Ok, as of the beginning of Emergence 1.4, we know what/who Piper is, if not the full story of how she came to be. As Emily says, Piper is a totally artificial creation - body as well as mind. This would make her, in science fiction parlance, an android. Akin in television land to the beings in Westworld and Humans. Maybe even more so, as there don't seem to be any trace of wires or digital circuitry in Piper.
And, as Benny helpfully explains, a child is a perfect vehicle for getting androids into human society. After all, an android child can be made to look cute and in need of protection and sheltering. Exactly what made Piper so irresistible to Jo.
So what now? Kindred (aka John Locke from Lost, i.e., Terry O'Quinn is determined to get back his property, which apparently Piper is. We still know little to nothing of his master plan. But we know he has no trouble meting out death to anyone or thing who get his way. And we know that Piper has no trouble doing that, either, though she may be troubled by her actions afterwards.
At this point, it's still hard to say what Piper is really up to. When she screams and gets Jo to stop the car, and Pipe jumps out ... It turns out that Piper is doing that to save a turtle, to keep it from getting run over. Is that just more of Piper wanting to seem so sweet, to disable Jo's suspicions, or did Piper really care about saving that turtle? In any case, it certainly had the effect of once again disarming Jo - psychologically.
So welcome Emergence to realm of full-fledged, undeniable science fiction. Androids are one of my favorite sub-genres of the field, as both a fan and a writer.
See also: Emergence: May Just Make It ... Emergence 1.2: Cleaning Up ... Emergence 1.3: Robots and Androids
The androids are coming out into the open, for the first time in centuries ....
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