It's New Year's Eve. Ed is out of work, seeing himself as a man descending. He sees his wife Victoria as hopeful, still ascending.

Man Descending

After his frustrated wife abruptly walks out on him, Stuart Bliss, a wizard at inventing campaigns for surplus military materials, believes he's catching the warning of a coming apocalypse. Descending into paranoia, he then begins to perceive every subtle change in his office as a sign of intrusion, imagining that he's being watched and possibly polluted with a contaminated substance.