Despite its heavy loads of stoner and semen jokes, anyone that’s seen a recent foul mouthed teddy bear’s sequel will know it’s essential a story of a non-human character’s quest for human rights. It may have got tangled up in its own fur but the central idea was still there; that human rights belong to those with conscience and emotions regardless of what physical form they take. In this episode of Humans the idea of “Synth rights” first gets raised but gets a surprising moral flip when human nature becomes the enemy. That Synth’s need human rights less for their own benefits but to save us from ourselves, because humans viewing anyone in their lives as their property (or slaves) to do with as they wish can bring out the most vile and horrific parts of humanity. We need Human rights to prevent Human wrongs.
Episode 4 – As Laura meets a legal client claiming over her Synth’s legal rights it get her thinking about Anita, while the rest of the family have very different Synth encounters. Niska learns of an underground “Smash Club” where humans beat apart Synths and decides to even the odds. After meeting with George, Leo finally learns the truth about his fellow conscious Synth’s.
In what’s undoubtedly Humans’ best episode to date there’s plenty of shocks much needed big reveals but all the best material comes from exploring the emotional dynamics of Human/Synth relationships with regards to their power and authority. We see many characters treating Synth’s in ways that contravene all manner of moral principles purely because they can (and in some cases with great regret). This is a wonderful display of the classic AI-genre ideal; that ultimately Humans need to be saved from themselves. The most surprising case is Joe, all be it wine goggles induced, and his experimentation with Anita’s adult settings. All stages of the act Joe shows full awareness at how wrong his actions are yet on he continues in comparable fashion to a Roman master forcing himself upon his slave girl. Gemma Chan does some fantastic work as Anita to pose subtle questions over her levels of awareness. When Anita handed Joe the manual did she know the adult settings leaflet was inside? Her mannerisms throughout the act give eerie feel of compliant indifference making her feel less of a lover and more of a sex toy which prevents this being viewed in any way romantically.
We then see this kind of motive raised to a more brutal and hormonal level at the house party when Mattie stops the boys sexually abusing the resident Synth. Again the focus is on the justifications of immoral acts because Synths are viewed as property rather than people, “do you think it’s normal to drag an unconscious woman upstairs and rape her?”. It’s almost like physical representation of the modern Internet porn availability; rather than being able to see anything they want online, now these boys have the power to experience some degree of it with dominance over Synths. There’s even a great little moment of Toby turning down a rather nice girl at the party because “there’s someone else”. This clearly implies his obsessive feelings towards Anita and show how socially damaging such hormonal confusion can be. It also harks back to Futurama’s “Lucy Lu bot” episode.
Finally on the Synth abuse front there’s the most literal example as Niska visits the very one sided fight club. In a similar fashion to Joe and Anita’s one on one, it’s the casual passivity the Synth’s display to onslaught of Human violence and aggression that really steals the scenes. In the opening fight we see the Synth swatting aside blows like flies in an almost mocking fashion. The only gripe here is wanting for more crowd interaction. It would have been nice get a few snippets of background conversation from the club attendees as to why they’ve come. Do they bare grudges against Synth’s for taking their jobs in the best South Park “pissed off redneck” style (they tooook ma joooob!”)? Do they have outright hatred and jealousy like we’ve seen from Peter over Karen’s physical therapy Synth? Or are they just sickos that love the violence? It would have been rewarding to see this explored further to reinforce the background society opinions towards Synth’s but episode run-time constraints could easily have prevented this.
As a mark of the show’s smart writing, the episode feels very consciously aware that it’s the series mid-point by drawing the separate stories closer together. The most impressive part is how it allows different characters to meet without requiring them to stay together going forward. Mattie has an anonymous run if with Leo and Max over Anita. This gives Mattie a few more clues into Anita’s secrets without providing Leo with her location just yet. As expected, Dr George Millican also gets a visit from the boys when they need some technical info from a member of the original Synth project. Again George’s captivity at the hands of Vera allows the boys to leave him when questions start being asked but their encounter does drop some awesome bombshells over Leo’s identity and the series endgame. Finally Detective Peter Drummond now fits more curiously into the main story. His domestic rivalry didn’t seem to be going anywhere but moving him on from that places him in a pivotal new role as the shocking final scene unfolds.
The episode sees the show transition from fascinating to captivating as the plot thickens and mysteries get even deeper. It’s packed with little gems like a nail gun wielding heroine (Lisbeth Salandar approves) and how convenient stalking can be in a technological age. Humans continues to be a model genre series; demonstrating that you can wow an audience without flashy effects if you have the content to back it up.