Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth season of Prime Video’s ‘Upload’ unravels the final chapter in the story of Lakeview and its residents. It begins as a chance to have a life after death, but soon, it becomes clear that, for Horizen, it is just another way to continue the exploitation of people and make more money. A good thing that comes out of Lakeview is the unexpected relationships between people, and a surprising romance develops between Aleesha and Luke. They had always been friendly towards one another, but after they become co-conspirators in the third season, they eventually end up sharing a kiss. While this could have been the beginning of another romance like the one developed between Nathan and Nora, there are too many complications for Aleesha and Luke to explore their relationship. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Aleesha and Luke’s Potential Romance Never Takes Flight
The kiss between Luke and Aleesha in the Season 3 finale confirms that there is something between them. However, the opening episode of the fourth season reveals that whatever possibility there may have been of exploring a romance, it does not exist anymore. To begin with, there is the issue of Luke being a digital version of himself and Aleesha being a living woman. While they could have braved that problem, much like Nathan and Nora and the second Nathan and Ingrid, Aleesha gets entangled in something that prevents her from forming any further attachments.
It turns out that Aleesha is now working for Oscar Mayer Intel. She is their spy in Horizen, as her position as a major executive allows her access to the secrets and plans of the company that OMI couldn’t have gotten their hands on otherwise. The more time Aleesha spends as their spy, the more she realises how much is at stake. Most of her time is taken up by her job, which also includes keeping up the facade of working for Horizen, and with that, she has no time to deal with the Luke situation.
It’s not that she doesn’t want to address the kiss, or that she doesn’t feel anything for Luke. But being a spy does not give her the luxury to indulge in a romance, and she cannot explain it to anyone. Still, Aleesha and Luke have an indirect conversation about their feelings, where they try to console the elevator AI guy after his AI girlfriend leaves him for the bartender AI guy. With all the problems that they need to deal with, this is the only discussion that Aleesha can afford to have at the moment. She, perhaps, would have revisited it with Luke at a later time, when things had calmed down. But before that, Luke ends up losing his life.
Luke’s Tragic Death Puts an End to His and Aleesha’s Future
A major villain in Season 4 emerges as the evil AI guy. While the other AI guys have been trained in humanity and compassion by Aleesha, the new black-haired AI guy is created to have none of those feelings. He is the digital incarnation of his capitalistic overlords, and his only focus is to exploit Lakeview customers to make more money. Over time, as he starts to absorb the other AI guys, he becomes so powerful that he is able to take control of Lakeview. Eventually, he reaches singularity and self-awareness, which means that even Horizen cannot stop him now. The only thing keeping him from taking over the world is the stream that connects Lakeview to the rest of the world via the Internet. While Aleesha and the others work on a plan to stop the evil AI guy, he has to be stopped from crossing into the stream, which is where Luke comes in.
The plan is to upload the AI guy who was lost in the streets of New York in Season 3. He is the only AI remaining and the one more powerful due to his experience on the streets of New York. However, uploading him takes time, which gives the evil AI guy ample opportunity to escape into the Internet and destroy the world. While the good AI guy is being uploaded, the evil one walks towards the stream. When Luke witnesses this, he decides to stop him, even though he was in the middle of a process that would have downloaded him into the real world.
At first, Luke surprises the evil AI guy by pushing his unexpected buttons and sending him away from the stream. But the second time, he loses his element of surprise, which leads the evil AI guy to push Luke through the stream, destroying his digital copy and killing him for good. This sudden turn of events leaves no room for Luke to say goodbye to any of his friends, including Aleesha. She is heartbroken by his death, as even if she didn’t have romantic feelings for him, she did consider him a good friend who meant a lot to her. The only thing that she can do now is admire him for his courage, be grateful to him for helping save the world, and bid goodbye to him.
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