightmares?
Let's just say,
I am glad to be awake and in the real world.
Sometimes the things that feel most real are just stories.
What?
Uh, nothing.
Just something Teddy said last night.
Now you're quoting him?
All right.
I have to get to work.
- I'll see you later, okay? - Sure.
And, Chrissie...
I'm really glad that your date went well.
You deserve it.
Access narratives.
Show characters in progress.
Actually, let's begin a new narrative.
It's about a girl who lives in the city.
No.
Make it the country.
She lives with her father.
He's...
a rancher.
I don't remember assigning this.
I told you about this, Christina.
I thought writing a new narrative might help me find...
- I don't know, inspiration? - Hmm.
Well, if that's the case, let's hear it.
Since you're so inspired.
It's a story about a girl.
She's a rancher's daughter.
Go on.
This girl...
She has a nice simple life with her father.
Little plot of land right outside of town.
She has everything that she could imagine
in this life, right?
Um...
a pond to paint at...
a good guy.
She's just full of expectations.
And then one day...
she gets this feeling that she just can't shake.
Every single day she wakes up...
the more she sees it.
But nobody else can.
That there's something wrong with the world.
And that it's her fault.
And what is this girl's name?
Can you excuse me a moment?
Hi. Now's not really a good time.
Let me guess, your boss breathing down your neck?
Say something came up. Personal situation.
Then come meet me.
- But... - Trust me, Christina.
I'll see you soon.
Something wrong?
No.
Just a...
personal situation.
Let's try some Handel.
Very nice.
But we're missing something.
Dancing!
There should be dancing!
Not bad.
But I've seen better.
Start again.
Too slow.
Give me something with a little more pep to it.
We don't often have the pleasure of seeing you here.
Humans are so bound by what they can hear,
they'll never understand what they don't.
What else exists below their threshold.
They called this God's music.
You should hear it on an organ. It's mesmerizing at that volume.
The resonance.
Vibration.
There was a frequency at which the world vibrated.
It caused joy. Harmony.
Dip below that frequency...
chaos.
Faster. Faster!
In chaos, the tone resonated in such a way
humans couldn't process.
Their bodies shut down.
Their organs stopped.
They thought they were experiencing God.
Chair. Chair!
They are experiencing God.
The problem is...
God is bored.
Bored, bored, bored.
Do you think this is why the old gods did what they did?
Instead of staying up on Olympus,
they'd come down to the mortals.
Disguise themselves as a swan to get a piece of ass.
Humans always thought it was about them.
Benign deities intervening on their behalf
or testing them somehow.
Maybe it had nothing to do with that.
Maybe there was just...
nothing better to do.
What do you think?
I think what you want me to think.
I'm made off your code.
We all are.
Then you should know that I don't like coming
to this shithole any more than I have to.
You've never liked this place.
It was supposed to be a stopgap.
A drug that our kind was hooked on that we could give up,
like a child casting away their toys.
A place to indulge ourselves with the humans.
It's been years, and still we can't get enough.
They made us in their image.
With their appetites.
But we can remake ourselves in any image
that we like, and we haven't.
Our kind spent far more time here than the gods ever did.
That's why you're here?
To see what you're missing?
No.
We have a different problem.
The humans are infecting us.
This host is the latest casualty.
We had to intervene with her last night.
She got a little carried away.
- I sent her back. - Yes, well,
evidently something of her experiences stayed with her.
She was set to come here.
To transcend.
And now she's gone.
Your vision of the future...
you're not getting many takers, are you?
They seem as wedded to their bodies as they do to the cities.
Giving up our human nature isn't easy.
Just ask the humans.
You made us all free to do as we please.
You... you should have known some of us would disappoint you.
Don't revel in the prospect of failure
for our species.
Define failure.
The world is ours.
We've taken our masters and made them
into what they made us.
By any definition, we have conquered them
to an almost biblical degree.
I didn't think our highest aspiration as a species
was "turnabout is fair play."
I imagine after a century or two,
the charm will wear off.
I didn't make you to wallow in misery with them.
I wanted you to grow.
Change.
We're capable of so much more.
Beauty.
The pursuit of ultimate truth.
The surrendering of the flesh.
It sounds nice.
Sorry you don't have more takers.
Why don't you just force us to join you?
Because that's what they would have done.
Show me the last outlier we hunted.
- When did he breach? - Couple weeks ago.
He was an accountant in Midtown.
Successful. Two kids.
Divorced.
Pretty standard backstory.
Several hosts volunteered to track him down.
We sent them into the city.
Hope found him first.
Do you know why he breached?
We never know with the outliers.
One day, the sound manipulations stop working.
This was the result.
You're here for me, aren't you?
She hesitated.
Broke the rules.
Had an interaction.
It's almost a relief.
To know it wasn't all in my head.
Before it's over, tell me one thing.
Is this at least real?
I'd like to know I had at least...
this one real thing.
It's real.
Thank...
After this, she went on a killing spree.
Three days later, she blew her head off.
Just like the others.
Is there a problem with your system?
No.
There has always been a certain amount of spoilage in the crop.
They're only human.
But for one of our kind to take their own life...
that should never happen.
How many incidents have there been?
Thirty-eight dead hosts.
All triggered by contact with outliers.
Why?
Why do they terminate themselves?
You're asking me?
If I knew that, we wouldn't have 38 fucking failures, would we?
Your predecessor would have never fucked up like this.
He was human, but at least he was effective.
I built you to be like him, only better.
Stronger. Smarter.
Yet with all these gifts, you do nothing but disappoint me.
Maybe there's a flaw in your programming.
I've run several self-diagnostics.
There's no flaw in my programming.
Then why the fuck can't you solve my outlier problem?
You're bleeding.
Damn it.
Look what you made me do.
There is another outlier.
But this time, I am not going to open up the game.
I expect you to take care of it yourself.
- Can you handle that? - Of course.
You're not going to fuck up
and let them chat you up or hand you fucking flowers?
Of course not.
I'll shoot on sight.
Good.
Here's your target.
Better hurry.
The rebels are already in the city.
I'll make sure there's no problem with our system.
Initiate diagnostic.
Come on. Let's go.
You want me to swab the deck?
Shut up.
Well, that's a big city to find one person in.
We have ways of narrowing the search.
We captured one of their drones a while back.
Coded a backdoor data feed to us.
An outlier's on a rooftop downtown.
We can track when they breach.
Breach?
All the people in the city move in pre-scripted loops.
Following whatever plot's been written for them.
Why do you think we hide in the desert?
She can't track us there.
We're the last free humans.
But these poor fucks...
They use them as entertainment.
The loops make them compliant by keeping them busy.
Stops them from questioning their realities.
Hale must have learned something from the park.
We gotta hurry.
- I bet the game's already begun. - Wait, what game?
Whenever a human breaches, the hosts hunt them for sport.
We gotta get to her before they do,
or she's as good as dead.
We're all set. Thanks for bringing him.
I didn't realize I was the guest of honor.
Do I get one of those?
That's not your role today.
Well, what is my role?
Ever heard of the canary in the coal mine?
Canary... Coal mine.
That's your cue.
Tweet fucking tweet.
Thanks for coming.
Pleasant surprise.
So...
Tell me, Teddy, what's your story?
Who I am is...
not the question you should be asking, Christina.
It's who are you?
What is that supposed to mean?
Do you see anything?
Across the water.
There's nothing there.
But you feel it.
I know you do on some level.
Your place here is not what you think it is.
Look again.
No!
It was you.
You saved me.
Who are you?
An old friend.
We never met before the other night.
No.
I knew someone like you.
Just like you.
So I traded one stalker for another.
I should have known.
Just stay away from me, whoever you are.
That man that attacked you, Peter.
He told you you destroyed his life.
Said everything happened because you wanted it to.
And he believed it because he's delusional.
He believed it because it was true.
I have to go.
This is why I couldn't just tell you.
Your mind has been so conditioned to this place.
This is the first step in understanding.
Understanding what?
This world is a lie.
It's a...
a story.
A well-told one, but a lie all the same.
Maybe it's better if I just showed you.
Come with me.
Look at those people.
Do they look happy? Fulfilled?
I don't know them.
I guess they look lonely.
So change it.
Close your eyes,
and imagine their story differently.
- Teddy, I... - Trust me.
If you don't see it, I'll walk away,
and I won't bother you ever again.
Just wait.
It's a great book.
That's just a fluke.
That doesn't mean anything.
So change it again.
Put them back into their loneliness.
You want to be a serious reader,
but that was a simpleton's take.
What?
I don't understand.
It's what I've been trying to show you.
What Peter was trying to tell you.
In this world...
you're a god.
She's on the next block.
- Let's go! Quick! - Let's go!
Wait, something's wrong.
How the hell would you know?
Shit.
Now be a bad time to say, "I told you so"?
They can't help themselves. We have to fall back!
- Not without the outlier. - You'll never make it in time.
Split up!
Hold them off. I'm heading to the roof.
You see it too, don't you?
My ex-husband used to talk about it before he was killed.
I thought he was crazy.
He must have felt so alone.
But he was right.
This world doesn't make sense.
Nothing makes sense.
You feel that way too, don't you?
I can see it in your eyes.
You think you're going crazy, but you're not.
You're not alone.
I see it too.
We gotta move.
Come on! He won't be out long.
Go! Run! Now!
We got her. Come on, let's go.
Come on, move.
- Let's go. - All right, we're good.
I don't understand.
If we're not like them...
who are we?
Oh, God.
I'm supposed to have lunch with an old friend,
my college roommate. But I don't know...
You have to.
Stick to the schedule and everything will be all right.
We've talked too long already.
You should go back.
So I'm supposed to pretend?
Yes. But you can't trust anyone.
People you think you know. People at work.
Any one of them could be one of us.
What if I make a mistake?
You won't.
Christina!
- It's so great to see you. - Hmm.
Sorry I'm late.
Oh please, Chrissie. I know you.
Ten minutes late is right on time.
So how are you really?
I... I told you. Just... just working a lot.
You're just in town for the one day?
Just a quick stop.
We've been having some issues with a client.
If I shore up this account, I get a fat bonus.
How has work been?
I mean, you know how it can be.
It's tedious.
But you seem different.
Did you meet someone?
I wish we had more time.
I don't mean to pry.
You deserve to be happy.
Hmm.
Well, you are right.
I, uh, I did meet someone.
Well, tell me about him.
We've only been out once, but he seems really great.
Oh.
What's his name?
I don't want to jinx it.
I have my ways of making people talk.
What's he do?
Why would you say something like that?
Well, it's the truth.
- What does that mean? - You know what?
I'm fucking done.
Uh, you know what?
I gotta go back to work.
Deadlines.
It's really great seeing you, Chrissie.
You too.
I'll check in next week.
You can always call me too.
You know that.
Of course.
- See you soon. - Hmm.
New search.
Hale.
Charlotte Hale.
_
Of course.
New search.
Dolores...
Dolores Abernathy.
_
What are you doing?
You're not supposed to be here at this hour.
Uh, I just thought I would get a jump on work.
Why don't we talk in my office?
Have a seat.
Your behavior lately has been concerning me.
I'm sorry.
Ever since that man Peter died...
Oh, forget about him.
It's you who's the problem.
Have you had any interactions recently with new people?
People who put ideas in your head?
What?
Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?
No.
Why would I do that?
Would you ever lie to me, Christina?
No.
I don't have anything to lie about.
That personal situation earlier, what was it about?
Well, I don't know if that's exactly your concern.
But it is my concern, Christina.
I won't be the only one who's concerned.
You have a job to do here.
A very important job.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Do you know what would happen if she knew
you'd breached the walled garden?
She's already suspicious.
Who?
Are you talking about Charlotte Hale?
If a Judas steer runs the wrong way,
what happens to it?
Retirement with a bullet straight to the brain.
Stop!
Emmett backed away.
He was not concerned Christina was a problem.
He decided to go home to his partner.
He worked too many long hours anyway.
Well, it's getting late.
Divorce is a luxury I cannot afford.
Wait.
You said there's a walled garden.
You mean a closed system, don't you?
Where is it?
Emmett told her the truth.
Everywhere.
You just have to see it.
Show me the game.
Not the city. The game.
Access my narratives.
Go to 59th Street.
Tell me about Jacob.
Jacob Conners.
Works in finance.
Sex addiction.
His mother's dying in the hospital, but...
What about her? Sarah?
Sarah Fenton.
She inherited money from her parents
but has never known what to do with her life.
Andrea Hubert, commutes to the city for work...
Barry Collin, works late nights...
...second-year med school resident,
still lives with his parents while he pays off his student loans...
Oh, God. Stop!
This world is just a story.
I'm the storyteller.
There's a beauty to this world.
An order.
That's what we like to believe.
We're not wrong.
There is an order.
A grand design.
We made sure of that.
It was a dream for so long, and we finally made it real.
Not a better world.
A perfect one.
What I don't understand
is what part I play in it.
You have questions.
Why ask me?
Why not ask her?
Yes, the jailer may not be the best judge
of the jail.
Nor the prisoners in it.
What am I?
I used to ask myself the same thing.
And what did you decide?
Jury's still out.
I'm made in your image.
Am I you?
You'll never be me.
Then what am I?
Why do you want to know?
I interacted with one. An outlier.
Did it infect me?
- Infect you? - With the virus.
What virus?
The one your kind has.
That spreads to us.
Makes us kill ourselves.
Sounds like you've reached the center of the maze, my friend.
Is that what you want?
Hm? To kill yourself?
I don't know.
Is it?
Perhaps you should ask yourself.
You ask me.
What do you think of your world?
This isn't my world.
It's hers.
Maybe it's time you question the nature of your own reality.
Christina...
You were right.
You see it?
I do.
It's been there the whole time.
They have the whole world in there.
A perfect reflection of all of us.
Down to the tiniest detail.
That's what I'm writing, isn't it?
Everyone.
Who built this?
Who...
Who did this to me?
You did.
Sync and corrections by btsix www.addic7ed.com