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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Humans Season 3 Final Three Episodes: Hybrids



I decided to review the final three episodes of Humans, Season 3, as a single piece, since they're even more closely connected than episodes usually are in this fine series.   The upshot of these episodes, and a great foundation for a fourth season, is that it's possible to have a true synch-human hybrid - true, that is, and assuming I'm understanding this correctly, on the genetic level.

Leo was already a hybrid of sorts.  But he was born human, and given parts of a synch brain to save him after he died, or almost died, depending on how you look at it, from drowning.  That synch part was taken out of him this season.  But it turned out that the totally human Leo was not quite totally human.  He was something a little more, retaining something of his synch essence even after the hardware was removed.

And as Odie now V who attained his hybrid quality in a different way, tells Niska, who has now also risen to a superior level, the baby that Leo and Mattie are having will be a hybrid from the moment of birth.  Or, actually, she's a hybrid already in the womb.

This takes Humans to a whole new level, almost reminiscent of the best of Dune and its genetics.  (I also dealt with this in a different way in my Locus-award-winning first novel, The Silk Code.) In fact, I can't think of any other AI story - including Westworld - where the genetics and digital have been so tantalizingly woven together.   Or promise to be - for at this point, at the end of season, it has not quite fully happened.

So our synths have now progressed from (a) most of the green-eyes are non-sentient, but our original cohort are sentient because David Elster wanted them to be that way to take care of Leo, (b) all of the remaining green-eyes are sentient due to the awakening due to the release of the code by Mattie to save Mia last year, (c) to human-synch hybrids on a different level, including synchs on a different level, as evidenced by V, Niska, and soon Mattie's baby.

Sadly, Mia's death means that Mattie's release of the code to save Mia had no long-term effect on Mia, though she did play a crucial role in the new order that's arising.  And, hey, death is never necessarily dead when it comes to androids, so ... who knows, we may see Mia again.

And you'll see me back here with reviews whenever Humans returns.

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