Humans Season 1, Episode 6 Review: An Emotional, Beautifully Scripted Roller Coaster Of An Episode

Spoiler alert: this recap covers the sixth episode of Humans showing on Channel 4. For episode five, click here.

WHAT. AN. EPISODE! Anita discovers her inner Mia, Jill Drummond learns that Synths are still robotic between the sheets, Kate shares her secret to Pete that she is a Synth, we say a sad goodbye to Max and Leo’s love for Mia is purely platonic and their bond is maternal.

There were certainly unexpected emotional explosions in the sixth episode of the season – and one which could be defined as a bit of a tearjerker. HUMANS has so far been regarded as a psychological thriller and a debate about artificial intelligence, but in Sunday night’s episode, it proved to be an emotional and heartbreaking human drama.  

The episode opens up where it left off – with the aftermath of Joe Hawkins’ (Tom Goodman-Hill) moment of madness during ‘sofa-gate’ with the household Synth. Surprisingly, Laura (Katherine Parkinson) is sticking up for Anita (Gemma Chan) declaring, “It’s not her fault,” and she seems rather protective of her previously unwanted machine. Is she growing a bond with Anita? It certainly seems that way. We also learnt more about her tragic childhood and that Tom is actually her dead brother who was run over, not a secret lover like her husband thought.

In more episode revelations, we discover that Hobb wasn’t working to obliterate David Elster’s work, but episode six revealed that he had spared Fred (Sope Dirisu) and is not actually the villain we thought, but more of a desperate copy-cat pioneer searching to make more of these unique machines. Hobb softens as the series draws parallels between him and other characters; most obviously George Millican, but also Leo, who – like Hobb – is part-man, part-machine.

Fred, however, does not want to be part of his new pioneer campaign and refuses to be a captured victim, as he responds violently to being held hostage and mutters the haunting, but oh-so-true words:

“Human minds cannot comprehend that their creations could surpass them.” Scary, chilling and rather poignant. 

You can’t help but feel sorry for Leo (Colin Morgan) who is going through a serious case of self-deprivation, sadness and has clearly given up on ‘life’ after the meeting with Anita. He’s at a total loss, has given up hope on finding his brothers and still has wavering faith in humanity: “Don’t trust people. They all lie, they fear, they all hate others,” he tells Max who has learnt that Mia has reemerged once more.

His reservations may be vanquished after Mattie (Lucy Carless) and Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) save Leo from near-death and reunite him with Anita – known to him as Mia – at her house.

Through Leo, we learn so much more about their intriguing history. His father created the special, feeling Synths and Mia was the first of his kind, created to look after Leo. She was his carer. She was a mother to him. More importantly, she saved his life when the car he was travelling in plunged to the bottom of the water and Mia pulled him out.

He was dead, but brought back to life synthetically by his father. Leo’s brain is synthetic and his memories are digital. Like Mia, Max and Fred, he is a Synth with thoughts, feelings and consciousness. Colin Morgan delivers the scene perfectly, exuding the correct amount of emotion and melancholy that is needed to tell such a tragic narrative – and now we know just who Leo is: part-human, part-android; and I guess in some ways a bit of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but a less scary looking one! 

As Anita transformed into Mia, there was elation when Leo, Anita/Mia and Max were reunited. What a joyful moment. However, there was always the sense that their happiness was a temporary state and that an ill-fated situation was deemed to occur at any moment – and it did.

The loveable Synth Max was always an optimistic and smily machine, who could easily create a level of ease with the audience. In fact, he might make you want him as your own Synth because he was so adorable, but shortly after the reunion and whilst on the way to collect their other brother Fred, his power levels would not sustain the impending siege from Hobb and his Synth recovery team – and his sacrifice definitely got the tears flowing. ‘If I die, it means I’ve lived,’ he says, which is the kind of mixture of sentiment and emotion from a human. Those words are so beautifully written and superbly delivered by Ivanno Jeremiah. Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley’s script proves once more to be emotional, stirring and a work of beauty.  

Watching him plunge into the depths of a canal from the edge of a bridge was nothing less than upsetting and like the theories for the fate of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) in GAME OF THRONES, is there some chance he can be revived? Fingers crossed. And toes. Knowing that the others may need him to unlock all their other Synth brothers and sisters, I have a sneaky feeling this may not be the end of him.

HUMANS is continuously keeping the audience guessing and changes direction weekly. There has been a real shift in emotions and character plots in the last few episodes and with only two more hours left, we are expecting big things. Bring. It. On!

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