Saturday, March 20, 2021

“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.



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