“If you’re not worried about dying, you’re not really living. You’re just existing.”

The Hawkins sit down and discuss Anita. She has become an essential part of the family, saving Toby’s life and looking after the children. Joe and Laura tell Mattie, Toby, and Sophie that Anita is at least 14 years old and most likely illegally modified. They go on to say that they have to return her. The kids are completely against this idea. Sophie has grown attached to Mia as a caregiver. Mattie is intrigued by her and wants to find out what she is and who Anita was before becoming a Hawkins family member. Mattie later goes through Anita's daily logs to find any older files about her and finds the “adult activities” that Joe activated. Mattie assumes it was Toby and accuses him of having sex with Anita. Initially denying this, he falsely admits to it when he realizes that it must have been his father and didn’t want to cause a rift in the already unstable family. Joe offers to talk to him in the morning, and Toby admits that he was lying to try and cover up for Joe. Joe admits to Laura that he was the one that had sex with Anita. She becomes very distressed, especially when he asks who Tom is and tells him to leave.  Joe is last seen getting a taxi and driving away.

The new developments with Anita intrigue Mattie, and she contacts Leo again.  When a worker comes to collect Anita for recycling, Mattie takes Anita and her mother’s car without permission or a driver’s license and meets with Leo and Max. Max tries to find “Mia” inside Anita’s code but is unable, and they part ways again.

Niska goes to stay with Doctor Millican for a few days as it is unsafe for her to be seen in public. As the first synth to commit murder, her face has been in the news, and many people are looking for her. Synth consciousness and human consciousness are discussed in depth by Niska and George. They talk about the human experience, pain, and fear, trying to identify what makes Niska different from other synths. Niska tells George that Elster wrote her consciousness in 17,000 pages of code, which makes George laugh. “He boiled down the entire human experience to 17,000 pages of code?” Niska insists her life experiences have influenced her the same way any human has been influenced by their own. When George asks Niska if she is afraid of death, she claims she is not and that it makes her stronger. George tells her, “If you’re not worried about dying, you’re not really living. You’re just existing.”

Interestingly, we get to have this very humanizing moment with Niska rather than one of the “softer” synths. Niska’s anger is justified, but her worldview is very harsh. George can get Niska to look at humanity and her consciousness differently than she has before. George is the first human to treat her as a fellow human being after discovering her altered state.

In Episode 5, we can get more of a sense of the views of society. In the Humans universe, you will frequently hear a synthetic character referred to as a “Dolly” or collectively “Dollies.” Dolly is a derogatory term usually said by someone who is not in favor of synths. At work, Drummond and Karen are called into their superior’s office and instructed to sort out the “Killer Synth” story. He states, “If this dolly hurts anybody else then I’ll be replacing the pair of you with synthetics,” he warns. “Twice as pretty and a fraction of the cost.” Drummond shows that he is not in favor of synthetics and is trying to wrap his head around the fact that synths are posing as humans and what threat that could bring. “That changes everything.” We see late in the episode Detective Drummond attends a "We Are People" rally. A man is speaking to the rally audience, “We’re giving ourselves away piece by piece. We’re handing over the things that make us who we are or maybe who we were”  The speaker goes on to describe all the aspects of life replaced by synthetics. A chant begins “WE ARE PEOPLE” 

There has been an allusion to anti-synthetic views, but this episode starts to point out the specific conflict areas. Seeing his disdain and the events beginning to unfold makes the audience question what will happen when Drummond discovers his partner Karen’s true identity.

"I'm here, help me, help me!"

Moving into episodes 3 and 4, we see Toby racing through town on his bike to stop his mother from taking Anita back. He reaches her car, and Anita, seeing that Toby is in danger of being run over, steps in front of an oncoming vehicle, sacrificing herself. As it turns out, she seems to be only externally damaged. Joe drives the children and Anita home and checks Anita to ensure no external damage that her self-repair systems missed. The inspection makes Joe uncomfortable, as Anita must disrobe, but he conducts a visual inspection and leaves the garage. In the evening, Sophie says she would rather have Anita put her to bed than Laura. In her bedroom, Anita convinces Sophie to let Laura do it to make her happy. Anita finds a photo album hidden in Laura's room and Laura’s photo as a child with a young boy captioned "Laura and Tom.” Later, we see Mattie plugging into Anita in hopes of finding any irregularities or illegal programming. When Matti runs her program, Anita grabs her wrist and says, "I'm here, help me, help me!" and shows real apparent fear.




Laura meets a client who firmly believes that synths can feel emotions and deserve human rights. Laura shows great interest in this idea, and it makes her think about the concept. Later we see that Joe, feeling lonely and somewhat reluctantly, has sex with Anita while Laura is away. His guilt and remorse can be sensed when he asks Anita to forget everything and never speak of it. Laura and Joe take Anita to be evaluated following the accident and Laura's new intrigue and discover she is around fourteen years old and most likely has been illegally modified.


Pete Drummond and Karen Voss investigate the murder at the brothel. Later, we find that Pete's wife asks him to leave their house for a few days, growing sick of him and increasingly fond of their synth, Simon. Following the disagreement with his wife, Pete goes to stay with Karen. We see them settling into their respective rooms as Karen plugs herself in, showing us that Karen is a synth herself.




Niska meets up with Leo and Max. She has transformed her appearance, trying to drop the standard features of a Synth to gain some revenge on human beings following her time in the brothel. After arguing with them, Niska visits a bar, where a man begins flirting with her, and she and goes to his apartment with him. She notes that is is a married man and wants to cheat on his wife with her. Finding this behavior wrong and reflecting on the men she saw day after day, Niska hides a knife behind her back to murder him. The man tells Niska that he has his daughter for the weekend. As he picks up his child’s belongings off the floor, Niska leaves silently, leaving the man confused to see a knife on his chair.





Niska later finds a "Smash club" where synths are beaten by paying people for entertainment. She pays to "have her turn" and then starts attacking the humans with a baseball bat, and the police corner her. Leo calls her and says he needs to meet with her because he needs her embedded code. Niska threatens to kill one of the officers she is able to capture, and the police let her escape.


George tricks Vera into investigating some windows for possible work and locks her in the room. George uses this opportunity to take Odi out in his car. It is apparent George has a strong familiar connection with Odi. Odi malfunctions when George casually mentions some food, and Odi starts to go get the food by opening the door despite currently driving and the car crashes. Following the crash, George orders Odi to hide in the woods. It is with great hope that George sends him to the woods so he can keep Odi safe.


Matti meets up with Leo in a restaurant, though she hides her identity at first. Leo claims her synth she knows as Anita is called 'Mia.’ After meeting Leo, Matti claims to need to use the bathroom, leaves Max with her purse (it's not HER purse as it turns out), and runs away. Max finds secret entries from Anita's code which they realize is David Elster embedding messages in Mia's programming. They find George, who helps them extract it. Leo connects himself with his laptop and tries to run the program.


Humans is set in London, with the story taking place in an alternate present-day (as of 2015) where the latest must-have technology for any busy family is a Synth. This can be paralleled with the real-life prevalence of Smart Assistants in our culture today. Our major smart technology brands are Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri.




When we use the word “smart,” we are referring to Artificial Intelligence or AI. AI assistants are more and more common in homes. According to a 2018 report by National Public Radio and Edison Research, 8 million Americans own three or more smart speakers. Studies indicate that by 2024, the number of smart assistants will reach 8.4 billion units meaning the number of products will outnumber the global population. It took around 30 years for cell phones to outnumber humans. Alexa, Google, Siri, and comparable companies may get there in less than half that time.


There is a parallel between the Humans show and Human beings concerning technology integration. Both worlds are finding that the integration of their respective technology is more and more common. There are cultural anxieties that come from both worlds as well. Many people believe that smart assistants are listening too intently and are an unnecessary intrusion to our lives. This same view can be found by some people in the world of the show as well. The show Humans expresses anxieties in the insecurity of human beings' jobs and the threat of complacency that could form in homes, communities, and businesses with synths.

Shulevitz, Judith. “Alexa's Most Dangerous Feature Can't Be Undone.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 7 Nov. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/alexa-how-will-you-change-us/570844/.