Synopsis of 2×07: Disparate motives lead synth and human alike to Qualia industries, where numerous paths that have never crossed before intertwine with disastrous results. The synths infiltrate Qualia, with the Hawkins family striving not to let the synthetic fiasco ruin their family.
So here’s the skinny:
- Sophie is still mimicking synthetic behavior and replicates it perfectly.
- Odi committed artificial intelligence suicide. In other words, he reset his program so he is no longer fully aware and has reverted to his old nature. He left Mattie a note explaining the absence of a spot for him in the world and thanking her for showing him the glimpse of one.
- Karen surprises Morrow with a visit to her office, where she convinces Morrow to begin transferring her consciousness into a body capable of the natural human processes we all know and love.
- Hester and Mia break into Qualia by pretending to be typical conscious synths. Once inside, they power on all of the captured synths and break them out.
- Renie unintentionally gives Toby a suicide scare and he rushes to her home with his father to stop her. They frighten her as she comes out of the bath and we learn that she was a human just pretending to be a synth all this time.
- Laura finds Niska at Astrid’s home and tries to persuade her into returning to help the other Elster synths. Niska refuses at first, but later on a very supportive Astrid persuades her.
- Leo leads the freed synths out of Qualia when Hester goes back into Qualia to cut the snake off at the head and Mia follows after to stop her. As soon as they reach outside and try to leave, a security protocol fries each of their brains and shuts them down permanently.
- The final showdown of this episode occurs when Pete arrives outside of Dr. Morrow’s office, shortly followed by Hester and a hostage. Hester claims she only wants Dr. Morrow’s death and says she’ll kill the doctor she is holding hostage. As Karen watches from inside Dr. Morrow’s office, Pete attempts to talk Karen down. It seems to work until she changes her mind, kills the hostage and mortally wounds Pete. Hester escapes and Karen speaks to Peter in his last living moments before also escaping.
Ok, we’ve got a pretty busy episode here, so bear with me. There are a lot of bombs to drop and no chance to recover from them before facing the next one. Karen plays a game of Connect Four with her unofficial seraphim child, Sam, while she discusses with Pete whether or not they should keep the young lad. I have got to say, it looks like the least thrilling Connect Four game I’ve ever seen and there have been some doozies. Still, Karen and Sam connect very differently from any the other characters in the series.
Sophie organizes around the house, devoid of sentiment. Joe is still trying to tease her out of her synth phase. He brings her candy and tries an obvious ruse to amuse her and entice her to eat the candy, but it fails. She points out his ploy and rejects the candy, leaving him to walk away butthurt. Laura comes to talk, but hardly does any better.
Mattie comes upon Odi and the note he had written her. She reads the note and sees that he has reset his program, basically performing “android” suicide in the process. His letter explains his gripe with his lack of purpose in the world, but thanks her for caring and endeavoring to help him find one.
Karen stops by Dr. Morrow’s office and lays all the cards on the table, from her synthetic nature to the purpose behind her creation. She guesses Morrow’s plan and requests to be uploaded into a more human body.
Mia pretends to be a common seraphim and infiltrates Qualia when one of the doctors, Helen, brings her in like the others they’ve found.
Morrow tells Karen that she can upload her and copy her mind to Qualia’s server, but she will never be able to make her human. Karen wants to experience all the blessings and shortcomings of being a human, even death when the time comes.
Renie has chosen to lend her particular skills of conversation to Toby’s cause of “fixing” his baby sister. Sophie tells Renie that her behavior worries her family. While she doesn’t see an issue, to say her parents are concerned would be an understatement. As Sophie praises synthetic nature and disgraces the human emotions that have caused her pain, Renie becomes overwhelmed and suddenly rushes out. Even though it has been obvious that she was different even from seraphims, I failed to pick up on the severity of it earlier, shame on me.
Later, Toby gets a text from Renie, causing him to believe that she wants to commit suicide. Toby and his father go to stop her. On their way there, we get to see Renie poetically remove her synth disguise. Yep, Renie is just your ordinary teenage girl, with her own hormones and insecurities. Though, to be honest, this should have been pretty easy to see coming and I’m sure most of you did. While it is a great hook for a minor character, I find myself plagued nevertheless.
With Renie turning out to be a normal human, it’s as if Toby has dodged a bullet by not having feelings for a synth. The decision screams separate, but equal to me and isn’t that really what this show is all about: fighting for civil rights. I’m all for synths, so I would have preferred if Renie was still a synth and Toby had to come to terms with a world of prejudice for dating her. It would have put some hair on his chest and helped him grow dramatically as a character, which is what we want to see the most from a show: character development.
So yes, Toby has grown into his own to a certain extent over the course of the two seasons, but he still seems too close to the creepy teen who tried to molest Mia while she was still awake.
Toby and his father charge into Renie’s house, then enter her room and see her bathroom door closed. Naturally, they assume the worst. Joe goes to open the door, but Renie swings it open and screams when she sees him. Within seconds, the misunderstanding is somewhat clear and Joe leaves to let the two whippersnappers talk.
What seemed off to me, was that neither Joe or Toby act the least bit surprised that she looks like a regular human. I can’t blame Joe because he just walked in on an underage girl, so I’m sure the last thing he wanted to do was pay attention to any part of her. As for Toby, I’m perplexed. The reveal of this girl’s true nature feels overlooked and leaves me expecting more.
Laura finds Astrid at her and Niska’s home. Niska hides initially while Laura uses that method of trickery where you address one person when you’re really communicating to someone else listening to you unseen. She reveals herself and Laura updates her on her family’s recent extracurriculars. She has no faith in helping others, because she’s failed every time she has tried. She feels like she’s always been used, especially by her father, who created her and then pulled a “Joe.” Niska uses birds flying outside to deduce that the government has trailed Laura and found her. I’m sorry, but where can I learn how to do that? Niska and Astrid run away, leaving Laura apologizing for her mistake.
Mattie sources Max’s help with Leo. Max plays hard to get, but she begs him and convinces him to rekindle his bro-mance. Before he leaves, Flash plants a kiss right on his cheek. She apologizes for being overwhelmed with enough emotion to kiss him so suddenly, but he appreciates it and they share a loving gaze. See, this is why I’m team Max and Flash. They’re in abandoned train yards, falling in love and providing shelter for other synths. Meanwhile, Leo and Hester are careening down a dark path that’s changing Leo for the worse.
Speaking of Hester, her and Mia power on in Qualia. They free other synths and lead them out. Leo does some work on the locked doors from outside, via wires behind a hatch in the ground. His work opens the door and the synths continue through the building. On the way out, Hester attacks doctors, but Mia simply moves the head doctor, Helen, to the side and tells her not to stop them as they leave.
Leo reunites with the synths and leads them out, but Mia follows after Hester when she goes back to end Qualia.
As soon as Leo and the synths traverse the lawn outside, the synths all begin to drop dead. Helen had activated lockdown procedure, which set off a device outside that basically melted their brains and caused instant death. Leo sits in the field of bodies, lamenting and yelling out in sad rage. I think he’s going to take this a bit to heart.
Hester catches Helen in the hallway and pins her against the wall. She wants to know who helms Qualia synthetic programming.
Karen and Morrow are still in her office, after being locked in during the upload. Pete comes strolling down the hall like a British Jack Sparrow (not really, but his confidence is staggering). Hester pops up too, still holding Helen hostage. She threatens Morrow to embrace her death at Hester’s hands. Pete reasons with her and he’s a perfect negotiator, so it works for a moment until Hester changes her mind and chooses violence instead. It’s a pretty lengthy talk that pulls everyone present into the fray, but it’s for naught. She kills Helen and stabs Pete. Oh, why Pete?! Innocent Pete. I saw it coming, but still I found my lungs expanding to produce a yell. Mia comes around the corner and Hester retreats, leading Mia to chase after her.
Max and Mattie get to the scene, finally! He consoles Leo as Mia comes out of Qualia. She tells Max and Leo to take the synths with them to a truck on the other side of the woods. Mia and Mattie head off in a different direction.
Karen shares Pete’s last moments with him as he bleeds out. Through his shallow breaths, they speak about matters of the heart until his vitality departs. Karen weeps in a vigorous, yet realistic display of emotion we’ve yet to see from her. Morrow advises her to leave before the cops arrive. She stops crying on the drop of a dime and finds her way out. This leads me to a thought about seraph feelings. While they do all feel their emotions differently, it is much easier for them to control their emotions than it is for humans, even though they do still experience emotions.
Hester comes out of Qualia too and goes her own way.
What did you think about the precursor to AMC’s Humans‘ season finale? Was it captivating enough for ya? It’s a shame Peter’s dead, do you share the sentiment? Leave a comment and let us know, we’d love to hear it.
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