Opus

Pop icon Alfred Moretti announces a new album after 30 years and invites six guests to a listening party at his Utah compound. Each invitation includes merchandise, the new album, and a book, setting a glamorous but ominous tone. The guests travel to the compound, unaware of the deeper plan behind the gathering.

Upon arrival, the guests' electronic devices are collected by staff of denim-clad cultists. Moretti presents himself as a Levelist while the others revel in the spectacle. The atmosphere shifts from excitement to a controlled, eerie order as the group enters deeper into the cult's world.

Each guest is assigned a Levelist concierge to tend to their needs. Belle is tasked with Ariel but instead surveils her relentlessly, signaling that surveillance and control are central to the experience. The power dynamics begin to tilt away from hospitality toward coercion.

Bill unwinds with a massage, and an unseen assailant strikes him. He disappears the next day, with the Levelists insisting he is fine and simply resting. The selective disappearances hint at a growing danger lurking within the party.

Ariel speaks with Moretti about what Levelists do, and he demonstrates by showing a cultist shucking oysters. They talk of pearls to make into necklaces, symbolizing the group's search for hidden value and unity. The moment reveals the cult's ritualistic mindset.

During the Fashioning segment, Ariel is given a makeover and forced to have her pubic hair shaved. The other guests awkwardly laugh or shrug, trying to maintain politeness amid the disturbing demand. They are then herded to watch Moretti perform a song, cementing the surreal control of the evening.

Emily Katz experiences a debilitating coughing fit and is taken away from the party. Afterward, Ariel raises concerns about the Levelists' controlling behavior and the disappearances, but is met with dismissiveness. The episode establishes Emily's vulnerability and the group's chilling grip on the guests.

Ariel's warnings hit resistance from Stan, who is busy dismissing her concerns when a Levelist shoots him in the shoulder. The assailant apologizes profusely afterward, revealing the unsettling normalization of violence within the group. The incident marks a turning point toward open danger.

Ariel discovers the guests' phones stored in a taxidermy facility, rendered useless by the Levelists. In the same moment, Bill's decapitated corpse lies nearby, a grim reminder of the deadly stakes at the party. Ariel is too distressed to notice the horror surrounding her.

Moretti convinces Ariel to attend a puppet show while she waits for a bus home. The guests are seated in beanbag chairs and forced to watch a Billie Holiday puppet interview, watched by paparazzi rats. The unsettling performance heightens the sense that reality has become a staged nightmare.

During the show, Emily experiences worsening symptoms and is eventually poisoned, which Moretti confirms. The Levelists launch a coordinated attack, killing Stan and Bianca as Ariel flees toward safety. The night escalates from manipulation to lethal massacre.

Ariel escapes to a replica of Moretti's childhood home, encountering further horrors including Bill's head mounted on a wall. Belle confronts and overpowers Ariel, tightening the circle of control. The chase culminates in a dangerous standoff inside the ritual spaces.

Ariel regains consciousness during a Levelist champagne ritual, and a cultist frees her. She escapes with the police soon after, but the evidence of the massacre remains locked behind Moretti's calm exterior. The ritual underscores the cult's sinister symbolism and continuity.

Ariel returns with the police to confront Moretti, who is calmly playing the piano among the corpses of his guests. The scene confirms the scale of the crime and Moretti's chilling detachment. The investigators secure the site, and Moretti is taken into custody.

Ariel's tell-all book about her experience becomes a bestseller, while the Levelists' bodies remain unfound and Moretti serves life sentences. In a twist, Moretti summons Ariel for an interview and reveals that Levelists are still alive in society, and that the massacre was designed to push her to write a book that would propagate Levelism.