Humans, Season One, “Episode Two”
Written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley
Directed by Sam Donovan
Airs Sundays at 9 pm (ET) on AMC
The series premiere of Humans introduced the concept of synths, robots that had taken over a number of jobs from humans, and revealed that some of them had gained a consciousness that made them more than machines, while others were being treated as humans by individuals despite pressure from external bodies to not do so. This week’s episode goes further into both how consciousness in synths would affect the show’s universe, how humans feel about the synths and their seemingly invasive presence, developing a number of storylines and characters with varying results.
Dr. Millican’s storyline this week is the most intriguing expansion of the world of Humans, and provides, along with Niska’s storyline, a tangible reason why companies would be against the idea of a consciousness in the synths for the first time on the show. While their hesitation to the idea, and desire to find out who’s implementing consciousness in the synths, was understandable from a corporate standpoint, the exact reason for their reticence wasn’t fully clear. However, both Niska and Vera this week establish firm reasons why synths with consciousness would be bad for business. While the first episode showed synths as a regular fixture in jobs that require a lot of manual labour, Vera and Niska’s professions this week highlight the other area in which synths have replaced humans; professions of moral dubiousness. Using the synths to fulfill the fantasies of pedophiles and enforce rigid measures imposed by corporate or government bodies at the expense of people makes perfect sense, as most people would hesitate before, or balk at, undertaking such actions. The synths gaining consciousness, however, throws a wrench in putting them in such positions, especially as it’s still unclear to the manufacturers of the synth what determines consciousness and how to completely erase it. It’s not inconceivable that, much like Niska, if a synth like Vera were to gain consciousness, she would refuse to take the actions against Dr. Millican that she was mandated to. Not only would this throw humans for a loop, it would put the manufacturer in a precarious position, and the society as a whole would be forced to adjust to this new reality, giving a second thought to the jobs they have synths do.
Katherine Parkinson
Laura’s tenuous relationship with Anita also continues to be interesting. While Laura’s paranoia about Anita’s condition may appear unfounded to Joe, it’s clear that the consciousness wipe implemented on her was not thorough, something Mattie seems to have picked up on as well. While it remains unclear whether the apparent malfunctions caused by Anita’s consciousness wipe make her actively dangerous or just deviant from the synth norm, the source of Laura’s discomfort with Anita is also intentionally vague, as Laura herself is unable to properly articulate why she thinks Anita is malfunctioning. Thus, if Laura discovers the cause of Anita’s problems, she can react in one of two ways. Either the discovery of consciousness among synths will cause her to re-evaluate her feelings and misgivings about them and give them a second chance, or it’ll cause her to double down on her concerns about them and natural stance against them. Which direction she goes in will be very telling about where her core misgivings about synths lie, and could determine Anita’s fate as well. While Mattie’s specific skills with regards to computers remains unclear, she may be one of the few people, and the only one in Anita’s current orbit, who can reach past the work done on Anita to pull out her consciousness. If Laura comes around on synths based on the fact that they have a consciousness, Mattie may thus also see them differently, which could mean a new ally for Leo and his group.
The episode is not without its problems, however. Chief among them is the Hawkins family, many members of whom continue to suffer from poor or no development. As mentioned earlier, Mattie’s skill with synths and computers has been spoken about, but there’s been very little onscreen evidence testifying to her skill, with her only attempt to reconfigure a synth so far ending in failure. Toby similarly remains one-dimensional, and while that’s one dimension more this week than he got in the pilot, his physical attraction to Anita is not interesting enough, particularly since his attraction doesn’t appear to be tied to the fact that Anita is a synth. Leo’s storyline also suffers from a lack of forward momentum this week, only serving to further cement his bond with Fred. How Leo became aware of these synths gaining consciousness, whether he’s able to induce consciousness himself, and other factors have been pushed to the side to reinforce his desire to find Anita above all else. While the idea of Leo is fascinating, his story will have to either intersect with either Mattie or Dr. Millican, or develop further to not become a dead weight on the show. Niska’s story, on the other hand, currently holds the most promise. Not only is she a conscious synth, Niska also has a degree of disgust and bitterness towards humans, based on what she sees as Leo’s betrayal and the fact that she was forced into prostitution and made to deal with morally questionable clients without being able to question them or refuse. Her escape from the brothel makes her a wild card in the show’s universe now, and where she, and Anita, go from here will be exciting to see as the season continues.
