<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Blues Paddock is fascinated by Charlie Jade, and she's not sure why. He knows things about Vexcor, things he shouldn't know. He has capabilities others don't. And he seems to hide secrets that he doesn't want to carry. She wishes she could find him.

So does Sew Sew Tukaars, in Alpha. He works alone in the police station, poring over old files. Where did Charlie go? Where did the missing Vexcor executives go?

We follow Blues as she attempts to unlock the secrets of Charlie Jade. Charlie's desperate for an ally as well - he tells her to look closely at Vexcor, using the example of Julius Galt. As Blues investigates the Vexcor leader's past, she discovers things don't add up. He's in a college yearbook, but the man beside him in the rowing club photo doesn't seem to know who he is. When Blues and Charlie visit him the next day, the man's changed his tune. He has a few funny stories about his friend Julius Galt. But the stories are only anecdotes, and he can't recall the details. They find his copy of the yearbook, and discover that Galt isn't in the picture. They ask the man to explain it, and he sweats, then collapses. Blues wants to know what the hell's going on.

With Charlie Jade close on the trail of Vexcor's finest, Galt authorizes a hunter-killer, Shikari, to take him down in any way possible.

In Alpha, Sew Sew goes to see Essa Rompkin and presses the issue of the missing Vexcor execs. Essa turns the tables and offers him a security job at Vexcor - at a considerable salary bump for a detective of his grade. Sew Sew, a a man of honor, resists - until Essa reveals that she knows what he did; what he covered up, for Jasmine. Sew Sew's in a corner.

Blues is still shocked by what happened, but Charlie takes it in stride. She needs to open her eyes. But then Charlie's racked by a painful, debilitating vision: the worst he's ever had. Blues brings him back to her apartment and he passes out on her couch. Later, when he wakes, her interest takes a different turn, and the two embrace.

In Alpha, Sew Sew returns home to Charlie's loft and sees Jasmine there. He reveals that he took the job with Vexcor to protect her. He's bought the loft. Jasmine kisses him. They make love - but in the mirror, all Sew Sew can see is the ghost of Charlie, still haunting him.

The next morning, Charlie tries to tell Blues that he has something to do. Blues thinks he's just being one of those guys - she has no idea that he really does have a universe to save. She throws him out. But Shikari's on his tail, and Charlie's debilitated from the visions. Blues saves him just in time. She's still left with lots of questions about Charlie - and very few answers. Charlie, in his weakened state, wonders if there's anything he can do at all.

Meanwhile, Reena seeks out Lubinsky, but won't come near him, afraid of what she might do. Lubinsky reveals that Reena was programmed, by who or for what purpose she's not sure. Reena seeks out Malachi, and shoots him dead. But then we see he's not really dead - it was in Reena's mind. The programming remains intact.

Charlie's visions are getting worse. And they're happening at the worst possible time: like when he tries to get the drop on the Vexcor-trained assassin on his tail. He decides that it's time to deal with the visions; to try and get rid of them once and for all. He seeks out a shaman, who quickly surmises that Charlie isn't seeing visions at all. He tells Charlie that if Charlie wants to understand, he must seek out someone who sees what he sees.

The assassin is getting closer - so Charlie tells Lubinsky to lay low. He leaves, and doesn't tell Karl where he's going. Charlie travels out to the Karoo, and finds Jodi, the little girl who found him in the desert after the Vexcor explosion. He asks her to tell him everything she knows about the invisible people she sees. Jody sees them too, but doesn't have any headaches. Charlie wants to know why. Jodi says that maybe the headaches come from trying not to see the invisible people, and advises Charlie to relax and enjoy it. As Charlie tries to open his mind to what he sees, he sees farther than he ever has: visions of Essa Rompkin, and an almost rebuilt Vexcor reactor. But the hunter is still on his tail - she approaches Jody's mother and asks, none too politely, where Charlie Jade is.

Meanwhile, Reena shows up on Lubinsky's doorstep. They're both nervous about what she might do - what will trigger the deadly "other" Reena. She wants to see Charlie, and Lubinsky has to explain that Charlie's gone. Reena's desperate to get some help to try and rid herself of the programming inside of her. Lubinsky eventually concludes that the best chance she has is with the only other person they know with a working knowledge of Alpha technology: 01 Boxer.

Reena shows up at the Glass Door, and is perplexed that this 01 doesn't seem to be the nice, helpful 01 she got to know in Gamma. This man seems crueler. He manipulates her: he wants to see what's behind the programming, too. He berates Reena, triggering the "other," and demands that the personalities "integrate." They do, and Reena, overcome with new memories and knowledge of what she's done, runs off into the night. She returns to Malachi's hideout and blows the place up: this time killing him for real.

Charlie, with his new vision, realizes that the control Jodi talks about doesn't just extend to seeing other universes. "Did you pour water over my head?" He asks her. "You need water to go for a visit. Otherwise, you just have to watch." Charlie asks her to do the same thing, and Jody asks where he's going. "Home," Charlie answers. Jody pours the water over his head and Charlie Jade disappears. When the hunter arrives looking for him, she finds only air.

Charlie walks out of the desert. A truck picks him up. He's asked if he was out working the back 40. He nods. One of the men comments that it's still a long way to Cape City. Charlie Jade knows he's home. "It's the smell. You can't ever forget the way a place smells."

In Cape City, an alarm goes off by Sew Sew's bedside. He looks at the device and Charlie's picture comes back. Sew Sew knows that Charlie has returned - and that their paths will cross.

Charlie seeks out his old assistant, Mona, who has no time for him. He left her in the lurch, and she had to sell his stuff to pay her rent. Charlie goes back to Papa Louis. He's dreading seeing Jasmine again, but his visit to Papa convinces her that this is not the Charlie Jade who came to see her so troubled by his dreams. She wonders, as does everyone, where he went. Charlie mentions he's been to a place that's a whole lot better, and worse. Papa knows that Charlie's no longer troubled by the dreams: and he says he left them in Cape Town.

As he says the words "Cape Town," an ectoskin picks up that innocent message and pipes it back, through the omnipresent network, all the way to the screen of Essa Rompkin, Vexcor Chairman. She contacts security.

Brion Boxer is close to death. Essa tells him that if he travels now, it could kill him. But Brion is adamant. "I must deal with my son."

Brion travels to Gammaverse - it's the first time we've seen him travel like his son. In an eerie, silent tableau, we see as he greets 01's wife. She smiles as he approaches - she obviously knows who he is. But there's a darkness in his look…

Back in Alpha, Vexcor commandos burst into Papa Louis' place and take her into custody. Charlie returns after they've gone, with groceries, and a boy fills him in. Charlie gives the boy the groceries.

Papa is interrogated for what she knows, but she doesn't know anything. They simply want the identity of the man she was talking to. But she won't give Charlie up. She's charged with a corporate crime and scheduled for execution.

Charlie and Sew Sew finally meet. Charlie's surprised that Sew Sew has gone over to work for Vexcor. They don't talk about Jasmine…much. Sew Sew tells Charlie that there's no way to get Papa Louis out. "Can you get me in?" asks Charlie.

01's wife and children are dead, posed in a hideous parody of a family dinner. Brion Boxer takes a seashell necklace and removes it from the neck of 01's dead wife. He replaces it with his own necklace: the Vexcor logo.

Charlie is going into where they're holding Papa Louis, as a med tech. Papa Louis is dosed up with kelazaphine, but Charlie brings her around. She doesn't know why she's going to die for a phrase "Cape Town" that she doesn't even understand. Charlie tells her. Everything.

01, in the Glass Door, finds the seashell necklace on the counter. He immediately leaps into the shower and travels. In Gamma, he finds his family dead. He burns down the house and walks down the beach. 01's refuge, the thing that grounded him, is gone.

The execution begins, and Papa Louis doesn't confess her crimes: she starts talking to a worldwide audience about the things Charlie told her: about a rapacious company that has an entire world of resources that they were holding back, trying to exploit for their own gain, while people suffer from the lack of water everywhere.

Brion Boxer is wheezing, weak, and close to death. 01 appears beside him in the Vexcor boardroom. Father and son do not speak. They both know what comes next. 01 wraps his strong arms around his father's neck, and squeezes.

He puts his father's necklace back around his neck, and drags his lifeless body to the centre of the room. Brion Boxer comes to rest on the logo of the company he founded.

Papa Louis' broadcast, before it's cut off, reaches a huge audience. Essa Rompkin is forced to make a choice: and she chooses to reveal all. She passes off the "confession" as a stunt. The link will be opened, and everyone will benefit. The countdown begins.

Charlie has to face the fact that he still hasn't done anything to stop the link. And he has to face Jasmine. He returns home to his loft, and she greets him, awkwardly. They watch the coverage of the link and the countdown to opening. "It's good, isn't it?" she says. Charlie doesn't know where to start.