Scott Z. Burns’ drama about the dystopian future of our world, “Extrapolations,” dropped its penultimate episode on Apple+ today, and once again, it pointed us to a world we’re most definitely heading towards if carbon emissions aren’t curbed immediately. The last episode featured 2066, where one man named Ezra Haddad struggled to save the memories of his wife by uploading his failing memory into cloud storage but failed. Episode 7 begins on the last day of 2068, where the newest invention by Alpha, LifePause, has been launched and allows people to put a literal pause on their lives and keep their consciousness stored in a digital state until the earth is healthy enough to return. Against the backdrop of a severely polluted San Francisco and such scientific advancements, one New Year’s Eve party goes awry when the host makes an announcement. Here’s what happens in the seventh episode of “Extrapolations.”
Spoilers Ahead
The New Year’s Eve Party
In 2068 San Francisco, the sky is permanently covered in smog and a massive layer of pollution, so much so that people must use oxygen cylinders to walk in the streets without choking to death. Anna, a young woman living in the impoverished part of town, makes her way to an apartment and arrives at the doorstep of the woman who has hired her services as a maid for the night. The hostess, Sylvie (Marion Cotillard), is dressed regally and shows Anna the vegetables they shall be serving for the New Year’s Eve party but clarifies that they’re not very rich. To afford the veggies, they’d have to spend their six months’ worth of carbon credits, but Sylvie promises to tip Anna for her services at the end of the night. She then finds her husband, August Bolo (Forest Whitaker), who is sitting in a closet making a secret plan about something and urges him to get dressed for the party. August, aka Auggie, doesn’t enjoy being henpecked by his wife quite so often, but he doesn’t have a chance to retort because Sylvie barely listens to him. He can’t retort even now as the party guests arrive: it’s Auggie’s old student Nic (Tobey Maguire) and his girlfriend Elodie (Eiza Gonzalez).
The Announcement
Nic tries hugging Sylvie, but she lays down her strict ‘no-touch’ rule, and they also learn that Elodie is an influencer who records anything and everything with the chip installed in her brain and uploads them for bangs, the 2068 version of likes. As the four people have champagne served by Anna, Sylvie speaks about Auggie, or, to be precise, the multiple failures that make up his life. When Nic, the kelp farmer, mentions the newest technological advancement called LifePause, which allows someone to digitize their consciousness and store it in a chamber until a time when the earth heals from being a “Mad Max: Fury Road”-like world, Auggie becomes excited. He excitedly announces the various possibilities that the advancement allows and plays an Alpha video about the many facilities of LifePause, and then announces he’ll be leaving the next day. Despite none of his investments working out, there was one that did because he’d invested in LifePause 15 years ago, and now he’s been invited to leave this cursed earth and get himself digitized.
Sylvie is at first taken aback, thinking Auggie wants her to leave her life behind and come with him to get beamed into a digitized consciousness, but he announces that a lottery was drawn and he only has one ticket. Auggie was under the impression that his wife would welcome this decision because she’d never treated him with kindness or love in years, but Sylvie was upset that her husband chose to abandon everything and leave her. August argues that he doesn’t want a world where there’s no wilderness, sun, or naturally occurring food, but Sylvie retorts that the only thing they do have is love and family, and they should focus on that. Elodie inquires if the couple has children, and this makes Sylvie run back inside, and Nic offers to go console her.
Entertaining The Guests
As Nic tries to comfort Sylvie from a distance, Elodie tries to finesse the LifePause ticket from August by manipulating him into believing that he still wants to remain on Earth. She says she’s broke, is barely making rent, and needs an escape; besides, she’s young, so she can be whoever she wants to be while pointing out to Auggie that he isn’t. The elderly fellow reminds her that the ticket is non-transferable and that the verification requires DNA proof and also a psychological evaluation that he’s not sure Elodie would pass. Meanwhile, inside, Sylvie flirts with Nic, who’s been infatuated with her for about a decade, and he can’t help but want to pounce on her, but her ‘no-touch’ policy comes in the middle, so the two have a sort of affair where they pleasure themselves while looking at each other.
In the living room, unaware of his wife’s shenanigans, August is showing Elodie the questions the psychological evaluation asks, and he shows her the hologram of a grizzly bear, but having never seen one in her life, Elodie freaks out and runs. Sylvie comes out, and the husband and wife get to talking, where August says he didn’t think his actions would matter to Sylvie anyway because he’s convinced, she loathes him. Sylvie begins warming up to him when Nic comes out of the room, all sweaty and heated up, with his fly open. Auggie immediately susses out what happened, and he’s enraged; he can’t believe his wife couldn’t wait until he was gone the next day to cheat on him with his student, while Sylvie constantly says it was contactless. Nic says in a befuddled tone, “She started it,” and just as the situation might turn into a physical altercation, Anna comes in and announces dinner is served.
The Fight
Dinner is a severely awkward situation, and each of the four people gets up to offer a toast where they insult the other person, and Nic decides to go last but takes it to an extreme. He turns to Sylvie and proposes a situation where they might start a relationship with Auggie out of the way, and August can’t control his rage any further. He punches Nic and begins dragging him by the leg as Nic starts throwing the expensive food at him, and both women begin trying to push them apart, but the commotion is silenced when a little girl comes up and asks what the source of the commotion is. It’s their daughter Agnes, and Sylvie puts her to sleep by flicking a switch, as Nic explains to Elodie that it’s an infertility bot made for infertile couples. This is a callback to the “Extrapolations” Episode 6 ending, where Ezra spotted an ad with the pregnant Lola in it, where this was being advertised. Nic and Elodie leave, and August takes Agnes upstairs. Sylvie offers to clean up, but Anna says she’ll manage. The hostess leaves the maid a tip and goes upstairs as the sound of the firecrackers announces the arrival of 2069.
‘Extrapolations’ Episode 7: Ending Explained – How Did Anna Get The LifePause Ticket?
August asks if he can take Sylvie’s voice with him, but she refuses because she sings to Agnes every night, and Auggie confesses he doesn’t want to leave but gives them a chance. Sylvie holds his hand, and they hug as the fireworks light up the polluted sky. Auggie decides to stay back with Sylvie, so what happens to the LifePause ticket?
Downstairs, Anna returns the tip Sylvie gave her, takes August’s coat, and heads downstairs upon hearing a car’s arrival. It’s the LifePause van, and they’ve come to take August, but Anna steps out and says she’s Augustine and offers a strand of August’s hair from the coat for the DNA, and it’s a match. She’s welcomed into the van and is taken away to the center to have herself digitized and escape this wretched world. It’s the maid, Anna, who ends up getting the ticket in the end. She’d previously revealed to Sylvie that a heatwave finished her entire family and all her friends, and she’d nothing to live for, so perhaps, she was the most deserving of all people in “Extrapolations” Episode 7 to get the ticket to wait out the earth’s downfall.
