In “Vita/Mors,” Impulse Retcon focuses on how stress, fear, and trauma shape people’s lives—especially Henry’s. Henry can’t handle intense anxiety. When things become overwhelming, her body reacts before her mind does, and she teleports back to places where she feels safe. It’s not a choice; it’s a survival reflex.
The episode also grounds its sci-fi story in harsh reality. It explores fentanyl distribution, revealing how the drug is shipped through the mail to dealers, and it shows how even police officers can suffer panic attacks on the job. The show raises an uncomfortable question: what happens when someone who is armed and under extreme pressure breaks down in a moment where lives are on the line? This is why mental-health workers exist inside police departments—but the danger doesn’t disappear.
Henry’s powers grow more disturbing when she begins teleporting in her sleep. The dream world she enters feels just as real as waking life, blurring the line between reality and imagination. The episode asks a simple but unsettling question: if reality is just electrical signals in the brain, what really separates dreams from real life? Henry almost teleports while dozing off in class, echoing Nightmare on Elm Street, where falling asleep can be dangerous. Like those films, Henry even asks Townes to watch her sleep, afraid something terrible could happen if she loses control.
Meanwhile, the show reveals how teleporters are treated by secretive institutions. Dominic was held in a “gravitational wave observatory”—a scientific facility, not a hospital—where he was cut open and studied. Townes notices that places housing people with special abilities are always heavily armed, hinting that science and violence go hand in hand in this world.
Clay completely unravels in this episode. One moment he’s bragging about cruel behavior, the next he’s helpless, unable to even care for himself. His ex-girlfriend Patty starts a fundraiser to help him, but Clay only wants comfort and intimacy—something Patty refuses after he betrayed her.
The danger escalates when the DEA kidnaps Sheriff Anna during her undercover work, forcing her into a terrifying drive at gunpoint. At the same time, Townes realizes Henry’s teleportation may not be random. She keeps appearing near people in danger, including a girl facing a man with a gun. Henry doesn’t see herself as a hero, but Townes does—and he tells her that maybe her power comes with responsibility.
The episode ends on its darkest note with Dominic. Rather than allow ClearTech to experiment on his son the way they tortured him—and killed his wife—Dominic makes a horrifying choice. He kills his son and himself, believing death is the only escape from a system that never lets go.
“Vita/Mors” is a bleak episode, but a powerful one. It shows that in Impulse Retcon, superpowers don’t bring freedom—they expose people to fear, control, and impossible moral choices.