Humans: Season 3, Episode 5

“He was talking to the ground, Joe!”

Another brilliant episode, obviously- this is, after all, Humans- but I get the sense that the sense optimism that we get here is doomed to be brutally punctured, and the outline of how it will happen is very, very visible.

We needed a less depressing episode, of course, after Karen’s death by mob at the end of last week’s, and most of the run time is taken up with Joe returning to the family home with poor orphaned Sam, who has nowhere else to go. We gradually see, as he interacts with the family, now Sam is learning about the emotions of grief he feels (“I don’t want my Mum to be dead. I don’t like it.”), and it’s heartbreaking. We also see Joe reconnecting a little with the family, except of course Mattie.

Elsewhere there is optimism. Laura succeeds in getting the Dryden Commission to ban violence against synths, although the script seems to behave as though it’s suddenly law already, before going through Parliament, but artistic licence and all that. Mia discovers that she has a lot of supporters online, many of whom are hiding synth loved ones, and dares to hope a little. Yet danger lurks; racism has not gone away, and as Max’s optimism runs ahead of him he alienated Anatole, who ends up freeing Agnes. Equally bad, Mattie is “befriended” by a journalist who is on to her. I suspect next episode will be much less cheery, especially as Mattie’s public excoriation will utterly undermine Laura and her cause. Why do I get the impression that Joe will somehow sacrifice himself to save Mattie?

That cliffhanger, though... Stanley has never been creepier. This series has bed. Consistently excellent, but I always await the next instalment with trepidation.