Contains spoilers for this episode.
Stripe serves in a military unit hunting people he sees as vicious, malformed creatures called roaches. An implant supplies tactical information and shapes the soldiers' experience of combat. During a farmhouse search, one target points a flashing device at him. Stripe kills two people and returns to base, where praise and pleasant dreams reward his actions. Glitches begin interrupting those dreams and changing what he can hear and smell.
After his commander is killed, Stripe enters a housing complex with Raiman. He sees ordinary people where she sees enemies and attacks her to stop another shooting. Wounded, he escapes with a mother and her son. They explain that the implant disguises a persecuted population as monsters, helping soldiers kill them. Civilians need no altered vision because propaganda has already taught them to hate. Raiman finds the hiding place and kills both survivors.
In custody, Stripe confronts psychologist Arquette, who confirms that the military deliberately suppresses empathy through altered senses. A recording shows Stripe consenting to the implant before his memory of that consent was removed. Arquette offers a reset or imprisonment with repeated playback of the people Stripe killed. Forced to see the farmhouse attack honestly, Stripe begs for relief. He later approaches a beautiful home and a welcoming woman through his implant's vision. Outside that vision, the building is empty and derelict, leaving his apparent homecoming inside another imposed illusion.