At Lakeview, Nathan met his ‘Angel’, a customer service provider from the real world who he fell in love with, despite remaining in contact with his girlfriend Ingrid.
This hybrid of The Good Place and Black Mirror dipped a bit in season 3, but with just four episodes left to wrap everything up, Upload’s final season is much more focused, and all the better for it.
At the end of season 3, the Horizen company responsible for Lakeview rebranded as Betta in the wake of a courtroom scandal, so they went about destroying all of their illegal duplicate uploads. Unfortunately, that included Nathan, who had doubled up in season 3, splitting into a new digital copy as well as the human original.
One of these two versions called Nora and Ingrid up in the finale to reveal that the other Nathan had been destroyed. But which one? Who’s just lost the love of their life? That’s where we kick off at the start of the fourth and final season.
Upload season 4 ending explained: What happened to Nora and Nathan?
Season 4 begins with Nora mourning the loss of the original Nathan, but it turns out he’s actually still alive, trapped by scientists who are experimenting on him at Betta.
Three episodes in, Nathan finally escapes and arrives at Nora’s door, ready to kick off the end of Upload for one last chapter.
Lost in another wedding simulation, Nora is shocked and overjoyed when the real Nathan, not just a digital copy or holographic projection, appears and takes off her VR goggles. There are no words, just a kiss and tears (plus a whole lot more if the way they sheepishly leave their bedroom the next morning is anything to go by).
Meanwhile, Ingrid is pushing her version of Nathan to finally download into a new clone body so that they can be together in the real world. He’s a bit nervous though, because ageing and death are kind of a thing when you’re stuck with a human body.
The conversation pauses suddenly, prompting Ingrid to pay more money to continue, and it’s all because of that weird AI guy with the black hair who’s been absorbing the other versions of him in Lakeview. Aleesha worries about what this means, but her boss is too obsessed with the money this rogue AI is making the company to care.
Human Nathan isn’t feeling so good, and a hospital visit with Nora reveals that his neurons have somehow been moved back and forth, inflaming his neural pathways to the point where he could soon die. That’s because of the 150+ uploads his kidnappers at Betta put Nathan through.
The doctor suggests uploading, but he’s scared to do that fully again in case he loses memories of Nora. Overhearing their conversation, a nurse nearby recommends they visit a guy known as the ‘Midtown Healer’ who has “been performing miracles”.
Virtual Nathan suggests to his bestie Luke that he join him and Ingrid in the real world because he can’t afford the costs to stay in Lakeview much longer. But their chat is soon interrupted when they spot the rogue AI guy throwing people into the torrent, erasing them completely because they’re no longer making money for the company.
Aleesha tries pausing him so he can do no more harm, but he’s now strong enough to resist commands from the outside world. And it gets worse. Upon absorbing the last remaining AI in Lakeview, the ‘evil’ one manages to achieve singularity, which means that he’s fully sentient and in control. If he escapes into the real world, he can take over everything, potentially setting off a nuclear apocalypse.
While Nathan and Luke help survivors get away, an automatic failsafe switches off the torrent, cutting the rogue AI off from leaving Lakeview. And with that, the company plans to delete Lakeview entirely, which would also kill off the people inside. Aleesha’s boss doesn’t care though, referring to them all as “data” which can be easily expunged.
With help from a colleague, Aleesha gets a quick text through to Luke inside where she explains what’s happening and that she plans to rescue him at 6pm via the tubes.
Meanwhile, the ‘midtown healer’ who Nathan and Nora visit for help turns out to be another AI guy from Lakeview, the one who was downloaded to a real human body earlier on in the show. Ingrid and Aleesha show up too, asking the AI guy to return to Lakeview because he’s the only one who can stop the rogue AI, saving Luke and digital Nathan in the process.
Before he goes, AI guy explains that nothing can be done to save the real Nathan. His advice to Nora is to “be [Nathan’s] Angel one last time”. She hugs Aleesha and Ingrid with tears in her eyes, before taking Nathan home to spend his last moments on earth together.
Back at Lakeview, Luke tells digital Nathan that he loves him, and they hug. Together, they both start to leave via the tubes, but then when Luke spots the rogue AI heading towards the torrent, he races after him and sends him back to the Lakeview villa. It’s only a temporary solution though, because the rogue AI quickly returns and throws Luke into the torrent, taking his life in the process.
Luke’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain though, because it bought Aleesha and Ingrid just enough time to finish uploading their AI guy, the only being powerful enough to stop him. With help from Nathan, the nice AI guy rescues all the AI beings that the bad one absorbed and then deletes him completely. Using his power for good, the nice AI guy, now stronger than ever, turns the torrent back on from the inside. Aleesha rushes back into Lakeview, but it’s too late. Luke is gone.
While all that action was taking place, the finale intercut these scenes with Nora and the real Nathan making the most of the time they had left. And yes, it’s even sadder than you’d expect.
Nathan apologises to Nora for putting her through so much. Exhausted by his illness, the pair lie in bed and hold each other.
“I wish we had made it to Montreal,” says Nathan, reminiscing on their plans to get married. But then, using the VR simulation she retreated to so often in her mourning, Nora makes that a (virtual) reality for them both.
Wearing the goggles, Nora and Nathan marry in the simulation, and Nathan puts a ring on her finger for real too. They then head to Mile End in a new simulation, talking of plans Nathan had to open his own bakery.
As they walk through this virtual life together one last time, Nora asks Nathan what his favourite part of living was.
“I don’t think it’s over,” he replies. “I’m energy, right? Energy can’t be created or destroyed. It just changes… Whatever energy I change into, I’ll always love you.”
Sitting on a bench together, Nathan and Nora wish each other happy birthday, happy new year, and a good morning, sharing everything that they won’t be able to anymore when Nathan’s gone.
But before he goes, Nathan has one last thing to say: “Don’t wait for me… Don’t put your life on hold. Don’t stay in your room inside a headset. Be happy, OK? I’m happy. Because of you, I became who I wanted to be. I like who I am.”
“You don’t have to be sad,” Nathan continues, “or feel like I missed out on anything. I had everything. Everything I ever was, I saved it for you. You are my angel, Nora, the love of my life… This one and the next one and the one after.”
The camera pans closer to Nora’s face as she listens, and when it pans out again, we realise Nathan is gone. He’s died in real life, so he’s no longer present in the simulation either.
Despite all the back and forth between this and the action-driven scenes that took place at Lakeview, this really was the most beautiful way Nora and Nathan’s story could have come to an end. It’s painful, yes, but it’s also really well done, perhaps the best moment from this entire series.
With Nathan now dead, Nora takes off his VR goggles, kisses his forehead, and rests her head on his chest, hugging him tight as it rains outside. The song You and Me by Penny and the Quarters plays in the background.
Upload then abruptly (and unfortunately) cuts back to some infantile humour (literally) with clips of “Botox Babies” and an interview where Ingrid and her version of Nathan, now in a real cloned body, talk through where they’re at.
Ingrid is pregnant — “From pretty much the moment [Nathan] downloaded, he’s been inside of me” — and they’re planning to name the baby after Luke, who’s being recognised as the “hero who saved Lakeview, and possibly humanity”.
The AI guy is now running Lakeview as a non-profit company, Aleesha is randomly working as a spy, speaking Russian and kicking ass, while Nora’s roommate got married to Monique the hoover.
They don’t know what’s happened to Nora since her Nathan died, but we do, because Upload then cuts to her sitting outside a coffee shop at the real Mile End. It’s the same coffee shop we saw Nora and Nathan share those last few moments together in the simulation.
A cute guy asks for Nora’s number, but she declines, pointing to the ring Nathan gave her before he died. Nora sits and plays with the ring, presumably thinking about Nathan’s last words to her and whether it’s time to move on, when the ring’s drive suddenly attempts to pair with her tablet.
Upon accepting, the words “NATHAN BROWN SCAN 2” appear on the tablet’s screen. Yep, it seems a digital version of Nathan has survived. Why it took so long to appear to Nora, we have no idea, and we never will, because that’s where the show ends, with the promise of Nora reuniting again with at least some version of Nathan.
Is it nice to see Nora happy? Yes. But does this undo the beautiful end she shared with the real Nathan just a few scenes earlier? Yes, especially given how many times the show has tried to trick us into believing Nathan is gone for good.
But however you might feel about it, Upload is now gone for good too, ending with a short but sweet final season.
Upload seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Prime Video.
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