S01E03 CORPORATE VISITS AND CLOSE TALKERS
Mitch discovers that the portal in the break room gives him access to the *real* ChronoStore Dynamics portal. He calls in the office and uses the portal to see the "Making of the Break Room" a history of how the Break Room came to be...
Back in 2029, a corporate visit throws Tori into a spiral of anxiety as she worries about her performance. Determined to prove she can successfully balance both her job and her family life, Tori brings work home and enlists her children to help organize files while her husband supervises. At first, the arrangement seems promising, but it quickly unravels when her husband fails to keep the children focused. By the following morning, her son has deleted customer contacts, called her clients poopy, and caused enough chaos to ruin Tori's carefully prepared reports. The disastrous review costs Tori her job, leaving her feeling that she has failed both at work and at home.
Sherry, CEO of ChronoStore Dynamics, unveils her latest venture, a project that preserves human personalities inside simulated time capsules. The technology represents the lifelong dream of her late father, and Sherry has poured everything she has into making it a reality. With funds rapidly disappearing, she realizes the first upload must happen immediately if the project is to survive. Hoping to recruit volunteers, Sherry tells her employee Nate that each participant can make small adjustments to their personality before entering the simulation.
Nate, a go-getter salesperson at ChronoStore Dynamics, sees the project as his opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. Eager to prove himself, he throws his energy into recruiting volunteers, believing the first successful upload will launch both the company and his own career.
Clark is desperate to matter to the protest movement he supports and becomes convinced that ChronoStore Dynamics is helping accelerate humanity's collapse. Believing the company's AI systems are another symptom of the world's worsening crisis, he begins spying on its employees to uncover evidence before coordinating a break-in.
Janice initially views Nate as the man she hopes to marry, convinced that after nearly two years together a proposal must surely be coming. During an unusually close bungee-jumping date, Clark spies on the couple while flattering Nate about his blog and business success to gain his trust. Later, as Janice looks for a proposal, Nate explains the possibilities of the simulation, convincing her that uploading herself could let her experience married life before committing to it. Excited by the prospect, Janice recruits her friend Tori, now upset about her life, to join her as one of the project's first volunteers.
As everyone gathers for the upload, each volunteer records the change they hope the simulation will grant them. Sherry wishes to relax, reclaim the youth she sacrificed pursuing her father's dream, and experience a world where he is still alive. Tori longs to be successful both at work and at home. Nate asks to get ahead of everyone else, while Janice simply wants to be married. Just as the upload begins, Clark infiltrates the facility in an attempt to stop the experiment, only to be accidentally uploaded alongside the others.
... Having viewed their history, Janice, Sherry, Clark, and Mitch wonder where Mitch was in the simulation and what happened to Nate. Just as they ask about Nate, Nate falls through the portal, saying that he saw something incredible.