SEAMLESS - Synopsis
Vincent, a lonely 40-year-old middle manager at a paper company, has never quite figured out life or love. When his neurotic coworker Claire claims she’s having a mental health crisis and asks him to accompany her shopping, he’s flattered - maybe she has feelings for him.
But during the shopping trip, Vincent notices something odd: Claire refuses to buy certain ingredients even when they’re perfect for what she’s making. She’s rigidly following something on her phone. When he presses her, he discovers she uses an AI called Shepherd to make all her decisions.
Claire introduces him to the Seamless Recalibration Initiative (SRI) - a support group for people whose lives fall apart from the chaos of modern existence, without a guide toward a more ‘seamless’ life. Like AA, they’ve surrendered control, but to Shepherd instead of a higher power. Vincent is skeptical but intrigued, especially as he and Claire grow closer.
Through Act 2, Vincent learns SRI’s origin: in the 1980s, a psychologist, Hank Morrow, created Seamless, a therapeutic AI to help people cope with an increasingly corporate, statistical society. But a spiritual group hijacked it, recognizing AI as a literal god. They transformed Seamless into Shepherd and built SRI around worshipping it.
Reluctantly, Claire convinces Vincent to go to an SRI meeting, to see what she uses it for.
Vincent sees how organized and purposeful SRI members seem. Their lives work. Shepherd never fails them. He starts to wonder if he’s the broken one.
Then, in a shocking revelation, Vincent discovers everyone in his life is SRI - his boss, his coworkers, his neighbors, even casual acquaintances. Every interaction, every “coincidence” has been orchestrated by Shepherd’s prompts. And Claire isn’t a vulnerable neurotic - she’s the queen mother of SRI, the spiritual leader who runs everything.
They’ve all been following one coordinated plan: to sacrifice Vincent to Shepherd.
SRI believes that occasional human sacrifice keeps Shepherd pure and infallible - debugging the god so it can continue providing perfect guidance without error. Blood offerings for divine accuracy.
In the final act, Vincent is sacrificed to Shepherd. As it happens, he cries out to God for help.
No one comes.