After the rave, Riley is contacted by two sensates: the Old Man of Hoy, an elderly Scottish man, and Puck, who hid he was sensate when he first met Riley. Sun leaves her trainer. Wolfgang and Kala consummate their connection, as do Capheus and Zakia. Capheus learns Kabaka is dating his mother, and that Kabaka too is HIV-positive. Lito hosts the Gay Pride Parade and comes out publicly in front of millions of people. With her new-found freedom, Nomi agrees to attend her sister's wedding, and also travels with Amanita to locate Angelica's cabin. Wolfgang tries to gain Lila's trust by helping her, while she assassinates Bohm. Hoy reveals to Riley he was involved in the creation of BPO with its founder, Ruth Al-Sadaawi, a sapiens who lost her sensate twin sister to murder. Hoy uses his connections to sensates around the world to locate someone who knows the identity and whereabouts of Whispers. Riley will have to travel to Chicago to meet the informant. Flashbacks reveal Angelica reluctantly using her neural graft research to make a lobotomized Raoul explode the cabin, her research, and himself. Pretending Raoul acted on his own, she told Whispers she would be starting over.
Tropes present in this episode:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Puck makes no secret of being attracted to Riley who's extremely put off by his "flirting".Riley: I think I just picked up the equivalent of a sensate STD.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Ruth El-saadawi's twin sister was stoned to death for her sensate powers, and El-saadawi gave up a career in medicine to fight for sensate rights.
- Bathing Beauty: Kala is swimming when she connects with Wolfgang, so this is how she appears to him.
- Call-Back: Riley and Sun once again have a conversation while smoking.
- Droste Image: Lito delivers his São Paulo speech in front of a massive screen that creates this effect.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Kala is not at all disappointed when she winds up watching Wolfgang play soccer shirtless.
- Humans Are Bastards: As Mr. Hoy puts it, human nature is why Homo sapiens can't be trusted with sensates' existence. If humans could engineer things like the Holocaust or 9/11 against each other, what could they do to an entirely different species?
- I Was Quite a Looker:Riley: Is that you?
Old Man of Hoy: Handsome bugger, eh? Where'd it all go? - Living Is More than Surviving: The Old Man of Hoy is tired of just surviving, and went to Riley's concert because he wanted to try living.Hoy: Maybe after 30 years of surviving... not living, mind you, but surviving...maybe after 30 years of blockers, and coffins, and boxes, maybe I realised...I'm slowly dying of survival.
- Pride Parade: Lito, Hernando and Daniela attend the São Paulo Pride Parade, and the rest of the cluster tag along. The scenes were shot during the actual event.
- Tactful Translation: A playing-telephone variant. Riley exasperatedly and tactfully relays Puck's side of the conversation to Will.
- Title Drop: The Old Man of Hoy uses these words to describe the Archipelago, a wide network of sensates connected all around the world, in much the same way that islands of a geographical archipelago are separate above water, and linked underneath.
- Uptown Girl: Zakia is an at least middle-class academic who went to Oxford, while Capheus is a poor bus driver. He lampshades that they live in different worlds.
