Upload: Season 4, Episode 2 - Workload (2025)

Backup Nathan finds several missed calls and an angry voicemail from Nora. She accuses him of lying about what happened to the original Nathan and demands answers about whether her Nathan is truly dead.

Nathan and Luke are working for Workload, a Horizen program that uses uploaded consciousnesses as a cheap labor force. Their assignment involves acting as "bag narcs," the disembodied voices at self-checkout machines that warn shoppers to pay for their groceries correctly. Nathan is taking the job to earn money for his honeymoon with Ingrid, while Luke tries to make the best of the humiliating work.

At Horizen, Aleesha attends a staff meeting with her new boss, JB. She learns that Horizen has not made a profit until now. The company's new strategy is to store the data and consciousnesses of living people for payment, while Workload supplies a workforce that Horizen owns. Because the uploaded workers cost less than human employees, the company plans to replace angel staff with Workload uploads.

The planned layoffs are presented to the employees as an alternative opportunity. Lucy tells the staff that they are not technically being fired; instead, they can upload themselves into Workload for free. The office provides free doughnuts during the announcement. Tinsley takes one, and the offer results in her being uploaded without freely choosing the change.

Ingrid realizes that she can pursue a new career as a life coach because the job does not require formal training. She begins shifting her attention toward that possibility while she and Nathan continue planning and saving for their honeymoon.

At Lakeview, Nora searches for the original Nathan. She is convinced that he is still somewhere inside Horizen's systems and refuses to accept the claim that he was destroyed. She finds a version of Nathan being repeatedly placed in a stark white room and questioned about basic facts, including the capital of Florida. The questioning is used to test his memory and determine what he remembers about the events surrounding Nathan's disappearance.

Nora visits this version of Nathan and confronts him about the fate of the original. He continues saying that the other Nathan was killed. Nora rejects his explanation and insists that her Nathan is alive. When they communicate again, he asks her about the capital of Florida, repeating the same question that has appeared throughout the memory-testing process.

Nora pressures him to let her see his memories. He explains that the two Nathans were brought together and forced to fight over which one would survive. Both Horizen and authorities from the real world treated the two versions as competing copies and made them decide which consciousness would be deleted. Nathan says that, because refusing to choose would have resulted in both of them being destroyed, he chose to save the Nathan who was already in Horizen.

Nora obtains the last memory associated with Backup Nathan and takes it back to the real world. The memory appears to show the original Nathan being killed in an electric chair, matching the story Backup Nathan has told. Nora examines it with Aleesha and Ivan, who notice that something about the recording has been altered. Nora restores the original version of the memory.

The restored memory shows that Nathan was not destroyed in an electric chair. He was strapped to a machine inside a facility while Horizen employees experimented on him. Aleesha recognizes the equipment as technology being tested at Horizen's longevity spa.

Nora, Aleesha, and Ivan investigate the facility. They discover that the spa is the real-world counterpart of Lakeview, located in upstate New York. The discovery proves that the original Nathan survived and is being held there.

Before Nora can pursue Nathan's location, Aleesha leaves to perform a drop for OMI. Hostile agents attack her in an alley. She uses the combat training she received earlier to fight her way through the confrontation, but she emerges with a black eye.

The episode ends with Nora telling Aleesha that they must go to the real-life Lakeview to find Nathan.

Real Nathan is alive. Nora discovers that the memory showing his death was falsified, and she and Aleesha decide to travel to the real-world Lakeview facility in upstate New York to rescue him.

Nora returns to Horizen with Aleesha's help and searches Lakeview for Nathan. She finds Backup Nathan, who insists that Real Nathan was killed after the two versions were forced to compete over which one would survive. Nora pressures him to reveal his final memory.

The memory shows Real Nathan choosing to sacrifice himself so Backup Nathan could remain alive. Backup Nathan believes he watched Real Nathan die in an electric chair, and Nora initially accepts that Nathan is gone. She takes the memory with her when she leaves Lakeview.

Back in the real world, Nora examines the recording and notices that it has been altered. When the original material is restored, the apparent execution is revealed to be a staged or manipulated version of events. Real Nathan was actually strapped to an experimental machine at a Horizen longevity facility.

Aleesha identifies the equipment as technology being tested at a physical version of Lakeview. Nora realizes that Nathan is being held in the real world rather than permanently deleted. She and Aleesha prepare to go to the upstate facility and find him.

Meanwhile, Ingrid and Backup Nathan continue planning their honeymoon, unaware at first that Nora has uncovered evidence that Real Nathan survived. Luke remains employed at Workload, where Horizen's new business model involves storing living people's data and offering uploads through the company's new system. The episode ends with Nora focused on reaching the physical Lakeview and saving Nathan.

Yes. After the main credits, the AI Elevator Operator's newly separated AI "girl" appears, continuing the episode's romantic subplot. The brief tag shows the two AIs together as the Elevator Operator's infatuation develops, functioning as a comedic continuation rather than introducing a new plot twist.

Yes. Nora discovers that the real Nathan survived the apparent execution and is being held at Horizen's longevity facility in upstate New York, known as the real-life Lakeview. He is confined to a room with a large screen while Horizen staff repeatedly test his memory.

The memory showing Nathan's death was altered. The original footage reveals that he was not killed in an electric chair; he was strapped to a machine being tested by Horizen at its longevity spa. Nora realizes the evidence of his death was fabricated to conceal his captivity.

Horizen and government authorities made the two Nathans argue over which version should remain. The real Nathan ultimately sacrificed himself, telling Backup Nathan to save the version already living in Lakeview because failing to choose would destroy them both. Backup Nathan's recollection of the event was later shown to have been manipulated.

Nathan works at Workload to earn money for his honeymoon with Ingrid, while Luke also takes the job despite finding it painfully repetitive. Their duties include acting as voices for self-checkout systems, warning shoppers to pay for their groceries properly.

The elevator AI splits off a separate AI entity, creating an AI Girl who becomes his romantic partner. She later breaks up with him because she wants to date other people, particularly the AI bartender, leaving the elevator AI emotionally distressed.

No. Upload is rated TV-MA and is generally not family friendly, especially for younger children.

Potentially objectionable or upsetting elements in "Workload" include:

• Strong language, including several uses of the F-word and other profanity.
• Sexual humor, romantic situations, kissing, and suggestive content.
• Violence and threats, including frightening confrontations and references to assault.
• Disturbing science-fiction themes involving captivity, human experimentation, bodily harm, death, and questions about identity and consent.
• Creepy or unsettling artificial-intelligence behavior and technology-related fear.
• Alcohol use.
• Emotionally upsetting themes involving deception, grief, danger, and relationships.

Older teens familiar with the series may tolerate the episode, but it is unsuitable for children and may be distressing for sensitive viewers.