MindState

ACT I
Rockwell “Fitz” Fitzgerald, a relentless investigative journalist, is still recovering from a hit-and-run attack when his pursuit of a hacker organization escalates dangerously. A second attempt on his life leaves him comatose in the hospital. Upon awakening, Fitz, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, experiences violent tremors and uncontrolled movements, leading to sudden, dangerous outbursts. Fearing for his fiancée Jessica’s safety, he chooses to distance himself.
As Fitz leaves a restaurant, he’s attacked by a Russian server in a dark alley. In a surge of uncontrollable rage, he kills the man with his bare hands. Panicked and disoriented, he flees to Jessica’s apartment, where she grows increasingly concerned. Suspecting that the doctors who treated him are secretly affiliated with the Black Russian hacker group he’s investigating, Fitz spirals into paranoia.
Seeking answers, he meets Dom, who offers cryptic but valuable insights into the hacker organization. Though their interaction is brief, Fitz feels an inexplicable draw to her. Meanwhile, his paranoia intensifies when he realizes his physical therapist has Russian origins, making him suspicious of everything and everyone around him.

ACT II
In an intimate moment with Jessica, Fitz is suddenly overwhelmed by traumatic flashes of his time in the hospital, leading him to violently choke her before fleeing into the night. As the hallucinations worsen, he collapses on the city sidewalk. Dom finds him and calls for help.
Fitz wakes in a dimly lit hospital room, groggy from sedation, only to find an imposing man seated across from him. The stranger informs him that he is now an unwilling asset for the hacker organization. Before Fitz can process the revelation, he loses consciousness again.
When he wakes, daylight streams in. His brother, August—fresh from military deployment—is asleep in the same chair. Fitz is relieved but desperate to escape. August secretly removes him from the hospital and takes him to his apartment, where Fitz recounts everything. When Fitz asks about the Black Russian organization, August jokingly remarks that the only “Black Russian” he knows is the drink.
Later, at a sports bar, Fitz spots Dom alone in a booth. When he approaches, she reveals she was the one who called 9-1-1 when he passed out—raising the unsettling question: is she a guarding, or a spy? Dom shares critical information, including troubling details about Jessica. Fitz becomes haunted by Jessica’s tattoo and flashes of the night he was run off the road. Fitz, experience more flashes of the night he was shot off the road and stalks a man to a motel and, in a brutal fit of rage, kills him with his own hands.

ACT III
Tormented by new revelations about Jessica, Fitz confronts her again. His violent impulses take over, and this time, he believes he has killed her. Frantic, he rushes to August’s place—only to overhear a conversation revealing that August’s military operations area (MOA) was Russian linguist. Fitz begins to spiral, questioning everything he knows.
In Episode 6, Fitz remains in a hospital room, his feet bound in an Intermittent Pneumatic Compression Device. In a shocking reveal, Dom is his nurse. She cares for him, tenderly rotating his hands, legs, neck, and back. On his television screen, an ad for a sports bar flickers—eerily resembling the one where he met August.
Days later, Jessica is seen watching a news segment on the “Black Russian” hackers. A brief flash of August’s face appears among suspect images, linking him to the organization. Meanwhile, Detectives Rose and Foster—(now portrayed by two different individuals, indicating Fitz created their images in his head based on their voices)—interrogate Jessica about Fitz.
Dr. Newland stands at a podium, unveiling groundbreaking research: technology that allows doctors to observe the thoughts of coma patients—revealing how they construct entire worlds based on real-time events happening around them, much like a sleeper incorporating external sounds into their dreams.
As the episode closes, Dr. Newland speaks privately with the same menacing figure Fitz encountered in his hospital room.