In episode 7 of Extrapolations season 1, Auggie and Sylvie throw an intimate New Year’s Eve party where the former makes a special surprise announcement.
Recap
Anna works as a housemaid for hire in an extremely polluted San Francisco of 2068. She gets a gig to serve as the housemaid to wealthy couple August and Sylvie for the New Year Eve’s party that the latter wants to throw, even though it’s gonna cost her a lot of carbon credits.
August is urged by Sylvie to get out of his slumber and dress up for the party. They welcome Nic and his newest girlfriend, Elodie, an influencer who has a chip installed inside her brain. Nic is August’s fromer protégé who once worked with the government but now doesn’t believe in it at all.
Nic kicks off the discussion about this new technology that lets the users — the ultra wealthy — digitize their entire consciousness and live a life inside a digital simulation rife with heavenly landscapes and life until the real Earth is rid of its pollution and inhabitable state, when they’ll be brought back into real bodies.
Everyone’s surpised when August reveals he has won a ticket in a lottery (after investing in a company that had considerable success) for LifePause, a technology that does just what Nic was talking about. Miffed and upset, Sylvie storms off and into the kitchen, with Nic going to console her.
Meanwhile, Elodie tries to convince that August must abandon the idea of digitizing himself and give the ticket to her since, according to her, its she who deserves it then most. However, her enthusiasm vanishes when she fails to pass a psych evaluation test made for the LifePause candidates.
August, meanwhile, comes to learn that Sylvie and Nic have just had sex behind his back, and as Sylvie tries to tell him it was nothing serious and Nic tries to clarify that it was contactless (Sylvie doesn’t do touch, whether it be hugs or anything, even with August for years now).
August freaks out and at the dinner, gives a speech about how whatever guilt he once had about going away forever is there no more. Nic confesses that he’s always loved Sylvie, which upsets August more and they start brawling, and the fight is interrupted by the couple’s infertility-bot daughter, Agnes.
Auggie takes Agnes to the bedroom while Sylvie bids farewell to Elodie and Nic, who breakup with each other. August tells Sylvie that he doesn’t want to go and that he wishes to give themselves, their relationship, one more chance. They embrace each other and see the fireworks light up the smog-laden night sky.
Extrapolations season 1 episode 7 ends with Anna faking her identity, using August’s DNA sample to get accepted into LifePause’s program.
Review
- Extrapolations episode 7 carries an unusual energy, with the way the characters behave and also the way the actors portray them.
- There’s a somber candor to Auggie’s character and his pure innocence, laced with a sincere longing for a life uninhibited by the rot that has infested the real world.
- August and Sylvie’s decision to give their marriage another chance serves as a very tacit parallel to the humans still refusing to give up on Earth in spite of all that blots and populates its atmosphere.
- Anna’s arc is one that’s both tragic and a bit sweet as she finds a ticket to freedom from the world that has nothing more to offer her, nor anyone she can call her own. However, the conclusion is marked by the uncertainty that surrounds LifePause, from the efficacy and legitimacy of the technology to the future that it promises to give.
Extrapolations season 1 episode 7
Director:
Nicole Holofcener
Date Created:
2023-04-14 12:30
Also Read: Nick Bilton: Extrapolations character explained
