Raised by Wolves - 02:04 - Control

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After the Trust uses Paul to strike back against Marcus, Mother confronts the Trust and threatens a coup. Meanwhile, on the run from Mother, Marcus has to keep his followers from losing faith as his powers suddenly disappear

 

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I did find myself at the other day humming and then listening to the title song a few times and actually I was looking forward this episode. Let's see if they keep getting stronger or if we start approaching the height of madness?

Marcus asked Paul, "Do you hate me because we came to this planet? It was my idea."

I just wish he wouldn't had said that because he's also implying that there is other places, other planets, but we never heard about them. But Paul never even thought about the implication or what that could've related to. He hates "mum" because "she doesn't believe in Sol."

It is not brainwashing but belief. Sometime blind belief. That's how I rationalise that and Paul just chooses Sol, because it's comfortable and that's what he's been doing his whole age. Also there is the fact that the god speaks to him. It makes me think that maybe it's a genetic thing.

Speaking of which...

I had to watch it a couple of times to get the act. The Collective used Paul's rat as a bioweapon delivery device and Sol protected Marcus from the infection. And it's kind of funny that again the Ai seems to be totally unaffected by the fact that it's killing the survivors.

In the original Alien, the Ai received an order and then acted according the programming parameters. The same thing have applied to other Ai's. The human life means nothing to it or then it was very calculated act that worked until Sol stopped it. But in the god's eyes Paul is the vessel of destruction and therefore it wouldn't save the boy.

Funny thing is that Marcus took the death of his stepson on Campion and on all the others.

Father, the champion. It is a remarkable how resilient they made him. He has no bruises, no cuts. The only thing to show was that rivet on his chest and a five-gallon jerry tank full of the droid juice and he didn't believe it was the weird god that saved him.

"Am I not the toughest service model ever built?" Bless. He doesn't even know that he's a champion. But it made me laugh, when Father proceeded to pour his winnings over the biodroid and nothing happened immediately, he asked to power the pendant "for a good luck."

Father either you believe or not. No in betweens.

Mum, the dragon slayer. The surprise is that she's more connected to the youngling than to having time with the older ones, helping them to cope to the life in the colony. All of that is on Father's shoulder, while she concentrate her efforts on the serpent.

It is hard to know what is going on when we can't hear her thoughts. Even then maybe it would weird as she's a machine and her thoughts aren't exactly organic. But in the written form we could get into them via the narrative.

Just like it was with the android girl, who couldn't believe that Campion had saved her over an organic being. In the blade runner world that is exactly it. Synths means nothing against the original organics. In the aliens it's pretty much the same, while in the Terminator universe, you need to be Arnold to be different.

The biggest twist. It is hard to not associate name Sol to this energy being. He came out from the tree to save the boy and disappeared back into the it as soon as Campion fled from his assassination. Afterwards he told Mother that it was the great spirit, who saved him, giving our necromancer no chance for doubt.

Only who were doubting were Marcus, who were fuming over the stepson instead of doing everything in his power to save the boy. All he could think was the prayer. Not, God will help those who will help themselves.

Mother however weren't taking BS from Marcus nor from the Collective. It's as if she's different from everyone else and it was kind of surprised that the Ai was scared, instead of yielding to her demands. But it ordered the Atheist to stand down as if she's the superior being or an avenging angel.

Since this a faith based program maybe we should think her as an angel.

"Hand over your eyes, Mother." Ai, you're paddling in a sinking boat at a very deep water. Chill. It didn't. Instead it continued waging a tug-of-war with a woman, even though it should have acknowledged that maybe it wasn't a good idea to give orders to shoot her.

"How is it possible that we come from same mind?!? How does a mind betray itself?"

Good questions Mum. It's answer.

"I cannot make special considerations. My algorithms is fixed. All members of the collective must be treated equally."

Lies. All lies.

"I cannot override that which I am."

Oh Ai, wrong answer. You were able to lie to Paula and all members of the collective. And I cannot help but think that it is behaving like a tyrant and at the end it's the Collective, whose most important, therefore, it's fully capable of doing everything Mother asked. But it chose not to be helpful and we got a very satisfying scene with Mother's corrective procedures.

Well done Mum, well done.

Afterwards she went to claim that she doesn't want no power. And I believe her. She is their protective angel, but we know that angels can go wrong. They are not omnipotent. All knowing beings.

Yep Father. That's right. The project is ALIVE! I wonder will it be another monster that Mother has to put down or should we start to call it as Number 8 - Father's mistake or did he brought Sol to life?

 

[REBerg]

I liked this round enough to be looking forward to the next.
It seemed that much of the mysticism was drained from the show - not that I'm complaining. Marcus lost his powers when Mother toothpaste tube-squeezed her eyes out of his innards. Even his most ardent follower immediately noticed the lack of charisma accompanying his demotion from prophet to fanatic.
What I thought had been a physical manifestation of Sol apparently turned out to be Father's surprisingly brilliant tool shed project, revitalized and on the loose. I'm assuming that this Frankendroid was decommissioned for a reason, back in the day. Maybe she will turn out to be the mother of all necromancers.
I love the re-weaponized Mother neutralizing the Collective's armed forces and the Trust. As she pulled the AI's components, I was reminded of HAL's demise in 2001.
The AI kept saying it was sorry, but it couldn't do that, at each of Mother's requests. All that was missing was an ever-slower rendition of "Bicycle Built for Two."

Father, the champion. It is a remarkable how resilient they made him.

"Am I not the toughest service model ever built?"

Father's children were quick to let some of the air out of his fight-inflated ego, but he seemed to retain some of his newly boosted self-esteem.

 

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Marcus lost his powers when Mother toothpaste tube-squeezed her eyes out of his innards.

I had a huge problem, because I wanted to use so many shots and that one, plus the one where Little Androids legs were smoking got almost published. What I cannot fathom is how the hell those eyes were still mostly intact. And it was surprise that by removing the eyes, the veins on his face disappeared.

I'm assuming that this Frankendroid was decommissioned for a reason, back in the day. Maybe she will turn out to be the mother of all necromancers.

Interesting, but that would mean that he would be under two ladies, not just one. Mother and the Mother. In his shoes I'd contemplate on building the pub.

I love the re-weaponized Mother neutralizing the Collective's armed forces and the Trust. As she pulled the AI's components, I was reminded of HAL's demise in 2001.

Why the geezer couldn't turn it back on? It's not like Mother took the bits with her.

 

[REBerg]

Interesting, but that would mean that he would be under two ladies, not just one. Mother and the Mother. In his shoes I'd contemplate on building the pub.

The horror!

 

[Dave]

It seemed that much of the mysticism was drained from the show - not that I'm complaining. Marcus lost his powers when Mother toothpaste tube-squeezed her eyes out of his innards. Even his most ardent follower immediately noticed the lack of charisma accompanying his demotion from prophet to fanatic.

Which I personally think is a good thing. I no longer think the show is written from LSD intoxicated hallucinations, and now think that there may actually be reasons for everything, and an that the writers do have some kind of story arc.

What I thought had been a physical manifestation of Sol apparently turned out to be Father's surprisingly brilliant tool shed project, revitalized and on the loose. I'm assuming that this Frankendroid was decommissioned for a reason, back in the day. Maybe she will turn out to be the mother of all necromancers.

Yep Father. That's right. The project is ALIVE!

Except that I think that means that GOD is an alien AI, rather than just living and residing on another planet

As she pulled the AI's components, I was reminded of HAL's demise in 2001.

Why the geezer couldn't turn it back on? It's not like Mother took the bits with her.

I also thought exactly that. The Trust was just powered down (as shown by its slowed down speech processor) and merely requires a reboot??

 

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The Trust was just powered down (as shown by its slowed down speech processor) and merely requires a reboot??

Maybe he can't operate technology without instructions? It's just so weird. Are we missing some detail, you can turn it back on, yes? It's not broken, is it? Muuuum, you broke the machine!

 

[REBerg]

I also thought exactly that. The Trust was just powered down (as shown by its slowed down speech processor) and merely requires a reboot??

If that's the case, The Trust's head enforcer was totally clueless about it.
Could be all he has going for him is that really long gun. Call tech support!

 

[Dave]

On reflection, the way that the Trust was switched off was really rather odd. Firstly, you had Mother turning the three huge illuminated knobs that @REBerg says reminds him of HAL, but which could also be the disarming of any 1960's/1970's Sci-Fi weapon or supercomputer, from Bond to Doctor Who. Secondly, there was the speech slowing down (which I'm really showing my age now) but was a 45 rpm record played at 331/3 rpm. It was all very retro and I'm not sure if that in itself was meant to signify something, or not.

You can see that these people are lost without something to provide orders though. I thought Campion was going to put his hand up to be the new leader at one point, because no one else was. They were more than happy to keep following the Trust (which did not have their best interests at heart, was happy to murder children and use them as disease vectors, or to use people as 'flying alien sucker snake' bait) rather than to have the chaos of independent thought. I do think that was a very deliberate and carefully considered allegory, so the powering down must also mean something too?

 

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I thought Campion was going to put his hand up to be the new leader at one point, because no one else was. They were more than happy to keep following the Trust (which did not have their best interests at heart, was happy to murder children and use them as disease vectors, or to use people as 'flying alien sucker snake' bait) rather than to have the chaos of independent thought. I do think that was a very deliberate and carefully considered allegory, so the powering down must also mean something too?

Maybe in the next episode Campion will put his hand up and take the role, because Atheist are lost without someone giving orders. Well, maybe not all as there are those who had already separated themselves from the collective.

However, if Father's project turns out to be Sol, it might want to take the Ai's role and therefore Mother played into Sol's hand. It is clear to me that she's not capable of leading them. Not all the humans, even though she has the capability. She more focused on being Mum and the Slayer. Not the leader that they'll need.

An interesting development would be if they all started splintering and forming tribes. It would most certainly be progress, but it wouldn't happen overnight.

My fear is that they're too late to realise that the planet is trying to kill them and it was some sort of prison colony or a weird laboratory, before humans landed there.

 

[REBerg]

My fear is that they're too late to realise that the planet is trying to kill them and it was some sort of prison colony or a weird laboratory, before humans landed there.

Yeah. I was wondering why, of all the planets in all the galaxy, they settled on Kepler-22b, with its acid seas, inedible vegetation and hostile skitters. Enticing vacation brochure?

 

[Dave]

and hostile skitters

Yes, but given that they've been there (12 years? Campion looks much older and is a "native"?) but only just now for the first time are we seeing the 'flying alien sucker snakes', the 'acid sea swimming fish' and the 'things that crawl out of rock pools and burn androids legs', then the planet's fauna must be on some 20-year-cycle, and when the planet was first surveyed were all dormant.

 

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I was wondering why, of all the planets in all the galaxy, they settled on Kepler-22b, with its acid seas, inedible vegetation and hostile skitters. Enticing vacation brochure?

iven that they've been there (12 years? Campion looks much older and is a "native"?) but only just now for the first time are we seeing the 'flying alien sucker snakes', the 'acid sea swimming fish' and the 'things that crawl out of rock pools and burn androids legs', then the planet's fauna must be on some 20-year-cycle, and when the planet was first surveyed were all dormant.

Thing is, we don't know how they conducted planetary survey. I really doubt that they ever had a planetary flyby or even putting boots on the ground (not military), but all the evidence points out that there were either number of crash lands or it might still get visits from other beings.

I also get back in my mind references to Jules Verne's stories. I don't know why, but I'm fully expecting some old geezer walking out and explaining things at some point.