Episodes 01

“Striking Vipers”

Danny hosts a birthday party with his wife Theo. His old friend Karl introduces him to the latest Striking Vipers game, as they used to play them together. It is a fighting game, now experienced in virtual reality. That night, Danny and Karl play as Lance and Roxette, respectively, feeling all physical sensations of the characters’ bodies. After a round of fighting, they fall onto each other and kiss. They begin to have sex in the game. On their wedding anniversary, Theo confronts Danny, having noticed him being more withdrawn, and he cuts off his arrangement with Karl. At Danny’s next birthday, Theo invites Karl. They argue but then have sex in the game again. They try kissing in real life, but agree that there is no spark between them. A physical fight leads to their arrest overnight. Later, as part of an agreement, Danny plays Striking Vipers with Karl while Theo goes to a bar without her wedding ring and meets strangers.

Episodes 02

“Smithereens”

At group therapy, Chris meets Hayley, whose daughter died by suicide. He has sex with her and watches her make her daily three attempts to log into her daughter’s account on Persona. One day, Chris—a rideshare driver—abducts Jaden, an intern at the social media company Smithereen, at gunpoint. Police chase after them until Chris comes to a stop in a field. Chris contacts Jaden’s superior and demands to speak to Smithereen’s CEO Billy Bauer, who is on a solitary retreat. Smithereen employees gather information on Chris while he forces the hostage negotiator to leave. After a final ultimatum from Chris, Billy agrees to speak to him. Chris explains that he was checking a Smithereen notification while driving when a drunk driver collided with him, killing the driver and Chris’s fiancée. Chris makes clear his intention to kill himself, and as a favour Billy gets Persona’s CEO to give Hayley her daughter’s password. Jaden tries to force Chris’s gun away from him to prevent his suicide, and a police sniper is ordered to shoot into the car.

Episodes 03

“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too”

Rachel and Jack live with their father, who is working on a mousetrap alternative. For her fifteenth birthday, Rachel gets an AI toy, Ashley Too, based on the pop star Ashley O. She dances to an Ashley O song at a school talent competition, but falls and leaves embarrassed. Meanwhile, Ashley O is beginning to rebel against Catherine—her controlling manager and aunt. Catherine puts medication in her food to render Ashley O comatose. When the Ashley Too doll learns of Ashley O’s coma, it malfunctions. Jack uses her father’s computer to remove a limiter on the doll, causing it to gain full consciousness, as it was made from a clone of Ashley O. Rachel and Jack go with the doll to Ashley O’s house. While Jack poses as a mouse catcher, Rachel and Ashley Too unplug Ashley O from a medication drip and she regains consciousness. After rendering two of Catherine’s staff unconscious, they crash a venue where Catherine is unveiling Ashley Eternal, a holographic Ashley O to perform on music tours, and reveal that Ashley O is awake. Later, Ashley O performs alternative music with Jack under the name “Ashley Fuckn O”.