By Josh Kaye
Before going into the episode 3 recap of Humans, here’s a quick rundown of the important events episode 2.
- Laura is suspicious of Anita that she took Sophie outside in the rain and continues to feel uncomfortable around the Synth in her home. When Anita goes against programming and hugs Sophie without Laura’s permission, Laura decides that’s the last straw and she prepares to return Anita.
- Fred remains in Hobb’s laboratory, as Hobb continues to study him and examine why he has been given free thought and will.
- Leo and Max continue on their hunt for their lost Synth’s, heading into different Synth black markets to figure out if anyone has seen Anita. Leo discovers that Anita has been given a full system wipe. Leo and Max have to fight their way out, where Leo is fatally wounded and almost killed, but Max is able to revive him with an electrical charge bringing about the question – is Leo human? Since it doesn’t seem that way anymore.
- Dr. Millican is given a new homecare Synth, Vera, while stashing Odi in the shed to prevent him from being recycled. Vera makes George feel trapped in his own home, where it’s discovered George was a part of the engineering team that help create the basic functions of Synth’s.
- Laura’s daughter, Mattie, and her friend Harun attempt to hack a school’s Synth to see if they could. She fails to properly hack the Synth and the school is notified.
- Niska remains in the brothel until she decides to stop waiting on Leo and Max and breaks out of the brothel herself when she’s forced to entertain a new, particularly twisted client, killing him in the process.
Episode 2 was a solid addition to the premiere and adds to the mystery and intrigue of Humans. What’s in store for episode 3? We’ll see.
Hobbs decides to wake up Fred from their testing and actually talk to him, seeing if he could maybe shine some light on to why he’s so special. Hobbs isn’t able to find anything new from Fred though, as Fred realizes that if he can shut down his thoughts Hobbs can’t see into his head. Cutting to Laura and Anita, they’re still in the car driving to bring Anita back to the shop. But once Toby finds out about his new crush being brought away, he hops on his bike to catch up and stop his mother. Anita, noticing another van speeding alongside the car, steps in front of the van to prevent Toby from being road kill. Toby is the newest member of the family to be infatuated with Anita, which comes off as…creepy and unsettling from his perspective.
At the brothel, D.S. Pete Drummond and his partner D.I. Karen Voss are investigating the murder committed by Niska. Drummond isn’t all too fond of Synth’s himself, with his wife needing one after an accident that provides physical therapy for her. He’s shown moments of jealousy and rage towards her Synth, so there’s a slight bias from him. Niska, now on the run, attempts to hide her identity and become someone new and tries to hide that she isn’t a Synth…and it appears to work. Drummond and Voss continue investigating the scene when their chief shows up and commands that they confirm it’s been a terrible accident by a malfunctioning Synth. Why the cover up? Hobbs just so happens to be on the scene as well. Niska meets up with Leo and Max at an emergency rendezvous point they had previously set up, but Niska refuses to stay. She’s, rightfully, still angry about Leo forcing her to stay at the brothel. As she goes off, she finds herself with a man that she met at a cafe. She’s looking to move fast with him…but he wants to take it slow, get to know her. She walks around his house and notices another woman’s hair ties in the bathroom. She takes this as meaning he’s unfaithful and takes a knife, preparing to murder him until she finds out he has his daughter. So she leaves, and lets him live.
Dr. Millican continues to try and distract Vera from Odi’s existence, having her perform tasks around the house that may be impossible for her to do on her own but benefit his health. He locks Vera in a room, grabs Odi, and has Odi drive him. Vera, obviously, finds her way out of the room and attempts to stop George but with no success, as a malfunctioning Odi drives off. George and Odi drive through the woods together, and George reminisces about the past. When George suggests that he wants ice cream, Odi takes that literally and attempts to exit the car while he’s still driving, resulting in a crash. George, knowing Odi will most definitely be recycled now, let’s Odi go off into the woods…throwing away his one connection to the past. George makes it back to his house, but all he can think about is leaving Odi alone in the woods.
Joe brings Anita and his family back home to investigate the damage done to Anita, while Laura walks the bike home. Anita tells Joe that to examine properly for damage, Anita must have her clothes taken off. Joe brings Anita into the garage and he’s…hesitant about the idea. Toby on the other hand attempts to find a way to get himself a glimpse. When things settle down at home, Laura tries to join in on family fun time but Sophie screams at her mom when Anita offers her spot for Laura. Before going to bed, Sophie demands that Anita read her a bedtime story instead of her mother and Joe allows it to happen. Anita, preparing to read it, convinces Sophie to allow her mother to read the story instead. Mattie sneaks downstairs during the middle of the night to try and figure out why Anita is special and appears to get more than she bargained for. She connects Anita’s port into her laptop…only for Anita’s consciousness to break out and call for help. Mattie, curious as to what all the code in Anita’s head means, posts the code she discovered on a website only to be discovered by Leo and Max who now know one thing: Anita’s alive.
There’s a lot of things going on in Humans so far but everything we’ve seen has only added to the intrigue and mystery of the story. We already knew Anita was special in some way but Mattie may have brought Anita closer to the surface than she would have liked. Anita also discovered a secret Laura’s been keeping from her family…but what? There’s been nothing to hint at who Tom is or what he means to Laura but he clearly means something to her. There’s also the fact that Niska appears to be reaching serial killer sort of levels, thinking about killing unfaithful men and men who are morally and ethically wrong. Humans continues to get better and better as the weeks go on, but at a certain point some questions are going to have to be answered. I expect there will be answers soon though, it’s not like this is a show run by Damon Lindelof after all.