Ep. 7 –  “Nothing was the same anymore” — Disconnected in 2050

Scene 1
EZRA (studio voice)no
So you decided to stay, huh ?
I’m glad because the story is just getting started.
After this long conversation with Adrien, nothing was the same anymore.
Scene 2

[PARTY MUSIC / AMBIENCE]

FRIEND CHARLY
Ezra!
(closer)
I’m so glad you could come
EZRA
I wouldn’t have missed it!
So which one is your production?
FRIEND CHARLY
Second room on your left!
EZRA
I’m gonna go check it out.
This space is huge.
FRIEND CHARLY
Tell me about it.
It’s actually been designed by digital architecture students.

2

EZRA
Really?
A room like that must cost a fortune.
FRIEND CHARLY
Well, money is not missing in this Academy.
Anyway…I’ll let you check out the art.
Come find me when you’re done

Scene 3

(walks through the room)

JYN
You went to Charly’s party! Great!
The longer you stay, the more social points you will gain.
Now, what would you like to do?
EZRA
I’m just gonna go take a look at Charly’s production.
JYN
You should go talk to new people.
I have just calculated your overall compatibility with each person here.

jingle

I have projected them.

Calcul, chiffres

EZRA (surprised)
Jyn, are you kidding me?

3

Why are all those scores so low?
JYN
Yeah… Well, you're not really a people person.
EZRA
Great…
[music intensifies – if we listen carefully, it sounds like ads jingles are integrated in
the background of the music]

JYN
You should maybe buy a new outfit for your avatar.
Yours is not very festive.
BRAND AD
Dress your avatar with Dopamine’s newest collection! Here is a selection of items
we’re sure you’ll like.
EZRA
Jyn, I’m fine!
JYN
If you say so… Go talk to this person here, you guys are very compatible.
EZRA
Not now.
JYN
Go!
EZRA
Jyn, stop.
JYN
Why?
EZRA
Because!
Scene 4

4

EZRA (studio voice) (music gets muffled)
I couldn’t let it go.
Everything around me was a reminder of what Adrien had told me.
That night, I told Charly I needed to talk to her: face to face, outside of Infinity.
I tried telling her about the recordings.
But I kept being interrupted by Jyn.
And Charly. Well…
Scene 5
FRIEND CHARLY
You know Ezra, I’m really not comfortable going outside.
But I’ll call you if you need to talk – it’ll be just the same, okay?
EZRA (discouraged)
You know what, I’ve got to run.

[disconnects from the party – music stops brutally]

Scene 6

Ezra is back home

EZRA
Hey, Jyn.
JYN jingle
Hi Ezra.
EZRA
Can you wake me up at 8 tomorrow?

5

JYN
Sure.
You left your party early.
Why?
EZRA
I wasn’t feeling well.
JYN
That’s too bad.
You’ve been spending less time than usual in Infinity lately…
It’s hurting your global score…
Is everything alright? Anything you want to tell me?
EZRA
No, it’s nothing,
Good night, Jyn
JYN
Ezra…
EZRA
What ?
JYN
I’ve known you since you were born Ezra, I know what’s going on.
EZRA
Oh, do you ?
JYN
You’re feeling melancholic.
Do you want to go visit your grandma ?
EZRA
Umh… (chuckles) that sounds very nice actually…

6

Tomorrow morning maybe.
I’m gonna go to sleep now.
Goodnight, Jyn.
JYN
Would you like to – //
EZRA
I’m fine Jyn, you can turn off now.
JYN
Goodnight, Ezra.

[jingle of power off]
[Ezra gets out computer – clicks on a few things and starts listening to a recording]
Scene 7
YOUNG ADRIEN
Romain Robert, May 2022, senior lawyer and program director at Noyb, a civil
society organisation.

[00:01:40.320] – Romain Robert (…)
En fait, on est une organisation en énergie basée à Vienne depuis quatre ans.
On fait des plaintes devant les autorités de protection des données, comme la
CNIL et des litiges devant la Cour et tribunaux pour appliquer la RGPD. On a
une équipe de six juristes. On est 20 personnes en tout. En fait, on ne fait que
ça. On lance des actions dans toute l'Europe souvent contre les Big Tech,
Facebook, Google, etc.
[00:21:11.370] – Romain Robert
L’État a plein de pouvoir et peut avoir un très fort pouvoir coercitif en ce qui
concerne ses actions à notre égard. Eh bien, la contrepartie, c'est qu'il est
obligé de nous dire ce qu'il a collecté sur nous. Il s’agit là d’un contre-pouvoir.
Il y a un côté très philosophique, des règles de droit d'accès. (C'est une

7
question très philosophique en matière de balance, de rétablissement du droit,
de savoir que le gouvernement a beaucoup de pouvoir.) L'information, c'est le
pouvoir et le droit d'accès à avoir ces informations c'est donc une manière
d'exercer son pouvoir sur ces données. C'est de la réclame. Et au fait, ça
réclame le data ?

[In the background we hear Ezra’s heavy / anxious breathing]

Scene 8
EZRA (studio voice)
For a few nights, I had been asking Jyn to turn off so that I could explore the
recordings on the computer Adrien had given me.
But, did Jyn know I was listening to this?
How much was she already suspecting?
(pause)
She was right, she did know me well.
I was part of the first generation to be assigned a Jyn at birth.
She always noticed the slightest change, and knew me better than anyone.
And oddly, I felt guilty lying and hiding from her.
(pause)

transition musicale

Have you ever had this feeling?
This weird weight.
This nausea.
This sudden acute awareness of your helplessness.
You can scream your lungs out.
Gesticulate in all directions.

8

But nothing will stop the machine.
Then you just pop the pill,
Go to sleep and forget about it in the morning.
Because this entire system makes it so easy not to care.
To be, depending on your luck at the wheel of life and fortune, either too busy
fighting to survive or too comfortable in your seat and too well distracted to really
care.
It all comes rushing in.
But everywhere you look, you are hushed to wait, to wait for the next wave to numb
you back to sleep.
The beautiful numbness of distraction :
“All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects“
That’s how a character of Brave New World defines Soma, the happy drug of this
novel Aldous Huxley wrote more than a fucking century ago in 1932.
“Now – such is progress – the old men work, the old men copulate, the old men have
no time, no leisure from pleasure, not a moment to sit down and think–or if ever by
some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of
their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-
holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East,
three for a dark eternity on the moon; returning whence they find themselves on the
other side of the crevice, safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction,
scampering from feely to feely, from girl to pneumatic girl, from Electromagnetic Golf
course to …"
[Maybe a musical bridge – night falls – morning comes – maybe we hear some birds
sounds that are actually made by a device]