Impulse: Lisa82 Recap — “In Memoriam, Part 1”
This episode opens on a cosmic note and ends on some very human ones — secrets, loneliness, corruption, and getting your heart broken by someone who was never really there. Here’s everything “In Memoriam, Part 1” brings to the table.
Black Holes, White Holes, and Cosmic Garbage Chutes
The episode kicks off with a mind-bending thought: what if a black hole isn’t just a dead end, but a bridge — a tunnel connecting to a white hole somewhere else, ejecting material into an entirely different galaxy? Picture it almost like a garbage chute for the universe: matter gets pulled in on one end and shot out the other, except the two ends exist in completely different times and spaces.
It’s a strange, almost poetic way to frame the episode’s bigger themes — things disappearing from one place only to resurface somewhere totally different, transformed. Sound familiar? That’s basically Lisa82’s whole power set.
The scope of it all gets even bigger, too. The episode notes there are an estimated 4 trillion galaxies out there, all sitting inside a universe that’s still expanding — pushing further and further into a pitch-dark void beyond it. And that void isn’t just big. It’s described as bigger than infinity itself.
Townes and His Online Life
We get a deeper look at Townes this episode, and it’s a little sad. His entire social life basically revolves around an online gaming community. He starts every morning checking a chat room full of livestreamers, chatting with them whenever he has a spare moment throughout the day. This isn’t a hobby on the side — for Townes, this is his social life.
Lisa82’s Hidden Condition: Prosopagnosia
Here’s a big reveal about Lisa82 herself: on top of her epilepsy, she also has prosopagnosia — face blindness. Seven years ago, she lost the ability to recognize people by their face entirely. Everyone, even her own family, looked like a total stranger to her. The only way she could identify them was by voice and personality.
The Cousin Incident
The episode highlights one particular memory that sticks with Lisa82. A cousin came over to bring her some food, but Lisa82 had no idea who she was — she looked like a complete stranger. It wasn’t until the cousin started talking, mentioning details about living upstairs, that Lisa82 finally pieced together who she was. At first, Lisa82 genuinely thought it was a stranger playing a joke on her. It was a deeply shocking moment — the realization that some of the “strangers” around her were actually family, or people she already knew.
A Second Secret Power
The episode drops a small but intriguing tease: Lisa82 has another secret power beyond teleportation. What it is stays hidden for now — the show makes clear that secret is being saved for the right moment to reveal itself.
Police Corruption Runs Deep
This episode digs further into just how tangled the corruption really is. Bill Boone is shown working directly with Dale, the New York Reston police chief. It’s not just the two of them, either — other officers on the force are aware of the Mennonites’ fentanyl operation, and they know Dale has dealings with Bill Boone, who helped the Mennonite leader recover his son’s body. Corruption here isn’t an isolated incident; it’s baked into the system from the top down.
Jenna’s Secret
We also learn something quieter but no less significant this episode: Jenna has been hiding a porn addiction. It’s a secret kept close, adding another layer to a cast full of people hiding parts of themselves from everyone around them.
Townes Gets Trolled
The episode closes on a gut-punch for Townes. His online girlfriend, Zoe — someone he’d told others he was actually living with — promises she’ll finally meet him in person at the ceremony honoring Clay as former basketball captain. It’s set up as a real moment, a chance for Townes’s online life to finally cross over into reality.
Zoe never shows. Townes is left standing there, ghosted, the trolling laid bare in front of everyone.
Bottom line: “In Memoriam, Part 1” is about the gap between what people show and what they hide — Lisa82’s hidden condition and untapped power, Jenna’s private addiction, a police force quietly protecting a fentanyl operation, and Townes clinging to an online relationship that turns out to be nothing at all. Even the episode’s opening image of black holes and white holes echoes the idea: things vanish from view, only to resurface somewhere else, changed.