Raised by Wolves 2.7: Mothers and Babies

Probably the most the powerful episode -- 2.7 -- of Raised by Wolves up today on HBO Max.  No, I'd say it is the most powerful.  And its theme was mothers and babies.  Which unfolded in three narratives.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

The less apocalyptic story was Tempest and her newborn.  Last week, we saw it stolen by one of the acid-sea creatures.  This week, we find out why: the sea creature was herself a new mother who had just lost her baby.  When Tempest, Hunter, and Father confront the creature in a cave, she's nursing Tempest's baby.  Father plans to kill it and take the baby back, but at the last minute Tempest says no.  That moment says a lot about the monster/human dichotomy which animates (along with the android/human dichotomy) the entire series.   Tempest realizes/senses that the monster is something more (or less or different) than a monster, if she could be nursing her baby.   Father gets it, but Hunter doesn't, kills the monster/nursing mother,  and takes back the baby -- which Tempest then rejects.

That scene, that story, would have been more than enough to be the centerpiece of this episode.  But Raised by Wolves, not content with just one profundity, rolls out another.  The flying serpent, which Mother gave birth to and tried to nurture, matures and eats the tree which Sue became or became part of last week.  That tree went from a heartbeat to -- after being consumed by the flying serpent -- a Godzilla-level monster.  Mother's lethal scream can't stop it -- in part because her maternal instinct likely reduced the strength of the scream, in part because ... who knows, including who knows the ratio of her maternal instant and the power of the mature serpent in accounting for why Mother's scream didn't work.

And there was a third mother/baby story, probably less profound than the other two, but still memorable and endearing.  Vrill android, forsaken by her mother, determined to be part of the human community, does her best to help Campion evade the serpent.  But, in the end, the girl android dies of wounds she sustains in the fight.

I'm looking forward to the second season finale next week. I know this penultimate episode will stay with me a long time.

See also Raised by Wolves 2.1-2: A Viking Out in Space, with Androids ... Raised by Wolves 2.3: Marcus and the Android Skeleton ... Raised by Wolves 2.4: Kinds of Sentience and Conflicts ... Raised by Wolves 2.5: Science Fiction and Horror ... Raised by Wolves 2.6: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction

And see also Raised by Wolves 1.1: Fast Action and Deep Philosophy  ... Raised by Wolves 1.2-3: More than Meets the Eye ... Raised by Wolves 1.4-5: Halfway to Dune ...Raised by Wolves 1.6-7: The Look on Mother's Face ... Raised by Wolves 1.8-1.9: Frankenstein and Motherhood ... Raised by Wolves Season One Finale: The Serpent