Drill

At the Sitri Center, a cutting-edge dream research facility, scientists have moved beyond passive observation to active dream engineering. Dr. Tessa Finn, an ambitious Associate Director of Applied Dream Engineering newly arrived from the corporate world of SomnusLabs, begins her first clinical trial with subject Phoebe Bosworth, a twenty-seven-year-old whose anxiety dreams have become increasingly saturated with shame and arousal. Tessa deploys Construct Thirty-Seven, a prototype designed to disrupt recursive shame loops and help subjects gain mastery over their fears.

However, Dr. Meg Aerin, a skeptical senior researcher, challenges Tessa's methodology, arguing that Phoebe isn't rehearsing resilience but rather feeding an addiction. The tension escalates when the two scientists make a high-stakes wager: one week to prove whether Tessa's intervention will help or harm Phoebe, with a twelve-million-dollar research budget, tenure, and sole Principal Investigator status on the line. Chief Scientific Officer Dr. June Lowell agrees to oversee the data validation, while the enigmatic Z mediates between the competing researchers.

As Phoebe's dreams intensify, manifesting as vivid scenarios where public exposure and erotic humiliation intertwine, the boundaries between therapeutic intervention and manipulation begin to blur. Meanwhile, Tessa's own relationship with Z reveals hidden power dynamics, suggesting that the researchers themselves may be caught in patterns of control they don't fully understand.

The episode opens at the Sitri Center where Dr. Tessa Finn, newly arrived from SomnusLabs, presents her first protocol: Construct Thirty-Seven. Her subject is Phoebe Bosworth, whose anxiety dreams have become complex recursive patterns mixing shame and arousal. Tessa proposes threat simulation theory as a treatment pathway, arguing that controlled exposure within the dream state can help Phoebe master her fears.

Dr. Meg Aerin counters with skepticism, theorizing that Phoebe's dream intensity suggests addiction rather than anxiety rehearsal. When their disagreement escalates, Chief Scientific Officer Dr. June Lowell proposes a formal wager: one week, one protocol, with career advancement stakes for whoever proves their hypothesis correct. Z, the enigmatic director of dream architecture, accepts both protocols as valid research questions and agrees to mediate the observational data.

Phoebe's first sessions show immediate escalation. Her dreams shift from generalized anxiety to highly specific scenarios: classroom exposure, public humiliation, erotic scenarios where she is evaluated and found wanting. The dream sequences intensify with each sleep cycle, her physiological markers spiking as shame-arousal feedback loops activate.

Meanwhile, Tessa's private sessions with Z reveal a more complex dynamic. Z comments that Tessa's eagerness to prove Meg wrong has made the project personal rather than clinical. Tessa admits to watching the feeds obsessively, and Z responds by offering her something: a phrase to anchor herself in sleep, a way to experience the same exposure-based learning she's imposing on Phoebe.

By episode's end, Phoebe reports that despite her waking discomfort, she's beginning to understand her dream cycles. She describes a strange sensation during the final exposure sequence: her resistance collapsed into something resembling desire. The research team watches the neurological data with growing concern, unable to agree whether Phoebe is healing or being systematically conditioned. Tessa insists the process is working. Meg remains unconvinced. Z simply notes that the data continues to be interesting, and the protocol will continue until someone stops it.