Aspiring writer EZRA is court-mandated to complete fifty therapy sessions with DR. MARTINEZ after a recent incident he refuses to fully unpack. During one session, she introduces the “empty chair” method: Ezra must imagine someone he has unresolved conflict with sitting across from him and speak directly to them. Instead, she pushes him further to begin reparenting the child who never felt protected.

Ezra resists the exercise with sarcasm and avoidance. His phone repeatedly lights up with a call from a contact labeled “DO NOT ANSWER!” He attempts to cut the session short, but Dr. Martínez reminds him he is obligated to finish. As he shuts down emotionally, we glimpse YOUNG EZRA emerging from darkness within Ezra’s subconscious.

Later that night, Ezra joins his charismatic best friend and roommate TREVOR at a club where Trevor is performing. The atmosphere is loud and chaotic, and tensions rise when Ezra encounters J-$ON, Trevor’s manager, who harbors hostility from a past falling out. Already unsettled, Ezra retreats to the bathroom, where he comes face-to-face with an eight-year-old version of himself. 

The encounter fractures Ezra’s reality. He is pulled into the Void, a vast subconscious landscape where fragmented memories surface in surreal flashes. A looming, distorted force stalks in the darkness. Before Ezra can comprehend what’s happening, he falls back into reality and convinces himself it was stress. An overactive mind.

Until he spots Young Ezra is standing in his apartment.

Ezra tests reality: he FaceTimes Trevor. Trevor sees nothing. Later, he runs into his former friend ANGELICA and subtly confirms she cannot see the child either. No matter where Ezra goes, Young Ezra follows.

Ezra bursts into Dr. Martínez’s office lobby and carefully asks hypotheticals about seeing things, desperate not to sound unstable. She assures him they will address whatever is surfacing in their next session.

Back home, Ezra sits across from his younger self contemplating what issue he needs to resolve, in hopes that the correct one will make Young Ezra disappear. 

Ezra is pulled back into the Void, landing inside a vivid childhood memory at a bowling alley arcade. Young Ezra stands on the verge of joining other kids at an X-Men game when an entity known as DNA calls him away. In the original memory, Young Ezra left. 

This time, Ezra intervenes. He kneels in front of his younger self, presses quarters into his hand, and encourages him to stay and play. As DNA advances with a bone-rattling groan, Ezra shields the child. DNA cannot cross the arcade threshold and retreats. Young Ezra runs back to the game.

In the real world, Ezra returns from the memory and notices the stress on his mind lift slightly. Something has shifted. He begins cleaning his apartment, a small, tangible act of self-care.

Later, while taking out the trash, he startles at a shadow in the alley, only to discover it’s a stray cat. Relieved, he turns to see Young Ezra, smiling. What memory will free Ezra from his trauma… and his younger self.