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Overview
With the season finale right around the corner, the show finally develops a sense of urgency, something to shake you up, and leaves you questioning what the future may hold.
Trigger Warning(s): Blood
Review (with Spoilers)
Topic 1: No More Pretending (Renie)
Renie tries to speak to Sophie and with her mentioning how perfect, clean and unfeeling synths are, and how she wants to be like her, it snaps something in her. With that, we are led to believe she may kill herself but in the end, she decides to take out the contacts, pull off the wig, and maybe face her life.
Commentary
It seems pretty clear now that with Mia leaving, Niska, and the rest of the synths, that is the trigger for Sophie’s actions. She misses them, feels powerless against her feelings dealing with their absence, so she has decided to feel numb. Now, as for what Renie’s reasons were, maybe they are the same or maybe they are different. She isn’t a main character so you know we won’t get some deep and well-planned answer. Especially since Toby has really had no storyline of his own and his sole use this season was introducing Renie.
With that said, I do hope she sticks around. Not just for the sake of another Black person on the show, the first consistent non-Synth one, but she seems interesting. Also, she could help Toby evolve.
Topic 2: Someone Has To Talk To Leo (Leo, Mattie, Hester, Niska, and Laura)
Hester has infected Leo’s mind and with Mia, outside of the violence, agreeing with Hester, Mattie fears the worse. So, alongside Laura, they try to talk to Leo’s family. Niska got her own problems with her on the run and Max thinks his influence is nil.
Commentary
So Niska is going to remain on the run, but with her girlfriend. I can only fathom the benefit of this is making the show a bit more international as Niska has to travel around Europe, maybe cross into Asia or Africa, to escape the cops. Though considering this show isn’t a huge hit, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. I think the main thing which matters with this topic is how as much as Leo desires to be a leader, a martyr, a hero of some sort, he doesn’t necessarily have what it takes. Not because he doesn’t care but, as Hester has noted, there will always be this inherent difference. One in which, as much as he sympathizes, he will never truly understand. Making it so, while he maybe sought out for advice, perhaps humored, as shown in this episode, his power is given and surely could be taken away at a moment’s notice. Especially as Hester questions his loyalty to her, Max offers an alternative and Mia slowly slips toward the dark side thanks to Ed.
Topic 3: The Imperfect Plan (Mia, Hester, Karen, and Pete)
Mia and Hester agree they must free the synths but originally disagree how to do so. Hester is for doing what needs to be done, i.e. killing whoever is necessary to kill. Mia thinks more smartly and has them discovered and transported in. From there they release everyone and seemingly the only thing to worry about is where to house all of them. That is until the majority of them die due to the security system seemingly destroying something in their brains.
Their deaths aren’t the only ones, though, Hester goes back into the Silo to kill whoever runs the place, comes across Dr. Avaline and Pete, and while she successfully kills Dr. Avaline, a major player there, she leaves Pete in urgent care. Which, with Karen, at the time, with Dr. Athena considering uploading her consciousness into a new vessel, it seems with Pete’s mortality in question, she may postpone her plans.
Commentary
It is hard to imagine the future of this show. Not just because we’ll likely get another year + wait between seasons, but because this show doesn’t really go for the dramatics. I mean, yes, people have died on this show before, but generally, outside of Niska, and now Hester, maybe Pete to a certain degree, this show is like a slice of life anime. It is so rooted in being normal that when people like Hester stab someone in the neck with a pen it’s shocking. Plausible because we are familiar with what they are capable of, but shocking nonetheless when they hurt someone who has been around longer than them.
So, with that, what could the season finale bring? May Hester finish what she started and force out of Mattie where the program to make all synths conscious is? Could she be a 3rd prong, one unlike Leo and Max’s which is more for a violent revolution than secluded peace or a peaceful acknowledgment of consciousness? What about the rest of the Hesters? Will Joe gain some sort of prominence once more, may Laura attach herself to Niska’s story again, and will Sophie’s coping mechanism end?
I’d be lying to you if I said I was giddy with excitement for, as noted in an earlier episode, I feel I’m more so loyal to this show than genuinely excited what is to come in the next episode. Even with the action done to ramp up some sort of last minute interest.
Things to Note | Question(s) Left Unanswered
- Sam is still around and has a very cute scene with Karen. The type which will surely make you go “aw” and perhaps want a kid.
- I do feel that the awakening of the synths, them gaining consciousness, just wasn’t handled in such a way where it could give the show an emotional grounding. In the first season, them being conscious was on a need to know basis, wasn’t made into this huge thing, and the focus was on the synths themselves. To me, with the Silo, Dr. Athena trying to transfer her daughter’s AI consciousness into a body, and all that, we lost some of the magic. To me, Karen’s issues with wanting to really start a new life, Odi’s issues with being conscious, and the split on what to do with these conscious synth, that should have been the focus. Everything Dr. Athena brought with her, the silo and everything, arguably that should of been held off till season 3. Season 2 should have been rooted in the complications of these sentient beings now coming alive and having complex feelings about it like what Karen and Odi have. That’s just my thought.
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