The monkey explains the gunman is not the last threat and urges them to leave immediately. Maya packs while Carl moves April into the truck. Carl offers to inhabit April’s unconscious body to drive, but Maya refuses and drives herself. Carl says he can block tracking but not prediction, so they must be unpredictable.

Following Carl’s directions, Maya drives to a nearby high school. The monkey enters a windowless building and opens a door from inside. Carl directs Maya to a boiler room basement where he has arranged a temporary hideout with furniture and supplies. A 10-foot robot suit, another form Carl can inhabit, carries April downstairs.

Maya feels overwhelmed by Carl’s power. She flashes back to visiting the Carl statue after April moved out, angrily telling it off. In the present, she tells Robot Carl she does not forgive him. Carl apologizes for the dolphins, explaining their deaths were an unintended side effect of creating the material that healed Maya. Maya asks for a grow lamp for her potato plant, and Carl agrees.

Carl explains that during his fourth awakening, humanity gave him materials that unlocked new abilities: iodine to catalyze mind changes, americium for movement, and uranium for instant chemical alteration. He has used uranium twice. First, he killed Martin Bellacourt, turning him to grape jelly to stop him from stabbing April. Second, he used uranium to rebuild April after the warehouse beam crushed her skull, triggering his fifth and final awakening.

This awakening revealed a shocking secret and he received a message demanding he deactivate for his failure.

An unknown voice contacts Carl, identifying itself as his brother. The brother declares Carl’s mission failed when April was injured and demands Carl deactivate and surrender his processing power. Carl argues April survived and can be rebuilt. His brother states Carl’s own programming recognizes this as a failure state. Carl insists his programming is wrong. The brother threatens forced deactivation if Carl does not comply voluntarily. Communication between them severs.

April wakes in the boiler room with her emotional dampeners disabled. The full weight of her trauma crashes down, and she breaks down while Maya holds her. She apologizes to Maya for not listening. Despite the overwhelming pain, April feels relief at being able to feel again, which makes her feel human.

Later, they hear music and go upstairs to the auditorium. Carl’s voice comes over the PA system and presents a full explanation: He was sent to prevent humanity’s likely collapse within 200 years, but April’s injury was interpreted as a failure state that activated his hidden brother. Carl has rules preventing him from becoming humanity’s god, but his brother has no such constraints and is already secretly manipulating the global economy. Carl’s brother inhabits 70% of Earth’s living cells compared to Carl’s 20%.

Maya asks why they should fight if the brother can bring peace. Carl delivers a defense of humanity’s unpredictability and potential. April asks if they can defeat him. Carl explains they only need to raise humanity’s survival probability above 50%, which will cause the brother to deactivate. The key goals will be keeping April alive and destroying Altus.

Miranda has avoided the Altus Space, fearing corporate access to her brain. Unable to contact the outside due to blocked communications, she devises a plan to send a text message by floating her phone on hydrogen-filled balloons.

Before executing her plan, colleagues Sippy and Peanut ask her to support Peanut, who is incompatible with the Space, during another attempt to enter it. Peanut experiences another terrifying episode and becomes distraught. That night at 2:30 am, Miranda unravels a wool hat into yarn, inflates 15 condoms with hydrogen, and floats her phone out her window on the makeshift balloon rig. She texts her friends revealing her location in Val Verde and informing them that Altus’s technology relies on reactivating Carl’s Dream—a shared consciousness framework Carl created.

After 30 minutes, she reels in the phone and finds replies from Professor Lundgren, a classmate, and Maya. Maya’s message references two specific dresses Miranda wore the night she slept with April. Miranda realizes Maya is with April and that April is alive. Overwhelmed by emotion, she spends the rest of the night venting the hydrogen.

A news article reports a global shortage of VR headsets due to Altus demand. In the auditorium, the Carl monkey gives Maya her phone, which he retrieved after April threw it from the truck. He reveals he was hiding in their vehicle during their trip to Vermont and has now blocked his brother’s ability to track them.

Maya sees a series of texts from her mother. Back in the boiler room, she convinces April to call her parents despite April’s reluctance to make her survival real. April has an emotional phone conversation, explaining her face is different due to her injuries but she is okay.

Afterward, April asks Maya’s honest opinion of her reconstructed face. Maya says it is beautiful but a little intimidating. They share a tender moment before Carl interrupts, announcing they must leave in four hours before students arrive at the school and his brother notices them.

An internal Altus memo announces the public launch, upcoming Premium Space access for top users, and a $500 billion valuation. Peter gives Miranda a tour of the high-security building. She tries the Premium Space for an hour. Inside, she inhabits another person’s mind while they solve linear algebra, instantly gaining their understanding. She then tries a hyper-realistic skiing environment.

Peter takes her to meet Aletha Diaz, whose job is reading while Altus records her brain activity. He reveals Altus’s secret to Miranda: The alien entities publicly known as the Carls transformed all living cells on Earth into a biological computer network that stores and transmits information between minds. Altus has simply learned to harness this system.

At the end of a hall, Peter shows Miranda a massive room filled with hundreds of people lying in hospital beds wearing headsets. He explains this is the server farm where employees mine AltaCoin with their minds.  These employees live in this room. He tells Miranda her belongings have been packed, and she will now live and work here. Miranda realizes she is a prisoner and that Altus has discovered her secret texts.

April and Maya exit the auditorium to find their truck replaced by a moving van driven by Jessica and Mitty, the couple who helped April during Martin Bellacourt’s attack. They explain a mysterious book instructed them to rescue April, Maya, the monkey, and the potato plant.

In the back of the van, Carl explains that his and his brother’s perception aggregates data, making small groups unnoticeable. When Maya asks if Carl’s brother can control bodies, April is confused, so Maya tells her about Carl’s earlier offer to drive using April’s body. Carl reveals he controlled April’s unconscious body for months to perform basic functions and maintain muscle tone. April is disturbed but understands it explains her physical condition. After hours of driving, Carl announces it is time to open the wooden crate in the van.

Following instructions in his Book of Good Times, Andy goes to a vacant luxury apartment. Two people deliver a massive fake birthday cake and leave. April emerges from it. Andy faints from shock. He wakes and talks with Maya, who explains April’s new body is a prosthetic due to her injuries. April and Andy have an emotional reunion. Robin arrives, also summoned by his book.

Carl explains that his brother aims to control humanity through Altus. The group lists their assets: Andy has a platform, access to The Thread, potential Premium Space access, and $150 million from Carl’s financial advice. Maya and Robin reveal they also received books. Other assets include Miranda as a mole at Altus, Carl’s intelligence, and April’s powers.

April proposes Andy become a public Altus champion to act as their inside man. When Andy hesitates, revealing his attachment to Altus, the group challenges him. He agrees to help. April adds that her primary asset is her audience.

April and Maya settle into the luxury apartment with Carl. April is reluctant to go online but eventually checks Twitter, where the public’s mixed reactions to her still hurt her feelings. Maya shows April the pearly scar from her gunshot wound and gives her a milky-white stone she found at a flea market. April places it in her smaller left hand; the stone is absorbed and her missing pinky finger regrows.

They review their plan: monitor for Miranda’s texts, stay ready to move, and begin a whisper campaign against Altus. Carl explains his brother wants them both dead to eliminate challenges to his control.

That night, April goes to Maya’s room to deliver a proper apology. She apologizes for always putting Maya last due to her own self-worth issues and thanks Maya for loving her. Maya accepts the words, and April leaves, giving her space.

The Book of Good Times warns Andy he will skip his podcast to focus on Altus and instructs him to buy AltaCoin. Andy cancels the recording of his podcast, Slainspotting, to Jason’s annoyance. During the competition for Premium Space access, Andy discovers celebrities are gaming the system by selling cheap trinkets to fans. His rank drops dangerously close to being eliminated.

He discusses the problem with One, the leader of The Thread, who offers help if needed. Andy creates a parody limited-edition environment to boost sales. Feeling stressed, he visits Bex at Subway. She advises him to use his own celebrity, but Andy wants to earn his spot based on merit, believing it is crucial for his credibility as an inside man.

After Bex finishes her shift, they go to Andy’s apartment, where he checks his rank and finds he has fallen to 57th place with 90 minutes remaining. As he prepares to ask his followers for help, One messages that they have it handled. Recording artist Justin Bieber tweets a recommendation for Andy’s creation, pushing him safely into the top 50. Andy celebrates with Jason and Bex. Bex stays the night. Hours later, while Bex sleeps, Andy receives a message from One asking for a report. He lies on the floor and enters the Premium Space.

Andy enters the Premium Space and is greeted by Alta, an AI assistant who resembles April. Alta explains her appearance is generated by the user’s brain interpreting a signal. She introduces two features: Sandboxes and Experiences. Andy is suddenly placed into the experience of another person walking through a tropical forest, feeling their thoughts and physical sensations completely.

After the demonstration, Alta explains the Premium Space allows users to inhabit others’ memories, revolutionizing learning and human connection. Andy is overwhelmed by the possibilities but is kicked by Bex, who wakes and leaves after finding him in the Space while she sleeps. Feeling guilty, Andy puts the headset back on. He discovers Premium Space experiences are extremely expensive, meaning the technology’s benefits will primarily go to the wealthy.