In a dystopian near future without federal regulatory agencies to stop her, a middle-aged housewife uses rogue virtual reality technology to confront her troubled younger self in the 90s, becomes obsessed with that realm, breaks all the rules, & blurs lines between the real world & complete fabrication of the past, risking her sanity & even her life. Russian Doll meets Dark.

SYNOPSIS:

LAVINIA is a 50-something woman living in a near future dystopian Cleveland with her husband OSCAR & their 29-year-old daughter, Winifred “FREDDIE.” After Freddie encourages her to, Lavinia uses virtual reality (VR) technology called "traverse" to treat social anxiety & glossophobia (fear of speaking). The story alternates between that setting & 1990s NYC, where Lavinia visits her younger self, VINNY, through VR. Vinny lives with her boyfriend LEO, with whom she shares a passionate but turbulent relationship. In VR, Vinny flees her job as a receptionist due to glossophobia & discovers she's pregnant, a fact she hides from Leo. Meanwhile, something about Leo’s upcoming trip to Florida with friends, including ALICE, is particularly troublesome to present-day Lavinia, who becomes increasingly obsessed with changing the past.

The current government has dissolved all regulatory/safety agencies, but the tech company behind the VR program advises users to only observe memories, not interact in them or fabricate scenarios. Sessions are limited to 15 minutes twice weekly. Since Lavinia is using VR as treatment for her disability, a social worker requires Freddie act as her "safety sponsor,” signing off on each session. However, Lavinia starts to break these rules, rents a secret apartment to conduct unauthorized VR sessions, & lies to Freddie about returning the goggles to the social worker. Gradually, Vinny begins to see & hear present-day Lavinia in the VR world – something that shouldn't be possible – & worse, Lavinia begins to interact with Vinny in present day, even when she isn’t wearing the goggles.

Lavinia is driven to go back – time & again to prevent Leo's arrest for drug trafficking, his eventual marriage to Alice, & most significantly, to stop Vinny's abortion – which Lavinia insists cannot take place because her daughter – present day Freddie – must be born, of course. Meanwhile Freddie becomes suspicious of her mother's behavior & with her friend ROD's help, she discovers Lavinia's secret apartment & evidence that her mother is involved in drug dealing with her longtime

friend, WEINER. When Freddie & Rod go on a drug drop in Lavinia’s place, they’re shocked to find their loathed coworker, KENNETH, as the pickup person. The dangers of traverse become increasingly severe as the social worker & newscasts warn of users falling into comas from overuse. Further, doctors discover that removing the VR safety pin + excessive fabrication of memories, causes users to experience psychotic breaks. Despite this, Lavinia steals a black-market “removal key” from an electronics store to bypass the VR safety pin. The episode ends with Lavinia & Vinny on a virtual plane to Florida, off to “get rid of Alice,” & stop Leo. Lavinia’s memories of the past increasingly conflict with Vinny’s reality – & Vinny suggests if they really wanted to change anything, they’d need to return to Mexico, three years earlier. Throughout the series, Lavinia & Vinny work through the past while struggling to manage the resulting real-world consequences.

VINTROSPECTION