A young couple, Robert and his girlfriend Mia Nolan, are partying and the next morning drive home. As they drive along the road, Robert takes his eyes off the road for a moment... and hits a bicyclist. They confirm that he's dead and Robert stops Mia from calling the police. He says that since he was drinking, they'll throw him in a cell. Robert goes to get a sleeping bag from his car, puts the body in it, and drags it to a nearby lake while Mia carries the bike. They weight the body with rocks and toss it into the water,
Fifteen years later, Mia rehearses her architecture speech in her mirror. She says goodbye to her husband and son, gets a call, and drives off.
Shazia Akhand goes to the home of Felicity Carmichael and looks in the window, seeing Felicity put on a neck brace. When Felicity answers the door, Shazia says that she's there on behalf of Realm Insurance to log her recollections about the accident.
Mia goes to the forum, and gives her speech.
That night, Robert comes to see Mia at her hotel room. He explains that he's been sober for nine months, and finally says that he can't forget about the man they hit and killed. Robert explains that there's a featured story about the dead man and his wife. They never found him so she never remarried and is still waiting for him to come back. Robert wants to write her an anonymous letter explaining what happening. Mia warns that they can trace it back and find the body, and insists that he can't do it. She tells Robert that she's married and she can't throw away her life, and remind him that she sat on it for him.
When Robert tries to leave, Mia grabs him, knocks him to the floor, and manages to break his neck. She goes out on the balcony and sees an automated pizza delivery truck hit a man. Mia closes the blinds and sits on the bed, sobbing.
Shazia is at home typing up her claimant report when her husband Anan brings in a guinea pig as a birthday present. He says that their baby daughter Ali will love it, and goes to take care of the girl.
Mia looks through the blinds as the police gather to check the incident. Room Service arrives with food, and the waiter doesn't see Robert's corpse hidden beneath the bed. Once the waiter leaves, Mia turns on a porn film to cover up the noise, reviews the hotel floor plan, puts Robert's body on the cart, and takes the cart to the garage. She loads the body in her car and drives out of town, and parks at a construction site. Her husband calls and Mia says that her speech went great and she'll be home in the morning. Mia then talks to her son about his musical rehearsal. Once the workers go home for the night, Mia drops Robert's corpse into a working furnace and drives back to the hotel.
The next day, Mia checks out and makes sure to point out the time of the movie charge to the clerk, Farshad, saying that she was in her room watching it. Meanwhile, Shazia checks the accident scene and notes that the CCTV is covered in paintball paint but there's a view from the hotel. She then meets with the accident victim, Gordy, who notes that he can't tour with the Philharmonic because of his injury. The delivery van's camera malfunctioned, making the pizza company more liable. Shazia sets up a memory dredger and explains that while memories are subjective, collecting memories from the witnesses will help corroborate his story.
Shazia opens a bottle of beer to stimulate Gordy's memories, since the accident happened near a brewery and the area smells like hops. She "reads" Gordy's memories as he sees an attractive woman, steps out into the street, and the van hits him. Shazia assures him that now she has someone to question.
Mia returns home, and her husband Simon and son Finn greet her. Simon reminds Mia about the musical and notices that she appears distracted. Once he and Finn leave to help set up the musical, Mia pours herself a drink.
Shazia matches the woman's face to Noni Harper-Brown and drives to her address. She repeats the same memory-dredging process, and Noni describes how she was window-shopping in the area and saw Gordy. She can't say if the van was going too fast, and she didn't see the impact. There's a bright light like a camera flash reflected in a nearby car window, near a dentist's office.
Mia goes to her workshop and remembers that she needs to clean out the car. She sprays it down with bleach to erase any DNA traces from Robert.
Shazia talks to the dentist, William Grange, who says that the memory is a bit embarrassing. She assures him that his memories will be sealed and private, and Shazia scans his memories. They show him clearing up and William saw a naked man in a hotel window. William took a photo but left the flash on and only got a reflection. He then saw Mia in her hotel window, looking at the accident but didn't see the crash itself.
Next, Shazia goes to the hotel and Farshad tells her that she has to file an information request about the room's occupant. However, he admits that she was watching a porn movie at the time of the accident based on the hotel logs.
At home, Anan brings Shazia coffee. She says that nobody agrees on the speed of the van and no one saw the impact. Shazia gets a match on Mia's face and warns Anan that Mia might not want her poking around in her head. Anan agrees to let her go so that she gets the bonus for solving it in 24 hours.
Mia stares at the newspaper clipping Robert showed her, and then gets up.
Shazia drives to Mia's house.
Mia is burning the newspaper in the fireplace when she hears the doorbell. It's Shazia, who explains why she's there. Mia says that she's busy but Shazia point out that it's a legal requirement and she has to notify the police if people refuse to talk to her. The architect lets her in and Shazia sets up the memory dredger. She explains what it does and Mia quickly describes what happened. Shazia points out that she needs to capture the memories for verification, and says that she's not going to ask her what Mia was doing in the hotel room. Mia reviews the legal papers and then goes to get coffee. As Mia waits for the coffee to grind, she looks at the knives on the kitchen counters. She then goes into the bathroom and rehearses her memories, trying to make sure she doesn't give anything away.
Mia returns to the living room and Shazia attaches the electrodes to her temple. She then has her smell the beer and tells her to focus on the moments leading up to the impact. Mia's memories show the impact, and then Mia killing Robert and the car hitting the bicyclist years ago. Shazia quickly shuts off the dredger and tells Mia that she got what she needed on the van. Mia says her out and says that she says strange things sometime, and Shazia nervously goes to her car. She tries to start it, and Mia grabs a rock and breaks the car window.
Mia ties Shazia up and takes her to a shed. When Shazia wakes up, Mia explains that she fucked up and then panicked, and wonders what she's going to do. Shazia insists that anything she sees is confidential and won't say anything, but Mia doesn't believe her. She asks if Shazia told anywhere where she was going. Shazia says that she didn't, but Mia doesn't believe her and attaches the memory dredger to her head. She finally sees the memories of Shazia talking to Anan, picks up a piece of wood, and asks Shazia to close her eyes. As Shazia prays, Mia beats her head in. She then retraces Shazia's route via her GPS and drives to Anan's house.
As Mia drives, Simon calls and she says that she'll see him at the musical. She arrives at the Akhand house and goes in, carrying a hammer. Anad is finishing TV and goes upstairs to run a bath without seeing Mia. Mia follows him in and raises the hammer, and her phone comes off. As he turns around, she kills him and tosses a towel over his face.
Mia leaves and hears Ali crying. The architect goes into the nursery and stares at the baby.
Later, Mia arrives at the school just before the musical. She says that she was tied up with work and they go in to watch the students perform.
At the Akhand house, the police secure the crime scene. The detectives in charge wonder who would kill a baby, and the male detective, Lydon, notes that Anan was born blind so he couldn't have seen anything. His partner admits that she has no idea who they might be looking for. The forensic techs prepare to scan the guinea pig's memories to see what it saw.
At the school, everyone applauds the students. The detectives arrive and Mia sees.
Written by Gadfly on Dec 30, 2017