S02.E06: Series 2 Episode 6

[Cranberry]

Quote

Athena challenges Milo's ethics and is shocked when he reveals his real plan. Mia's surprise return has ramifications for the Hawkins family. Mattie finds Leo but can she trust him with her secret? Max resolves to begin a new community of Synths; when he learns how far Leo is prepared to go to complete his mission, he takes matters into his own hands.

[NorthstarATL]

Well, they answered my questions about the Synth kids not aging normally, so I can see the purpose now more clearly.  While I normally love Niska, she was so NOT her stealth self on the run, and even I knew that the other Synths were reporting on her. Hester not only is "human" but also really catty especially with Mattie! And Mia seems to have learned to be less trusting. I was annoyed at how casually cruel she was to Sophie. That too is a "human" trait I guess. I was hoping she could distinguish between Gunnar (can't recall his name on this show) and the family she went to for help. I like how the various threads are coming together though.

[John Potts]

Did anyone else wonder if Odi was going to turn into an "Angel of Death" following his "confession" in church? It could be seen as a logical extension of what the priest said about the dead going "to a better place" and how he thought Odi should try to "help people" (I actually thought that was how him helping the old guy was going to end).

14 hours ago, NorthstarATL said:

While I normally love Niska, she was so NOT her stealth self on the run, and even I knew that the other Synths were reporting on her. And Mia seems to have learned to be less trusting.

Yes! I was going "cut and/or dye your hair, or at least wear a wig!" (it's possible that Synths recognise each other via non-facial recognition, but do something to make yourself less visible). And it's sad (but believable) to see Mia become suspicious and close lipped around people, even among those she had previously (and rightly) trusted.

Glad to see the Hawkins family really function as a unit - loved Joe starting a food fight to get his daughter to act "normal", even if Sophie "relapsed" afterward. And did like them trusting that Mattie was going to do what she wanted but that didn't mean they weren't worried about her.

[kieyra]

For some reason this episode felt slow as molasses to me. I know there were some huge developments, but the pacing was off.

And they were hitting me over the head with a hammer with the child robot stuff for far too long.

I really like Carrie Anne Moss in this, but I wish they'd cast someone with a little more intrinsic menace as the tech billionaire. Dude's threat delivery made me giggle. 

Not enough Niska.

[Which Tyler]

On 05/12/2016 at 6:51 PM, John Potts said:

Yes! I was going "cut and/or dye your hair, or at least wear a wig!" (it's possible that Synths recognise each other via non-facial recognition, but do something to make yourself less visible). And it's sad (but believable) to see Mia become suspicious and close lipped around people, even among those she had previously (and rightly) trusted.

My understanding is that it's canon that synth's just recognise each other.

Our conscious synths are often getting questioning looks from other synths, or asked why they don't share etc.

I think it's like each synth is a WiFi router, on open settings, constantly sharing information; but that our conscious synths are WiFi routers with the security turned on - visible, but not sharing.

 

My biggest suspension of disbelief was that it seem too have taken the government this long to think about using synths to spy on people - all that face-recognition software, all that Geotagged CCTV being publicly broadcast for anyone who wants (and has the right tech) to have a look; and only NOW do they decide to use it (and to use it in such an obvious manner - talk about subtlety of delivering their message).

Edited December 9, 2016 by Which Tyler

[thuganomics85]

So, Anita is already back to Mia, since she ended up returning to Hawkins, after she was rebooted.  I wonder if Mia knew that was going to happen from the get go.  As usual, I loved watching Gemma Chan when she flipped from one character to the next.  Now, she's back with Leo and Hester, and seems all for breaking into the Silo.

No surprise that Hester and Mattie already seem to hate each other.  Careful, Hester.  You might have the bodycount, but Mattie as the tech skills to really do a number on you!

Glad Max is stepping up, and doing something to prevent Leo and Hester from finding any other Synths.

Niska is now on the run, and it ends up being even harder then expected, since the police have done some thing where every Synth automatically recognizes and reports her, whenever she is spotted.  At least she's back with Astrid again!

Was Veronica the Synth Leo and Hester allowed to get captured?  If so, that is certainly fitting if she is the one that causes problems for them down the line.

The Hawkins Family food fight was fun, even if it looks like Sophie is back into her Synth phase still.

Poor Odi.  Enjoyed his scene with Mia at least.

I guess finale is next week!  Not sure what will happen, except I suspect Athena will try (and maybe succeed?) at uploading Jenny into one of the main Synths.

[Spaceman Spiff]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 1:22 AM, thuganomics85 said:

No surprise that Hester and Mattie already seem to hate each other.  Careful, Hester.  You might have the bodycount, but Mattie as the tech skills to really do a number on you!

Glad Max is stepping up, and doing something to prevent Leo and Hester from finding any other Synths.

Niska is now on the run, and it ends up being even harder then expected, since the police have done some thing where every Synth automatically recognizes and reports her, whenever she is spotted.  At least she's back with Astrid again!

Was Veronica the Synth Leo and Hester allowed to get captured?  If so, that is certainly fitting if she is the one that causes problems for them down the line.

I sill worry for Mattie. Hester seems too much of a loose cannon and is learning to lie very well.

I believe she was the synth Leo and Hester let get captured, but to be honest I thought that whole scene would play different. The way the camera kept panning past the synth's it looked like it was avoiding a certain spot and I seriously thought the end would be the camera zooming in on Fred.

[Haleth]

I was so hoping to see Fred too.  It must be that the actor is doing something else.

[Clanstarling]

On 12/5/2016 at 10:51 AM, John Potts said:

Did anyone else wonder if Odi was going to turn into an "Angel of Death" following his "confession" in church? It could be seen as a logical extension of what the priest said about the dead going "to a better place" and how he thought Odi should try to "help people" (I actually thought that was how him helping the old guy was going to end).

Never occurred to me - but now that you've put it in my mind, I can see it going that way.

On 12/9/2016 at 4:28 AM, Which Tyler said:

My biggest suspension of disbelief was that it seem too have taken the government this long to think about using synths to spy on people - all that face-recognition software, all that Geotagged CCTV being publicly broadcast for anyone who wants (and has the right tech) to have a look; and only NOW do they decide to use it (and to use it in such an obvious manner - talk about subtlety of delivering their message).

I thought this surveillance was pretty chilling in its ramifications. For me, I think there are two possible scenarios as to why we are seeing it for the first time:

1) they may just have figured out how to issue wide area directives to synths all at once, (there have been software updates, but this might require more than that) but more likely

2) they've been doing it all along, but spying on humans with a smaller number of synths involved at any given time. I imagine it is something they'd use for national security issues (at this point) and Niska and conscious synths are definitely a national security problem, given Niska's last words to Laura. Humans wouldn't be aware of a few synths surveilling them, as the synths are more or less part of the scenery. But Niska had more on her tail and pays attention to fellow synths.

Hester is the living proof that consciousness doesn't equal conscience. She was so smooth with Max, knowing just what buttons to push. I fear for Mattie, though. I like this new status - that their biggest human supporters are now excluded, and even endangered by them. Makes it a bit more interesting.

I also liked that Max, sweet, benevolent, Max, is not simple. Changing the encryption for the messages to the newly awakening synths was pretty cool.

While I understand the reason behind the child synths, I'm not quite sure why Athena is so aghast. It's essentially what she's trying to do, make her child live again in a synthetic body. And I think it's possible that once transference of consciousness to a synthetic body is achieved, the "children" can be aged up by moving into "older" bodies.

[lidarose9]

I've let these episodes pile up on my DVR and am now catching up. By this point I have seriously lost the thread of most of the storylines -- there are too many, they feel random and unrelated. And I find a whole lot of this to be really unbelievable. For example, the Hawkins family seems to exist in a bubble where daily life goes on as usual in the midst of mind-shattering weirdnesses. There are constant bizarre time-slips where we jump back and forth between storylines and in one it's morning but in the next it's night and someone is sleeping, then back to the morning story again. This show has watered itself down by trying to do way too much. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awwww, poor sweet Odi struggling to find his place in the world and understand his purpose.

The most unbelievable thing in this episode was that not a single person in the Hawkins family thought they should clean up the huge food fight mess. They seriously just left all the sticky eggs on the floor? As someone who has cleaned up old eggs, that is a terrible idea.

Milo continues to be creepy with his threats. Hester is also creeping me out. She is learning very quickly how to become human by lying, killing, and threatening.

I couldn't decide whether to laugh at Niska or be frustrated with her. Once she found out that all of the other synths had been sent an alert to notify the police if they saw her, why didn't she make any effort to change her appearance? Just pop into a shop and buy some big cheap sunglasses for starters!

I thought I'd be happier about Mia and Leo's reunion but now that Mia no longer trusts humans, I am afraid that the combined misanthropy in the Leo/Hester/Mia group will get out of control. I guess that means Max is lucky that he got out when he did. Now he's got a sweet train to live in with his new friend Flash!

I was afraid that Pete and Karen tipped their hand by going to Athena so soon. They didn't get any useful information and they nudged her into actively seeking out Leo sooner so their visit to her office was a bust. I am not crazy about having Sam around permanently but I did feel bad for him. Since he wasn't bonded with an owner, does that mean he's been hanging out at the playground by himself since the Qualia guy released that first batch?

Edited September 30, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo