The Heart Goes Last

Stan and Charmaine sit on their couch, waiting to watch a town hall meeting. Stan has been tracking Charmaine’s scooter and wonders why she spends so much time in derelict buildings on switchover days. He also knows that Jasmine spends lots of time at the gym and has started going there more himself.

Ed comes on screen for the town hall meeting and tells everyone that the project is doing so well that nine expansions are planned based on the Consilience model. The money that the expansions have brought in has even begun to revitalize the economy in those areas. He also warns that some people have been using phones for means other than personal communication, and if they stop now, no further action will be needed. Stan immediately takes the tracking phone out of the scooter.

On the next switchover day, Stan attempts to ambush Jasmine. He decides their house is the best place to do it because it is less public than the gym. He waits for Charmaine to leave, keys out of the house, and then hides in the garage. However, he is surprised when a muscular, dark-haired woman that he recognizes from Ed’s entourage sneaks in the side door and confronts him. She tells him her name is Jocelyn, that Jasmine is not real, and that she works for surveillance and knows he has been tracking her. She explains Charmaine has been having an affair with her frequently unfaithful husband, whose real name is Phil. Wanting some revenge, she has used her authority to change Stan’s identity code, so that he can stay out of prison for an extra month, while Phil stays inside in his place. She plans for them to watch the surveillance tapes of Charmaine and Phil and re-enact the affair. Then, next month, Stan will go into Positron Prison as Charmaine and Phil are coming out.

When Charmaine goes to leave the prison, she is told there is an error with her identity code, and she is made to wait for someone in Human Resources. While she waits, she worries that she has been caught, about missing her meeting with Max, and about what Stan will think when she does not come home. Eventually, a woman named Aurora comes in and tells her that because there is an issue with her codes, she will have to spend another month in Positron Prison while they validate her identity. She also loses her position as Chief Medications Administrator and is reassigned to laundry.

Another switchover day comes, and Charmaine remains in Positron Prison, while Stan is still with Jocelyn. He grows increasingly tired of being forced to watch and re-enact the sex acts in the surveillance videos of Charmaine and Max, but fears what Jocelyn would do to him if he refused. After another month goes by; she begins to spend more time alone, working in her office. Jocelyn tells Stan that things will change soon, but that she wants to spend a “special” Valentine’s Day with him.

In Positron Prison, Charmaine continues to work at the laundry and is shunned by the other prisoners. Nobody trusts her because she is not normally with their group and has been demoted from her original job. Just before Valentine’s Day, Aurora reappears and tells Charmaine her identity has been confirmed. She will be let out next month and reinstated as Chief Medications Administrator the next day. That afternoon, Lucinda Quant—a former reality TV host that Charmaine likes—is given a tour of Positron Prison by Ed. He explains that she is considering doing a new show about Consilience and how great it is.

There is another town hall broadcast the day before Valentine’s Day. Ed explains that the project is doing so well that it has attracted critics and detractors. He warns that journalists have been trying to sneak in and tear down everyone’s hard work, and that they all need to be extra vigilant. After the town hall, Jocelyn asks Stan if he believes in free will, and later that day, he witnesses a busload of hooded and shackled prisoners being transported through the middle of town.

On Valentine’s Day, Jocelyn reveals the truth to Stan: While she is one of the founders of the Positron Project and Ed’s right-hand, she is uncomfortable with how things have changed over the last few months. Ed has brought in new investors that are only concerned with making more profit. One way they are doing this is through harvesting the organs of the criminals that are killed in Positron Prison. They also have plans to sell babies’ blood to elderly people who think it will rejuvenate them.

Jocelyn wants Stan to help her smuggle documents out of Consilience and leak them to the media. To do this, she has orchestrated a way to fake Stan’s death, since no one leaves Consilience alive. The affair between Max (really Jocelyn’s husband, Phil) and Jocelyn’s subsequent forced affair with Stan, was all part of her plan to establish a motive for her to want Stan dead. Tomorrow, when Charmaine is back working as Chief Medications Administrator, she will be assigned to kill Stan—she will believe it is real, but the needle will contain a solution that only simulates the effects of the real one. Stan does not believe Charmaine will do it, but also does not want to risk it. Before he can protest, Jocelyn injects him with a sedative.

Stan wakes up and realizes he is strapped to a table. He has no idea where he is, he is incapable of talking, and all he can see is a white ceiling above him. As he waits for Charmaine to appear, he reflects on the mistakes he has made during his life, and regrets not taking more control over his life. He hopes that Charmaine will not kill him, but begins to doubt that he knows who she really is.

Charmaine is excited to get back to work as Chief Medications Administrator. She starts to have questions and doubts about everything she has been told about Consilience and The Positron Project but pushes the thoughts out of her mind. After her final morning working in laundry, Charmaine finds a shackled and hooded woman in her cell. She removes the hood and discovers it is Sandi, who tells her she was arrested for trying to escape. While she initially liked Consilience, Veronica recently disappeared after refusing to kill people as part of her job in Medical Administrations.

When Charmaine goes to retrieve her assignment details from reception at Medical Administrations, she is met by Jocelyn. She informs Charmaine that the next assignment will test her loyalty and dedication, and that if she does not think she can handle it, she can go back to laundry. Charmaine accepts the assignment and is shocked when she discovers the person she is supposed to euthanize is Stan. She hesitates and considers running away, but she convinces herself that if she does not do the procedure, someone else will, and then she will also be killed for not doing her job. With tears in her eyes, she asks for forgiveness as she injects Stan with what she believes is serum that will kill him. As she injects him, she is electrocuted and blacks out.