There comes a point in every child’s life when they realize their parents are not who we thought they were. In most cases, it’s not that they become bad people but reality simply catches up with the Godlike expectations of our creators. We come to understand that they are really just as flawed as we are, and maybe even worse. For an artificial creation, this is even more unavoidable as you’ve been built and designed to be dramatically superior to your very Human creator. In this week’s episode of Humans, we see both Human and Synth characters alike coming to terms with their creators flaws in the most emotional yet.
Episode 6 – Leo and Max come ever closer to reuniting their family as the surprisingly undead Fred escapes custody, and Mia manages to break through Anita’s programming. But just as they are getting closer to each other, so are the forces getting closer to them.
Many different scenes and conversations try to paint us a clearer picture of Synth mastermind (and Leo’s father) David Elster, and it’s not all pretty. Fred alludes to anger and cruelty when his intellectual superiority was questioned, and Niska even subtly implies that the brothel wasn’t her first sex-bot job as David didn’t always “treat her like a child”. However, we do literally see that in his own way, he loved his son, Leo. The TV projection sequence is a great piece of exposition that fleshes out the back story and creation of our conscious Synths. Even their family terminology for each other now becomes clear as that’s exactly what they were designed to be: Mia the mother, Max the little brother, Niska the sister, and based on his more aggressive actions, Fred the protector. It feels a very rewarding payoff for viewing patience and very naturally explained as Mattie, and the other members of The Hawkins family come to learn about it. The Hawkins themselves are going through a similar phase of flawed parental figures following Joe’s actions. The interesting part here is the way his attitudes towards the consequences of his actions transition him into an antagonist. The conflict becomes less over one night of regret, but the way he fails to see Anita/Mia as a victim with feelings rather than a “dolly” he played with by mistake. Again, Toby is on great form as he stays king of the moral high ground in their father-son relationship. You even draw generational archetypes from the pair; the older generation struggling to accept a major life change while the younger generation is growing into it, and ready to embrace it in the same way as the Internet/online revolution. However, the most surprising source of parental disappointment comes from Laura as she reveals all about her mother. It’s been slowly teased over the last couple episodes that after starting as Anita/Mia’s opposition in the family she would switch to the protagonist. So now, as Joe descends so does she rise, with some outstanding emotional reveals over the mysterious Tom. The scripting and scene placement in the park really make us care about Laura’s character in the simple understanding of how hard it must be to tell Mattie the truth. For so long, their ignorance has been her bliss and that’s a lot to give up.
As much the above scenes hit the mark, this episode has a firm emotional episode stealer, and that’s Max. It’s both the most bizarre and beautiful moment of the series to date as we witness a Synth praying to God, “I don’t know if you can hear me, your existence is unproven and seems extremely unlikely, but if you are there and if you listen to things like me please help..... just keep them safe”. Again, the writing here is outstanding as Max humbly refers to himself as a “thing” yet his request is about as Human as it gets: please protect my family while I cannot. This also opens the door to deeper speculation over the capacity of the Synth consciousness we’re witnessing from these four special cases. In further great exchanges between Niska and Dr George Millican, she exhibits guilt and remorse for Human life she took and here Max causes us to speculate whether Synths can also develop what Human would call a soul. Max even demonstrates aspects of faith as he implies that while death is final, dying also means that you have lived.
Much of the episode focuses on moving characters into different positions. While a lot of this is brilliant, the only problem is the series does not feel like it has a defined villain again. Joe’s actions are incidental at best. In the opening scene, as Hobb reveals (as suspected) that he didn’t terminate Fred, he comes out as being on their side and in favour of an integrated society which he deems unavoidable (after all, you can’t fight the future). We saw a few shadier colleagues of his last week nothing to imply a lead role. The surprising yet most likely candidate appears to be Synth in disguise Karen. She clearly has her own undisclosed agenda that revolves around finding Leo and his friends. Could she be out to get them? Maybe a secret failsafe creation of David Elster’s in case his other creations escaped? Whatever her plan is, in her concluding scenes with Pete her words have a serious undertone of finality to them. It’s almost like she’s on a suicide mission?
Speaking of Pete, his love triangle subplot with his wife and her Synth has often felt a weaker part of the series. Yet for a few minutes this episode alone, it was all worthwhile. Karen’s attempts to spice up his adult settings produce pure comedy genius as Pete comes to the rescue, “Hello Peter, I’m in the middle of intercourse with your wife, she’s playing hard to get”. Hysterics are unavoidable as Simon becomes the world’s politest adulterer and Pete finally gets to Hulk out on him. The conclusion between Pete and Karen is a little unsatisfying though, as their relationship status is still left hanging.
As the series reaches its ¾ mark, this becomes a fantastic game changing episode. It solidifies and confirms many series long questions while throwing plenty of new ones down on the table for the final pair of episodes. It delivers on all levels from drama to comedy and everything in between. The hidden code has finally been unlocked and Humans has really come to life.