Early
in the episode, Caleb laments, “They say it’s a meritocracy where the system
picks the right people for the right job, which is great, I guess, but I don’t
know where that leaves the rest of us. The people who didn’t make the cut.”
This cynicism is justified as even after probably serving his country in an
army (although it doesn’t necessarily look like he was dressed as U.S. military
in his flashbacks), Caleb is still left in a position where he cannot find work
better than laying fiber with a robot. Given his presumable criminal record,
Caleb’s also trying to get his score up by applying for jobs, but he cannot
even get past the computerized screeners he talks to over the phone.
Instead
he sits in relative squalor, wondering why if the system is so orderly he doesn’t
have enough money to pay for his mother’s medical bills. Indeed, we see a scene
of a hospital worker suggesting he move his mother to a state-run institution, indicating
that even decades into the future, America still will not have universal
healthcare, and the poor will still get left behind.
“The
way you said the army was run, algorithms? That’s the way everything is going
to be someday,” Caleb tells Faux-Francis during their first phone call. “Better
living through technology. Some things are better, but I don’t know.”
The
point is that Caleb does know, and it’s a rotten dystopia where the game is rigged
more so than ever against anyone outside of the top 10 percent (much less top
one percent) of the income brackets. Rehoboam has him running on a hamster wheel,
which is why he opts out of using his “implant” to smooth the edges (like some
kind of implied technological opioid). Faux-Francis is also meant to be another
such tonic.
Because
despite being a digital approximation of a friend he saw die in the wars, Caleb
doesn’t fall for Francis’ illusions. He initially doesn’t even want to call him
Francis. Rather Caleb resists early platitudes like “keep climbing.” But by the
end of the episode, he sees through the facade fully when he gets the milquetoast
suggestion of “you still have to play [the game] if you want a chance to win,
right?”
