Respect Your Purpose

Respect Your Purpose is the sixth episode of the Prime Video series Utopia. It, along with the other episodes of the series, were released on September 25, 2020.

Synopsis
Jessica must reckon with a shocking revelation as Arby questions his own past. Michael unravels as he searches for answers.

Good puzzle-solvers
Arby knocks a number of boxes of raisins to the ground and stomps them, looking over some pages of Utopia. Jessica Hyde and Grant return to the house with Alice, who is in shock over the loss of her adoptive mother. "Comfort her," Jessica tells Becky. "Her mom just got killed." Becky demands to know what happened, but Jessica grabs Utopia and takes inside a room to start looking over the pages that were left at Alice's place. She seems shocked by the contents. In the St. Louis Hotzone, the tents are being disassembled. Michael Stearns tries to find Charlotte, but finds her tent empty. He gives in an interview, saying that he had hoped his flu would never leave Peru. The group watches it on TV as Jessica re-enters the room, muttering that what she's seen in Utopia is just more puzzles. She pours Grant and Becky drinks to calm them down and Becky picks up the manuscript, saying it's time to make sense of things together. Jessica, however, is annoyed by the whole process, saying that she doesn't like puzzles because she is one. Wilson Wilson tells her that they're good puzzle-solvers, so they can get the answers. Based on what they see in the comic, Jessica has to find Home to kill Mr. Rabbit. Ian and Wilson start to get into it, only to find that Jessica, Grant and Alice have gone to sleep.

Michael Stearns exits the hotzone area to loud applause. He is followed by Dale Warwick and the fake Charlotte, Lily, who is in a wheelchair. Lily speaks to a crowd of reporters, telling them that their support means everything. She tells them she has to go home for bed rest, but to tell the FDA to free the vaccine. They press her with questions, but she gets into a car with Dale. He tells her that she's supposed to be the face of the cure, not the voice, and to stop talking. If she's a person, it makes people interested in her, and not just the vaccine. Back at the house, Wilson complains that he has nothing, and that if he could solve it so quickly, he wouldn't even want to be there. Ian and Becky slip into a room, where Becky shows him a tattoo of the Diels virus on her head. They kiss, but he starts to stop, worried about her lifespan. She tells him it doesn't matter and the two take off their clothes and start getting busy.

A huge group of news reporters, along with Michael Stearns, arrive outside Lily's home. She welcomes him inside, despiee Warwick's insistence to not let him in. Wilson discovers a clue and interrupts Becky and Ian, who hastily tell him that it's all good. He leaves, saying to pretend he wasn't there. Outside the door, he tells them he has a big lead and they promise they'll be right out. He found a llama with bat wings and the colors of the Peruvian flag, representing the Peruvian bat flu. He rambles and Becky pleads with him to catch the slackers up. He thinks that Michael Stearns is Mr. Rabbit. Ian agrees with the stuff about Peru, but says that Stearns doesn't seem like a super-villain. Wilson tries to argue, but Becky tells Wilson that Stearns isn't Mr. Rabbit, but rather the llama that Mr. Rabbit rides, that he's being controlled. Stearns has some tea with Lily and Dale Warwick, saying it must feel good just to be back at home. They agree it's a return to normalcy and Stearns says that he'd like to oversee Lily's recovery. Warwick says he doesn't want his daughter to be a lab rabbit, that the whole world knows where they are. Lily is annoyed, but Warwick tells Stearns he just wants it all to end. Stearns asks Lily how long she and her father have been in the house and Lily is evasive. On the phone, Warwick chats with Christie, telling him that he picked the wrong twin and their story won't stand up to media scrutiny. Christie tells him to hang tight. Stearns visits the bathroom and kitchen and finds signs of a lack of habitation - empty drawers and a tag still on a towel. He asks Warwick about his work, but Warwick calls his work pointless and purposeless. Stearns gets a call to come to Chicago for Dr. Christie and on the news, a story reports the flu as being a national pandemic and the vaccine is needed more than ever.

Raisin Boy
Kevin and Thomas Christie discuss a replacement for Cara Frostfield. There is a crack on the window glass and Arby appears. He goes straight up to Kevin, telling him he found Jessica Hyde and Utopia. Kevin asks where they are and Arby replies that Utopia is with Jessica Hyde. Thomas starts slapping him and then moves to attack him with a rock, but Kevin tells him to go to his room. He does so, but not before Kevin orders him to give Arby back his rock. Kevin tells Arby that he told him not to look at Utopia and that it surprises him, given that he's always been a boy of limited curiosity. He continues that Arby saw something in Utopia that upset him. Arby asks where he came from and Kevin asks what he remembers. He replies that he only remembers Home and Kevin tells him that they needed him, so they made him. "But... you didn't love me?" asks Arby. Kevin tells him that love wasn't his purpose, so it was withheld with him. Jessica, on the other hand, got mixed signals. He tells him that he has an enviable consistency in his life that few enjoy. Arby asks what his name is and Kevin tells him that he's always been honest with him. He says that Arby was a bit of a nasty joke - he always liked raisins, so he called him "R.B." - "Raisin Boy." He tells him her forgives him once, that he had a shock, but he will respect his purpose or he can't belong anymore. He says he wouldn't survive out on his own. The two rise and Arby leaves.

At the supposed home of Dale and "Charlotte," Dale spreads stuff around the house and makes signs of wear, trying to make it look as though the place has been lived in. He then exits the house and walks through a nearby field, straight out into a road and is run over by a truck. Michael Stearns awakes at home, suddenly, and Colleen tells him he's only been asleep two hours. He checks his phone and finds that Kevin Christie cancels, which he finds confusing because he had been so insistent that he come. He asks Colleen if the flu is still spreading and she says it is, but there's nothing anyone can do until the FDA frees the vaccine. He turns on the news and sees a report about Dale Warwick committing suicide. He wonders just what is going on. Kevin and Thomas discuss this latest turn of events, Thomas saying that humans are tricky. Kevin says that Dale felt like everyone's TV dad and now they need to build him an entire life story by lunchtime. Thomas meets with the members of the Harvest, telling them that everything has to hold to scrutiny and that Lily can be useful as interference. Meanwhile, back at the house, Lily gets herself made up, with tips from a fashion magazine. She then speaks with the media, Michael Stearns watching and confused, as the house now has furnishings and kitsch not present before. Colleen tries to play it off, but Stearns says that no man accessorizes hours before he throws himself in a front of a semi. Meanwhile, the Harvest creates a fake profile for Warwick, having to play up the idea of him being a biologist at Stanford because Warwick told Stearns that he went to Stanford. He says that seeing an old colleague solve the flu crisis when he couldn't put Warwick over the edge.

Nature helps kids nurture
They start putting out fake online blog posts from supposed colleagues of Warwick and Stearns calls one of them. The minion pushes the narrative about the supposed reason for Warwick's suicide. Meanwhile, the group arrives inside the latest safe house. It's rather run down compared to the last, but Jessica tells them that Artemis said to always keep moving. Grant suggests that he and Alice check out the whole house, but Alice cries that she wants her mom and doesn't want to stay. She says she wants everything back and is going home. Jessica tells her it's not how it works. She replies that she'll go home if she wants and Jessica warns her to sit down. She tries to leave and Jessica pulls her pigtail and then pulls a gun on her. Grant puts himself between her and Alice, pleading with her to stop. Jessica then takes out a pair of handcuffs, handcuffing Alice to a bed. Meanwhile, Stearns watches another fake news report and realizes that everyone literally keeps saying the same thing and that it all sounds scripted. Colleen tells him he's displaying paranoia and mad behavior, but he insists that he's right. He outlines his theory, saying that the virus is being delivered to children. She tells him that he has to stop, that he's exhausted. Back at the house, Alice clanks the handcuffs. She asks Grant to get her some scissors and she asks him to cut her braid off. He does so and she tells him that this way, Jessica will never have her by the braid again. She studies the pages of Utopia that Grant gave her.

Colleen tucks Stearns into bed, calling him her "snuggle bunny." The second she leaves the room, he gets back on his computer. Back at the safe house, Wilson shows Jessica the picture from the asylum. Dr. Stearns is in the photo - he was in the asylum with Jessica's father. The photo was taken two days before the asylum burnt down, but he survived. Ian asks why Stearns would sneak into the asylum if he's Mr. Rabbit. Jessica agrees that Stearns must be Mr. Rabbit as Becky collapses from a Diels syndrome seizure. Jessica takes a knife and slits Becky's throat, then puts a funnel into it. Becky stops breathing and Jessica says she can't fix it. Grant shouts at Jessica to fix her, but she says she can't. She tells him that Becky is dead and that good people die too. He sobs and Ian sniffles and cries. Jessica looks online and finds Stearns's address. Ian sobs that Jessica murdered Becky, but Becky sits up and removes the funnel, blood spurting everyone. "Murdered who?" she asks. Jessica starts to leave, and Wilson asks where she's going, that Becky just woke from the dead. "Good job," Jessica tells Becky, wrapping a scarf around her neck. "Now get in the car." Back at Stearns's place, Stearns watches an interview being given by "Charlotte." He sees a sticker on the wall of the house - "Nature helps kids nurture." He searches online and discovers a listing for a petting zoo farm. He looks at their tour schedule, seeing that the places they've gone are the places where the flu has been spreading. He runs downstairs, telling Colleen the news, as a news report comes on that the FDA has "freed the vaccine." He shouts that it can't happen. He tells her that he's figured out how they're spreading the flu. She tells him that she's worried about him talking to the media in the state he's in. He tells her he has grave concerns about everyone involved. He tells her he's going to say to the world that he believes something ominous is happening. He tries to take a phone call, telling her that she's always told him to stand his ground. He kisses her and picks up the phone, saying he has to tell the world. She kicks him, then hits him in the head, knocking him out and to the ground. "No, you won't," she declares, as his phone continues ringing.

Trivia
Jessica Rothe, the actress who portrayed Samantha J., appears in a cameo as Devinn Quinn, a fashion model appearing on the cover of a magazine held by Lily.

Starring

 * John Cusack as Dr. Kevin Christie
 * Ashleigh LaThrop as Becky
 * Dan Byrd as Ian
 * Desmin Borges as Wilson Wilson
 * Christopher Denham as Arby
 * Javon "Wanna" Walton as Grant Bishop
 * Farrah Mackenzie as Alice
 * Cory Michael Smith as Thomas Christie
 * Jeanine Serralles as Colleen

with


 * Rainn Wilson as Michael Stearns

and


 * Sasha Lane as Jessica Hyde

Guest starring

 * Hadley Robinson as Lily
 * Tim Hopper as Dale Warwick
 * Felisha Terrell as Hailey Alvez

Co-starring

 * Bernard Gilbert as Steve/Christie Minion #1
 * Mike Brunlieb as Minion/Doctor/Photographer Scott
 * Michael Emmett Carey as Minion/Doctor Derek
 * Sarah Lo as Hacker One/Janey ("Emily Nowak")
 * Malic White as Hacker Two
 * Xavier Lagunas as Hacker Three
 * Kroydell Galima as Cop #1
 * Cayne Collier as Cop #2
 * Bruch Reed as Bystander
 * Meg Warner as National Anchor #4
 * Pamela Jones as National Anchor #5
 * Bob Sirrot as National Anchor #6