The Imperfects Netflix Guide: The One Season Explained, Cast Included

Episodes 1 and 2: the medication stops (directed by Mathias Herndl)

"Sarkov's Children" opens with Tilda, Abbi and Juan no longer receiving the medication they have taken by mail for a condition called Acute Genetic Decay Syndrome, or AGDS. Within the hour each of them starts developing something strange and unwelcome. Their doctor, Alex Sarkov, has disappeared. Dr. Sydney Burke, who worked with him on the treatment, tells them they were test subjects for gene therapy they received as children.

"Doug of the Dead" brings in another of Sarkov's test subjects, a man who cannot permanently die. He leads the group to a fellow test subject named Hannah Moore, and Isabel Finch, a woman with a grudge against Sarkov, approaches Hannah in turn. Creators Eriksen and Heaton wrote both episodes. The pair is the premise-setting stretch of the season. Doug agrees to cooperate in exchange for a painless end, and the information he gives starts the group's search.

Each of the three leads gets a distinct power in the first hour. Tilda develops hyperacusis and concussive screams, Abbi secretes pheromones that make people around her dangerously obsessed with her, and Juan transforms into a violent beast he calls a chupacabras. The second episode adds personal stakes, with Tilda and her boyfriend PJ falling out and Juan's girlfriend Darcy walking in on him mid-transformation.

Viewers should expect a series that mixes monster transformations with dark teen angst, as the Decider comparison above suggests, and that spends most of its early time on how the three leads cope with what is happening to them.

Episodes 3 and 4: Flux and the family (directed by Julien Christian Lutz)

"Portland Warehouse Massacre" introduces Flux, a quasi-government science agency that suppresses dangerous experimentation. A trip to meet another of Sarkov's patients turns out to be a trap set by biohackers who plan to sell their research to Flux. LA Smith wrote the episode. Julien Christian Lutz, who is also known as Director X, directed this episode and the next.

"One of Us" introduces Owen Schultz, another test subject with side effects, and sends Juan to his estranged brother's house, where his niece Paloma becomes the focus of the plot. Steve Cochrane wrote it. In the fourth episode Owen's condition intensifies into a murderous rage, and Flux agents begin closing in on the group.

In the third episode, Hannah believes she is helping Finch with minor crimes against unethical scientists, while Finch is killing them. The audience knows what the characters do not. The fourth episode's Flux subplot has Juan's girlfriend Darcy passing his location to an agent posing as a police officer.

Episodes 5 and 6: the island and the siege (directed by Mark Chow)

"Zoe Must Be Destroyed" takes Tilda and Juan to one of the San Juan Islands, where they track Sarkov. Kor Adana wrote it. In the episode Sarkov explains that AGDS is a result of human evolution failing to keep up with climate change, and that his efforts to create a superior genome are driven by the need to overcome that gap before humanity goes extinct. That is the central argument of the series, so it repays attention.

"Lest Ye Become a Monster" shifts the focus to Burke. She kept her own AGDS diagnosis from the group, which leads to a conflict, and Flux agents lay siege to her house. Chow directed both episodes of the pair, and Burke offers herself as a test subject while a cure is developed.

The island residents in the fifth episode form a mob and capture Sarkov, and Tilda and Juan locate Zoe and reunite her with her mother. The sixth episode is set largely in and around Burke's house, with Tilda lashing out at Hannah while the group tries to hold the line.

Episodes 7 and 8: custody and the cure (directed by Nimisha Mukerji)

"Cure All" follows Burke in Flux's custody, where she is asked by Dr. Dominique Crain, Flux's chief science officer, to prove the worth of her unique biology. Elsewhere Abbi investigates a new monster that has been attacking civilians in Seattle and finds that her emotional state affects what her pheromones do. Elsewhere in the same hour, Hannah is furious at Abbi over a decision Abbi made about her, and Juan's relationship with his girlfriend Darcy ends.

"The Devil You Know" has Sarkov offering to spread a cure widely, rewriting the human genome, and holding it back from the three unless they help him steal nanobot technology. Part of the episode is set at a motel on the way to Seattle. Nimisha Mukerji directed both of these episodes.

The two hours change the season from a search for a person into a dispute over what a cure should do. In the eighth, influenced by Sarkov, Tilda starts to embrace her side effects and their dangerous uses, which worries Abbi and Juan, and the question of whom to trust becomes the main source of tension.

Episodes 9 and 10: the last two hours (directed by Dennis Heaton)

"All Monsters Attack" and "Destroy All Monsters" were directed by co-creator Dennis Heaton. In the ninth, Abbi and Juan disagree on priorities and part ways, and Finch's body starts to deteriorate.

Because Netflix canceled the series after this season, the last episode is also the last one there will be. This guide does not describe how it ends. The finale resolves part of what the season set up and leaves other threads open, a point worth knowing before starting.

In the ninth episode Juan attends his niece's birthday party before leaving to find Tilda, and his brother cuts ties with him. As for the tenth, describing it would give the ending away, so this guide stops here.