That cliffhanger ‘Upload’ season 3 ending, explained

In its 3 seasons so far, Upload has been a huge hit for Amazon Prime Video. It premiered on May 1, 2020 and has steadily grown in viewers and praise from critics. Season 3 recently wrapped up, and in true good TV fashion, left viewers with one hell of a cliffhanger.

Fans are now clamoring for more: demanding to know what happens to Nathan Brown, and what version of him we’re dealing with at this point. While it’s well-written and entertaining, the show can be confusing at times, and that cliffhanger ending is no exception.

That’s where we come in. Instead of racking your brain to try and figure out what it all means, let us take care of that for you. Here’s the Upload season 3 ending explained.

What happened at the end of ‘Upload’ Season 3?

In Upload, technology has reached a place where human beings can “upload” themselves into an artificial afterlife after they die. This way, they get to keep on “living” with the same personality and memories they had when they were alive.

In season 3, Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell) and Nora Antony (Andy Allo) are actually together in the real world after Nathan is successfully downloaded into the real world. This means they can further look into what David Choak (William B. Davis) was really planning.

Also, a backup copy of Nathan gets activated through the machinations of Ingrid (Allegra Edwards). Throughout the course of the season, Nathan and Nora learn a whole bunch about Freeyond and what’s happening behind the scenes, but their celebration quickly turns to despair after a series of unfortunate events.

The big question of the finale is what happened to the two Nathans. The two met after Luke (Kevin Bigley) got caught in the grey zone trying to sell an AI. They decided to team up and downloaded Nathan kept dating Nora while backup Nathan would ostensibly continue his relationship with Ingrid.

The respective relationships progressed to the point where they were both going to propose to their significant others. Backup Nathan proposes and Ingrid panics, but she eventually accepts after a heart-to-heart with Nora.

Nathan and Nora, meanwhile, go to the Freeyond trials with plans to vacation in Montreal once everything is over, but that plan gets blasted to pieces when Horizon agents grab Nathan after Nora makes a mistake and reveals there are two Nathans.

This leads to a domino effect: Horizen learns that Nathan isn’t the only copy and that there are various other ones, so agents are deployed to get rid of every copy. Once Ingrid realized what was happening, she warned backup Nathan but it was too late. He was caught by Horizen’s CEO.

We learned in Season 2 that Nathan’s billionaire neighbor David Choak was behind his murder in concert with Ingrid’s dad Oliver Kannerman, in an effort to influence the elections. We learned in season 3 that there were even more rich and powerful people involved, including Horizen’s CEO.

The scheme was brought into more focus when Nathan and Ivan (Josh Spelich) discover a Freeyond video where they talk about how clinics were destroyed by the Ludds and that numerous hard drives were lost in the process.

This means that Freeyond was never going to offer free afterlives, it just wanted poor people gone so they wouldn’t be able to vote. Evil! Fortunately, Nathan and Nora got access to Choak’s memories courtesy of Ivan.

Those memories revealed plans to get rid of employees with uploads, and try to make a profit by renting uploads out. We also learn that Karina Silva (Jeanine Mason) was also involved, complicated by the fact that she’s close with Aleesha (Zainab Johnson).

Aleesha then stole computer files from Karina (with help from Tinsley, Luke and an AI), and that was used by Holden and Nora to win the case during the court proceedings. Unfortunately, the victory was short-lived because Horizen owns all the memories and thoughts from uploads (stupid fine print!).

What does this mean? Uploads are not considered legal people and the laws remain unchanged, so the scam won’t become public knowledge. Even worse, Horizen changed its name to Betta to distance itself from the proceedings, meaning that Kannerman and Choak won after all. Boo.

The trial also dampened Nora’s plans to be a lawyer, even after Holden offered to pay for her to go to law school. As to whether Nora will join Holden’s firm, that has yet to be answered. Also, Ingrid was very helpful during the trials, testifying against her father and Choak.

We’ll have to wait and see if she becomes an ally or not. Another question is what’s going to happen between Luke and Aleesha, who shared a kiss and broke some major rules. If they do end up in a relationship, it’s going to be a tough one.

Now to the big cliffhanger. Nathan was grabbed by Horizen agents and backup Nathan was captured by the CEO. The whole gang, Mauricio, Viv, Ingrid and Nora all anxiously wait for word from either Nathan about what’s going on.

Finally, a Nathan calls them from a gray room, explaining that he’s fine but there’s only one Nathan now because the other one was erased. The scene ends with Nora asking Nathan if he’s the real one or the backup one.

Let’s analyze a bit here. The most likely scenario is that the real Nathan survived. Horizen is going to want to interrogate him and get information about his download and the subsequent sequence of events. Another possible scenario is that both Nathan’s still exist and Horizen is pulling another scheme. If only backup Nathan is left, that’s going to suck for Nora. If it’s real Nathan, Ingrid is not going to be happy.

Is ‘Upload’ coming back for Season 4?

While there’s no official word as of yet, showrunner Greg Daniels has shared that he’s “pretty optimistic” there’s going to be a fourth season of the show. He said Upload is the “number one most-viewed half-hour show on Prime Video” and that work on season 4 should start soon, per Collider.

“In the Season 4 writers’ room, something might come up that would change it. I don’t know. You gotta look at the whole season and say to yourself, “What’s the shape of that season next season gonna be? How do we get something that’s a throughline that has a ton of interesting aspects enough for a whole season?” So, I don’t know. I would say, I think I know what’s gonna happen.”

The first three seasons of Upload are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.