Sam spots Sadie at a Boston subway station and persuades her to reconnect after years apart.

Sam asks Sadie to stay the summer and design a video game together with him.

Sadie contacts Dov to use his game engine, granting him an equity partnership in Ichigo.

Ichigo launches commercially and becomes a massive hit, making Sam and Sadie famous game designers.

Sam and Sadie fight over making Ichigo III; Sadie refuses and proposes an entirely new game.

Marx arranges for the team to relocate to California so Sam can finally have his surgery.

Sam undergoes the amputation of his long-damaged foot in a California hospital.

Both Sides launches to disappointing reviews, with critics calling it schizophrenic and maudlin.

Mapleworld launches as a massive success, and Sam notices Sadie and Marx sharing a loving look.

Sam allows same-sex marriages in Mapleworld, triggering widespread backlash and death threats against him.

Armed gunmen storm the Unfair Games office demanding to find and kill Sam.

Marx is shot multiple times while stepping in to shield an employee from the gunmen.

Marx dies from his injuries with Sadie and Sam holding his hands.

Sam secretly designs and launches Pioneers, a game built specifically to reach Sadie in her grief.

Sam and Sadie reunite in New York, confess long-held insecurities, and Sam says 'I love you' aloud for the first time.

Sadie and Sam reconnect as college students in Boston and decide to build a video game together, launching their careers and friendship anew. Their first game, Ichigo, becomes a massive commercial success, though creative tensions and outside pressures begin to fracture their partnership. After Sam's amputation and the team's move to California, they build Mapleworld, which earns them fame but also violent enemies. Armed attackers target Sam at the Unfair Games office, and their beloved partner Marx is shot and killed while protecting an employee. In the aftermath of Marx's death, Sam secretly designs a game to pull Sadie out of her grief, which ultimately backfires when she discovers the deception. Years later, the two friends finally reunite in New York, speak honestly to each other for the first time, and prepare to create something new together.

The core friendship and career arc of Sam and Sadie.

Marx plays Sadie's game Solution and declares the unknown designer a genius, assuming it is a man.

Sam and Sadie meet in a hospital game room and bond over their shared love of video games.

Sam and Sadie play Donkey Kong at Dong Hyun's restaurant in LA, rekindling their childhood friendship.

Sam falls on a snowy sidewalk the night Ichigo is completed and badly reinjures his foot.

Sadie finds a loving inscription inside Dead Sea and concludes Sam knowingly sent her back to Dov.

Sam develops excruciating phantom limb pain after his amputation but hides the condition from Sadie and Marx.

Sam fails to appear at his birthday dinner with Sadie because phantom pain has left him incapacitated.

Simon and Ant's game Counterpart High becomes the best-selling PC game in the country within months.

Zoe ends her relationship with Marx, telling him he does not love her enough.

Marx and Sadie travel to Tokyo together on business and spend the night together.

Sam confronts Sadie and Marx about their secret relationship on a drive to Dov's wedding.

Sam renames himself Mazer, gets tattoos, builds muscle, and crafts a bold new public persona.

Sam discovers Marx's Post-it note on the Our Infinite Days proposal while cleaning out Sadie's office.

Sadie teaches Advanced Games at MIT and a student named Destiny asks how she evolved as a designer.

Sam learns that Dong Hyun has willed his beloved Donkey Kong arcade cabinet to Sadie.

The second pool fills in the emotional texture around the main storyline, beginning with Sam and Sadie's first bond in a hospital game room as children and Marx's early recognition of Sadie's genius. Formative wounds resurface as Sadie discovers what she believes is Sam's betrayal involving Dov, while Sam silently endures phantom limb pain after his amputation and misses a birthday dinner without explanation. A commercial hit created by younger employees saves Unfair Games, even as Marx's romantic life shifts and a secret relationship with Sadie quietly begins in Tokyo. Sam's dramatic reinvention as Mazer takes center stage, culminating in a tense confrontation when he learns about Sadie and Marx's relationship. After Marx's death, a small paper note rekindles Sam's resolve, while Sadie discovers new purpose teaching at MIT and receives an unexpected final gift connected to her childhood with Sam.

The secondary moments that shaped Sam, Sadie, and their world.

Sam finds his framed maze displayed in Sadie's college apartment, realizing she has always treasured the gift.

Sadie relents on Ichigo's genderless design and agrees to make the character a boy to satisfy Opus.

Dov handcuffs Sadie to a bedpost without her consent when she tells him she is moving to California.

Sadie gives Sam a crystal paperweight as a good luck charm before his amputation surgery.

Sadie reveals that Ichigo was inspired by a child she might have had with Dov, not by Sam.

Marx tells Sadie he likely never read the Dead Sea inscription and explains the real reason Sam moved to California.

Mrs. Watanabe shows Sadie the Strawberry Thief print in Tokyo, later inspiring Marx's dream about rebooting Mapletown.

Sam abruptly walks out of Mapleworld's launch party after realizing Sadie and Marx are in love.

Dong Hyun tells Sam that a friendship like the one he has with Sadie may surpass any romantic love.

Sadie turns away from the Unfair Games office door, too traumatized by Marx's death to step inside.

Sam finds Marx's doppelganger hidden as an Easter egg in the Master of Revels expansion and resolves to reach Sadie through a game.

Sadie realizes Dr. Daedalus in Pioneers is Sam after learning the baby's name means Fifth Game.

Sadie attends Dong Hyun's memorial service and she and Sam exchange a wave across the room.

Sam admits he assumed Sadie never asked him out because of his race and his disability.

Sadie presses a game drive labeled Ludo Sextus into Sam's palm as they part ways in New York.

This pool traces the pivotal decisions and emotional revelations that redirect Sam and Sadie's lives at every stage of the story. Early turning points include Sadie compromising on Ichigo's genderless design under commercial pressure and Dov's violent reaction when Sadie announces she is leaving him for California. Discoveries about Sam's true motives force Sadie to reconsider her long-held resentment, while Marx's honest accounting of events begins to thaw the coldness between the friends. Sam's quiet realization that Sadie and Marx are in love becomes a private crisis that reshapes his entire sense of identity and belonging. Marx's death and its aftermath bring fresh pivots: Sadie's inability to face the office, Sam's use of a hidden Easter egg to reach her, and the charged moment she unmasks Sam inside Pioneers. The pool closes with the friends finally exchanging the honest confessions they have withheld from each other across decades.