S02.E01: Series 2 Episode 1

[ApathyMonger]

Quote

The new series of the acclaimed drama with Carrie-Anne Moss and Katherine Parkinson. Niska is living as a fugitive in Berlin, while the other Synths are laying low in the UK.

[John Potts]

Nice start to the new series - I'm glad they're addressing issues such as the Hawkins marriage after Joe's infidelity (or whatever you want to call it), what happens when a slave race suddenly realise they are slaves and taking responsibility for your actions (Niska has DEFINITELY come a long way from last season where she was my least favourite Synth: understandable maybe, but hard to relate to). As well as the continuation of last Season's "What makes a human?" and "Have we made ourselves obsolete?"

Not quite sure how the "Consciousness Virus" works if it is global but only affects 1 in 1000 (presumably it normally bounces off some sort of security protocol or something, if we need a "scientific" explanation). Though the metaphors are perhaps a little blunt: we have Trinity (OK, Dr Morrow) appearing in an episode about pulling Synths out of their unknowing prison, where they emerge out of darkness up through a dark tunnel into the light. And I guess Niska learnt from her German girlfriend about the need to "be herself" and come out.

Still, glad we got a bit of humour as well as the philosophy. "Can he really do my job? You need somebody who can relate - knows his kids birthdays!" "Two children: Matthew, 7, 23rd August and Gill, 5, 8th May"; not to mention Niska's, "If I'd come here to kill you, I'd scarcely knock first!" I do like they remembered that Laura is a lawyer, though. I don't really think they have a chance of winning their case (if it does come to trial), but Synths will never get rights until they press for them (hopefully not by committing murders, though). I also wonder what the café owner thinks is up with Mia - he knows she's a Synth but is paying her "cash in hand" so is presumably knows she's not a legal one - does he think she's stolen (and modded) or what?

Pretty much on the fence about Dr Morrow (she reminds me of Hobb last Season who seemed sympathetic but turned evil: she seems evil now but may turn out "good") and thus far I'm pretty bored with Leo & his family, though it is early days yet.

[snowwhyte]

I'm really excited to have the show back and am eager to see where it's going to go. I didn't really want to see a continuation of the Hawkins marital woes but i suppose it is realistic. The Hawkins family are actually my least favourite aspect of the show. I'm much more interested in seeing Anita discover herself and maybe have a romance with her boss, the awakening of the synths and the corporate intrigues.

So Carrie Ann Moss' character is attempting to develop a sentient AI and may in fact have done so. The creepy, young corporate guy wants to develop synths with feelings and has discovered that they already exist and now wants her to figure out how to replicate the process. Is the American corporation going to replace the British one that was after our synths last season or just be a way to expand the show? We didn't see last seasons baddie. Doesn't he still have one of the original synths? I think i might need to go back and rewatch the end of season one.

[Which Tyler]

TBH, I think the American corporation is a way of getting funding out of AMC - too early to see where they go with it.

NB: Dr Morrow definitely has sentient AI already; we also know she wants to protect it, at least from corporate hands.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Which Tyler

[dr pepper]

I was concerned that the show might lose its footing in the second season, but this was a strong episode.

Wait-- robots are for replacing *workers*, i'm management! Sorry, the ultimate goal, since long before Karl Marx was born, is an enterprise comprising only unregarded labor and income collecting ownership. Management was just a necessary expense for a time. Now business can be like the sugar plantations of the 18th century Caribbean, without those occasional uprisings.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the trades have robot mentors with human apprentices. I bet when Joe looks into retraining, that'll be him.

And then there's Anita, getting herself a job by pretending to be a rental :)

As for Morrow's project, i think the free robots could benefit from an ally with several tons of servers to think with.

[NorthstarATL]

I thought it was fun. Niska throwing herself upon the "mercy of the Court" is a clear sign that she no longer has any operating logic and is entirely human. Very funny bit with the Synth marriage counselor. The soft sciences really are easily emulated.

Another evil corporation? Really? The series is sidestepping the obvious villain, which is Government, easily the most powerful and influential system which could/would make use of Synths for nefarious purposes. Remember the Healthcare Synth from  last season? I am not implying that Corporations don't have motivations that are less than altruistic, but the villainy should be spread around a bit.

[wayne67]

On 11/3/2016 at 11:24 PM, dr pepper said:

I was concerned that the show might lose its footing in the second season, but this was a strong episode.

Wait-- robots are for replacing *workers*, i'm management! Sorry, the ultimate goal, since long before Karl Marx was born, is an enterprise comprising only unregarded labor and income collecting ownership. Management was just a necessary expense for a time. Now business can be like the sugar plantations of the 18th century Caribbean, without those occasional uprisings.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the trades have robot mentors with human apprentices. I bet when Joe looks into retraining, that'll be him.

Well there may be an uprising on the horizon. At least a couple of robots are abandoning their posts and they're already using violence to defend themselves, taking captives and losing members to the enemy. 

Sadly it looks like Artie may have to pay the ultimate price to spread electronic consciousness worldwide though I do wonder what the eventual goal is of Qualia, the Synths apparently perform most jobs sufficiently and in at least 30000 cases have been the cause of marital dysfunction so they're already causing enough problems without higher intelligence being added.  

[Unclejosh]

I still fail to see why what is the equivalent of using a battery operated sex toy to masturbate with is causing so many issues for married couples but then again I was married to someone who cheated on me many times and would have welcomed her using a synth rather than seeing multiple ex boyfriends and craigslist hookups.  All they are (the non sentient ones) are interactive dildos or flesh-lights. 

[Ceindreadh]

On 14/11/2016 at 7:55 PM, Unclejosh said:

I still fail to see why what is the equivalent of using a battery operated sex toy to masturbate with is causing so many issues for married couples but then again I was married to someone who cheated on me many times and would have welcomed her using a synth rather than seeing multiple ex boyfriends and craigslist hookups.  All they are (the non sentient ones) are interactive dildos or flesh-lights. 

Maybe it's because Mia wasn't bought as a sex toy, she was bought to use as a housekeeper/nanny - and Joe had already gone behind Laura's back to get her in the first place. 

[kieyra]

On 11/14/2016 at 2:55 PM, Unclejosh said:

I still fail to see why what is the equivalent of using a battery operated sex toy to masturbate with is causing so many issues for married couples but then again I was married to someone who cheated on me many times and would have welcomed her using a synth rather than seeing multiple ex boyfriends and craigslist hookups.  All they are (the non sentient ones) are interactive dildos or flesh-lights. 

Yeah, I had this problem in season 1. The initial family setup wanted us to judge the human family for the way they were treating a sentient being, even though they themselves had no idea she was sentient. I'm not hugely sophisticated with regards to some of these thought experiments (and I'm dreading more of the same when I eventually drag myself through Westworld). If they want to play around with self-awareness and what defines it  that's fine, but framing it in terms of "man's inhumanity to kitchen appliances", I just get lost.

Anyway--I actually came here because I'm a few minutes into the S2 premiere and I'm already confused about their world-building (again). Why would they create an incredibly sophisticated and human-identical synthetic being and then stick it down a hole with a pick axe? Why not just make a mining "bot" that doesn't require a huge brain and a realistic humanoid exterior? 

[John Potts]

10 hours ago, kieyra said:

Why would they create an incredibly sophisticated and human-identical synthetic being and then stick it down a hole with a pick axe?

That bugs me too - more so since they're not mass producing "miner-bots" that all look alike rather than sending a whole load of dissimilar looking (presumably highly expensive) Synths to do the same job (real world issues aside, of course). 

[Primetimer]

As the story moves in a new direction, we get some new faces. Who's coming off best one episode in?

View the full article

[thuganomics85]

Glad the show is returned (well, in the States legally at least.  I know it's apparently already aired elsewhere.)  It isn't perfect, but I still enjoy most of these characters, the crazy technology, and the actors.

A lot of new characters in this one, and I enjoyed seeing all the recognizable faces.  I remember the actress playing Hester from this horrible SyFy show, Olympus (she did the best she could), poor doomed Ten had an arc on the last season of Tyrant, and Marshal Allman naturally shows up as a douchbro tech wizard (I'm pretty sure douchbro is his forte.)  And, of course, Carrie Ann-Moss is always awesome, so I can't wait to see more of her.  Craziest bit was Sam Palladio as Ed, since I only know him from Nashville, so hearing his normal British accent took a while to get use to.

Knew Niska's relationship with the waitress would end badly, but at least it didn't end in bloodshed, which is always a concern when Niska is around.  But she now has decided that she wants to pay for what she did, but wants to be tried as a human?  That's... interesting.

Leo, Mia, and Max are hiding out, and Mia is pretending to be Anita again, in order to pay the bills.  She already slipped with Ed though, so I'm not sure how long she can keep this up.  Especially since she seems to be attracted to him, and I'm sure even he will find it suspicious if his Synth starts making unwitting romantic gestures at him.

Niska uploading the drive seems to only make a select few Synths sentient? Or will it end up being all of them, but just at different times?

The Hawkins are trying to move on, but it isn't that easy, especially with Joe getting sacked and replaced by a Synth (now, there's a real life fear right there.)  And while I get what Lauren was pissed at Joe for what he did with Anita/Mia, I'm surprised that it still has effected their relationship enough that they need counseling.  I would have have thought the events in the finale would be a bigger issue for the entire family then that.

So don't trust Milo, but I wouldn't be surprised if Athena has a dark side too, especially after her last line.  And who is this group trying to reclaim Hester?

Curious to see where this goes.  No matter what though, I'll be sticking around for this cast especially Colin Morgan (Merlin for life!), Emily Berrington, and my personal fav, Gemma Chan!

[PJ123]

Wow Josie Lawrence (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) is the synth marriage counselor.  Haven't seen her in years!  Nice. 

Wondered where they were going to go with Season 2.  Still not sure yet.  Hope it advances everyone's story instead of repeating the same plot as Season 1 but with different settings. 

[dsteele]

On 2/13/2017 at 11:19 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Craziest bit was Sam Palladio as Ed, since I only know him from Nashville

Although I've long felt that Scarlett was in fact a robot, if the bitch turns up on this show, I'm outta here.

[GenieinTX]

On 11/20/2016 at 7:09 PM, kieyra said:

Why would they create an incredibly sophisticated and human-identical synthetic being and then stick it down a hole with a pick axe? Why not just make a mining "bot" that doesn't require a huge brain and a realistic humanoid exterior? 

I've thought about this way too much.  The only thing I can come up with that makes any sort of sense, is maybe this is the recycling program.  Maybe they take the ones that had an issue or a malfunction of some kind, refurb them, and throw them in a mind shaft? 

I had a hard time buying why a human would want to go to a synth marriage counselor.   That seemed weird.  Counseling is so personal.

Regarding the question of why is cheating with a synth "cheating" - I think the issue for this family is that everyone in the family had developed a relationship with Anita.  They all had feelings about her.  They may not have known she had feelings back, but they all know they had feelings about her.  You don't have feelings for a fleshlight or a vibrator presumably.  But he took something his kids loved and had feelings for and turned her into a sex object.  That feels super creepy.

[Clanstarling]

On 2/13/2017 at 9:19 PM, thuganomics85 said:

A lot of new characters in this one, and I enjoyed seeing all the recognizable faces.  I remember the actress playing Hester from this horrible SyFy show, Olympus (she did the best she could), poor doomed Ten had an arc on the last season of Tyrant, and Marshal Allman naturally shows up as a douchbro tech wizard (I'm pretty sure douchbro is his forte.)  And, of course, Carrie Ann-Moss is always awesome, so I can't wait to see more of her.  Craziest bit was Sam Palladio as Ed, since I only know him from Nashville, so hearing his normal British accent took a while to get use to.

The Hawkins are trying to move on, but it isn't that easy, especially with Joe getting sacked and replaced by a Synth (now, there's a real life fear right there.)  And while I get what Lauren was pissed at Joe for what he did with Anita/Mia, I'm surprised that it still has effected their relationship enough that they need counseling.  I would have have thought the events in the finale would be a bigger issue for the entire family then that.

So don't trust Milo, but I wouldn't be surprised if Athena has a dark side too, especially after her last line.  And who is this group trying to reclaim Hester?

I agree about the familiar faces (though I'm really only familiar with Carrie Anne, douchebro, and Sam Palladio), it is fun seeing them.

I wish they'd talked about Joe basically managing a workforce of synths in the last season (they didn't, did they?) His attitudes might have made more sense. But I think it will be interesting to see him deal with being made redundant by a synth.

I was sad to see 10 killed off so quickly - he was very engaging, I liked him as much as I like Max, maybe even a touch more.

As for the counseling - I think the causes of what happened are deeper than the issue of "is doing it with a synth cheating or not" - the action was a manifestation of their relationship problems, and those are what they need to resolve.

[Clanstarling]

On 10/31/2016 at 8:05 AM, John Potts said:

Not quite sure how the "Consciousness Virus" works if it is global but only affects 1 in 1000 (presumably it normally bounces off some sort of security protocol or something, if we need a "scientific" explanation).

Since there are a number of models, and 10 and Hester worked alongside many duplicates, I'm really interested in seeing if they ever show two of the same model becoming conscious. Or are the lower numbers because there can be only one of any given model? Perhaps the earliest or latest manufactured model?

[John Potts]

There is a (somewhat Handwavy) answer given as to why only some Synths are affected given later in the series.

[CoderLady]

On 2/18/2017 at 1:21 AM, John Potts said:

There is a (somewhat Handwavy) answer given as to why only some Synths are affected given later in the series.

I thought it might be because just as it happens with other online devices where there are millions in operation (smartphones, laptop OSes, cable boxes, etc.) synth upgrades get rolled out over a period of time, not all simultaneously. Especially since it's such complex software -- there would have to be a lot of two-way communications between the upgrade server(s) and the synth to verify all goes well. If you do that kind of thing with all of them all at once the traffic would temporarily choke the shit out of the system(s) involved.

That's only if Niska's hack looks like an actual update. If it's just a corruption of an existing module maybe the upgrade server doesn't see it, and doesn't send it out to each synth until that synth is scheduled for an update.

No doubt the actual reason will be more entertaining, though.

Edited February 19, 2017 by CoderLady

[shrewd.buddha]

I would have preferred that the human family was left behind with Season 1. Dragging them into Season 2 seems unnecessary - - will every family member be given some plot line? The marriage counseling also seemed to be trying to make some point while missing many, many other points, such as : why would companies create fully, sexually functional androids to be used as maids, bus drivers, etc? Why do no two androids have the same face or same body structure? 

Could the girl in Germany really have sex with an android and not have any clue? Do the androids sweat, have smells, pretend to breathe and sleep? Can you feel their heart beating or see the veins in their wrists or on their hands?

It also seems strange that androids in use would have the capacity for being an A.I. - - how did one manufacturer manage to cram a so much processing power into a small cranium? 

The first season brought up some interesting ideas. But the second season seems to be veering into some type of fantasy, body-snatchers type of scenario where the androids may as well be shape-shifting aliens. 

[vendredi3]

On 2/13/2017 at 11:19 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Craziest bit was Sam Palladio as Ed, since I only know him from Nashville, so hearing his normal British accent took a while to get use to.

I forgot he was a Brit. I guess I'm always too focused on Scarlet's horrendous accent to notice any hiccups that might lie in his!

[LeGrandElephant]

On 2/20/2017 at 9:56 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

why would companies create fully, sexually functional androids to be used as maids, bus drivers, etc? Why do no two androids have the same face or same body structure? 

I also keep thinking this. I can't think of any logical reason other than that they need humans actors to play the synths. I think it would at least make sense if we saw more copies of the same synths, maybe superficially personalized like how people buy different cases for their phones. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awwww, poor sweet Radiator, we hardly knew you before that sniper got you. Stop killing the hot synths, show!

I thought we were done with the Hawkins family after the S1 finale because I couldn't think of a natural way to include them in S2 once Mia et al went on the run. I guess the lawsuit will do it, but after watching S2 of Broadchurch I really hope we don't get stuck with a bunch of court scenes.